Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales
The ancient Chinese Classic of Rites, among the world’s oldest wisdom texts, tells us of four mistakes that are commonly made by learners.
“There are four mistakes a student makes when learning, that a teacher must know:
trying to learn too much;
trying to learn too little,
trying to make everything easy;
and trying to quit.
In all four cases, the heart will be scattered.
You must first know your heart;
Only then can you correct such mistakes.”
Book of Rites, Xiu Ji (translated by Deng Ming-Dao)
The Way of Health and Beauty, 2019
The player who tries to learn too much perhaps attempts an unrealistic number of pieces within a year, not comfortably mastering any of them. Perhaps, instead, they attempt music which is simply far too advanced for their present level of attainment and technical ability. Frustration sets in when enthusiasm meets reality, and they descend to the earth with a bump.
The player who tries to learn too little has the opposite problem. Bogged down with the detail, perhaps discouraged by perfectionist tendencies, they make little tangible progress, and have little to celebrate along their Way of Piano.
The player who wants to make everything easy, perhaps coaxed into implausible expectations by a misinformed teacher, becomes frustrated when confronted by the real-world fact that playing the piano is simply a challenge. It may be possible to achieve seemingly great things in a short time by using shortcuts, learning by rote, or neglecting the foundations of playing. But the cracks soon emerge, and are large enough to swallow the player whole.
Faced with such disappointments, many simply try to quit. Often quick to blame others, they make their excuses and leave.
Cultivating patience
Sometimes, the pathway ahead of us as piano players can appear forlorn, forbidding, difficult, uneven, shrouded in doubt. These are the times where we most need to cultivate patience.
Frustrated that our progress is too slow or our talents seemingly too meagre, tormented by our inability to perfect small details in our playing, perplexed that pianism isn’t as easy as we had assumed, or tempted to walk away from the instrument altogether, we have an opportunity to respond with maturity and grit, doubling down with the can-do attitude that is needed to persevere.
The need for patient, hard work may not be particularly popular advice these days, if it ever was, but as Michael Carroll writes,
“In our impatience to succeed and become better, faster, and more profitable, we overlook the fact that work, with all its pressures and problems, is encouraging us to be engaged, resourceful, and alive: right here, right now. And, maybe that is what we’ve really wanted all along: to simply be awake at work…
What is required is surprisingly ordinary: simply to be who we are where we are, to subtly shift from getting somewhere fast to being somewhere completely. By taking such an approach, we discover not only a larger view of work but also a basic truth about being human: by genuinely being ourselves in the present moment, we naturally become alert, open, and unusually skilful.”
Michael Carroll, Awake at Work, 2004
If the work of making progress brings its own rapt pleasures, the four mistakes commonly made by learners offer a doorway to that discovery.
An invitation has been extended, and we have a wonderful opportunity to cultivate patience, to develop maturity as individuals, and ultimately to succeed at the piano.
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