Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales
In a trend that will worry experienced music educators, community musicans and professional performers alike, the importance of notation is increasingly coming under fire within the piano education community.
The charge is often led by those who prefer teaching popular music, have a limited music education background, and perhaps don’t fully understand the long-term needs of other music students. But the trend limits opportunity, and we must challenge and resist it for the benefit of all our students.
Play it as written
In his self-published book ‘No Book Beginners’ (2023), the popular online influencer Tim Topham shares marketing guru Seth Godin’s view that music notation and classical music performance have little importance today.
“Playing it as written was critical in 1920 because fidelity was the goal. These people are only going to hear this symphony once; play it as written. That is what the composer earned, the privilege of having you play it as written.
And in 1890, play it as written.But today, a company called Naxos has virtually every symphony you could ever want, and if you want it on CD it’s only $5; if you want it online, it’s free. So the value component of performing old works as written just fell away. The number of performances I need of a given symphony played as written is now ZERO. I don’t need any more.
If no one made a particular performance of a given symphony, NO ONE would miss it.”
I hate to be critical of a friend and colleague, but it is disconcerting to read such a negative take on classical performing and music reading in a music education text.
As for the quote itself, and for all his expertise in other fields, Seth Godin seems to have misunderstood the value and purpose of music literacy, the art of interpretation, and failed to recognise the joy and excitement many find in live classical performances.
Imagine if the only way to discover a symphony was to listen to the Naxos CD of it. No scores, fresh interpretations, shared experiences, or participation in live music. How bleak! Recent research actually suggests that 84% of the general population would say YES to attending a symphony concert. So please, let’s not deliberately deny them the chance.
Consider the power of opera, ballet, and musicals. And what about choral, chamber, and instrumental music? All depend on notation. And music literacy is an equally valuable asset for those operating in the commercial music space, from cruise ships to stadium tours, West End shows, TV and film scores, and recording sessions.
And in 2024, play it as written.
Today’s composers, arrangers and producers have earned that too, “the privilege of having you play it as written”.
What about wider participation in amateur, domestic and educational music-making? There are many who find discovering, playing, and sharing notated music, classical or otherwise, simply life-enhancing. And these are the music lovers who typically come to piano lessons, and who invest in the opportunity for their children to learn an instrument properly.
They understand that an ability to fluently read music opens up a unique, unparalleled world of musical discovery and opportunity. And they rightly expect that literacy and understanding will be a foundational element of theirs and their children’s learning.
Effective teaching
Let’s be clear: music is not a visual art, to be compared (as Topham does in his book) with drawing, painting, and crafts. It’s a performing art akin to dance and drama. That’s why learning to understand and interpret our ever-growing repertoire is of decisive importance, and an educational priority.
Immersion in well-written repertoire is also a source of abiding inspiration for players when creating their own music. Through notation we absorb a richer, more diverse musical language. Learning to read and interpret the music of more experienced pianists and composers is an essential component in our creative development.
As the author George R.R. Martin puts it,
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.”
The ability to read and utilise notation should never be denigrated. It is a primary tool for developing musical understanding, and for becoming a three-dimensional pianist.
Music literacy is no less important than audiation, technique, or creativity. And all of these are supercharged when taught in an holistic, multi-sensory, simultaneous, and integrated way.
As the great educationalist Zoltan Kodály put it,
“To teach a child an instrument without first giving him preparatory training, and without developing singing, reading and dictating to the highest level along with the playing is to build upon sand.”
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