Fermata – Pianodao

Patience: The Greater Peak

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

This succinct and beautiful verse has set me thinking about the true benefits of learning to play the piano. It’s called Gazing At The Peak, and was written by the Chinese poet Du Fu, who lived from 712-770:

“Who can describe the Great Peak?
The province is not yet green,
yet nature gathers its divine beauty
and yin parts from yang at dusk and dawn.
I bare my chest to the living clouds,
strain my eyes toward the birds flying home.
I will climb to the very summit
and shrink many mountains within a single glance.”

Translation by Deng Ming-Dao,
from his book Each Journey Begins With a Single Step (2018):

So what does this ancient poem have to do with the benefits of piano playing, or with developing patience? Well, let’s explore and find out…

Spotlight or quiet life?

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

Anonymity can mean many things. As musicians, we perhaps associate the word with those composers of old whose names have been lost to history. Their works are attributed to “anon”, either because they weren’t that interested in taking the credit, or because they left the stage without providing a forwarding address.

And let’s face it, in the pressured world of piano playing, as elsewhere, being well-known certainly brings its own challenges, with exposure to scrutiny, conflict, and the envy of those who are less successful or simply unfulfilled. No wonder some actually value the quiet life more highly than the spotlight!

And yet we still sometimes confuse anonymity with failure, because we equate success with making a name for oneself. But there are many other (some would say better) ways to measure our success in life.

So should we actively pursue anonymity? Can a wise balance be found, whereby we authentically share our gifts and lives without constantly craving the limelight?

Piano teaching: an uncertain future?

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

In the ever-evolving landscape of piano education, our work as private teachers has transformed significantly in recent years, and I know many who are quietly struggling with a nagging sense of uncertainty about their continuing career prospects.

But by embracing a mindset that views challenge as an opportunity for growth, we can navigate uncertainty and face the future with positivity…

Creativity is a Dialogue

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

Developing creativity is one of the high goals of learning an instrument. And yet over the decades I’ve taught, those advancing a more creative approach have been variously seen as either maverick outliers or magical superstars, but rarely as the piano teacher norm.

I have also met some who emit an impression that improvising pianists are somehow superior to those who “merely” regurgitate the music of others. Some even cast the concert pianist who can rattle off Rachmaninoff as a rather pitiable savant, akin to an imagined orator who can deliver a Shakespeare soliloquy, but who can’t hold a real conversation.

I think they are quite profoundly wrong. Having frequently improvised in front of an audience, I feel considerably less comfortable rising to the challenge of performing Chopin to the classical cognoscenti. I suspect many would. We all have different strengths, and need not compete.

And I would say that the creative arts of interpretation and improvisation are equal in value, complimentary in nature, and both have an important role to play in piano education.

The Year of the Horse

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

Since ancient times, the Chinese have followed the lunar calendar, New Year coinciding with the first hint of Spring’s arrival in the northern hemisphere.

New Year’s Eve 2026 falls on Monday 16th February, heralding the start of Spring Festival, which culminates two weeks later with the Festival of Lanterns on Tuesday 3rd March.

The years are traditionally named after the twelve symbolic animals of the Chinese zodiac. These are multiplied by the ‘Five Elements’ of traditional Daoist cosmology to create a 60 year cycle. Following on from the Year of the Wood Snake, we now enter the Year of the Fire Horse.

Regardless of how we view ancient beliefs and customs, it does us no harm to reflect on our lives and progress using the cycle of the seasons and calendar of old traditions as a simple tool.

Why live performance matters

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

The acclaimed musician, philosopher and writer Stephen Nachmanovitch writes, in his seminal book Free Play (1990):

“There is something energising and challenging about being one-to-one with the audience and creating a piece of work that has both the freshness of the fleeting moment and, when everything is working, the structural tautness and symmetry of a living organism. It can be a remarkable and often moving experience in direct communication.”

Nachmanovitch‘s comments ring true whether, like him, we improvise in front of an audience, or perform the great masterpieces of the classical repertoire, recreating and interpreting them for a live audience, alert to the singularity of the moment and its potential for connection.

It’s a simple, honest, profound truth that musicians and music-lovers the world over all understand. Live performances can be a remarkable and often moving experience in direct communication.

Contradiction and Connection

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

In her acclaimed novel Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus cleverly puts into words the observations of the character ‘Six Thirty’, who happens to be the main protagonist’s dog. Here’s an example of Six Thirty’s canine wisdom:

“Humans were strange, Six Thirty thought, the way they constantly battled dirt in their aboveground world, but after death willingly entombed themselves in it.”

A fair point! But perhaps it is our contradictions that both define us, and prove the quality of our connections with one another…

Attention to Details

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

They say that “practice makes permanent”, and while that isn’t strictly true, the point is well made that inattention to the details when practising music can lead to long-term problems when it comes to playing, performing, or recording a piece.

Inattention to detail is often the symptom of impatience, a rush to reach the finishing-line and play the whole piece with a measure of fluency. We can’t wait! Perhaps we have listened to an inspiring recording and want our own playing to communicate the same flow of emotion and impact.

We too easily forget that such electrifying playing is typically only possible with detailed and careful preparation. And that very often, the most striking element of a performance is the clarity with which the details in the music are vividly brought to life.