Fermata – Page 9

Slow Progress

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

“Often we find ourselves in trouble simply because we are going too fast, disregarding signs of trouble that we would have seen if only we had been going a little slower.
All too often we get caught up in the rush; our whole culture is based on it. Get ahead! Do it now!
Sometimes the right thing to do is not to do anything.”

Solala Towler, Cha Dao (Singing Dragon, 2010)

These comments (which are taken from a book about the preparation and consumption of tea) offer golden advice which can be applied to pretty much any aspect of our lives. And no wonder so many of us feel completely worn out most of the time!

For our purposes, I want to touch on the value of taking our time in two areas:

• firstly teaching and learning
• and then our personal piano practice…

Musical Focus is Paramount

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

“Musical focus is paramount.
So many pupils are concerned with technical problems divorced from their musical raison d’être. Their focus is solely on the hurdle and its insurmountability.
But the problems virtually disappear and the road opens when they are seen within a musical context. Even the most difficult passages, given musical motivation become not only approachable but achievable.”

Norma Fisher: International Piano, Sept/Oct 2010

So often as a teacher I come across players who “learn the notes” first, only later considering the expressive intentions of the music they are studying.

“For next week, why not try to add the dynamics…”

It’s certainly an easy trap to fall into: reading the notation, working out finger patterns, discovering the music with a systematic, segregated scheme in mind, rather than trying to “run before you can walk”.

And yet I always recommend that players try to pay attention to the dynamics, articulation and other expressive details as early as possible in the learning process. Adding these as an after-thought has always seemed to me a slightly odd way to do things.

When you feel ignored

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

If you have ever felt ignored, passed over, or overlooked, these profound words by the Daoist writer Deng Ming-Dao (from his popular classic 365 Tao Daily Meditations,206 (Harper Collins, 1992) will perhaps resonate with you:

“Help others for all the times that you have been ignored;
Be kind to others, for all the times that you have been scorned.”

These are powerful sentiments, which point towards a wholeness which can be ours if only we respond to life’s disappointments and hurts with wisdom and generosity.

It can seem counterintuitive to be kind when we are scorned, and to help others when we ourselves have been ignored. Shouldn’t we fight back, hold our ground, pursue our own agenda, and put ourselves first?

And yet it is within our nature to have empathy; if we ignore the impulse to do good, we diminish our own humanity. Having been scorned we know what it is to be scorned. Having been ignored we know what it is to be ignored. Surely we will want to spare others such pain.

Deng Ming-Dao isn’t suggesting we be kind to the very same people who have slighted us. We should set clear boundaries, and not leave ourselves vulnerable to the same recurring toxicity and humiliation.

Rather, he highlights our continuing commitment to show kindness in general, and to all who need it, so moving on from self-pity. Our generosity to others should neither be a veiled mechanism for settling scores, nor an excuse for self-promotion.

Developing Fluency

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

In a fascinating interview in International Piano magazine, Sept/Oct 2010, the revered pedagogue Fanny Waterman stated,

“I begin every lesson by having the pupil play the whole movement through without any interruption (no going back if you make mistake, as in practising). So we start with the experience of performance – and then turn to the details.”

I vividly recall how, as a student at the Royal College of Music, my harpsichord teacher would ask me to play a piece, only appearing to listen to the first few bars. Indeed, he often seemed quite distracted, checking the room humidity, rifling through the paperwork on his desk, pacing up and down, and generally appearing to have other things on his mind.

Once I reached the end of the piece, however, he would invariably have the most perceptive comments to make about my performance, before turning back to the first page and looking at the piece in more detail.

Finding your unique voice

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

The French composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) notably taught several of the most distinguished musicians of the 20th century, including Aaron Copland, Quincy Jones, Dinu Lipatti, Igor Markevitch, Daniel Barenboim, Philip Glass and Astor Piazzolla.

Recalling the first introduction to Boulanger, the Argentine musician Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) wrote:

“…When I met her, I showed her my kilos of symphonies and sonatas. She started to read them and suddenly came out with a horrible sentence: “It’s very well written” … After a long while she said: “Here you are like Stravinsky, like Bartók, like Ravel, but you know what happens? I can’t find Piazzolla in this.”

And she began to investigate my private life: what I did, what I did and did not play, if I was single, married or living with someone, she was like an FBI agent! And I was very ashamed to tell her I was a tango musician. She kept asking: “You say you are not a pianist. What instrument do you play then?” And I didn’t want to tell her that I was a bandoneón player…

Finally, I confessed and she asked me to play some bars of a tango of my own. She suddenly opened her eyes, took my hand and told me: “You idiot, that’s Piazzolla!” And I took all the music I composed, ten years of my life, and sent it to hell in two seconds…”

Piazzolla is, today, remembered as one of the great icons of 20th century music – the creator of a new style called tango nuevo which drew on jazz, fusion and classical influences as well as the traditions of the Argentinian tango that he grew up playing.

At his death in 1992 Piazzolla had composed more than 3,000 works, and his music has been embraced the world over. And as well as his many recordings and film scores, classical musicians such as Martha Argerich have brought his music into the ongoing classical concert repertoire.

And though his music has met with a certain resistance from all quarters, including most vociferously in his own homeland during his lifetime, Piazzolla’s individual musical voice has spoken, and has become part of our heritage.

The advice of teacher Nadia Boulanger set Astor Piazzolla on a course that would allow him to be creative by being himself, and developing his unique personal expression.

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Developing Gradually

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

This was the first post ever published on Pianodao when the site launched on August 1st, 2015.

Have you noticed that the pace of life isn’t slowing?

That social change and technological innovation are often adding to the stress of your daily life rather than alleviating it?

Sometimes we simply need to slow down. To find calm and purpose.

This is true for all of life – including our piano playing.

The image of a tree growing gradually on a mountainside sums up the natural wisdom of making secure progress, and reaching purposefully towards all the points one must in one’s individual journey.

This image of “Developing Gradually” (I Ching 53) is likely to recur here on the Pianodao site as core wisdom. It underpins the foundation and development of this site, and is the wisdom by which I proceed.

There is so much I would like to share here, but it will take time. The planning is done, and roots are shooting into the ground. Over the next few months and years I hope that many branches will grow.

And I hope that as you join me on this journey, you will be nourished by the fruits of the site.

Welcome to Pianodao.

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