Classical Piano Education: Advice for Self-Teaching Students of Piano
The trouble with teaching one's self anything is that the established methods of doing it are probably beyond what any individual could figure out by himself in his lifetime. Despite their genius, Mozart, Beethoven, and even the profound Liszt and Chopin were at one time aided by the teachers who gave them the necessary musical foundation upon which they later built. Without this fundamental help, perhaps they would have excelled in a race of self-apprenticeship among average people. But even with their innate brilliance, because of the infinitely broad scope of piano mastery, it's likely that they would have developed quite poorly next to an average person intimately trained under a competent teacher possessing the sum of human knowledge on the subject.
If you were to venture into piano study on your own, it's very likely that you'll be lacking the wherewithal to do it properly in many aspects. You will most likely endure years of trial-and-error that would, and should, be skipped altogether with a teacher's guidance. Also, much of piano technique, and even music theory, is counter-intuitive, which means you will be doing the opposite of what you should be doing much of the time, resulting in poor, possibly damaging technique and counter-productive training overall. Even though it being difficult or even impossible to get a good piano teacher is certainly understandable, the reality is you will already be with somewhat a huge handicap. Having said that, self-teaching pianists need to be extra careful and mindful of the practice methods they develop for themselves.
First in order is a good book for beginner pianists. I don't recommend risking time and money on any of the multitude of online or TV piano learning products -- even though some of them might be good -- because the Alfred's paperback series has already been around forever and is fairly ubiquitous in the formal piano learning environment. Get your hands on the Level One book for adults and move your way through the series from there. You can find a number of different Alfred's titles for adult beginners at Amazon.com. Any music store should also have the collection readily available. If you would like to shop for alternatives, do so, but cautiously. It is important that they are well received. A good piano book will typically be widely evaluated and should have many positive customer reviews, particularly from piano teachers.
When studying with books, you have to make an effort to take your time. Because you have the entire book at your disposal, you might be inclined to rush through, or completely over, certain chapters as you so choose. As a teacher, submitting your lessons to your student's discretion would be dangerous. As a student, especially if you are a beginning student, be mindful of your general lack of knowledge in the subject and regard every detail of your learning materials with respect and importance. In good piano books, the lessons are thoughtfully arranged and every exercise is meant to teach you something or enhance your mechanical technique. In teacher-student lessons, it's not that uncommon that entire weeks are spent on single pages of piano learning books because the student hasn't quite grasped and perfected the exercise. Keep this in mind as you study, and make an effort to pace yourself, especially when you are challenged.
Eventually, you will wish to depart from the technical exercises of the learning books and venture onto actual scores. Here, you must be very careful with your music selection. There is a fairly dependable grading system for classical works, and you should try to keep your choice of repertoire close to your grade level. I read a thread where a 3-month piano student insisted that he was suited to tackle Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu! Thinking back several years to the beginning of my own piano studies, I can certainly relate to that kind of arrogance. People want to believe they're vessels of genius. What is even more dangerous is that people will typically make great headway in the beginning, which stimulates the belief that they are beyond rudimentary lessons. This kind of thinking is most destructive to the development of a sound pianist. Although the basic and repetitive work may seem tedious and pointless, they are there to lay the proper groundwork and solidify your technique. It is natural to feel anxious about progressing quickly. But be sure that you are thoroughly familiar with the lessons presented to you in your learning materials before moving on to the next.
A couple of years or so into your training, your skill will improve considerably and your choice of repertoire will become more sophisticated. During these years, you'll be paying much attention to your technical growth. For tackling the problem of technique, many pianists will recommend a sabbatical from popular works and concentrating rather exclusively on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, or "WTC" for short. The WTC is a large collection of piano compositions by J. S. Bach that primarily serves to familiarize piano students with every major and minor key and also to provide quite thorough technical training for both the left and right hands. In the strictest manner of training, a pianist might study the entire collection at once and repeatedly. But you may wish to alternate between the WTC and works of your choice.
Also consider periodic piano lessons. A lesson with a good or master piano teacher even once every few months can be extremely helpful and guiding. They will be able to observe you and point out weaknesses you've accumulated that you would have never noticed, and they will be able to provide helpful advice you would have never considered. Just because you cannot afford lessons on a weekly basis does not mean you must shun the notion entirely. There will never be an adequate substitute for a good teacher. And incorporating even one good lesson a year into your training can lead to an infinitely more rewarding learning process than completely isolated self-teaching.
Piano forums are another great resource of interactive learning that are freely available to anybody with access to the Internet. These communities are often brimming with knowledgeable piano students and even teachers and are great places to ask questions. PianoWorld.com has one of the most active piano forums to date, and you will likely receive a number of educated responses to anything you ask there. You are even free to post recordings of your own playing for critique from the members, which can be an invaluable tool in its own rite if you have a means of recording yourself; a modest digital camera may suffice and will be quite affordable these days. Generally speaking, as far as what you can find on the Internet goes, this kind of live, human relay is the best kind of help there is and you're strongly encouraged to use them whenever possible.
Finally, have a healthy respect for your instrument. The predominant reason people will give up is that they undermine the difficulty involved and become disheartened when they don't see enough progress being made after an assumed amount of necessary practice has been done. The piano can't be mastered at will, even for the most innately talented. Legendary performers appear to have godlike prowess at their craft, but they are majorly the product of very human training over many years. The basic formula for true competence is 10,000 hours of practice, meaning 3 hours a day, everyday, for 10 years. That is under the guidance of a good teacher. So do not be critical of yourself or lose your nerve when you are overly challenged. The great Mr. Arthur Rubinstein spoke very briefly on one occasion and the only thing he said was in reference to a student of his, "Tell him to practice hard. Bach, and Bach, and Bach." There will come a point when you will need to relinquish a current project and return to the fundamentals for a while. And that is ok. You are expected to fail repeatedly; it is part of the process.
E. Chung is a student of classical piano and webmaster at http://www.piano-lessons-master-teachers.com, a collection of freely available interviews held with some three dozen legendary concert pianists and teachers concerning the art of piano mastery.
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