Practicing on a not so good piano: was RE: tax deductions?

[David Love]

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Please disregard the last two sentences in my comments.  They were meant
as a joke, not to offend anyone.
 
David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net 
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of David Andersen
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2004 7:11 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Practicing on a not so good piano: was RE: tax deductions?
 
I would say that the idea that practicing on a not so great piano makes
you a better pianist is at least counterintuitive, at most, pure BS.
Much of learning and refining piano skills has to do with developing
your sense of hearing and connecting what your hands do to what your
ears hear.  It is not, afterall, the same as learning to type.  The
poorer the piano, the more you learn to not listen, to ignore what you
hear and therefore surrender control over what you are trying to
accomplish musically.  Wondering whether the mechanical problems you are
encountering in executing a difficult passage belong to your fingers or
the action can only serve to confuse the issue more and force you into
some bad habits with respect to relaxation that will not serve your
technique or tone production at all.   And as far as advocating poorer
pianos for our adult piano students to improve their technique.well that
would be counterproductive.  Remember, critical thinking is a privilege,
not a right.  You have to earn it.  
 

David Love

Bravo. Fascinating topic.  Have talked to so many concert & jazz
pianists about this; they almost have to armor up with a kind of grief,
I guess, and just go ahead and attempt to enable and create beauty on a
less-than-good-sounding-and-feeling piano. It injures, IMO, their
ability to be vulnerable enough to really FEEL any piano they play.
It's a problem that literally no other instrumentalist deals with, and
it adds to the fear of understanding how a piano works, or even disdain
for the mechanical nature of the instrument---why else would an artist
resolutely refuse to find out how a piano works after playing it for
years or decades?

Food for thought....

All the best.....

David Andersen 

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