Notes from the Piano

It’s All in The Details-Following the Score

It’s All in The Details-Following the Score

 

It remains a great mystery to me why so many students don’t pay attention to performance instructions and details of phrasing and articulation; it is most definitely not due to lack of my drawing their attention it, explaining why it is so important in bringing the music alive, lifting the notes off the page and turning them into music of the style/era/genre and realising the composer’s intentions.

 

I must admit I remain completely baffled as to why week on week I find myself repeating the very same words regarding attention to the score.

I am an incredibly patient person and teacher, but I have to say that this is something that really frustrates me and has me silently weeping into my coffee! I wonder how many other piano teachers out their experience this and feel the same way, if so, I would love to hear your comments and thoughts.

 

I am a very thorough teacher, I am incredibly keen that my students understand the style, genre, harmony, musical detail  and meaning behind any piece they are learning/playing, this is why I have a strong aversion to learning by copying YouTube videos, to really play well, we need to understand the meaning behind what we are playing, we need the context of the piece in the repertoire, we need to understand style, we need to understand harmony, direction, form,  and we need to hear and understand phrasing and articulation.

 

I work on these details both at the piano and away from the piano, I explain, I ask questions to ensure students have understood and I demonstrate, and yet week in and week out I find myself explaining drop slurs, phrase endings, metre, the difference between staccato and non legato. I ask students to record themselves and listen back with the score in front of them, to observe aurally and visually, to be their own teacher in the practice room.

 

Without attention to all performance directions, phrasing, and articulation, we are simply playing a bunch of notes with no musical meaning.

What is behind this lack of attention to detail I wonder; I don’t think it’s forgetfulness, because I remind, I write notes, I get students to write their own notes…

 

Is it that in this world where everything is ‘on demand’, available at the tap of a screen, that people have become less observant to what they are seeing in front of them, or that in this fast-moving world where everyone wants to achieve quickly, that the time and the discipline necessary to work in detail is simply not happening?

 

Is it that despite all attempts to encourage effective practice, it often doesn’t happen and the old habits of playing from beginning to end with a brief moment of going over tricky passages but without real engagement, come to the fore?

 

Or is it that, many students are doing too many activities and therefore just rush through their practice?

 

Whatever the reason may be I am on a mission to ensure that students really do understand why they cannot just ‘play the notes’.

 

Have you tried anything that really helps with this, do you have any thoughts on this? Do you have similar frustrations?

 

If you are a piano student reading this then please do take the time to really notice what is in the score, it will really transform your playing.

 

I may be having a little moan, but it is purely because I am so passionate about both the music and the students.

Lorraine Augustine is a Pianist, teacher and adjudicator based in Bedfordshire, with over 40 years’ experience of teaching and performing she teaches piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and runs a busy private practice in Bedfordshire.