As students, we acquired our skills by depending on our native gifts, by observing ourselves and others, and by relying on our teachers\u2019 guidance. But our gifts are incomplete, our observation may have been directed to the wrong aspects of the situation; and, with the best will in the world, our teachers, like most people on most topics, may have been misinformed. (I am not claiming myself to be better than average.)<\/p>\n
No doubt there exist teachers with deep understanding of how the piano is played, and the ability to teach it. Their pedagogic magic will always be priceless! But they are rare; and even if their understanding be perfect, it is limited to their own students, becoming diluted and denatured as time passes.<\/p>\n
Ideally, we as pianists would fully understand piano technique, and know how to use it. We would know, as teachers, how to evaluate each student\u2019s potential, and how to help the student reach that potential.<\/p>\n
Technique is intimately entwined with the musical impulse, of course; and is infinitely individual. But some<\/em> amount of scientific knowledge of it\u2014a useful amount, we hope; a large amount, I believe\u2014will apply to every pianist. Wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful to know that information! Think of the energy saved, that we could apply instead to learning more repertoire, giving more concerts, teaching more students!<\/p>\n I believe we now do have the power to address this very 21st-century goal of a scientific understanding of piano-technique\u2013an understanding usable in the most concrete way\u2013via two avenues: one is laboratory study of the kinesiology of piano-playing (an approach long accepted in athletics); the other is via the new field of \u201ccognitive science,\u201d which commands techniques like \u201cfunctional MRI\u201d (fMRI), which can elucidate the role of mind and brain in piano-technique and musical artistry.<\/p>\n One must begin descriptively<\/em>: how do the best pianists play? For this, I\u2019d like to see established an Archive of Pianism: pianists would play a standard menu of pieces and exercises while instrumented to track their motion, body-use and neuro-muscular activity. Only when confident of our understanding would we take the giant step of becoming prescriptive<\/em>. That day will mark a revolution in piano study.<\/p>\n My idea is not to make piano-playing and music-making cold, clinical, mechanical. Not at all! It is to bring the marvels of the 21st century into the service of music, enhancing pianists\u2019 ability to express emotion with subtlety, intensity, and physical ease.<\/p>\n Most music heard by most people\u2014<\/strong>In this 21st century, most music heard by most people most of the time is recorded; and we pianists, like all musicians, are overwhelmingly heard via recordings. We must be aware of how defects in audio gear and processes can make our sound less beautiful and compelling, and actually sabotage our interpretations. (Worse yet, listeners don\u2019t realize the role played by wrong recording practices, and they attribute the ugliness and meaninglessness to us<\/em>.)<\/p>\n We must learn enough to talk intelligently to the recording engineer; or better yet, act as our own engineers. Luckily, it\u2019s easy to make recordings better than 90% of commercial releases. To learn to do this is well within the ability of music students.<\/p>\n Piano Technicians\u2014<\/strong>If a piano\u2019s touch and tone are grossly \u201coff,\u201d it\u2019s difficult to learn to control them, and difficult to perform well on that instrument; so we are dependent on fine piano-tuner\/technicians. Yet the supply of such people is critically low. (See my We must learn to recognize which aspects of touch and tone are inherent in a given piano, and which can be altered; and learn enough of the technician\u2019s work to communicate usefully, especially as few technicians have any interest in learning our language as pianists.<\/p>\n As Always\u2014-<\/strong>The teacher\u2019s main job, in the 21st as in other centuries, is to make him- or herself unnecessary. -The student\u2019s motivation is the crucial element in learning; -the midwifing of such motivation is the crucial element in teaching. -Any one of us can know only a fraction of what we need to know and what our students need us to know.<\/p>\n
\nScientific American<\/em> essay, \u201cThe Endangered Piano Technician\u201d<\/a>.)<\/p>\n
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