A new day dawns

There was that time when my graduating class made a book – “Sometimes I think I’m quoting someone, but I’m just quoting myself” And today I had had one of those rather eloquent moments that are interspersed with the inarticulate ones – the ones that end just grunting or squawking in the inability to find a word in any human language to express the thought of the moment. The student at the time said “you should write these down” – so I thought I would actually give it a go!
Last week was refreshed by being given a copy of “What every pianist needs to know about the body, by Thomas Marks (http://www.pianomap.com/) It is the best thing since, well , maybe not sliced bread, but Ortmann at least.)
More of that later. But this week had a couple of insights – I find that these come once in a while, and often then dominate my teaching for a week or so, so that everyone gets a taste of the same lesson. Not a bad thing, I think. So Tuesday saw two lessons with good fodder.
One student is preparing for an audition that matters to him – he had been ambivalent for a while about doing it, and so his progress had been slower than he or I expected. Well he figured that one out this week, and came in with purpose, and played with more confidence that ever before. Only… had numerous slips-off-the-rails in that old bête noire, Bach! It was apparent to me that he has worked on it, including some terrific memory-solidifying ways derived in part from my old teacher Joan Havill (http://www.gsmd.ac.uk/music/people/undergraduate_music_staff/department_of_keyboard_studies/senior_professor/joan_havill.html). And yet, and yet…
The revelation was not a new one to me, but one of the thousand or so that seem to rotate in and out of the accessible part of my brain! It was that he has practiced in order to be able to play it – but needs to practice in order to be able to play it next time. The analogy that came to mind was that of my taking him on a walk somewhere new, and he could either just come along on the route, or come and take heed so that he would be able to trace the same route the next time, presumably on his own. It’s a kind of meta-practice, where you don’t just do it but you add another level of functioning above that – for instance “telling” his hands to play, or the music to proceed, or the sounds to unfold, rather than just being in the midst of doing it. We’ll see how that helps or doesn’t!
And then later in the day, another lesson on Bach! A doctoral student who is a fine pianist, and of high intelligence, but who has had an issue with memory for several years. We have made significant progress during the 8 months since he started with me. The insight he shared with me today was the benefit he has felt since the last lesson on this work – playing a skeletal version of the music, including the main harmonic features, and sketching important melodic or (especially) bass contours. To the point where he felt very excited by the new sense of how well he knew the piece, and in fact that once he had figured that out, the learning of the actual notes came at lightning speed. But of course it is a time and brain intensive process!
Another day in the mines!