Some Thoughts on Guiding Highly Motivated Piano Students
As October is around the corner, many piano students are already preparing for the forthcoming season of music festivals, competitions and examinations. These performance opportunities unquestionably spur enthusiasm, diligence and stamina, as well as serve as major milestones for progress and achievement. In my teaching career, I have the fortune of encountering some highly motivated students, who dedicate hours of practice at the instrument every day despite the heavy demands of schoolwork. The mother of my eleven-year-old piano student once complained that her child is "addicted" to the piano. He is so drawn to the instrument that his parents literally have to drag him away from the piano for supper.
It is evident that students who are infused with a desire to learn, coupled with parental commitment, and insightful guidance will progress at an exceptional rate. However, it is also important to note that despite apparent facility at the outset, problems for high-achieving students can easily be overlooked.
I have seen cases where promising students hit a brick wall in their progress at some point. For instance, by the time a high-achieving student reaches her teenage years, she may start to re-evaluate the purpose and direction of her musical studies. This is also the time when some promising students abandon their musical training despite outstanding progress. Educational psychologist Jeanne Bamberger coins the term "mid-life crisis" to describe this situation for musical prodigies. At a certain point, the prodigy may question the purpose of his artistic pursuit, or begin to experience fatigue, burnout, or even suffer from other performance-related interferences and ailments. Addressing these problems goes beyond raw talent, determination or duration of practice. Rather, it is closely related to a mindset. Unless passion and efforts are harnessed in a balanced and productive manner, problems emerging from students with a strong commitment to excel can be more difficult to rectify. Resolving problems of this nature demands a level of empathy, sensitivity and insight from a pedagogue.
Below are a few practice guidelines I share with my students, which I hope fellow teachers and musicians may find useful:
(a) "Pre-hearing the music between our ears" - I encourage students to have a well-defined musical goal in mind before they play. It is important to have a clear idea of the specific character of the sound, tone and expressive qualities prior to translating this auditory image into physical gestures and sounds at the piano. With a clearly defined notion of the quality of sound that we aim to achieve, practice becomes a process of bringing this auditory image to life.
With this goal, practice becomes a process of introspective experimentation where musicality and artistic expression are combined through continuous self-adjustment and internal feedback. Musical performance is fundamentally a bio-aesthetic undertaking. The physical aspects of performance are only part of the package. It is also crucial to comprehend the historical background, style, character, and structural organization of the music, before one is able to translate the concept of sound into coherently organized movements that bring forth specific musical intentions.
(b) "Cultivating a level of sensory awareness" - For a singer, the body is her instrument. The key difference between a pianist and a singer is that - the singer is obliged to take breaths between phrases due to finite capacity of the lungs. By contrast, it is physically possible for a pianist to zip through a piece of music without feeling asphyxiated - though in this instance, the body becomes more prone to tension, fatigue, or injury. And this problem is particularly rampant for determined students who tend to ignore or dismiss preliminary warning signals such as fatigue or pain.
It is therefore important for teachers to guide students through exploring musical and choreographic relationships inherent within the music score. In the process, they derive a deeper understanding of the musical text and learn to discover movements at the instrument which offer them greater flexibility and comfort. A level of sensory awareness can be cultivated from an early age. For instance, as young students are guided towards specific technical aspects such as: how to figure out fingerings or hand positions that are appropriate for their hand size; they also acquire in parallel, a sense of internal awareness thereby enabling them to become more discerning of viable performance options.
(c) Musical practice is a discipline that requires the full assimilation of physical, psychological, emotional and intellectual awareness. Technique is primarily a means to achieve a more purposeful end. Effective practice involves establishing neuro-pathways both in the brain and the body that reinforce security while maximizing flexibility for creative expression. Knowing how to practice effectively not only maximizes efficiency, but also prevents the reinforcement of errors and bad habits. I often encourage my students to be critical thinkers during practice - in other words, they learn to anticipate problems, and to strategize a plan for practice such that errors can be prevented.
(d) "Know thyself"- Productive practice goes beyond impulsive repetition. It requires cultivation of an introspective mind. Through a reflective process, students develop an awareness of their own tendencies. Once these tendencies are identified, one can then creatively "outsmart" oneself by altering one's perception to circumvent specific obstacles.
We construe our own reality. To be effective in practice, we sometimes need to play mind games with ourselves. By altering the perception of our relationship towards the score and our instrument, we generate new interpretive possibilities. Like an actor on stage, musical performers have the license to make believe. In the process, we can freely exercise our imagination to creatively re-organize technical and musical elements, as well as our own perceptions of the musical structure. In so doing, passages that once appeared to be insurmountably difficult suddenly become manageable or even simple. From this perspective, practice can be a truly liberating experience when the aesthetics of emotion and expression can be rediscovered through the integration of mind and body.
By: Dr. Angela P. Y. Chan
Author: Dr. Angela Po Yiu Chan
Biographical Information:
Dr. Chan has given solo and duo piano performances in Canada, Europe, the USA and Asia, and has been featured on the Discovery Channel (Canada), Global TV, PBS, CJNT, Australian Television Network, Maclean's magazine, the Gazette as well as various radio stations.
She has adjudicated a number of competitions including the Concours de Jeunesses Quebec- Ontario, the Young Music Explorers Videotape Piano Competition and the Young Music Explorers Piano Scholarship Competition. Dr. Chan has led numerous workshops and masterclasses in Quebec and Ontario and hosts a column on piano pedagogy in Musifax, a publication of the Quebec Registered Music Teachers' Association.
Dr. Chan is founder and director of Lambda School of Music and Fine Arts in Montreal, where she also heads the Lambda Piano Teacher Accreditation Program. Since 2008, Chan has formed a joint piano studio with renowned Montreal-Korean concert pianist Wonny Song with whom she is also co-authoring a new piano method book series. Dr. Chan also belongs to many music associations such as the Quebec Registered Music Teachers' Association, the National Music Teachers' Association and the American Liszt Society.
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