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Piano Playing Technique and the Feldenkrais
Method? Yes, but under certain condition...
I am truly sorry, but in my opinion the Feldenkrais method, especially if understood
as miraculous solution for all the instrumental dilemmas pianist could ever
face, is actually nothing more than a fata morgana or, poetically
said, a blind alley of similar kind, as the so-called hammering, weight-technique,
keyboard choreography and many other miraculous solutions, to which all is typical
this one distinct point: all these "systems"
factually disregard the most important role of musically perfect thinking in
the entire piano TECHNICAL SCHOOLING. One still should be very sure that Artistic
Fantasy and the Anticipative hearing are the most vital parts of
this process. "Miraculous solutions" disregard the
leading role of the Artistically Creative Thought in the entire piano
education. As I suppose, such formulas in piano pedagogy could be compared to
these methods in general schooling, which becoming deprived from nearly all
the emotionally valuable elements, still exist in use because of such factors
as a force of habit, reluctance to the shifts, the lack of courage and/or
just love to formalism...
Being invented as the holistic system allotted for
re-building of communication between human's mind and his body,
the idea created by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais [movement re-education] could probably work
very well as a kind of the somatic training. Even the short review of
websites related to the Feldenkrais Method, proves that at the moment "Feldenkrais" is good to almost everything; its
advertising, sometimes, focuses our attention on truly surprising things...
The buttocks are in charge of the greater amount
of muscular work needed in majority of physical activities, as standing
upright, walking, running, discus throwing and maintaining balance – for a
sample. This is actually interesting that the Feldenkrais Method tutors promote their skills in improving "stability, balance, alignment and
stamina" related to this [buttocks] area, too. One should still ask if improving
stability, balance, alignment and stamina is much enough to
improve all the emotional, mental and artistically essential creative powers,
which are definitely indispensable in the entire professionally oriented
piano schooling?
Hmm! Well! Comprehend as a basic thought, the particular
piano method could be developed on, the Feldenkrais formula and,
consequently, all the Piano Methods built after it, must seriously become
supplemented with a lot of additional subsystems and applications
related to the natural basis of musicality. I mean, related to the internal
hearing and artistic creativity, which factually shape the real core of ANY
musical action. If such enrichment would not happen, the entire system must
actually become invalid, like a man, who would lost one leg or even, lost the
brainpower. Of course, one can say: I did not build my Method on the
Feldenkrais Method's basis IN FULL. Well, but even in such a case one should
ask: WHY FOR someone's attention instead of becoming focused on the essence
of the matter, must constantly be focused on its peripherals [as are the
hands' motions, which in certain sense of the matter are the elements of
secondary importance in ENTIRE technique of playing the piano]?
Let us start this story just from the beginning: in one
beautiful evening at Spring 2007 I have watched
the Mr. Alan Fraser's demo
advertising his piano method. A little bit later, I dropped in on his Web
Site and spent here several minutes reading his interesting texts. After a
while, I received an email from Alan; he asked about my interest in
exchanging the links between our Web Sites. Wanting to check up if the real
human being has sent this email to me, I wrote a message to Mr. Fraser. Yes,
THIS was the human being, who answered on my letter. I am rather impulsive fellow and that is why the first
text I sent to Mr. Fraser immediately after experiencing his way of thinking
about the piano, could be seen as the more than slightly offensive
one. Sorry again! Here you are a [very slightly corrected] copy of this
message: Dear Sir! Well, to exchange the links is maybe not the bad idea.
For a while I just have watched your demo on the www.youtube.com, and... I should firstly deliberate its contents. You doubtlessly
are the truly gifted pianist, your piano technical ideas are still of so
deeply historical character! All these "arch" stories were present in the Malwine
Bree's writings (published more than 100 years ago, in 1902, besides).
Additionally, your approach to the legato is as well sorrowful to me,
as hers one, too. Did you ever hear any singer singing in such a way you
would like to propose to the pianists? Or, maybe, you have sometimes heard
the violinist or cellist, who would like to perform the melody just CONNECTING
the two sounds in such a MUSICALLY disgusting way...? More to the point, let you try to
experience such purest musicality, the link here offers you so
kindly, please! I even not must bet, you never do the legato in
such a musically terrified way you would like to propose the pianists,
interpreting this problem on your video. Before I decide to put a link to your Site on my Site, I
must be sure – I discuss the matter with the human person, NOT with any
digital device... Greetings, etc, etc.
Working since 1969 as the piano teacher with truly
greater interest, indeed, giving countless amount of courses and seminars
targeted to the piano teachers, too, I must say that watching the musician,
who apparently tries to clarify all the piano technique related problems
starting FROM THE MOVEMENTS and focusing the entire students' attention
MAINLY on them, I usually react strongly allergically. Such reaction happened
when I watched the demo advertising the Alan's Method. On the other hand, at
this moment I must openly say, the Alan's DEMO is to me the light years more
advanced, and ARTISTICALLY it is to me clearly much more à propos
than, for instance, another one
video clip published on the same portal and pathetically entitled as the Essential Piano Technique Lesson; this last one is very short, indeed, it
still definitely belongs to the "a must SEE"
category (no one piano sound could be heard here, but it is really
funny and actually remembers the Woody Allen's kind of humor)...
In my pedagogical seminars, I am often used to propose
the teachers, who participate in, to complete a part of the real lesson with
the real student and,
after, to discuss the results of that work with all the Colleagues watching
the session. Almost all of the teachers tested in this way, habitually begin
and finish their work with the students on tries to give them as many bits of
advice related to the HANDS, as possible. Consequently, they direct the
students' attention on the way their fingers & hands are working in. WHAT the students
musically did and [or] what they SHOULD musically do, commonly
stays here as the blurred background only. Unfortunately, to real majority of piano teachers'
worldwide, fingers and hands CONSTANTLY are the most significant points of
interest; the entire HOW-syndrome is almost always presented in the
complete plenitude of its truly unmerited honors. This bad and poor pedagogic
tradition, according to my actual knowledge, has had its initial stages in
the pedagogic work of young, about twenty-years old Liszt. His lessons have
been scrupulously described by Mrs. Auguste Boissier in her Memoirs,
and subsequently diffused around the Piano World by thousands of thousands of
the Authors [Valérie, a daughter of Mrs. Boissier, attended the 28 lessons
given by Liszt during Winter, 1831/1932]. Unfortunately, no one Author, who
quotes Mrs. Boissier, would like to notice that ALL THE practicing habits
recommended by the young Liszt did NEVER work very well, indeed! After the 22nd
lesson (1832-03-10) Mrs. Auguste Boissier has written as follows, "Afterwards, Valérie had to play the octave exercise from
the Gradus [Gradus ad Parnassum, Piano studies of M. Clementi;
S.K.]; Valérie still has difficulties with it, even after having studied
it for a very long lime. He [22 years old Liszt; S.K.] repeatedly
tells her, Work on your fingering!" Let us have a look at the following sentence, "He also wanted to hear chords repeated on the same tones,
then octaves both simple and arpeggiated, followed by trills with
every finger while resting the other fingers on the keys, and, finally,
repeated simple notes while again resting all other fingers. He does all this
for hours on end, while at the same time reading to avoid boredom."
This was Lesson No 7, of January 15, 1832; this and the previous quotation is
coming from above cited Memoirs of Mrs. Boissier; English translation
by Mrs. Elyse Mach. I must repeat
this once more again: we are speaking now
O N L Y about the very YOUNG
LISZT, but NOT about the FUTURE GREAT LISZT at all...!!!
Liszt was used to sit quite high at the piano (on the right side:
Richard Wagner)...
"You will know them
by their fruits"; yes indeed, the FRUIT was
truly marvelous: it was just the Liszt's personal Art of Playing the Piano.
But, only and exclusively HE needed in such kind of practicing, he fully
mistakenly, being very young pedagogue, had recommended to the totally
innocent Valérie Boissier and, surely, to many other students coming to Him
in the feverish hope, and being fully unconscious HOW the matters practically
are going about. This is very clear to me today – why after many years HE,
The Great Liszt, did never repeat such embarrassing error! Being extremely
honest, warmhearted, Good and Great in any imaginable aspect, Liszt certainly
had noticed that SUCH KIND OF FULLY MECHANICAL PRACTICING the piano, he was
used to propose his students being truly young pedagogue, definitely did not
bring positive results. To practice the piano in THAT WAY and gain the truly
superb FRUITS from such sort of practicing, one formerly should be given with
as Great Musical Genius, Liszt himself had been given by the Nature...
Here, maybe, are hidden
the real roots of such poor state of affairs in the piano pedagogic
tradition. The great piano teaching art, being so characteristic to the fully
matured Great Liszt,
had unfortunately never been enough strongly attractive to thousands of
thousands of his fans, and this is very clear to me, why: in the artistically
most fruitful period of his pedagogic activity, Liszt had never expressed any
concrete remark related STRICTLY to the hands. Consequently, they, whom the
SUPERFICIALLY UNDERSTOOD CIRCUS is the most valuable kind of art, lost they
interest toward the highest piano and pedagogic art represent by the
full-grown Liszt and continue to repeat erroneus tutorial patterns created by
the immature future Master... Wanting to be truly
honest, I must state that even Couperin le Grand in his famous L'Art de toucher le
Clavecin stressed very strongly the role of manual aspects of using
the keyboard. Subsequently, NOT ONLY the young Liszt [but not the Great LISZT
at all] could be accused of the excessively intensive focusing the piano
users' attention on the purely manual aspects of playing the piano.
Factually, after Bach, only Chopin was the first Great Teacher of Music, whom
the mechanical aspects of technique of playing the instrument meant clearly
LESS than the other elements, parts and aspects of the entire matter. As well
the GREAT, artistically fully matured LISZT, have worked just ON MUSIC at the
piano, which is the most rational form of the Piano Craft, indeed! Thus, the
craftsman cannot efficiently be productive being persistently interested NOT
in the OBJECT he actually creates, but in the way, his hands are actually
acting in. Such deviation is very difficult to remove and improve – once it,
as a mental habit, is very close to any other kind of dependency, for
instance, of alcohol, tobacco or drugs. What yet, at the last
end, is understandable and forgivable in the case of as great composer as François
Couperin (1668
– 1733), or in the case of
as great virtuoso as even very young Ferenc
Liszt (1811 –
1886), it becomes irrational in a case of the piano teacher, who according to
his own declarations wants to revolutionize the piano technical thought in
the 21st Century! Substantives and adjectives that have dominated
his, Mr. Alan Fraser's mental World, unfortunately are looking as follows
alike: physical, really physical,
physical organization, physically, anatomy, physiology, somatic, levers,
curled or flat fingers, pylons and platform, metacarpal bones,
metacarpal-phalangeal joints, skeletal nature, skeletal
contact, etc, etc. These,
scientifically seen, not too heavy weapons are being additionally spiced by such revelations as below, It appears Liszt was giving his
students ‘piano ATM’s’ long before Moshe Feldenkrais
was even born! When he received a pupil for the first time, Liszt invariably
gave the following exercise before allowing the candidate to proceed to
playing actual compositions. I cannot say, I am exhaustively well informed about all
the aspects of the Liszt's teaching method, but according to my actual
knowledge, I rather strongly believe that the Alan's statement cited above,
MAYBE, concerns the immature pedagogic praxis of the very young Liszt.
Additionally, I must say that as long as Mr. Fraser would not like to inform
us about credible source of that revolutionary bit of information, I am
afraid, I will see this revelation quoted above as the advertising slogan
only... In 1973 I have spent several months in Moscow visiting
the 'P. Tchaikovsky' Conservatory
and the Central Special School for exceptionally gifted children.
Watching hundreds of piano lessons given by such masters as J. Zak, L.
Oborin, L. Naumov, J. Flier, J. Milstein and many, many more [for instance:
A. Sumbatian, who taught V. Ashkenazy from
his childhood, or M. Timakin who taught such big talents as Ivo Pogorelich
and Mihail Pletnev], within all
the time I was here, I have NEVER HEARD any sole word related to such kind of
piano technique Mr. Fraser is speaking and writing about in his demo and on
his Web Site. That is why, I am really strongly convinced that SUCH KIND OF
THINKING about the piano playing technique, which is presenting on the Mr.
Fraser's DVD, should nowadays be preserved in an Archive of Ancient
Records of any Piano Museum – if such one might ever exist... In very authoritative Prof. J. I. Milstein's monographic
work, instead, one could found such a sentence related to the above discussed
question: K.
Klindworth said, "Liszt in times of his
peak development ("in his Great 50-ties") wanted
never discuss any subject linked to the piano technique" [J. I.
Milstein, Liszt,
Moscow 1956, Part II, p. 90].
Coming back to The Craft of Piano Playing
one could say: such kind of thinking related
to the human existence generally, presented by Mr. Fraser, was very typical
to years of The
Enlightenment, also known as the Age of
Reason; this era started [not only symbolically] to be finished on the 1st
of November, 1755, when the huge earthquake killed thousands people in
Lisbon. The thinkers finally understood that the L'Homme machine idea [including all
its supplements] created by de La Mettrie, does not work as well, as it had been formerly
thought. Mr. Fraser literally repeats these unreasonable mistakes done by our
ancestors, who lived more than 200 years ago on our beautiful Planet.
Nowadays we have possibilities to act in the piano pedagogy on truly
different basis than have acted the instrumental teachers of that
time, being limited by mechanic discoveries of the 18th Century.
Today we should interpret our work in rather cybernetic than in a raw
mechanical categories only. The main cognitive order of the Age of Reason
was to apply rationality to every problem; one could ask now, if MECHANICS truly could be considered the most
rational choice in thinking about the piano playing today? Well, I am deeply convinced that the realistic answer is: no, not at
all. That is why the solutions presented by Mr. Fraser, in my opinion, do not
present anything more than the apparently out-of-date intellectual tricks. And, I am waiting on
arguments, which could prove I am wrong...
The aelopile. The technique has many
faces and names...
Seeing the problem in the actually modern way, it is
rather devoid of meaning to discuss IF, HOW and WHY any particular, purely
physical piano trick anybody might like to propose, could revolutionize the
piano technique or not. The answer is very clear: PHYSICALLY seen – maybe
some "tricks" could TEMPORARILY
even help, but thinking about the entire issue in a little bit longer and,
especially, in the artistically deeper perspective, nothing positive in piano
technique could be achieved in the purely physical way. The PHYSICALLY
ORIENTED approach is the reason the piano playing – I am truly SORRY – must
become rhythmically weak, emotionally plain and, aesthetically nearly
indifferent. Of course, NOT in the case, the pianist is being blessed with
such an immense talent as Mr. Miroslav
Dacic is...
On the Maple Grove Music Productions Web Site could be
found the text that at the first glance speaks quite much and even produces
the impression of representing greater scientific importance. Unfortunately,
its revelations [below] have the very weak fundaments: Recent advances in biomechanics have shown how some
standard movements in classical piano technique work against the natural
skeletal alignments of the hand. The exercises in The Craft of Piano Playing
clarify the hand’s innate structure and function, increasing both the power
and sensitivity, both the relaxation and agility of one’s technique. The film links structure and
function to musical expression to create an "absolutely natural way of
moving at the piano, both powerful and flexible." (PianoNews, Germany) •
Firstly: neither here nor there EXISTS any catalogue of the standard movements in classical piano technique.
The truly efficient piano technique MUST obviously be individual, so it
should perfectly fit the individual needs of the particular pianist. That is
why, exactly said, no one movement could be seen as the standard one
because everyone the hand is presenting the very exceptional shape which belongs
only to it. This is much enough to bring up (maybe) the two biggest names of
piano giants lived in the 20th Century: Vladimir Horowitz and
Sviatoslav Richter. The ways these both Masters were used to use their hands
were totally different, especially if seeing the issue from the purely "biomechanical" point of view. As well, all the
other piano masters were and are using their fingers and hands in truly
individual way. Thus, no one realistically thinking scientist had ever tried
to complete any kind of such a catalogue [standard
movements in classical piano technique]. Consequently, these kinds
of movements, which being used in the classical piano technique, are still
working against
the natural skeletal alignments of the hand, should be interpret as
the fully INDIVIDUAL MISTAKES only. Such movements, why not, being used by
another pianist, could serve his instrumental technic very well. In any case, the instrumental (so called technical)
mistakes and errors certainly must happen if the musically incompetent piano
user tries to solve his personal piano technical troubles in the so called
mechanical way, but missing such a fundamental rule: NO ONE MUSIC RELATED
problem could be efficiently solved without active participation of the
MUSICALLY COMPETENT THINKING and HEARING. Apart from above presented
reservations, it would truly be funny to become informed exactly who, where
and when has carried up these scientific experiments related to the
entire "recent biomechanical advances",
Mr. Fraser is writing about? Well, as long as my suspicions would not be
removed by the scientifically "black on white"
evidences, all the "biomechanical"
declarations would mean to me nothing more than the pure and poor advertising
slogan, again. •
Secondly: I am very sorry indeed, but after watching the demo produced by Mr.
Fraser, I am afraid I cannot say that The
exercises in The Craft of Piano Playing clarify the hand’s innate structure
and function, increasing both the power and sensitivity, both the relaxation
and agility of one’s technique.
This unfortunately looks totally different to me: the way, Mr. Fraser
interprets functions of the acting pianist's hands in, based on the custom he
presents and names as the "grasping",
is the truly archaic grip that of course is the most natural to the humans'
hands as well, as to all the limbs of maybe all the anthropoids, too. "Grasping"
should factually be understood as the kind of motion that, simply said, if
becomes used largely, could even truly be DANGEROUS to the pianists' hands.
Being so natural to the hands working in NATURAL circumstances of the
everyday life, it still works against the
natural skeletal alignments of the hand being put into practice in
such an ARTIFICIAL – very uniquely resilient environment – as is the piano
keyboard. In the last end, every Art has its own secrets... • Thirdly: I cannot say, I actually believe that Mr. Fraser's DVD
factually links structure and function to
musical expression. Mr. Alan, not only watched on the DVD,
but as well being read on his papers, unfortunately – VERY eagerly
proposes the mechanically seen, truly heavy solutions to the piano users. He
apparently believes, the PHYSICAL solutions could improve the MUSICAL
THINKING that factually decide the musical grow of any human being. Let us
have a look at this phrase, "Keeping your four fingers completely straight and stuck
together, draw your thumb and fingers rapidly together so your thumb slaps
the underside of your third finger. Your four fingers and hand make a flat
board, and your thumb slaps the center of it." Who is able to generate this
or any similar bit of advice, factually is so intensely interested ONLY in
the mechanical side of playing the piano that, consequently, he CANNOT be
interested in any other kind of the piano action. Look at the next quotation
as well [both are coming from this Page], please: "Also, don’t make the mistake of
playing staccato. Just because it’s a quick slapping motion doesn’t mean it
needs to be staccato. Let’s analyse why you get such a fantastic sound with
this technique: the quick movement of the four bound fingers (the flat,
board-like structure) clamps their tips to the keys. If you play
staccato, you disengage your fingertips from the keys prematurely and subvert
this process! But remember, no feeling of weight: for some of you, just the
mention of the word "clamp" will predispose you to
re-introduce some sense of pressing. But notice, it’s the quick movement that
clamps them ‘automatically’, without you even intending it. And that’s why
it’s so effective: the reflexes can do it much more precisely than our
thinking mind…" All this stuff, of course, can
make the greater impression, but only on them, who perhaps do not even roughly
know, what they are exactly searching for; especially such texts of the Craft of the Piano, as An Introduction [with its unbelievably amazing photos], are strongly remembering
the way in which Mrs. Malwine Bree propagated the Method of Leszetycki in
1902. Generally seen, all these bits and pieces just actually remember
the very elegant, still nearly meaningless writings of any decadent era, in
which the rhetoric elements always are staying before factual
knowledge, and eloquence habitually is being highly valued than
the learning. Part Two – this way, please:
Actualized: 2007-11-08 |
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