Initially I signed up for lessons simply to be motivated. I am quite happy to sit in front of the TV unless pushed, so I thought that reporting to someone each week would help me spend more time at the piano (I don't like to disappoint or inconvenience people by arriving at a meeting or lesson unprepared). While I have achieved this goal, I have discovered that piano lessons are important for many more reasons. I have discovered how much I don't know! Obviously there is a lot I have forgotten, but you always learn different things from different teachers. Here are the benefits that stand out for me so far:
- hand position, arm position, body position and learning that it isn't all about the fingers. Much of our body movement is unconscious, so it's great to have someone pointing out things we are doing that make playing more difficult
- posture (related to body position) and staying relaxed. Peter often points out that I've raised and hunched up my shoulders, this kind of tension can be restrictive and probably can cause injury and also affect the sound. Interestingly, whenever I've had personal trainers at the gym they also have had to remind me to keep my shoulders down
- having someone point out wrong notes. This may seem obvious, but just like we can read a paragraph and overlook spelling mistakes and missing words because our mind fills in what we expect to be there, I sometimes read notes as I expect them to be written rather than what the composer has actually written! For example, I sometimes resolve a chord that shouldn't be resolved yet or I play a bass note wrong because for the past 8 bars the composer has been doing tonic and dominant and then throws in the 3rd. This can be ok for some genres, but most times the composer's chosen note is actually better than mine!
- help with fingering. There are so many options for piano fingering and each player has to find what works best, but an experienced teacher can spot when it is the fingering that's screwing you up
- different ways of practicing. When I am having difficulties with a piece, Peter can show me many different way of playing parts of the same passage so that I learn how that passage works. Sometimes this can be as simple of playing all of the chords but omitting the in-between notes.
- repertoire. It is nice to be introduced to new pieces that I may not have stumbled across on my own (even if it means that I had to go buy & new Haydn book because of course the sonata was not in the one I had!)
- what went wrong... Peter can figure out why I'm struggling with a certain thing which prevents a lot beating my head against the wall
- knowledge of grade levels/difficulty. Although Peter will push me to try things out (and abandon them if necessary, i.e. nasty, difficult, Beethoven sonata...), he has a good idea of what my ability is and will tell me if he thinks a piece is beyond that ability at the moment and choose another piece that will help improve my playing so that I may be able to tackle the piece in the future
I will post other benefits as I think of them, but now I should do the dishes before Cathy phones. We are planning our Montreal trip for next weekend (yay!)
2 comments:
Makes me want to take lessons too, although I'd love to do voice. I love the idea of studying the mechanics of something I do naturally and improving in the process.
Clare has the same approach as myself - I like to constantly analyze guitar playing. Incidentally, I am going to be taking voice lessons with a very prestigious vocal teacher come next fall - I am somewhat nervous about it, but hey - how bad can it be?
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