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Page 17
"De Konstki's style was very brilliant and I endeavored to imitate him
in this respect. I did quite a little concert work at that time.
Realizing, however, that a pianist's income must be rather precarious, I
decided to teach. In those youthful days I had the idea that the teacher
of the piano had an easy life. I remembered one of my professors, a man
of considerable reputation, who took the duties of his profession very
lightly. His method of giving a lesson was to place the music upon the
piano, start the pupil going, then retire to a comfortable couch, light
his pipe and smoke at ease, troubling himself little about the pupil's
doings, except occasionally to call out 'Falsch!'
"So I, too, began to teach the piano. But I soon discovered that
teaching was something quite different from what I had imagined it to
be, and that it was something I knew very little about. I now set myself
to learn how to teach--how to help those pupils who came to me.
"One of my first discoveries was that most of the pupils were afflicted
with stiff wrists and arms, and that this stiffness must be remedied. My
own playing had always been free, due to one of my early teachers having
thoroughly inculcated the principle of 'weight,' so often acclaimed in
these days as a modern discovery. But how to bring about this condition
in others was a great problem. I studied the Mason method, and found
many helpful, illuminating ideas in regard to relaxation and
devitalization. I had some lessons with S.B. Mills, and later did
considerable valuable work with Paolo Gallico, who opened up to me the
great storehouse of musical treasure, and revealed to me among other
things the spiritual technic of the pianist's art. Subsequently I
investigated the Virgil and Leschetizky methods. Mr. Virgil has done
some remarkable things in the way of organizing and systematizing
technical requirements, and for this we owe him much. Such analyses had
not before been made with anything like the care and minuteness, and his
work has been of the greatest benefit to the profession. My subsequent
studies with Harold Bauer revealed him to be a deep musical thinker and
a remarkable teacher of the meaning of music itself.
"In my teaching I follow many of the ideas of Leschetizky, modified and
worked out in the manner which I have found most useful to my own
technic and to that of my pupils. I have formulated a method of my own,
based on the principles which form a dependable foundation to build the
future structure upon. Each pupil at the outset is furnished with a
blank book, in which are written the exercises thus developed as adapted
to individual requirements.
FOUNDATIONAL EXERCISES
"We begin with table work. I use about ten different exercises which
embody, as it were, in a nutshell, the principles of piano playing. The
hand is first formed in an arched position, with curved fingers, and
solidified. The thumb has to be taught to move properly, for many people
have never learned to control it at all.
"With the hand in firm, solid position, and the arm hanging freely from
the shoulder, I begin to use combined arm and wrist movements, aiming to
get the weight of the arm as well as its energy at the complete disposal
of the finger tip. Each finger in turn is held firmly in a curved
position and played with a rotary movement of arm and wrist. When this
can be done we next learn hand action at the wrist from which results
the staccato touch. In this form of hand staccato there is an element of
percussion, as you see, but this element gives directness and precision
to the staccato touch, which in my opinion are necessary. After this we
come to finger action itself. This principle is taken up thoroughly,
first with one finger, then with two, three, four, and five--in all
possible combinations. In this way we come down from the large free-arm
movements to the smaller finger movements; from the 'general to the
particular,' instead of working from the smaller to the larger. I find
it most necessary to establish relaxation first, then strengthen and
build up the hand, before finger action to any extent is used. When
these foundational points have been acquired, the trill, scales,
arpeggios, chords, octaves and double notes follow in due course. At the
same time the rhythmic sense is developed, all varieties of touch and
dynamics introduced, and harmonic and structural analysis dwelt upon.
USE OF STUDIES
"Above the third or fourth grade I make frequent use of studies,
selecting them from various books. Duvernoy, Op. 120; Berens, Op. 61;
Czerny, Op. 740 I find far more interesting than the threadbare 299.
Heller is indispensable, so melodious and musical. Arthur Foote's
studies, Op. 27, are very useful; also MacDowell's, Op. 39 and 46.
Sometimes I use a few of Cramer's and the Clementi 'Gradus,' though
these seem rather old-fashioned now.
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