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Page 41
[Illustration: TERESA CARRE�O]
"I assure you that at heart I feel no older now than in the days when I
wore it," she said. The conversation then turned to questions of
mastering the piano, with particular reference to the remarkable
technic of the artist herself.
"The fact that I began my studies at a very early age was a great
advantage to me," she said. "I loved the sound of the piano, and began
to pick out bits of tunes when I was little more than three. At six and
a half I began to study seriously, so that when I was nine I was playing
such pieces as Chopin's Ballade in A flat. Another fact which was of the
utmost advantage to me was that I had an ideal teacher in my father. He
saw that I loved the piano, and decided I must be properly taught. He
was passionately fond of music, and if he had not been a statesman,
laboring for the good of his country, he would undoubtedly have been a
great musician. He developed a wonderful system for teaching the piano,
and the work he did with me I now do with my pupils. For one thing he
invented a series of stretching and gymnastic exercises which are
splendid; they did wonders for me, and I use them constantly in my
teaching. But, like everything else, they must be done in the right way,
or they are not beneficial.
580 TECHNICAL EXERCISES
"My father wrote out for me a great many technical exercises; to be
exact, there were 580 of them! Some consisted of difficult passages
from the great composers--perhaps originally written for one hand--which
he would arrange for two hands, so that each hand had the same amount of
work to do. Thus both my hands had equal training, and I find no
difference between them. These 580 exercises took just three days to go
through. Everything must be played in all keys, and with every possible
variety of touch--legato, staccato, half-staccato, and so on; also, with
all kinds of shading."
(Think of such a drill in pure technic, O ye teachers and students, who
give little or no time to such matters outside of �tudes and pieces!)
"Part of my training consisted in being shown how to criticize myself. I
learned to listen, to be critical, to judge my own work; for if it was
not up to the mark I must see what was the matter and correct it myself.
The earlier this can be learned the better. I attribute much of my
subsequent success to this ability. I still carry out this plan, for
there on the piano you will find all the notes for my coming recitals,
which I work over and take with me everywhere. This method of study I
always try to instill into my pupils. I tell them any one can make a
lot of _noise_ on the piano, but I want them, to make the piano _speak_!
I can do only a certain amount for them; the rest they must do for
themselves.
VALUE OF TRANSPOSING
"Another item my zealous teacher insisted upon was transposing. I
absorbed this idea almost unconsciously, and hardly know when I learned
to transpose, so natural did it seem to me. My father was a tactful
teacher; he never commanded, but would merely say, 'You can play this in
the key of C, but I doubt if you can play it in the key of D.' This
doubt was the spur to fire my ambition and pride: I would show him I
could play it in the key of D, or in any other key; and I did!
"With all the technic exercises, I had many �tudes also; a great deal of
Czerny. Each �tude must also be transposed, for it would never do to
play an �tude twice in the same key for my father. So I may say that
whatever I could perform at all, I was able to play in any key.
"For one year I did nothing but technic, and then I had my first piece,
which was nothing less than the Capriccio of Mendelssohn, Op. 22. So you
see I had been well grounded; indeed I have been grateful all my life
for the thorough foundation which was laid for me. In these days we hear
of so many 'short cuts,' so many new methods, mechanical and otherwise,
of studying the piano; but I fail to see that they arrive at the goal
any quicker, or make any more thorough musicians than those who come by
the royal road of intelligent, well-directed hard work."
Asked how she obtained great power with the least expenditure of
physical strength, Mme. Carre�o continued:
"The secret of power lies in relaxation; or I might say, power _is_
relaxation. This word, however, is apt to be misunderstood. You tell
pupils to relax, and if they do not understand how and when they get
nowhere. Relaxation does not mean to flop all over the piano; it means,
rather, to loosen just where it is needed and nowhere else. For the
heavy chords in the Tschaikowsky Concerto my arms are absolutely limp
from the shoulder; in fact, I am not conscious I have arms. That is why
I can play for hours without the slightest fatigue. It is really mental
relaxation, for one has to think it; it must be in the mind first before
it can be worked out in arms and hands. We have to think it and then act
it.
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