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Page 7
"At the very bottom and heart of this subject of mastery lies
Concentration: without that, little of value can be accomplished.
Students think if they sit at the piano and 'practise' a certain number
of hours daily, it is sufficient. A small portion of that time, if used
with intense concentration, will accomplish more. One player will take
hours to learn a page or a passage which another will master in a
fraction of the time. What is the difference? It may be said one has
greater intelligence than the other. The greater the intelligence, the
stronger the power of concentration.
"If a pupil comes to me whose powers of concentration have not been
awakened or developed, I sometimes give him music to read over very
slowly, so slowly that every note, phrase and finger mark can be
distinctly seen. Not being used to thinking intently, mistakes occur, in
one hand or the other, showing that the mind was not sufficiently
concentrated. It is the mind every time that wins. Without using our
mental powers to their fullest extent we fail of the best that is in us.
"In regard to technical equipment and routine, I do different work with
each pupil, for each pupil is different. No two people have the same
hands, physique or mentality; so why should they all be poured into the
same mold? One student, for example, has splendid wrists and not very
good fingers. Why should I give him the same amount of wrist practise
that I give his brother who has feeble wrists; it would only be a waste
of time. Again, a pupil with limited ideas of tonal quality and dynamics
is advised to study tone at the piano in some simple melody of Schubert
or Chopin, trying to realize a beautiful tone--playing it in various
ways until such a quality Is secured. The piano is a responsive
instrument and gives back what you put into it. If you attack it with a
hard touch, it will respond with a harsh tone. It rests with you whether
the piano shall be a musical instrument or not.
"A student who comes to me with a very poor touch must of course go back
to first principles and work up. Such an one must learn correct
movements and conditions of hands, arms and fingers; and these can be
acquired at a table. Along with these, however, I would always give some
simple music to play, so that the tonal and musical sense shall not be
neglected.
"Of course I advise comprehensive scale practise; scales in all keys and
in various rhythms and touches. There is an almost endless variety of
ways to play scales. Those in double thirds and sixths I use later,
after the others are under control. Arpeggios are also included in this
scale practise.
"I have said that Concentration is the keynote of piano mastery. Another
principle which goes hand in hand with it is Relaxation. Unless this
condition is present in arms, wrist and shoulders, the tone will be hard
and the whole performance constrained and unmusical. There is no need
of having tired muscles or those that feel strained or painful. If this
condition arises it is proof that there is stiffness, that relaxation
has not taken place. I can sit at the piano and play _forte_ for three
hours at a time and not feel the least fatigue in hands and arms.
Furthermore, the playing of one who is relaxed, who knows how to use his
anatomy, will not injure the piano. We must remember the piano is a
thing of joints; the action is so delicately adjusted that it moves with
absolute freedom and ease. The player but adds another joint, which
should equal in ease and adjustment the ones already there. On the other
hand a person with stiff joints and rigid muscles, thumping ragtime on a
good piano, can ruin it in a week; whereas under the fingers of a player
who understands the laws of relaxation, it would last for many years.
"This principle of relaxation is exemplified in the athlete, baseball
player, and others. They have poise and easy adjustment in every part of
the body: they never seem to fall into strained or stiff attitudes, nor
make angular or stiff movements. Arms, shoulders, wrists and fingers are
all relaxed and easy. The pianist needs to study these principles as
well as the athlete, I believe in physical exercises to a certain
extent. Light-weight dumb-bells can be used; it is surprising how light
a weight is sufficient to accomplish the result. But it must be one
movement at a time, exercising one muscle at a time, and not various
muscles at once.
"For memorizing piano music I can say I have no method whatever. When I
know the piece technically or mechanically, I know it by heart. I really
do not know when the memorizing takes place. The music is before me on
the piano; I forget to turn the pages, and thus find I know the piece.
In playing with orchestra I know the parts of all instruments, unless it
be just a simple chord accompaniment; it would not interest me to play
with orchestra and not know the music in this way. On one occasion I was
engaged to play the Sgambatti concerto, which I had not played for some
time. I tried it over on the piano and found I could not remember it. My
first idea was to get out the score and go over it; the second was to
try and recall the piece from memory. I tried the latter method, with
the result that in about three hours and a half I had the whole concerto
back in mind. I played the work ten days later without having once
consulted the score. This goes to prove that memory must be absolute and
not merely mechanical.
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