We are often told that we shouldn’t learn piano music that is too difficult for us aren’t we? However, as adult learners it is advice that we frequently ignore. Personally, I’ve come to the conclusion that, within reason, we should largely please ourselves what we learn. I know that many will start shaking their heads immediately, but bear with me …
Another Lie to Pianists?
I’d actually go as far as to include this piece of advice in the bucket of ‘Lies to Pianists’. If you didn’t the my article that introduced this idea, you can read it here. However, quickly summarizing, I discovered the phrase ‘Lies to Children’ in a Terry Pratchett book. In short, those things we are told when we first learn (so, as children) that aren’t necessarily true, but do provide a useful starting point. I thought to rebaptise it as ‘Lies to Pianists’ as I’ve seen the same thing applies to us too.
First, let’s consider why we might tell beginners “don’t to try to learn piano music that is too difficult”.
Don’t try to run before you can walk
Clearly, when we first start to learn any instrument, there is an awful lot to take in.
We are grappling with reading music. Not only in terms of which notes are where, but how rhythm is notated in music, how dynamic markings are written. For a pianist it’s twice the problem of most instruments as we have two staves to read. Remember how long it took us to learn to read at school using books like ‘Dick and Jane’ (seems to ring a bell for me anyway)? We shouldn’t be surprised if learning to read music takes just as long – or even longer.
Equally, we are learning unfamiliar physical gestures. Let’s consider walking. It is a physical gesture that had to be learned the hard way. As babies we constantly tumbled. Yet now, we take it for granted – we don’t keep falling over (well, not under normal circumstances anyway). The complex movements, coordination of the hands (or independence of the hands) required to play piano is not going to just ‘happen’ for the vast majority of people. Learning it will take time, practice and patience.
I could go on with yet more examples of why it is so hard to learn, but will spare your eyes and, in any event, I am sure you already know them from personal experience.
Therefore, it seems eminently sensible that beginners should think of playing piano in terms of baby steps initially. Nobody would put a baby on an adult obstacle course for a ‘bit of fun!’
However, should this forever be considered as a ‘universal truth’?
The fuller truth?
Let’s consider some arguments as to why as we progress we can start to depart from this principle.
By definition, ‘learning’ something means taking something that we currently can’t do (so is inherently ‘too difficult’) and being told (or working out) how to do it. We then ‘practice’ this for a while until it becomes something we can do quite happily. Therefore, to get better, we need to constantly stretch ourselves surely?
Next, what makes something ‘too difficult’? ‘Stock advice’ for approaching new pieces is to ‘start very, very slowly’. On that basis, with a certain amount of experience, then arguably most music – even several grades above our current level – could not be considered as ‘too hard’. If we slow it down enough, then we could probably manage it.
Anecdotal evidence
Interestingly, there is evidence that many great pianists did not learn in a ‘standard’ way. Let’s consider three of them.
In the documentary ‘The gift of music’, Kissin tells us that it wasn’t until he went to Conservatory that he actually did much work on piano. He mostly spent his time discovering and playing through as much music as he could find. I doubt he gave much consideration to how difficult the music was.
Richter was self taught into his twenties (and his father apparently despaired that he wasn’t learning ‘properly’). I doubt he ever thought ‘I’ll put aside Chopin and only look at simpler Bach preludes until my technique is worthy’.
Horowitz’s mother complained to his piano teacher that he wasn’t learning the ‘right’ things. She thought he should be concentrating on things more appropriate for his age and level. Horowitz however was just learning things that he liked, appropriate or not.
On that basis, I don’t see attempting ‘difficult music’ as a barrier to greatness.
Keeping motivated as an adult
I think we also need to bear in mind that it’s essential to keep motivated as we learn. Sure, with children, parents can ‘enforce’ a degree of motivation. Yet, for adults, there is generally nobody telling us we must practice 30 minutes before we can have dinner! We have to find the motivation to sit at the piano for ourselves and, therefore, what we are working on will form a large contributory factor.
If someone wants to learn Chopin Nocturnes, telling them that they must first learn a whole suite of Clementi Sonatinas as they are not ready for Chopin is unlikely to keep them motivated. At the same time, if we can’t find a way of practising Chopin, then frustration will ultimately set in as we fail in our endeavour to learn it.
Knowing how to practice might be the answer
My view is that there is no harm in trying to learn whatever music we want. After all, we were always taught ‘a little bit of what you fancy does you good’. However, we must be able to find ways of practising it effectively. What I mean by that is not simply trying to ‘brute force’ something through. Rather, intelligently approaching the piece in a way that we can devote part of our practice time to productively working on it.
Take for example, my video on the 2nd Cadenza in Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3. Here, I suggest practice methods that would make this more accessible to many who otherwise would find it an ‘impossible task’ (another Terry Pratchett reference). Clearly, I’m not suggesting there is any ‘hack’ (as people these days seem to want). To do this takes time and patience.
The key thing here is that everything is a question of degree. Let’s remember that these lies to pianists aren’t ‘false’, just incomplete. Absolute beginners do not yet know how to practice. Nor do they know what they might find challenging and, therefore, what music might serve them best to learn. However, as we learn how to practice, then the range of possibilities opens exponentially up to us.
Balance in all things I say! I always enjoy learning one or more ‘easier’ pieces that I discover as well as those pieces that I dream of one day being able to play well.
If you’re after ways to learn how to practice more effectively, here’s a good video to get you started
