To become a better musician

Back in January, I was browsing through the usual ‘New Year’s resolution’ type posts on Facebook.  In one of the Piano groups of which I’m a member, someone posted ‘what is the technique you’re going to be working on this year’?  I innocently responded that my primary goal was to become a better musician.  I was a little surprised that one member seemed to think I was being pretentious with that response.  Why would I try to relegate the importance of technique!

What is technique?

The way we interpret the word ‘technique’ seems to have somewhat morphed over time.  Now, our first thought relates it to some type of mechanical skill.  When we think of ‘technical work’ at the piano, we think of scales, arpeggios and the like.  This is true in the non-piano world too.  When we talk about ‘technical skills’, we rarely relate this to artistry.  However, if we trace back to its latin origins, it is closely related to ‘arts’ as being the way of achieving a specific artistic goal.  

Technique at the service of music

To me, when learning piano, everything needs to start with the music.  The music we want to play should guide the technical skills we need to develop.  I’d be the first to admit that my ‘octave technique’ is almost non-existent. I can of course play octaves as they appear in your average piece (such as Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Major).  Yet if you asked me to play them as they appear in one of Liszt’s virtuoso studies, I’d be lost.  Arguably, to be a ‘proper pianist’ then I should develop this technique.  However, how will it help me? 

Let’s say that it would.  Even then, if we search for videos on YouTube on octave technique, we discover that there are multiple ways to play octaves.  The ‘technique’ we’ll use will depend on the musical result we want to achieve.  How can we know what that musical result is when we try to abstract it from the music itself?  Martha Argerich made a similar observation in an interview that I translated in this article.

As it happens, until recently, I didn’t really have anything with octaves specifically on my wish list.  However, I’m currently re-learning Sibelius Romance in D Flat Major (No. 9 from 10 pieces Op. 24).  I played this (somewhat badly) for my Grade 8 in my early twenties and decided to try to relearn it now.  It has a passage with octaves in both hands.  So, now I’m working on my ‘octave technique’, but of course specifically for how they appear here.  

Which came first?

There is also a sort of ‘chicken and egg’ situation with discussions around technique.  Is it great technique that makes a great pianist or is it musical insight that pushes the pianist to develop the technique?  Let’s take the example of Horowitz.  Did he think to himself one day ‘I need to develop the technique of playing with flat fingers’?  Or, did he want to draw certain colours out of the piano that curved fingers didn’t support? 

We often look at technique from the point of view of ‘pianistic fireworks’ so to speak.  However, we can also look at it from the perspective of simpler music.  The multiple layers Horowitz finds in Schumann’s Traümerei never cease to amaze me.  Clearly, to bring them out as he does requires phenomenal ‘motor control’ – I certainly can’t replicate it.  However, and this I think is the key, he had to have ‘heard’ them in there before he could bring them out.  

I created a video tutorial on this piece with what I could notice from Horowitz’ playing of it.  However, I know full well that I’m not a good enough musician yet to appreciate everything he does. 

This then, is why I really do want to become a better musician.  Only then will I really start to develop the technique I need for the music I want to play!  If the Transcendental Etudes ever do start to interest me, then I’m sure they will teach me all the ‘technique’ I would ever need to know!