Bookshelf

Some notes on interesting reads.

Fundamentals of Piano Practice (Chuan Chang)

Really practical and actionable book. Empirically dubious in various parts, but has many useful ideas about a systematic approach to acquiring technique and repertoire. Highlights:

The best methods are often counter-intuitive: The intuitive methods involve nonmusical technical drills, emphasis on muscle memory (getting the music “in the hands”), and not much guidance on how to progress beyond the inevitable roadblocks apart from more practice. These tend to develop finger calisthenics without forming useful neural connections.

Overcoming speed walls: Practice hands-separate (HS) and in segments. Outline difficult passages by temporarily omitting notes to develop the larger motions. Stay relaxed at all times and play with “quiet” hands. Experiment with finger positions (curled or flat) and hand motions (arm rotation, wrist motion, etc.). Once speed walls are broken, they are gone for good.

Practice softly and with staccato: Helps with technique, memorization and overcoming speed walls.

Executing big jumps: Take off as soon as possible, and try to get there ahead of time to “feel” the keys.

Default to “thumb-over” (TO) motions for scales and arpeggios. Use thumb-under (TU) for special cases like legato.

Delay hands-together (HT) practice as much as possible, especially for more difficult pieces. Author recommends being able to play HS smoothly at well above the final tempo (110% to 150%) before switching to HT. Why: to acquire technique more efficiently when learning is confined to one hemisphere at a time; easier to break speed walls and experiment with hand motions; HT causes the LH to lag behind the RH due to asymmetry in most piano music; allows switching between hands when either one gets tired; HT is a totally different skill from HS and interferes with actually developing technique.

Playing (really) slow helps to refine technique, reduce the reliance on muscle memory, and excise bad habits. It’s also good practice for thinking ahead in the music. End every session with slow practice to take advantage of “post-practice improvement” involving some sort of physiological rewiring.

Types of memorization:

  1. Music memory (what the music sounds or feels like);
  2. Hand memory (muscle memory);
  3. Keyboard memory (visualization of the physical keys);
  4. Photographic memory (visualization of the sheet music);
  5. Theoretical memory (language and structure of the music itself).

(1) and (2) are the ones people tend to pick up naturally. (3) is surprisingly effective, but requires a lot of visual memory bandwidth. My memory isn’t good enough for (4) to be worthwhile. (5) is probably the most important.