Chang's Fundamentals of Piano Practice

[schubertiad]

In an effort to continue my good habits I've just started reading Chang's online, comprehensive, and free book (which can be found here: members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm)
Whilst lots of it seems to make a lot of sense, i can't help thinking that it's too good to be true. To Chang, it seems a case of 'follow this book to the letter, keep it up, and hey presto! perfect technique'. Has anyone here strictly followed his method? What are the drawbacks and potential pitfalls? I am a little wary of some of his ideas, particularly the parallel sets, which strike me as being an extremely artificial way of gaining speed. I would love to know if anyone has had success with his ideas...

[Steve Hopwood]

Post this on www.pianostreet.com and you will get a huge response. A number of people talk about him there.

Steve

[schubertiad]

You're right (in fact that's where i found it). However, lots of the members are unreliable at best (note that forum's general obsession with godowksy and marc hamelin). I wanted some slightly less spurious opinions before giving it all a try.
One other question mark is his approach to hands together practice, which he thinks is useless at best, and harmful at worst. Instead he favours practising hands seperate until you can easily exceed the piece's final tempo. Do you encourage your students to practise in this way?

[Steve Hopwood]

schubertiad said:

You're right (in fact that's where i found it). However, lots of the members are unreliable at best (note that forum's general obsession with godowksy and marc hamelin). I wanted some slightly less spurious opinions before giving it all a try.

In truth, I rarely find anything of interest there these days. I think your description of a lot of members as 'unreliable' does them a considerable kindness. ;D

One other question mark is his approach to hands together practice, which he thinks is useless at best, and harmful at worst. Instead he favours practising hands seperate until you can easily exceed the piece's final tempo. Do you encourage your students to practise in this way?

No, I don't because piano music involves both hands and I want kids to start considering the whole piece right from the beginning.

I have exceptions - contrapuntal pieces benefit from some separate hands learning. Also less-able students are often unable to tackle a whole new piece in one week. It quickly becomes obvious when this is the case, so I offer them the alternatives of: doing about half of the piece with both hands; doing all of it playing just the right hand, and we will add the left next week. Most kids pick the latter - they want to play tunes, after all.

I had a look at the link you provided. I found the text offputting as I hate huge paragraphs crammed with text, so I did not read much. I have a light day today, so I might try to go back and have another look.

Steve

[jod]

Steve I find things depend on the student. Often I find that lower grade pianists need to separate hands before putting things together. In which case I break up the music into sections that reflect the final form of the piece and get them to learn each hand separately and get them playing hands together as soon as possible.

Other students find it easier reading both lines of music together. In which case they learnthe whole lot slowly then speed it up. Personally I really find its up to the way the student thinks.

[Steve Hopwood]

schubertiad said:

I wanted some slightly less spurious opinions before giving it all a try.
One other question mark is his approach to hands together practice, which he thinks is useless at best, and harmful at worst. Instead he favours practising hands seperate until you can easily exceed the piece's final tempo. Do you encourage your students to practise in this way?

I have been back to the site and downloaded the book. Skipping to page 36 where the useful content really starts is a good idea.

I started reading in detail but rapidly found that skimming was all that was required. I agree with almost everything that Chang says, unsurprisingly as it is all pretty standard stuff that knowledgeable teachers will try to teach their students.

Incidentally, I noticed this statement early on: "The above definition of technique tells us that, once you have learned something, like playing a scale, practicing it over and over does not materially improve technique and can waste a lot of time.". That takes me back to my comment about the law of diminishing returns in your scales thread.

With regard to separate hands practice, Chang is advising this in difficult passages, not as a general thing. He makes the point early on that the object of the exercise is to master the technique as soon as possible and move beyond that into the music. He states that passages playable straight away with both hands together should be so played. As Jo pointed out, some people will need more of this than others - it all depends on the individual.

One of the problems that inexperienced pianists such as yourself reading a book like Chang's is the potential for mis-understanding. His strictures about practicing the difficult bits first, practicing in sections etc are obvious. Actually persuading students to do this can be a challenge, but all good piano teachers try to do this.

The potential for misunderstanding arises when reading descriptions of technical movements, such as the 'chord attack'. Get something like this wrong, and it can be years before you discover what the problem is. As a youngster, I was first mis-taught how to play double octaves by a teacher who misunderstood that particular technique; then I misread a written description of the process. It was years before I learned to play rapid, bravura double octaves.

So, if you are going to follow Chang's fundamentals (and he is not exaggerating here - they really are fundamentals) then read with care, re-read with care, and re-read again with even more care. Then yell for help here if you do not understand. ;D

I reckon you will save yourself a load of time and effort if you go to a good teacher.

Steve

[schubertiad]

I used Chang's techniques for today's practise session, and while it did have some very obvious impact (particularly for my hands seperate scales and arpeggios, which were flying by the end) it was less successful for my pieces (beethoven op.31 no.1 and chop's op.25 no.2 etude. The latter left my right hand feeling a bit sore afterwards.
Whilst Chang himself emphasises the need to relax, his method of experimenting by playing fast necessitates some tension, and this makes abusing his method very easy to do. I will try and monitor my practise more tomorrow and see if it is any easier to implement.

[Benj]

I came across this quite a while ago, but could never be bothered to read it all. It is, in my opinion too detailed

[Steve Hopwood]

schubertiad said:

I used Chang's techniques for today's practise session, and while it did have some very obvious impact (particularly for my hands seperate scales and arpeggios, which were flying by the end) it was less successful for my pieces (beethoven op.31 no.1 and chop's op.25 no.2 etude. The latter left my right hand feeling a bit sore afterwards.
Whilst Chang himself emphasises the need to relax, his method of experimenting by playing fast necessitates some tension, and this makes abusing his method very easy to do. I will try and monitor my practise more tomorrow and see if it is any easier to implement.

By coincidence, I am revisiting the first two of the 0p 25 etudes. When I play no 2 really quickly, hand tension builds up. I use rubato to relax and relieve this tension, for example in bar 8, where I slow down before starting the repeat of the opening motif.

The Etudes will tire you quickly at first. Stamina is one of the things that playing them builds.

[schubertiad]

Could i ask some specific advice on the etude? My reading of the piece is that the left hand melody is in 6/8 (accentuating the first and third beats of each set of crotchet triplets) while the right hand is in 4/4 (slightly accentuating the first of each set of quaver triplets). It seems very counter-intuitive at first, but the sections where only the right hand plays clearly must be 4 in a bar and not 2. Do you agree with this? If so, how do i get the two rhythms to feel (and more importantly sound) clear and correct? So far i'm playing each hand seperately (and a little exaggerated) and hoping that when they're put together they'll know what to do.
Now that the note learning has been done (it doesn't take long with this one, does it?) how should i tackle the all-important perfecting stage? any mindblowing tips?
Schubertiad

[Steve Hopwood]

schubertiad said:

Could i ask some specific advice on the etude? My reading of the piece is that the left hand melody is in 6/8 (accentuating the first and third beats of each set of crotchet triplets) while the right hand is in 4/4 (slightly accentuating the first of each set of quaver triplets). It seems very counter-intuitive at first, but the sections where only the right hand plays clearly must be 4 in a bar and not 2. Do you agree with this? If so, how do i get the two rhythms to feel (and more importantly sound) clear and correct? So far i'm playing each hand seperately (and a little exaggerated) and hoping that when they're put together they'll know what to do.

I cheat when I play this piece. I use it as: 1) a most attractive piece in conjunction with the first in the set. 2) a brilliant means of developing\regaining RH dexterity. I do not use it as a study in mixed rhythms. I play the RH in duple time (6\4) so there is no difficulty fitting the hands together.

I have heard performances where the player has managed to keep the RH triplet rhythm against the LH two in a bar. Mostly, players adopt the go-like-a-rocket approach that I favour. It is easier, apart from anything else. These performances are also highly effective.

Now that the note learning has been done (it doesn't take long with this one, does it?) how should i tackle the all-important perfecting stage? any mindblowing tips?
Schubertiad

Sadly, no. These fantastic Etudes conform to the very first rule of study composition; the notes must be easy to learn.

From there, it is all downhill. Chopin understood perfectly how to drive a pianist to exhaustion. Learning the notes of these studies takes a couple of days, in most cases. Getting them to a half-way decent playing standard takes most of us the rest of our lives.

Listen to them on a cd. Time and again, a ternary form study will have the section A repeat cut short, tragically for the listener. As a young pianist, I would cry, "Why, o why did he not repeat that fantastically brilliant section in full?"

Until I played them and discovered exactly why. ;D Other composers' studies give the pianist some respite; Chopin's do not. They ruthlessly explore a particular technical feature until the muscles have nearly given up in protest. They then stop the player just short of utter exhaustion.

That is what makes them the pinnacle of a pianist's technical endeavour. Performing the whole of Op 25 in a recital remains, to me, an achievement equivalent to performing live Brahms 2nd and Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concertos.

Perhaps it should outshine these achievements. At leas the concertos provide occasional breaks whilst the orchestra is playing without the soloist.

Enjoy the Etudes. They will keep you going for a long time. You will feel the benefit of every second you spend playing them.

Steve

[Steve Hopwood]

Re the Etudes, I should have added this.

It is rare for a pianist to master an Etude at the first time of learning it. Getting them to a good speed, with accuracy, usually takes several revisits over a period of years.

Once you play them, they become compulsive. There is a magnetism about them that constantly pulls a pianist back to them. They remain a long-term pleasure to play.

This is a good thing, considering that long-term is what we need to accept in terms of mastering them.

Steve

[petite joueuse]

magnetism............yes I know what you mean.
My current favourite is OP25 No.9 - which I can play SLOWLY - but one day, maybe one day.......

[Dulciana]

Which one is the easiest for someone who has never played any of them but would like to have a go?

[Steve Hopwood]

patricia said:

Which one is the easiest for someone who has never played any of them but would like to have a go?

Op 25 no 2 in F minor is always the one I offer as an introduction to these works. It is short, easy to learn and great fun to play. Speed increases with the dexterity of the individual, especially if you ignore the cross rhythms and play the RH two in a bar, as I do.

Steve