I’m ready for a shower of criticism on this one. After all, some adults want their favorite transcription of the Elvira Madigan theme song, (aka Mozart’s Concerto No. 21 in C,Andante) to encapsulate their musical journey—at least for part of the time. And that’s OK if the transcription route of top ten, poorly transformed (rotten tomato) versions of the Classics doesn’t squeeze out real deal pianoforte masterworks in unadulterated form.
On that pessimistic note, one of my students from the Central Valley, (aka agriculture’s West Coast heartland) had studied with me for 6 years before I escaped to pesticide-free Berkeley CA. Thinking she might be a carry-over on SKYPE, I’d already planned her next deep-layered musical exploration: Chopin’s B minor Waltz which would have been a logical follow-up to the less complex Waltz in A minor, No. 19, Op. Posthumous.
But no sooner than my pupil showed a lack of enthusiasm for ONLINE instruction, I had referred her out to a seasoned Valley mentor who’d graduated from one of the most distinguished European conservatories and made no bones about her “superior” training.
With such a self-ignited reputation, one would have expected a sequence of lessons on an exceedingly high level.
No such luck. The progression of selected works was tantamount to a poorly transposed, two-page FUR ELISE reduction, minus the meaty middle section and chromatic bridge to final theme.
It wasn’t the Beethoven Classic that was CUT to unrecognizable form, however, but a Chopin substitute that might have been as harmful as a banned artificial sweetener.
In short, the student was given an impossible remake of Chopin’s “Raindrop” Prelude in Db Major, transposed to the key of G, with more technical land mines than the original. Certainly, the overwhelmed pupil was not ready to tackle the URTEXT edition or a shoddy substitute.
The good news is that she grew so frustrated with the roster of fakes, that she headed over to SKYPE in sheer desperation. Now two years later, she’s back to basics and deep-layered learning…
Which brings me full circle to the solid journeys my adult pupils are taking minus God forsaken short-cuts.
Case in point:
One student embarked upon the Schumann “Traumerei,” No. 7 from Kinderszenen(Scenes of Childhood) and has realized how fingering choices and voicing are pivotal to the initial learning stage. If fingering is haphazard, then a seamless legato line is unattainable.
To assist her study, I prepared a video that draws on the URTEXT edition, with recommended finger-switching maneuvers that will aid smoothly connected lines.
But her first assigned goal this week is to thread through the treble melody without adding the balance of voices.
Such a study model is shown in the video below:
And here’s my play through:
In summary, it all hearkens back to the meaning of piano study and its serious ingredients. If a student wants to read through fun transcriptions in his/her own spare time, I have no objection, but when lessons roll around each week, it’s most valuable to pursue compositions that have been time-tested for their substance and beauty. And as a direct benefit, they seed technique and advance musical growth.
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PS: There are finely composed Jazz pieces, contemporary literature, etc. that can be integrated into the curriculum. These should be assessed for relevance to a student’s level of advancement.
I have found that the older a student is, and there are always exceptions, the more difficult it is for them to change. While my brother and my sister are both quite knowledgeable about computers, I have been unable to get them to help me use Skype or FaceTime to communicate with my mother, even though both are very easy to use. In fact, if my mother was not near deaf and steady enough (she hits the wrong icons and gets confused) to use her iPad for more than Facebook, I believe she would be able to do it better than my siblings. Even my niece, an Associate Dean of libraries who has computerized Texas Christian University's holdings, had difficulty with FaceTime so that I could attend a funeral remotely.
As I introduced personal computers to our staff where I worked at the University, I had a devil of a time getting them just to use computers in the first place, even though personal computers greatly enhanced their work.
On the other hand, throughout the years as I taught, I found that my older students, for the most part, were more serious and worked harder and focused more on their assignments and generally were some of my best. I think that learning is linked to attitude and one must have the right attitude to move forward and learn new things.
In the case of your student, it appears that that instructor devalued the learning ability of the older student, partly because of his or her attitude toward older people.
Ron