How Much Should We Practice?

This is because I need an excuse to not stress about not getting in my four+ hours every day.

Read here.

Mozart Piano Concerto #22

I apologize for my negligence. I feel like I'm drowning in music that I need to learn. Among the music is my lovely Mozart concerto. (As an aside, I love it when, while learning a piece, friends reach the point where they begin calling it "their" piece. Their concerto. Their sonata. I think that it's a milestone in the personal development of the musical learning process. If that makes sense.)

I don't know why pianists don't play this concerto more often. To be honest, this is the piece that sold me on Mozart concertos. I never found them to be particularly interesting or engaging before. Though, it could also be my taste, which (I hope) is expanding and refining.

I could write for ages about how much I love this concerto. But I've only memorized the first movement, so I'll talk about the others later. (I never feel that a piece is really known, internalized, until it's memorized.) I love that it opens with big, triumphant E-flat chords. It reminds me of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, though maybe with less bravado. It quickly withdraws into a pretty, sweet melody. For four measures. Then the E-flat chords are back! It's so teasing and charming and just delightful. The piano work is brimming with fast scales and arpeggio figurations. It keeps with the charming character, I think.

Listen to an Annie Fischer recording, if you can find one. She doesn't take the piece too seriously, and I think that's key.

How to Be a Concert Pianist

I had to read an article for my piano pedagogy class about concert pianists. Some researcher got together a bunch of concert pianists and asked them about their lives. It turns out that there are quite a few similarities among the pianists. Here's a bit from what I wrote (and I wrote it in a hurry, so forgive my potentially poor writing).

"All of the pianists started piano lessons at a fairly young age. Interestingly, most did not take lessons of their own accord. Common through all of the pianists was the parents’ belief in the value of music lessons. Even when the parents were not musical themselves, they insisted on piano lessons for their child, and almost all relied on teachers who lived close by. The first teacher was generally an average pianist, though all of the pianists had fond memories of their first teacher. Lessons were basic, and regular recitals were part of said lessons. Most of the pianists practiced at least one hour per day at this early stage, and a parent would often sit in on the practice sessions, praising the child and giving instruction as needed.

By high school, most of the pianists had moved on to new and better teachers. Lessons became more detailed, dealing with interpretation, technique, and building repertoire. It was at this point that most of the pianists began to develop a deeper commitment to the piano, listening to recordings, attending concerts, and reading books about composers, for example. Practice became less about time and more about what one needed to do with the music. Many of the pianists started to play in youth competitions. Notably, the pianists who participated in these competitions stressed that merely playing in the competitions was much more important than winning or losing. By this point, it was obvious to most of the pianists that a career in music was eminent.

Between the ages of twelve and nineteen, the pianists started lessons with master teachers. At this point, they were working with professional musicians who understood the implications of a solo career as a concert pianist. The amount of work required for each lesson demanded a minimum of four hours of practice per day, sometimes more. All of the pianists mentioned that it was at this point that they began to take charge of their music, interpreting the music for themselves, rather than interpreting solely on a teacher’s advice. In a sense, they took over their own development. "