Results of First Lesson - Tear down technique, rebuild.

This is kinda long so if piano bores you, skippit.

So I had my first meeting with Mr. Pesic. I met him at 2:30 PM in the Jac Holzman room (meaning the room with the brand new Mason & Hamlin). I played my Bach Fugue and my Schubert Andantino in F sharp minor for him.

Hokay, first a bit about Mr. Pesic. He received his A.B. and M.S. from Harvard in physics in '69 and '70 respectively and followed up with his doctorate in Physics from Stanford in 1975. He is also a fantastic, fantastic musician. He is on a complete cycle of Brahms and Schoenberg; all the piano works of these composers. (this is sort of like playing all 32 Beethoven sonatas) Not only is he a brilliant phsyicist, he is expertly qualified to teach music, having studied it all his life.

I have, according to him, a "real sensitivity and love" for the music. He said he could hear how much I love Schubert and Bach just by hearing the piano sing. He also said that is how musicians succeed - they love and respect the music and are sensitive to it.

BUT - My time of unprofessional piano instruction has at last come back to haunt me. For too long I have been stiff at the piano, tensing up to achieve volume, practicing with the wrong methods, playing with my fingers rather than playing with my arm weight. This was slowed with my study with Mr. Novak but bad habits crept back in.

Beethoven discovered and perfected the art of pianistic relaxation, better known to day as Weight Performance. He taught it to his pupils, who taught Liszt and Chopin, and now this is the standard way of performing. If you use this method, it will enable you to play in old age (like Wilhelm Kempff if you know who he is) and helps deal with arthritis. If you don't use it, you can still become amazing (Aunt Linda comes to mind) but you can be devastated by arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome. So I am learning this new method from the bottom up (Mr. Novak also told me a bit about it)

While playing, keep your arm TOTALLY RELAXED. First practice dropping your hands onto the piano like a gorilla. Hold your right wrist up with your left hand, completely relax your right hand, and let it drop. BANG. The piano keys roar, and a natural forte arises from strings. Support your arms on the keyboard; don't tense your shoulder or back at all. Completely relax. All the power comes from your weight. Some people have heavy arms while some people have very light arms (myself and Mr. Pesic come to mind here) but still all can practice using weight.

When you strike the key, hold the idea in your head that you play through the keyboard and down through the bottom of the piano. Think of it as a musical karate chop - go through. Then once you've gotten the hang of that, practice scales - shift your arm weight from finger to finger, never allowing non-working fingers to hold weight at all. Never have the arm supported by anything except the fingers playing.

I will practice this method until I perfect it, and then I will learn a couple simple pieces to cement the method to myself. For all interested, I am learning another Bach Prelude and Fugue (I'm not telling which one; it is a surprise!) a Beethoven sonata, and some piece that Mr. Pesic will recommend for me.

So I am really exited. The Search and Rescue thing fell through, but I ran out of serious money (I'm worth a little over $100 at this point) and I didn't have enough to buy equipment. Besides, it would clash with piano.

And piano comes first.

I'll play stuff for you when I come home for Christmas!

P.S. The great thing about the weight/relaxation method is that when you use it, you are always completely relaxed whilst performing. Goodbye nerves! I will enjoy performing even more than I do already.

EDIT - this does mean that I begin lessons with Mr. Pesic. I meet him again on Wednesday for him to check my progress and we will meet again on Sunday after his concert (Dvorak and Brahms/Schoenberg).