About Teaching

Hello Alan! I very curious what do you think about piano teachers of today. A specially in musical institutes such as Manhattan school of music and julliard. I'm very interesting WHY (i know it from student of Man. Sc. of M.) piano lessons ONLY one hour per week? is that not stupid?? Also, I will give a personal example after I was dissapointed, I found a professor at Manthattan school of music Dmitriy Rachmanov (maybe you heared something about him), I payed him 75$ per hour, and what I get finally?? really nothing, he told me here is PP heres FF, you know, I have not a bad musical taste and could know it without his comments. My hand was terrable at that time, I could not played, he did not care about it at all. And most pity thing that most teachers work this way. So what young Talented people should do in this case, if they even can not expres they's gift, because this jerks can not do what they should do! Why colleges hire this jerks? Do you think that must be some change in this system? Also, What talented people should do when they finish this "schools of music", sitting in subway? in better case play at some poor resturant when people talk loud about food when you try open the buttom of your soul! Or play in some very poor church who pays you no more than 20$ per concert. In America life is very expensive, everybody knows that. So, my opinion, I think teachers of this departments must be more honest to student and open his(her) eyes even before they make a single step to this rout of jungles. Will be thankfull for you opinion, With deep respect, Alexey

Hey Alexey, Welcome to the forum! I'm very interesting WHY (i know it from student of Man. Sc. of M.) piano lessons ONLY one hour per week? is that not stupid?? That's outrageous! Only one hour per week! Geez and you have to pay top dollar to go to these schools, right? I can tell you that i had 2 3hrs lessons with Alan is my senior year at our Academy.And guess what, the high education is free in Serbia! I ve heard of him and seen him here in Novi Sad. I think , it will always be like this.Luckily there are some individuals that are very musical, appreciate the real value of music and READY TO SHARE the knowledge.That's what i call a good teacher! So, my opinion, I think teachers of this departments must be more honest to student and open his(her) eyes even before they make a single step to this rout of jungles. This reminds me of my professor of piano literature.On our the first class, he told us:"Non of you is going to be a top top pianist and have a world career.You will be lucky to give a couple of concerts per year!Face it! He was right!

very great respons! Thank you very much!

Dimitri Rachmanov is an excellent example. He is a fine pianist and very interested in technique. He came to my seminar at the MTNA-CFMTA Joint Conferrence in New York City last July and congratulated me warmly on my presentation - he really thought it was great. So why couldn't he help you? He is well trained, but although his training taught him HOW to do what he does well (play the piano) it didn't teach him to UNDERSTAND how he does what he does. This is a key reason I created my whole approach. I saw many well-trained and talented pianists who could not help their students because all their creative energy was occupied in playing. I aim to bring some of the underlying processes to light so that our teachers are in a better position to empower their students as well as themselves. I am simply trying to fulfill the old Feldenkrais adage, 'If you know what you're doing you can do what you want." So I don't believe Dimitri does not care - he is making a sincere effort to acquire the tools to help his students in a better way, and my hat's off to him. Another point: the colleges hire pianists who can play ahead of pianists who can teach because they need players to give good recitals at the faculty, keep the prestige of the institution high and to keep the financial support coming in. They also feel they can attract more and better students if they have a "big name" on staff. As for what faces a piano student after graduation, I have struggled with this all my life. Let's face it, the world is not set up to support artistic endeavour. If you want to play to satisfy your artistic soul, you are going to have to fight. I myself made great sacrifices to achieve what I have done - I went to Yugoslavia when the country was falling apart, lived on an income of only a couple of thousand dollars A YEAR for over a decade because I was devoted to the piano. I still live like a pauper. But the thing you must fight with the most is your own depression about the situation. If you start complaining, it's a never-ending burden, and it will drag you down. I remember seeing a graduate of Kiev Conservatory, Horowitz's old school, playing on a clavinova in a Montreal metro station. I was shocked. It really brought home to me the "ugly realities" of the situation. The world won't come crawling to your door and ask you to play well-playing recitals. But if you love your Art above all else, you will make your way. Most important, don't be desperate. Have a strong inner core. Don't live according to that inner fear about survival. People sense that unconsciously in you and they run away from it. They will not help you. If you want to go far, live from your core of strength, of belief in your own powers and the conviction that what you are doing is of real worth. The fact that many awful pianists have good careers is testimony to this: they believed in themselves (even if WE think that THEY do not have the RIGHT to do so!). AFF

What a great opinion! Thanks Alan. I totally agree, that inner core is very important thing... I little dispair right now, that is why I wrote this passage little bit angry.. Here is the story: I become learn music at age 8 as a guitar player, at age 13 a switch to piano, because I belived that most beautiful music could be played only at this instrumet. You could not play rachmaninoff, shubert on guitar it is impossible. So, I switch. I learned piano with passion. But unfortunatlly I did not have a great theacher such as you Alan. I studied very little with them, they gave me some arch ideas, but they did not care about my technque very much, they came from Russia for better life to America, cared only for money. Most things I learned from records and by myself. I'm 24 now. I moved back to Russia. Before 22 I tryed to build my inner world, it means, that I tryed to find my own feelings, my own expression to music, finally I got this, I was stupid and naive, I thought most importent inner feelings, understanding what you are playing and technique will comes by it self. I love music more than any thing in a world, for me it is like best friend. It is only friend in fact, Im very reserved person. And after 22 I realized that I must improve my thechnique skills, Of course I got some during that days, I played from the scores, Schubert sonatas, Chopin, rachmaninoff, any stuff which I thechnicly could handle. Resently I found article by Rachmaninoff, He said that to build great technique you must learn it from 7-9 years old, otherwise it is almost impossible to get. For me it is like verdict. I always whanted to become a concert pianist, I whanted to become a student at ST. Petersburg conservatory. So, right now it seems to me every thing is turned dark to me. Dreams become nightmare. It is really pity, you got inner feeling, you could play better then many piano acrobats(musically) and because you did not learned technique at that time(7-8 years) you could not be an artist. So, Alan, what would you recommend me, should I finish and getout of this and get away from music and find my self in other occupation(honestly I don't see my self anywhere except as an artist)? or I must fight futher, I have no adviser at all right now, so, only you could help me to decide. Thanks very much for any advise!

That article was my death knell too. I had lessons from age 8 but ABSOLUTELY NO TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE before 18. Even at 18 I did not get what I needed but at least for the first time I had a teacher who knew SOMETHING about it. Up until then it was just, play a little louder, a little softer, a little slower, a little faster... I know where you are coming from. But you see, I persevered. I did not give up. I made great sacrifices. I always dreamed of going to Russia because I knew that there I would find the answers. But fate took me instead to Yugoslavia, the country of South Slavs, and there I did indeed find my answers. Think about it. I must go now but will write more later... AFF

Thanks Alan for reply! No I will not give up. Your answer helped me a lot. I should more belief in myself. It is like great russian writer F. Dostoevskiy said: " Miracle comes from belief, not belief from miracle"!

By the way, not only is the Russian School alive and well at least in some places, they also still have an approach that I bow down to. Generally when I hear a pianist, I know 1) how I would work with him or her and 2) what was done to achieve what he or she achieved. But there is SOMETHING about that SOUND that I LOVE and I still don't know how to teach it. This has been a mystery to me for 25 years now, and I am closer but I still don't really understand everything about it. When I heard that young German pianist in Linz in October, I loved the playing and the sound, and I also knew that his teacher Oleg Maisenberg was working with him in a way that I don't know how to work - my hat is off to that way of working! Also Jokut Mihailovich of Belgrade, Kemal Gekic's former teacher, is capable of giving her students that golden tone. And although she admires my film she says she can't agree with it... So it looks like I still have some learning to do! Best wishes, AFF

About Sound very interesting. I really can not imagen how it could be learned. For me Sound it is like a method of speech, you must hear it first inside of your soul, if you not, no one could teach it. Maybe im wrong, it is just my opinion. About that teacher who don't agree, We have a perfect Russian proverb for that, it is sounds like this: " For colors and for tastes there is no real friends".