Have you ever worked with Alan Fraser?Share your experiences

Dear Micheal, Thanks for a very informative post - I can sense your real dedication and desire to play well and to express something important that's inside you. This really touches me! All the more reason for me to feel genuine regret that my DVD hasn't helped. Some of my friends who aren't pianists but who have problems with tendonitis at the computer keyboard have found help in my DVD. I am wondering whether if you took some of the ideas and applied them to THIS keyboard rather than the 88, it might provide a better point of departure. I myself do things differently at this keyboard than most people I observe. For instance, I ALWAYS put the keyboard well in on the desk so my forearms have a place to rest themselves on the table top. My arms are always resting heavily on the desk or tabletop. THen with my hands I imitate a bit that segment of my film where I first pull my fingers up with the string. At the end of that, my hand is on key and I find that 'house of cards' quality for my fingers - I try and do that here on this keyboard. And I roll my hands a little right and left to ensure that they are free from effort in their initial resting. THen when I type, I try not to depart too far from this state of rest... Finally I check my sitting. I try to feel where my torso's weight expresses itself through my sitz bones, and then experiment with rocking my pelvis first a little back, so my weight is behind the sitz bones (here I let myself slump a bit), and then forward so my weight it in front of my sitz bones. Here I try not to strain myself into verticality but simply feel how my pelvis wants to push my spine up so it naturally, with no strain, lengthens itself and my head feels pushed up like it's on top of a skewer. After doing this a few times I finally return to 'neutral', where my weight is dead on my sitz bones and I am neither too collapsed nor too erect - just comfortable. And then I see if this has any affect on the way my fingers move. And are my arms still resting on the tabletop... I think starting to play piano in your late 30's is really courageous in any case, and my hat's off to you! Don't give up, I know that advancement and improvement is possible for you... Best regards, AFF

Some of my friends who aren't pianists but who have problems with tendonitis at the computer keyboard have found help in my DVD. I am wondering whether if you took some of the ideas and applied them to THIS keyboard rather than the 88, it might provide a better point of departure. Thanks, it's good advice, but to clarify - I don't have problems _caused_ by typing - except of course, once you injure your arm doing something other things hurt too, whether you do those other things "correctly" or not. Luckily the measure of a good letter or email isn't in the physical typing of it and thus I don't worry too much about typing better. Whereas for playing a piano piece it obviously is absolutely crucial. I think starting to play piano in your late 30's is really courageous in any case, and my hat's off to you! Don't give up, I know that advancement and improvement is possible for you... Well thanks, but it's more foolish than brave No actually I'll address that - I don't think it makes any difference at all except for the attitudes within the person themselves and others. e.g I reckon I'm playing the piano now as well as I would had I started at 6, 16, 36 or 46. The differences aren't even an issue now At age 6 perhaps I wouldn't know or care about how bad I was. I doubt very much I'd have had so much exposure to concert pianists. Perhaps I wouldn't care too much whether a teacher was making sure my movements were ok. Perhaps I wouldn't have been on the internet and read such and such. Yep, perhaps if I were 6 I'd be a lot happier, but I don't think I'd be any better. I'd just be going to the local "£10 a lesson" teacher and bashing out pieces until one or the other of us got bored enough with that piece and we moved onto the next - whether it was being played well or not If I was really, really lucky I might have a teacher that would have actually said how to play and how to practice etc, but that could happen at 38 and in some ways - the fact I care about that - probably improves the chances of that happening. Although equally some of those teachers might not be inclined to teach me at 38, so it probably balances out. Anyway, folk of the "I started late - I was 7 and a half" mindset are going to disagree with me there, but that's fair enough - I can't disprove it without a time machine I think there's evidence that we have more brain elasticity when we're younger but it still exists when we're old. But I think it's probably a question that can't be fully answered yet by anyone certainly not a layman like myself. What I've done since I last posted is to explain everything to my SO. The blind leading the blind She played the piano when she was at school and took some convincing that there was any such thing as these ideas that you might worry about the way you use your arms / fingers when playing. "We just played". So, I showed lots of videos, yours, a couple on youtube and went through the whole shebang. The logic here is that if you try to explain something to someone else, then you tend to learn more about it in the process. I think I managed to convince her that there is something to it, and also we managed to convince ourselves that we're completely clueless at knowing whether I'm doing what you are when I try the exercises. I know it's more about principles than replicating exactly what someone else does. At which point sans a teacher that'll grab hold of my arm etc etc all bets are probably off anyway. Obviously I have to give up the way I'm currently playing because it's injuring me - to not give that up is illogical. What I wouldn't like to give up is playing the piano completely, but I doubt the teacher exists Anyway, thanks to all for reading and replying to these rants and raves

I have an interesting story about that. You are right MOSTLY about starting at 6 and being totally unconscious so it doesn't make that much difference. BUT: 15 years ago I heard some 7-year olds playing so beautifully, really musically, beautiful sound, amazing musical and emotional maturity, that I said to myself, "if I ever have a kid he or she will study with this teacher." Well i did have a kid, she is now 7, and she started at 6 with this lady, Lilika Petrovich, who studied with Yvonne Lefevure, Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger AND the great Russian Timakin. She treats my Masha like a grownup, showing her much of the technical and musical stuff I show my university students and more. And Masha responds, she is getting much better teaching than I did at any time in my youth. And I'm sure she'll be a better pianist for it. BUT: had I had that kind of teaching as a child, for sure I would NOT have developed everything I did! I wouldn't have had the need! So I guess every cloud has its silver lining... As for a student needing someone to actually be there and address their particular problems, yes that's true... The film I made is a poor substitute for actual interaction, although the making of it did force me to clarify many things for myself (and that process continues in a very rich way to this day)...

I have an interesting story about that. You are right MOSTLY about starting at 6 and being totally unconscious so it doesn't make that much difference. BUT: 15 years ago I heard some 7-year olds playing so beautifully, really musically, beautiful sound, amazing musical and emotional maturity, that I said to myself, "if I ever have a kid he or she will study with this teacher." Well i did have a kid, she is now 7, and she started at 6 with this lady, Lilika Petrovich, who studied with Yvonne Lefevure, Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger AND the great Russian Timakin. Sure, but be realistic with your MOSTLY's She can only teach a finite number of kids - thus she can't teach every 7 yo. Mine, for example, doesn't go to her and as you can see, I only have a list of piano teachers I wouldn't recommend - at least not for the specific aspects we've been discussing. She also has a limited sample from which to judge how well your average 7 yo pianist might play too. A question though - I doubt she bothers with kids that don't sound impressive? No, that's too forgiving. If she thinks one day that 7yo will give her name in his / her list of teachers - in the same way you mention her teachers to me. If she thinks that name dropping matters If it matters and if she thinks that it matters, then she won't entertain anyone that wasn't impressive will she? That would be counter productive to her when it comes to them saying "I was taught by....who was taught by..." Anyone who fancies their chances at being a celebrity teacher doesn't want your average you tuber playing "fury lisa" to mention their name. So it doesn't really help the rest of us. Uber-talented kids we can find to impress, and, if we care, we can link them together from generation to generation and make them into "celebrity" teachers - at least giving a chance for those that weren't celebrity pianists to make a living. But Hanon is a celeb and has his fans. OTOH, I did at one time believe that the teacher I'm looking for would see Hanon as a dirty word. Yes? If so what is in a name? We know Liszt couldn't teach much, aiui he just surrounded himself with tottie and already good pianists. Similarly, Liszt could play in spite of his teachers. Similary Chopin invented the way he played rather than listen / follow his peers. That's a theme which I suspect reigns amongst those talented kids. At 7 I wouldn't have had a chance at going to a similar teacher at all. Zilch. Nada. Thus what I said was 100% correct for the vast majority of ordinary folk. OTOH, we had a recent program on TV documenting a gifted 6 yo entering the royal college of music - if you can play well when you're a kid, it's probably not difficult to find a good teacher - as paradoxical as that sounds, it's pretty much true. Incidentally, although her playing sounded pretty good as you'd expect, the program told us she had tendinitis - so if the royal college of music in the UK can't teach those specifics, what chance does an ordinary bloke or his kids have finding a good piano teacher here that can? Again I stress, as much as the sound you make is linked to your movements, it's not completely so - people who play musically aren't necessarily being taught well in the sense that I am having difficulties - as you note, many very musical and famous pianists had injuries. So, although I'm sure there are very good teachers out there in many different aspects, I still doubt they are all good in the specific way that they'd move me forward. To me the situation is as though it were difficult to find a piano teacher who could teach you how to read music. Along with a few myths just for laughs to explain to the guy saying he's struggling to read music - stuff like ' you have to discover it for yourself because everyone's eyes are different ' or, for the arty-farty types 'The sound is what matters, not the printed page, the famous Pianist Winklebottom Substitute some of the stuff you might read if you say you're struggling with movements / injuries in some forums and the previous paragraph won't sound as ridiculous when you see what some will tell you about that. Of course, if you're picking a teacher as you were it makes sense to find one like you did if you've that opportunity - which is why your 7yo has such a teacher - it's in spite of the trend rather than proving a trend. I think it proves what I said really - otherwise why not just send her to the local piano teacher down the road? Clearly that wouldn't be advised even if she's immensely talented and certainly not if she isn't. She treats my Masha like a grownup I bet and hope she doesn't.