Piano-Hands Criticism

I would be interested to hear Alan's response to the following, taken from the Piano-Hands website, particularly in regard to the 'dangerousness' of some of the exercises. "Alan Fraser's site. This site seems aimed primarily at promoting the author's book and career. The amount of technical information at this otherwise interesting and informative site is rather small. Mr. Fraser is influenced by the ideas of Moshe Feldenkrias regarding movement. This I consider positive. Much of the site seems geared towards exploring boundaries. For the technically gifted and highly adept there may some ideas to explore here. However, for the average serious piano student or pianist with injuries there isn't much useful information. I have not read the book yet, but the excerpts from the bookare not very promising. The descriptions of pianistic problems and the movements required are not clear. The book uses non-standard terminology to describe movement. Some of the exercises may be dangerous. Author/Infomaster=Alan Fraser; info rating=2; product rating=2;"

When I first saw this evaluation of my work I took umbrage, wrote the author of Piano-Hands and discussed it with him. He promised to reconsider and did indeed tone down his criticism - you should have seen the original! However, I still think he misses the mark on several points. You should know that he is one of the Dorothy Taubmann devotees, who often promote the work of their "guru" and dismiss anything that doesn't fall in line with the established dogma. This I find unfortunate, as I have a very high regard for her work - she is really one of the great pioneers in our field - and if I disagree with some of her ideas, it is in the context of the highest respect for an esteemed colleague. We have to get over this small-minded "war" attitude and work together to build a really comprehensive understanding of piano technique. And I say as much. In my book and on the site, I issue a clear warning to those who do have a pain problem to go slow, using 5% of the normal effort in order to achieve improvement in their condition and not exacerbate the problem. And my film opens with a very detailed and clear warning against the haphazard practice of the exercises (with the ominous music of Stravinsky stressing the point: "Watch out!"). I feel that every person who tries to use my ideas is in some way my student, and thus I feel personally responsible for him or her, just as a good parent would for a child. I try to take good care of my people! Again, he posts his comment as a negative criticism, unfortunately so. I do appreciate your question, which has afforded me the opportunity to address these issues. It is important that we deepen the dialogue! AFF