10 years ago by
A Pianist
This is a very simple and powerful idea that I discovered in a book about Busoni. Playing the piano like any complex task, requires us to group or chunk information so that we can execute fairly long passages with a single impulse. The better we are at this the more efficiently our mind works while we play the piano. Oftentimes the problems we have with certain passages are due to how we conceive it. For example if you take the string of syllables: ackbackackbackackback... you can group it like this: ackb ackb etc. but this is a very awkward combination of syllables. If on the other hand you group it like this: ack back back etc. it becomes very simple. In many passages of Chopin, the rhythm and the technical phrasing do not correspond directly and this makes them seem much more complex than they really are. But if you focus on technical phrasing separately by accenting the beginning of each group, the passage becomes much simpler. Of course the rhythm is musically more important, but that can be incorporated later by varying accents and rhythms. Further, technical phrasing can uncover motivic structures and tensions that might have otherwise been neglected. If you want to read more about it:https://home.comcast.net/~jsbels/ch%20XI.htm
What are your thoughts?
