[CAUT] The Well-Educated Pianist

[reggaepass at aol.com]

I'm not quite sure which 'title' you are referring to, the subject line of my post (a play on the title of Ed McMorrow's book, "The Well-Educated Piano"), or the actual title of the workshop, "Ten Things Every Pianist Should Know About Pianos."  Nobody had any issue whatsoever with the later.  In fact, I did this workshop at the request of the principal piano instructor, who enthusiastically advocated to make this happen and personally attended for the second or third time, gleefully declaring to her students that more of these details stick every time she hears them.  I do start out by stating that pianists as a group are more ignorant about their instrument than players of any other instrument.  This is not to degrade but to help answer the question I pose to the students at the get-go, "Why bother learning about your instrument?"  Here at CalArts, the notion that we are breaking with (and thereby correcting, in this case) a bad tradition is looked upon very favorably.



What measure of your take on your own situation is paranoia and what portion is real?  Hard to say.  Hey, my children don't like it when I "make" them do things that they didn't used to have to do, or that their friends don't have to do.  So what?  I know that it is for their own good, so I do it anyway (lovingly, of course!).




Alan Eder


-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Johnson <johnsond at stolaf.edu>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Tue, Oct 6, 2009 9:02 am
Subject: Re: [CAUT]=2
0The Well-Educated Pianist







Hi-

I would be interested to know if you felt any awkwardness from the facutly regarding this title.  I suggested such a class borrowing the exact same title, and immediately got a cool reception when we had already agreed on the merits of doing something.  My read was that the somehow the title made faculty feel uncomfortable.  Personally, I think it's spot on.  I don't think I was reading too much into it, but maybe. 

Glad to hear it went well and thanks for keeping us posted.

cheers,

Dennis Johnson

__________


On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 10:35 AM,  <reggaepass at aol.com> wrote:


Greetings List, 







Last night I was the "entertainment" for the weekly piano colloquium here at CalArts.  I did a super-condensed version of "Ten Things Every Pianist Should Know About Pianos" (which is really EVERYTHING pianists should know, presented shotgun style and organized under ten very broad sub-headings).  I've posted about his before.  What I want to share with you now is that there was only one student who knew anything about the subject at all, and he learned it is a class required for piano majors, even undergrads, at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.  Kudos to Eric for the excellent job he is doing with that class.  In fact, the pianist from CCM happened to win the door prize, but deferred it to another student because he already had a copy of Larry Fine's "The Piano Book," purchased as
 a text for our esteemed colleague's class.  Well done, sir!










Alan Eder







 




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