Bad Student Piano Insight

[Terry]

"...many people never progress far enough to get beyond the basics and into
the desirability of  learning something about......  But they can still
teach."

Good thoughts Ron. Thanks. Makes me think of a few of my college professors
though.....

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman@cox.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 25, 2004 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: Bad Student Piano Insight


>
> >  I seems to me piano
> >teachers are more divorced from the instrument of the trade than these
other
> >instructors. I wonder why. I think that is what I might have been asking.
> >Why is that?
> >
> >Terry Farrell
>
>
> As always, no guarantee on the validity of my thoughts, but I still have a
> few. The tennis and marksmanship instructors have likely been professional
> performers for some years before becoming professional instructors. As
> such, they spent a whole lot of time with their "instruments",
maintaining,
> tuning, and repairing them. The vast majority of the piano teachers I've
> known aren't full time professional teachers, never made a nickel
> performing on the instrument, and took up teaching because they could make
> some money with virtually no personal cost in training, and very little in
> materials (stickers and such). The tennis and marksmanship instructors use
> instruments that are vastly simpler than those of the piano teacher, and
> the knowledge required to minimally maintain these instruments is
> considerably less. Yes, these instruments can be buried in a fog of
> subjective mysticism just like pianos, but as basic tools, they are
> relatively simple compared to pianos. The requirements of the instrument
> are an important consideration here too. Both tennis and target shooting
> are ballistics. Both require a rather high level of precision performance
> as a minimal requirement. We are taught that we should clean, protect, and
> pamper our firearms, and purchase new tennis rackets and balls
> periodically, or possibly re-string our rackets if we are serious about
our
> performance. If a piano makes a noise when the key is depressed ("It's in
> great shape - all the keys work"), it's just fine. We learn this in
> childhood, and it is reinforced through "education" right up until the
time
> some suspect technician tells us that our piano is sub-standard. Pianos
are
> immortal, and never need service as long as all the keys work. Ask anyone.
> The marksmen and tennis players that aren't serious, don't know their
> instruments nearly as well as those that are. Pianists tend to be the
same.
> Dependance on an instrument for high performance levels demands greater
> understanding of the instrument unless you wish your performance (and
> livelihood) to be at the mercy of random circumstance. In teaching
> (beginning) piano, performance is of little to no consequence. It's so
much
> a half hour to pound in the basics. Tennis and shooting can be taken up
> with about fifteen minutes of quick briefing to tell you everything you
> need to know to participate in the sport. Playing the piano badly is
> somewhat more difficult to learn than pointing a firearm and pulling the
> trigger, or smacking a tennis ball over the net, so many people never
> progress far enough to get beyond the basics and into the desirability of
> learning something about the instrument. But they can still teach.
>
>
> Ron N
>
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