Andy Barge – The London Piano Institute

Fourth Anniversary

Andy Barge — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 13:21:59 +0000

Fourth Anniversary

Four years have passed since I started piano lessons – it is hard to believe that time flies so fast. My classes with Stefan Joubert at S & C Music have been excellent and life-changing really. He is a great teacher with the right blend of enthusiasm, standards and experience to help you grow as a player. The thing I love about S & C is that the lessons are designed for adult learners, and the teachers understand how adults learn and are sympathetic to the realities of learning as an older human. After four years, I now consider Stefan a friend as well as a tutor.

Learning piano has taught me many things, not least the discipline to practice with full intention every day. I have tried practising when I have been distracted and not quite “in the zone”, and 20 minutes of pure deliberate focus is better than 1 hour of haphazard playing. It reminds me of a quote from Jocko Willink: “Discipline equals freedom” – meaning that if you maintain the discipline to practice the hard things, your reward is the freedom to play beautifully. There is nothing quite like the feeling of successfully playing a delightful piece of music and the emotions it brings you when you finally “get it”.

As I have written about before, it’s not about being motivated in the practice session; it’s about having the discipline to practice even when you don’t feel like it by focusing on a meaningful goal ahead of you. (See my article on the rule of three) The further you go into practice and climb the grades… the greater the improvement steps can feel. This is where, more than ever, it’s vital to make daily efforts to improve.

When you are climbing the mountain and only focusing on the top, it can feel like a long way. Instead, focus on one step at a time, ensure the step is the best you can do, and progress will come.

When you look back on your progress and see how far you have come, it’s a great feeling and a timely reminder of your success. This method helps me stay calm when facing new challenges and allows me to go into them with the same zeal I had initially.

I have come so far, but there is still much to learn. The biggest thing now is the work taken to make smaller increments.

I am currently going for grade 6, and the nuances in the playing are more complex, so it takes a lengthier time and greater focus to improve- but it’s so worth it.

One evening, I performed in an online concert with S & C and around ten other students of varying experience, and It was fantastic. I was very nervous beforehand, and even though the audience was not in the room with me, I still felt their presence and the nervous tension around me!

I had a quick practice run of my piece just before I performed, and I couldn’t remember any of it! Fortunately, my hands (and brain) got their mojo back, and I finished unscathed. If you ever have the opportunity to play in public, take it; it is a lesson in how to control the inner voice in your head and just like public speaking, the only way to get better at it – is to do it!

Over the years, life has thrown a few challenges at me, and sometimes, I had to pause my practice. It can be challenging to get back on the piano after this because you can feel how much your playing quality has reduced, which can be de-motivating to restart. It’s a bit like when you stop doing fitness because of injury – and when you restart, you hesitate to return to the gym because you know it will be hard and gasping! I advise focusing on the present and being better than the player you were yesterday (not six months ago or two years ago).

If you get frustrated with your playing or feel you need to be better, I suggest this: It is estimated that around 25 million people play the piano globally. That means, even if you are a beginner, you are better at the piano than 99.7% of the world. That makes you pretty unique.

Thriving

Andy Barge — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 13:43:15 +0000

There is no feeling like being in the flow of doing something and flourishing at a particular craft. The first time you rode a bike without falling, or when you took up running and ran your first 10k is an excellent feeling of freedom and achievement. However, getting to this level is not simple, and requires practice and effort- but how do we achieve this?

Thriving in piano playing has similarities to other high-performance areas and none more so than high-level elite sports performance.

In a study on thriving in elite sports performers, Dr Daniel Brown, a sports scientist at the University of Portsmouth, identified various factors contributing to a sports person – looking and feeling – outstanding

In a small-scale study examining the views of athletes, coaches and sports psychologists in elite sports, the researchers found some critical factors related to thriving in a particular field.

Dr. Brown said: “Doing your best as a sportsman or woman sounds simple, but we’ve found a complex mix of factors which promote thriving and could help those working at the elite level.”

Dr. Daniel Brown, Sport Scientist

Dr. Brown’s research found that elite athletes felt having the desire and motivation to do well and setting challenging goals were the key factors enabling them to thrive at the highest level.

Lets view these key characteristics and see how they relate to piano practice.

Characteristics of Thriving:

Sustained high-level performance
Optimistic
Active awareness of areas for improvement
Possess high-quality motivation
Display upward progression
Has a sense of belonging

1. Sustained High-level Performance

My weekly lessons push my limits and provide an excellent marker of where I need to improve. This work together is vital in giving me feedback on where I need to focus and the expectations of where I should be. Without these weekly check-ins, my performance may drift and I would not be at the level I am now.

2. Optimistic.

Some days, practice feels easier than others right? On the challenging days, it sometimes feels like it’s a struggle and it can seem like you have taken a step back. These days, you just have to remember your progress and trust the process that you are getting better.

3. Active Awareness of Areas for Improvement

This always comes back to the idea of dedicated practice. Where are you now in terms of what you need to get better at? How much time are you going to dedicate to working on these specifics?

Also, it is vital to have ways of measuring your improvement, how will you know when you have improved?

4. Possess High-quality Motivation

I believe that motivation is a fickle beast. The best way to feel motivated is to see improvement. And the best way to get improvement is to practice well, which requires organisation and discipline in your routine.

It’s a bit like going to the gym and doing weights. You may be motivated to start, but nothing keeps you driven further down the line than seeing your results (bigger biceps, firmer tummy etc). This gives you the drive to keep going and it’s the same with playing. There is no better
feeling than overcoming a particularly challenging section or playing a piece beautifully (it does happen sometimes! :))

5. Display Upward Progression

I see this as making constant, deliberate progress in your craft. Over time, you should be hitting daily, weekly and monthly goals and showing recorded progress. This upward momentum not only keeps an excellent record of where you are but helps to keep you motivated when you need a boost.

6. Has a Sense of Belonging

Do you see yourself as a piano player? A beginner? A maestro? It is vital that you feel confident in your ability and that even from day one, you see yourself as a piano player. In sports, the mental aspect is now seen as important as physical preparation. You can’t be a champion if you don’t feel like one.

To become your best self in anything, you have to have a roadmap to success and ensure you are following the correct rituals to achieve it.

Are you ready to thrive?

The Rule of Three

Andy Barge — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 08:57:27 +0000

I was watching a video recently about an Olympic athlete talking about their training. Right before they went to the last Olympics, they had a training session and, in their words, “was like a trainwreck’. They, of course, want to go to the Olympics in peak condition to have the best chance of winning and the worry was that they were behind in their progress. Their coach, however, had some great advice to give. She said when you are training at your upper levels of performance, not every session is going to be perfect and called it “the rule of three”. Out of three sessions, one is going to be fantastic, another is moderate, and the other is a subpar session. The point is that peak execution is not a linear progression, and some days you won’t achieve your best, but you are making great progress.

This “rule of three” applies when I am practising piano. As I push myself to improve means that some days, there are sessions where everything seems easy flows and the play comes naturally, then other sessions go OK and others where I stink! I recognise that as the brain and fingers are

making new habits and pushing my limits, not every practice session will be as smooth as I want, so I don’t beat myself up.

As you progress in something challenging, it’s good to know that Olympic athletes go through the same as we do and are just human too.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if your practice isn’t as good as you like, nor should you be too overconfident when it goes brilliantly. Just take each session as a stepping-stone towards excellence.

Another thing to remember is that your level of performance in a frustrating session today is something that you could only dream about a year ago.

Happy playing!

Can I learn piano quickly?

Andy Barge — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 17:42:49 +0000

In this day and age, people are often looking for a shortcut to achieve something. Whether to lose weight, get in shape, or sleep better, the modern-day “hack” of finding an easier way is very fashionable. In wellness circles, this term is called “Biohacking”. It means using technology and the latest research to make you look, feel and perform better than the average person.

So how does this relate to the piano? And is it possible to achieve meaningful skills by finding a shortcut? First- we better define what we mean when we say being able to play. Stefan Joubert explains being able to play as being at grades 4-5 (note that he is generalising and this is obviously not a hard-and-fast-rule!). However, for yourself, this may be something else. Do you want to be able to read music, play jazz or learn the notes and follow along on YouTube piano songs (this is tougher than it looks, by the way!).

In terms of learning quickly, well, again, this is a tricky one. What can you do in six weeks or six months? The outcome depends on how much quality time you spend rehearsing. It may be six months of practice, but there is a significant difference after doing one hour per day versus one hour per week. Sensible practice and dedication have always been the order of the day.

Whatever your goal, however, there is a secret hack to get you where you want to go as fast as possible. Are you ready? It is called WORK. Alas, there is no genuine shortcut to laying the foundations in the brain and fingers to reach an accomplished level. Of course, there is smart work and doing the right things in the correct order, but the more you perform, the better you become. This is a refreshing thought when you think about it. You don’t need to worry about missing out on any secret or latest hack to get better. Of course, you best have the right coaching to ensure you are practising correctly (S & C Piano, hello) and have the proper guidance, but at the end of the day, it is all down to you.

So what are you waiting for?

“People look for the shortcut. the hack… The shortcut is a lie. The hack doesn’t get you there… There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline…There is only one way. The way of discipline.” Jocko Willink

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If you have always wanted to learn – why not get started with top-notch piano education in London? You do not need any prior experience and can give it a go!

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Piano Pains

Andy Barge — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 13:06:10 +0000

I have been playing the Piano with S & C Music Center in Dubai since June 2019 and have been very consistent and, other than holidays, have not taken any significant breaks. Even when I broke my finger on my left hand, Stefan made me practice using only my other ” you can get even better on the right hand”, always the positive thinker! However, due to work commitments earlier this year, I had a hiatus from playing the piano for almost four months as I had to leave my piano back in the UK and couldn’t play until I got my new beauty!

Lo and behold, when I got my hands on my new piece, horror of horrors, I had forgotten how to play! I started playing, and my memory had gone, and my feeling was that I had lost everything, the songs I knew well by memory had faded, and it felt like I was a beginner again. I would guess that I was perhaps 70% less than my previous capacity. however, as Stefan said, “Don’t worry, it will soon come back very quickly” (more positivity, you see). He was correct, and when I returned to my music reading and level 5 piece playing, my decline was not so alarming (maybe 10% less)- it turned out the fundamentals saved me.

Another hobby of mine is swimming. I used to be an excellent swimmer “back in the day” and got back into it at the same time I returned to the piano. Perhaps something about being in your early 40s makes you return to your former glories. Anyway, I digress. With swimming, the key to a smooth, quality swim is the fundamentals. Things like becoming fluid in the water, so you have minimal resistance, the placement of arms, the position of the body in the water and so on. The consistent practice drills you do alongside various swimming techniques aid your overall swimming form and improve this thoroughly. The routines are the thing that builds skills, so even when my fitness had declined significantly, I could still swim very well. Making my fitness up was just a case of rehearsing my drills and then practicing being smooth in the water. The fundamentals I learned in swimming are the things that keep me afloat (pun intended), yet my physical fitness and sharpness of my strokes had declined, but I soon picked them back up.

I feel that being successful at piano and swimming share similar requirements. Although my memory of songs had gone (my fitness), the skills I had learned with Stefan were still there (my technique). My fluidity of playing was a little rusty, but with a touch of practice, my fitness quickly returned. I am grateful I have learnt these things and spent the time learning scales and sight reading, as this helped me get back to speed much faster and helps me believe I am a solid player.

First concert performance

Andy Barge — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 09:13:12 +0000

“His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy” Eminem – Lose Yourself

So on Friday, I did my first live piano performance for the London piano institute live feed. And it was brilliant! There was a concert with 32 students in total playing a wonderful variety of singing, guitar, piano and other talents. What was great is that everyone was at different levels, some (like me) performing for the first time in the world of zoom, others a bit more experienced.

When my teacher Stefan first asked me if I was OK to perform, my initial thought was (quite reasonably I believe) “absolutely not!” But of course, I said, “yes I would be delighted”. As Richard Branson says “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!”

So – I thought it would be interesting to give a brief overview of what was going through my mind once the concert started, to show what happens at a first live performance (at least to me!)

I was feeling pretty calm and about 10 minutes before I was due on I did some practice to warm up my fingers and get ready. All day prior it has been excellent but at this point, I couldn’t get past the first bar! Of course, this causes a spiral of over trying and making things worse. OK..

“Take a deep breath and don’t think about it- it will come” (it came).

I was number 9 on the list so at least I was quite near the beginning and I always prefer to get things over and done with. As the other performers started to finish my anticipation grew. “Number 4 done. Almost halfway to me. number 6.. how long will they play for? oh, they all sound really good. I hope I am as good

Number 9. Oh, that’s me! Here we go get ready

My fingers are shaking- OK this is new. Breath deep for a count of four.. and go!”

I want to talk here about what I call “internal monitor”. When you are in calm familiar situations this monitor is focused outwards to the world and helps you out and works for you. For example, when you’re practising playing the piano at home, this monitor is looking at the music and actively assists the subconscious mind (the bit that knows the music and plays automatically). More often than not in these situations, they are working in synch and the disruption caused by the monitor is minimal.

The conscious brain is calm and is assisting with the music looking at the age and calmly going “ok next up is the first chord sequence, next up 4th finger on C sharp and so on.

When in the live situation is felt very different. Suddenly, the internal monitor assistance has gone awol. No help whatsoever. in fact, it’s a hindrance. What’s happening is because of nerves, it is focused on the situation around you because it senses danger and is hyper-alert. This is known as the fight or flight response which is a very handy thing when you are in actual danger, such as being chased by a tiger- but not so useful when you need grace and finesse on a piano!

So, back to my performance, I was completely reliant upon my subconscious to guide me through. The only bit I stumbled on was where the conscious brain suddenly jumped in with “watch out this is the bit you mess up!!!!!” This sudden interruption threw me off and I lost my flow.

Here I had 3 choices. 1) Throw my telephone (zoom camera) out of the window, 2) throw myself out of the window or 3) just start again as if nothing had happened (I did choose C but it was a close-run thing).

I got to the end of the piece but I can’t remember how I got there. Kind of like when you have been driving somewhere and you suddenly find yourself at your destination with zero memory of the journey.

One thing that helped me was a simple strategy that calms down the crazy nervous system and helps you relax a little. Take. Deep. Breaths. I know this is obvious but when you are stressed, you forget to breathe and it becomes very shallow and from the chest. When you take rhythmic deep belly breaths it tells your stress system, everything is going to be ok.

Was it the best version of this I have ever done?

No.. but that’s ok.

Remember there is a difference between doing my best and performing my best.

Doing your best is about controlling what I can and preparing and being ready as best I can. My absolute best performance is then something that is subjective and can always be improved.

As this is not the objective, the main thing for me was to experience the thrill/fun/horror of a live performance.

Did I enjoy it?

Loved it.

To quote Eminem again, “You better lose yourself in the music the moment, you own it, you better never let it go.”

Interview with Celine

Andy Barge — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 13:25:30 +0000

Andy Barge: How did you get into music?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: My parents are both amateur musicians so playing music was the obvious thing to do. As my father is an amateur violinist, I started to play the violin at 3 years old. I did not have much interest in it but discovering Chopin 1st concerto for piano at age 4 lighted a passion for this instrument. I started straight away and I was delighted with my choice.

Andy Barge: What is the most common mistake that a beginner makes?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: Most beginners think that playing the piano proficiently is relatively easy. They see it as a task that could be completed fairly quickly. They get frustrated at the first set back. They either lose interest at the first difficulty or try and hide their shortcomings by using some tricks. They do not realise that mastering piano playing takes years and hours of practice.

The most frustrated students I have met were often very successful in their career as bankers, lawyers or insurance brokers. They could not accept to struggle with a task that they thought required much less intelligence.

When starting your piano education, you should expect to have to take lessons for years as piano playing is a journey and not a destination. Remember that it is complex and that the world’s best pianists were not born on the stage of the Carnegie Hall.

Andy Barge: What would you say to someone who thinks they are too old to start playing the piano?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: I would ask them some questions in return:

Why would you be too old? Why would it be too late to start a hobby? Is it ever too late to start playing golf or gardening? No, it isn’t so why would there be an age limit to start playing the piano? You are not aiming to become a concert pianist anyway so why would it ever be too late to start playing some exquisite simple pieces?

Andy Barge: When buying a first piano as a beginner – what should I go for?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: It depends on your budget, space and ability to make noise. There is no such thing as a piano for a beginner. I often hear beginners saying “I have bought a cheap keyboard as I am a beginner. I do not need a grand piano.” Actually, you do! We all need to play on the best instruments at any stage of our development as it makes the experience much more enjoyable. I do not know if you ski but if you do, did you go for the worse equipment on the basis that you are not a professional skier? I don’t believe so.

Andy Barge: What can I expect in my first lesson with the London Piano Institute?

You can expect to be welcomed by a brilliant pianist who has a passion for teaching adult amateur pianists. He/she will ask you some basic questions i.e why you have decided to start a piano course and how much time you can dedicate to personal practice to figure out which teaching method is most suitable for you. He/she will then teach you how to read a few music notes and rhythms for you to start playing your first tune straight away.

Andy Barge: What is the most important skill to learn as a new player?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: Learning how to read music. It is the most important skill to learn since it will allow you, in the future, to take any music sheet and sight-read a piece for pleasure without having to practise it first. It will also speed up your learning of any new piece of the repertoire. Not being fluent in music reading will result in you struggling and stumbling. Having to focus on decrypting the music sheet takes your mind away from the most important aspect of piano playing, which is making music.

Andy Barge: There are lots of videos on YouTube teaching piano, can you learn by doing this?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: No, it isn’t. It is possible to pick up some tips and ideas, but you cannot learn how to play the piano by watching videos on YouTube. Playing the piano is a complex art and science that requires the support and guidance of an expert and personal tutoring based on your faults and qualities. My advice would be to stay away from YouTube as listening to tutorial videos that are not necessarily appropriate or suitable might confuse you. Trust your piano teacher and follow his/her advice fully. Staying in a straight line is undoubtedly the most secure way to achieve your goals.

Andy Barge: What tips can you give to keep people motivated?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: Keep going and do not check your progress weekly. Checking too often is the best way to engineer disappointment. As I said earlier, it takes years to become a proficient pianist. We all have setbacks, and we all experience plateaux. My late master piano teacher Edson Elias always told us that it is during the periods of doubts and unsatisfaction that we make the most progress. It is very true! Keep your eyes on the price but focus on your progress in the short term and do not give up. When you think that it is not going anywhere, look back. You will surely realise that you are doing much better than you thought!

Andy Barge: How much should a beginner be practising a day?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: It depends on the amount of homework to be completed from a week to another and on the exact level you are at. If you have just started, 15 minutes is fine, but it should increase to 30 minutes quite quickly. If you study with a good piano teacher, you should expect to have to practise technical exercises, sight-reading and pieces of the repertoire daily.

Andy Barge: If someone says they don’t have time to practise – what do you advise?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: I would advise them to stop their piano lessons as they are wasting their time. When learning how to play the piano, attending lessons and practising in between are equally important. You should see your piano lessons as a moment for you to get feedback and learn further but it is not in the piano class that you are making progress. I often tell my pupils that I feel like a doctor giving a new prescription when I write the homework down. Think of it that way: You will get better by taking your pills daily and not by visiting your GP.

Andy Barge: What should I look for in a prospective piano teacher?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: Ensure that they have lots of experience in teaching adults, that they are qualified for doing so and that, most importantly, they have a passion for passing their knowledge on. They should also be very approachable as you want to feel free to ask all the questions you may have and make the most “silly” mistakes without ever feeling embarrassed.

Andy Barge: What do you enjoy about being a piano teacher?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: Seeing my pupils grow musically and develop a better understanding of the instrument. I always marvel when a student has learnt the notes of a new piece perfectly and it is time to add the music and interpretation onto it. We have the foundation or a canvas to work on if you prefer, and witnessing the improvement weeks after weeks is thrilling. I love sharing my love for piano playing and opening my students’ minds as beginners do not always understand what it is all about. They are satisfied when they play the notes correctly without realising that it is not what they should be after. Piano playing is about understanding the meaning of a piece and using both our technical and musical skills to express the wish of the composer. It is not about playing the right notes at the right time.

Sharing my experiences and seeing my students flourish is both immensely rewarding and enjoyable.

Andy Barge: Can I learn to play “by ear” and not have to learn how to read music?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: You can but it is not advised. I often compare music to a foreign language. Can you learn German by listening to conversations and try to repeat what you have heard? It can work for easy words such as Guten tag, Danke or Auf Wiedersen but it won’t take you very far. Understanding music theory and being able to read music are essential skills that you should neither skip nor ignore.

Andy Barge: Sometimes when I am playing, my mind wanders – how can I keep focus?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: It is a common issue among musicians. It happened to me countless times. If your mind wanders while practising, take a few-minute break as it might mean that you stayed too long at the piano. While performing, ensure that you are active at all times and that you are not playing in this passive manner. Thinking about something else while practising is a waste of your time. While playing for your teacher or an audience, it results in very poor performance.

Do you usually think about something else while talking to somebody? You don’t as your speech would be meaningless. It is the same with piano playing.

By controlling your sound and technical productions at all times, you should be able to remain active and prevent it to happen.

Andy Barge: I only have 15 minutes to practise today – what one thing should I do?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: It depends. You could use these 15 minutes as a maintaining session, an opportunity to solve a technical issue or improve your sight-reading.

Andy Barge: What kind of music do you like to play yourself?

Celine Gaurier-Joubert: I enjoy most composers from the 20th century as I am fascinated by the various sound effects and the freedom that accompanies their compositions.

Playing faster slowly

Andy Barge — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 14:07:20 +0000

I hate running. Whenever I do it, it never feels natural and when I run, I feel ungraceful and run like a cow- it can move quickly but it just doesn’t look coordinated. The only bit I like about running is the bit afterwards when I get to take a bath! But you know, running is something I always wished I was better at.

So enter a great book called, “80/20 running”. In it, the author explains that the majority of people who run are moving too fast. When we run at too high an intensity, the body does not have time to adapt to exercise and bad habits can form such as wrong gait, imbalance etc. The key point though, is that the runner does not feel they are going to fast and feels normal because they are used to it. The issue with running too swiftly is not that the performance goes backwards, it’s just that improvement is slower than it should be.

To combat this, you are encouraged to perform the majority of runs slower than feels comfortable. When a runner does this their performance accelerates. A smaller proportion of the training (20%) is then pushing your body harder to grow.

The first time I tried this it felt very uncomfortable going so slow, as though I might get overtaken by a pensioner and I had to stop myself speeding up a couple of times (no metronome for running). But you know what? I felt much more joyful and it was a more mindful and not a torturous run.

How does this fit with piano?- one of the issues with beginner and intermediate piano players is they play too fast too often. Just like with running, you feel you are playing at a comfortable speed but it is still too fast and potentially causing incorrect technique or sloppy playing. Slowing down allows time to learn the nuances of playing and to get a feel for the music. Also, it allows you to see and feel where the issues are with playing and hopefully eliminate any problems. For example, when slowing down whilst playing a piece I know well, I realised I was playing awkward fingering and transformed it into a more natural playing style.

This is where it is vital to have a teacher or guide to help you find this “80/20” mix in your playing. Too much intensity and you won’t enjoy it and will pick up bad habits and yet not enough in the right areas and you won’t develop. It’s about balance.

Anyway, back to running. I am never going to be the best runner in the world, but when I do it now, I enjoy it much more and I can run further than I have for years.

So the moral of the tale is, go slower to get faster!

Sight reading fitness

Andy Barge — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 10:00:52 +0000

Today I was reviewing my sight-reading ability with Celine, from S & C Music. Amongst her advice, she gave some sage guidance: “sight-reading is the most important educational skill to learn when it comes to playing the piano because it empowers you to understand and play music faster.”

Imagine preparing to read a speech in your native language. As you are comfortable with the words and grammar, you can remember the address’s content quickly, and you can then focus on quality delivery and how it sounds. You may even be able to read the speech once and remember the essence of what it’s about and be able to present immediately. Now, imagine attempting to perform the same speech, but you are doing it in Mandarin, or Greek. It would clearly be more challenging to learn, and because you are unfamiliar with the language, your focus would be on each seperate word. You can see that it would be much more challenging to prepare the speech in this scenario.

I experience this myself a few years ago when I moved to Italy to work in a resort spa. I did not know much of the language before I started, but I soon learnt how to speak Italian but ONLY related to the Spa and fitness area. Oh yes! I could give a perfect tour and instruction in Italian (albeit with a distinct British accent) in the gym and was very comfortable with this. However, when a guest asked me something I was not expecting, such as when asked about sanitary products, I lost the conversation flow. It wasn’t until I learnt the grammar and a more numerous vocabulary that I became comfortable in all conversations.

The point is that sight reading is like learning the language of music and is the gateway to playing a multitude of songs and styles- and this is what everyone loves to do!

So is sight-reading enjoyable?

Well, think of it like this. Sight-reading is like going to the gym. You may not enjoy the process of working out, but you do enjoy being slim with tight abdominals, right? There you go. Consider sight-reading as your piano “work-out” and fluent playing is you looking great on the beach!

Trying to be perfect

Andy Barge — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 10:22:37 +0000

I was watching a terrific movie the other day “Whiplash”. If you haven’t seen it its a great film about an ambitious jazz drummer and his intense abusive music teacher, Terence Fletcher, pushing him (uncomfortably) to the edge to be better. At one point he even throws a chair at his head when he misplays! At one point, Terence says “there are no two words more harmful in the English Language than ‘good job’. His point being that hearing this word stops you driving to improve.

Let me say straight away that I’m not advocating the idea of abuse or throwing blunt objects, but it did get me thinking about the concept of motivation and practice.

After lessons, I am more driven when Stefan (my teacher at S&C), has found some glitches in my repertoire, or an area of my chord knowledge that needs work. The lessons I enjoy the most are ones where I work hard and find issues- even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time! On the contrary, if a teacher were to say “OK, good, keep going and practice, ” this would imply that 1) I have no errors and 2) my previous practice was perfect. Not a great foundation for excellence!

Interestingly, during my first lessons, I would think “I need to put in my utmost best performance today”, but why was I thinking this? To prove what- that I have practised well? I have been diligent and done my homework? Part of this pressure is that we want to feel we have done well and let the teacher know we have done the work. But a good teacher knows when you have put the work in (or indeed when you haven’t) and we don’t need to add this pressure onto ourselves.

Which means you should think about your lessons in a different way- not as a performance but as an opportunity for growth. If you consider a top musician or athlete, the point of their coaching sessions is not to demonstrate how good they are, but where they can get better. That’s what you should be looking for too. “Show me how I can improve”. What did you do well, but what needs more work? As Stefan said to me the other day “I am teaching adults, they are here because they want to learn”. A great teacher will drive motivate you to do better and help you to improve.

Of course, you should always do your best, but doing your best is very different to achieving your best possible performance! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect; just enjoy the feedback. Oh, and good job!