Playing the piano is easy!

Let's put it this way: is it possible to spend the famous ten thousand hours on mastering the piano as an adult? My answer is only theoretically... After all, to do that you have to give up your job, your family and everything else.

To turn into a mad pianist and dedicate your life completely to the art. Believe me, even in this case you have no guarantee that you will reach the top of piano performance.

So what should I do? Don't practice piano at all? But other people play, right? So why can't I? Probably they practiced a lot in childhood, and I, a lazy person...). I can assure you that another subtlety plays a much more important role here: some people are confident and some are not so confident.

Everything has to be in moderation. I have heard many times from my students that music, and in particular playing the piano at certain moments, is a lifesaver! I know exactly what my students are talking about, because I have tried many times to work outside my specialty. Numbers, numbers and numbers..

And how nice it is to sit down at the piano and play at least a couple of chords! They become golden! Those minutes and those chords. And how instantly the worldview changes! But I propose to return to the title of the topic. How easy it is when you need at least 10,000 hours, etc.!

The genius of it all is simple. Everything is a comparison. Everything is relative. There are more aphorisms to choose from. And indeed, you don't have to devote your whole life to piano performance to play something brilliantly or well at all.

There are several types of piano technique, and even touring pianists do not always master all of them at once at a very high level. The pianist may simply be out of shape, that's all. He hasn't practiced for a few days, and the contact with the instrument is no longer the same!

Plasticity is instantly lost, any pianist will understand me now. Let's say that plasticity can be maintained with special exercises, I'll devote a separate topic to this. You can chant the text of a piece (notes), think about the musical form, nurture the final version of performing in yourself, i.e. you can do constant inner work on the music you play (also a separate topic), but ..

Contact with the instrument. A pianist's class is lost exponentially with the time he/she is not in contact with the instrument. I hope I'm making myself clear at this point.

So do we need to be complex? "Do I learn, do I not learn?" "Am I gonna get this note right or am I gonna get this note wrong?" "What will they think of me if I mess up?!" I'll answer this: let people who have studied piano all their conscious life and never learned anything, let them be complex. And such people are the majority among those who have already tried to teach you or your children something.

Playing the piano is easy, but at the very least, you have to treat it as easy. You learn it, you don't learn it, you play it. For yourself, first of all, for your soul... I'm not selfish, believe me, it's just the only way to play well. You sit down at the instrument and you get in touch with the beautiful.

Easy to say, I know, but it's worth striving for. No unnecessary thoughts! And then it'll all work out. Play only the music that you want to play, so that you are not told by a brilliant teacher, or someone, who is called in society a candidate of musical sciences, and who believes that if you do not pass specific works of certain composers (those that he, in his time, passed, and in which, respectively, well versed), you will never become a real musician. Let him count, or better let him write a doctoral thesis. We will develop with you and do it, first of all, in our own pleasure!

And how they love to talk about hand placement! I think every one of you has heard this famous phrase at least once in your life. What's the result? A child of 7-8 years old studies at a music school, but can't play anything...! Hands are like rakes, why? Not practicing enough. Whose fault is that? - The child. Didn't follow the music school program, didn't finish all the scales and etudes.

My eldest didn't play a single scale or etude, and yet, at the age of 6, he sits down at the instrument and plays. I practiced with him practically nothing. About the hands he said literally two words. "Natural hand placement," the auntie teacher will say, You're just lucky. "Well, well, well." - we'll say. Write your dissertations!

So should a pianist's hands not be practiced at all? Of course you should! But very carefully and unobtrusively, combining this process with learning in general. Self-confidence in playing the piano often plays a decisive role, much more than hand placement and everything else. There are thousands of different strokes and touches on the piano, one could even say that the number is infinite.

And if you dwell on that, you don't know how to touch the instrument at all! Tasks can and should be set, but you should keep it as simple as possible. And millions of pianistic strokes are made by hearing, and no other way. And then the instrument sounds, and then the hands start playing by themselves..

Playing the piano is easy, but first of all, you have to take it easy and be as confident as possible. There is no hand placement, complicated technique and other musical stereotypes. There is you, your feelings and your life, for which you have to manage a lot. But this requires you to forget the phrase "I can't do it".

Yours sincerely
Volodymyr Slakva, online piano teacher
You can also reach me on WhatsApp
Phone number: (+46) 0737820497
Email: slakva1983@gmail.com