The Teachers' Round Table

"I wish to become a concert pianist, 1)but cannot afford to give lip my position as typewriter while studying. I have studied two years, am a good sight reader, and fifteen years old. Will it be necessary for me to go to a conservatory? Kindly send me a list of the conservatories in New York and their rates." P. M.

The standard of concert playing has become so great, and there arc so many in the field with brilliant virtuoso technique, that it is difficult to advise one to take up study with this in view unless prepared to undertake all the necessary time and work. Moszkowski says that for a talented student to become a virtuoso pianist and musician, and to-day musicianship is a sine qua non, requires that he should devote his entire time, for at least fifteen years, to study and practice.

There arc many ideas, however, as to what constitutes a concert pianist. Many who aspire to concert work, do not expect to attain so great a height as that indicated in the foregoing paragraph. Very recently a young lady came to see me with the same question, and after some conversation I found that her sole idea in becoming a "concert pianist" was to obtain a position to play in one of the moving picture theatres. Manifestly the demands upon virtuoso technique would not be very great in such a place.

In the real sense of the word very few concert pianists earn a livelihood by their public work. There is little demand for concert playing. Only such distinguished names as Hoffmann, Bauer, etc., can command large audiences at remunerative prices. Aside from this, however, there arc some who become accompanists, and attach themselves to a concert company or solo artist, playing one or two numbers on the program in a satisfactory if not a virtuoso manner. But even for this one must become a good player and "get in" with those who are managing concert enterprises, or have influential recommendation, for the number applying for such work is very great.

If your hours as a typewriter are long I do not see how you can have the physical strength to do the necessary amount of study after hours. You might, however, after becoming sufficiently proficient, take enough pupils to pay your living expenses, having thereby more time to prosecute your studies. For obvious reasons it will be impossible to accede to your last request. The editorial and the advertising departments of THE ETUDE are wholly separate.

A TEACHER'S EXPERIENCE

In the Teachers' Round Table in the last issue I notice that you ask for experiences of other teachers on the question of the pupil with frail fingers. I offer my recent experience with a pupil in my class.

A little girl of nine years, in beginning had unusually frail fingers. She could make but little tone on a new piano of easy and elastic action. I did not tell her that her hand was weak. but began immediately on Mason's Technics, as is my usual custom, having been a pupil of his. I also gave her one or two scales and studies, all in duct form, for greater confidence. After about ten lessons, when she understood how to play Mason's Two Finger Exercises with all the fingers in the first form only, I told her she was to play in my next recital to be held in a large school hall, on a piano with a heavy action. She then gradually used a heavier touch, until after eighteen lessons she played with clear even tone and good expression on an old fashioned Steinway concert grand piano. I did not force her muscular effort so much as I tried to incite her to give proper expression, especially to make the climaxes. I hope this note will be as helpful to some one as THE ETUDE has been to me. I especially value the beginner's piano pieces.—A READER.

FINGER CONDITIONS

"1. What can I do for my right fourth finger which has a tendency to collapse when playing down an arpeggio? 2. I low can I develop power In single running passages? 3. How can I keep from stiffening my wrist and tiring my whole body in playing rapid octaves, such as those in Liszt's Sixth Rhapsody f" S. E.

1. In the endeavor to pass the fourth finger over in descending octaves, there is a tendency to straighten it, from which it does not recover in time to take the key properly. In ascending the thumb passes under and the tendency does not seem to exist. In a recent number of the Round Table you will find an exercise for strengthening the various fingers. Use this industriously on the fourth finger, and study passing it over in a curved position, and I think you will gradually overcome the difficulty.

2. By developing and strengthening the hand and fingers generally. It is a mistake, however, to try to make all the notes loud in rapidly running passage work. Brilliancy of effect is better produced by strong accents, making the accents louder as it is desired to crescendo. Play a rapid running passage softly, repeating a number of times softly except the accents on the first note of each group. Notice the brilliancy of the fortissimo effect that will result from this. In order to have this power in full command, one should practice the accentual treatment of the scales from the beginning.

3. By learning to play the- octaves from a free wrist. If you will make a thorough study of the first and fourth books of the Mason Touch and Technic, you will get a better idea of it than I can give you in the limited space at command here. Facility in such work requires months of practice.

SLOW PROGRESS

Have studied more or less for ten years, taking lessons from four teachers, but am now making no progress. I cannot play fourth grade pieces without many mistakes. I had hoped to become a teacher, but how can I show others if I cannot play myself?—C. A. J.

There are many people of decided musical gifts, who, for some almost inexplicable reason, are unable to direct their finger muscles on the piano keyboard. I have known people of decided musical appreciation and discrimination to work heroically at piano practice, and yet accomplish nothing that was commensurate with the labor expended, nor learn to play well enough to please themselves or their friends. I have known singers of marked temperamental and interpretative ability who have been unable to master the keyboard sufficiently to even play chords as an accompaniment to vocal exercises.

The cause doubtless lies deep in the nerve centers, and their action in transmitting directions from the brain to the finger muscles. A physical incapacity of this kind can be dealt with only with great difficulty, and there are doubtless many with whom management of the keyboard is an absolute impossibility. Some physiologists maintain that such conditions may be overcome if undertaken early enough, and with direct, continuous and energetic concentration upon the end to be attained. Unfortunately, such direction needs to be begun during infantile years, and there are but few parents who have the intelligence and knowledge to correctly direct such training. Neither is the deficiency often discovered until far too late to be able to accomplish the desired result.

It is impossible to pronounce with certainty on a case like yours without personal knowledge. As to whether you have sufficient theoretical understanding to teach in the earlier grades, you will have to appeal to your present teacher, who you say is the best in a comparatively large city. If he is a responsible person he will give you an honest opinion.

FINGER ACTION

"Is it advisable to have beginners raise the fingers, or leave them relaxed on keyboard and push down without raising? Do you advise the pressure rather than hammer touch?"—J. E.

Swiftness of finger action in all velocity passages depends upon a facile movement from the joints. In order to acquire this action a supple up and down movement should be acquired. If the pressure touch is attempted before this supple action is learned, pupils will invariably push from the hand and acquire a clumsiness of action which they will never be able to overcome. Extreme rapidity is never possible if there is any pushing from back in the hand. In modern piano playing every sort of action is necessary, depending upon the desired effect to be obtained in any given passage. Meanwhile, a flexible action should be the first aim, to be followed later by the pressure touch.

ETUDES AND SPEED

"I have a pupil of fifteen who has been studying Czerny Op. 209, and Heller Op. 47 together. She will finish the Heller much sooner than Czerny. She has not yet had any Bach. Could I use with her anything from Bach, rather than take up Heller Op. 4(1? Do you think it advisable for students to work etudes up to speed Indicated by metronome, which Is much faster than the average student can compass ?"

Pupils ought not to omit the study of the best out of Heller's Opera 46 and 45, for they awaken the imaginative side of his musical nature. In order to accomplish this, however, they should be learned at the proper prescribed tempos, or they do not have the musical meaning intended by the composer. Some of them may require more in the way of velocity than the pupil is equal to. In this case these particular ones should be omitted until the pupil has acquired more speed. With etudes of the Heller class the assumption is, to begin with, that the student can work them up to speed without excessive labor. If this is required, they are in advance of his ability. They are aesthetically beautiful, but mean nothing unless correctly interpreted, which means also correct speed. They are not arranged in progressive order, but the teacher should select those that the pupil is ready for, omitting those which are too difficult, and a few that are uninteresting forever. There is too much music that is beautiful and inspirational in character for any student to waste time on the dull moments of any composer, and like Jupiter, every composer nods at times. The necessity of selection is becoming moreand more urgent as the amount of modern and beautiful pieces increases.

I should use the best of the Heller, and intermingle with them a judicious number of things by Bach. The Bach idiom is caviare to most students at first, so it is better not to keep him too steadily at them, but let him develop his taste for them gradually. Begin with the First Study of Bach. These are very simple, but the pupil should realize that he can only feel their beauty when he can play them with the utmost freedom and ease of movement. As long as he has to struggle through them they will be uninteresting. Therefore. he should work at each one until it flows freely from his fingers. In the fourth grade the Little Preludes may be undertaken, and in the fifth grade the Lighter Compositions.

The problem of speed is a difficult one with many players. Some of them are physically or mentally incapacitated from making the motions that produce speed. I have known many who could interpret pieces of a nocturne-like character very well, but who could never compass a presto. Such players have to be treated accordingly, and due account taken of their limitations. Speed can never be developed unless the fingers work with absolute freedom in their sockets, and there is no stiffening of the hands or arms back of them. Teachers should watch with the utmost care that pupils do not play beyond the point where they begin to help push with the muscles of the hand. There is no better method of endeavoring to acquire extreme speed than that described by Mason in his Touch and Technic. It is also a good plan to select a couple of the Czerny etudes, one for the right, and one for the left hand, and keep reviewing them for weeks or months, simply for freedom and speed. You will be surprised at how the hand will often ease up under such treatment, .that is, presupposing that the student has' learned to make correct motions. The metronome markings for the Czerny etudes is faster than pupils can possibly play them in the grade for which they are usually listed. Mr. Liebling has indicated a slower tempo in his valuable selection of the more important Czerny etudes. Furthermore, students are too often given Opus 299 before they are ready for it. It should not be attempted before the scales can be played in regular daily practice as fast as the metronome markings for the etudes, which may be somewhat lower than that found in any edition except the Liebling, unless there may be an edited edition that I have not seen, which makes the necessary corrections. It was much easier to play swiftly on the shallow and easy action of the piano of Czerny's day. Meanwhile, do not forget that there are some pupils who can learn these studies at a comparatively slow speed who never can play rapidly, as I before remarked. They should be handled very differently from those who have the capacity to develop great speed. Nothing will be gained by allowing them to stiffen their muscles in order to try and play rapidly. The teacher needs to exercise great intelligence in order to discern in which class a student belongs. Furthermore, if any teacher has many pupils who seem to belong to the class who cannot develop speed, let him investigate his own work and knowledge, and discover if he understands how to train students to understand and make the right motions. Thousands of pupils are wondering why they cannot master the rapid places. who have simply never learned how to make their fingers move freely in their sockets, without feeling a supplementary strain in the muscles of the hand. Every teacher needs to examine his own work rigorously.

COLLECTIONS

"I would like to' give pupils who have finished the second volume of Kohler's Practical Method something good to play. but hesitate about using the Clementi Sonatinas ns there are several in the method. Are there any collections with a little variety that I could use? Which sonatas should follow Kuhlau? B. L.

eachers who live in places remote from musical opportunities, and where people have heard little or no music outside of the elementary efforts made among themselves, should be very cautious in trying to advance the taste of their students too rapidly. Musical taste is the result of long continued hearing of good things, with the possible exception of those whom we call unusually talented. Unless such students are unusually talented, and have two hours and upwards for practice, I should not recommend giving complete sonatinas. Single movements will hold their interest as long as it is possible at a time, and the most melodious movements should be selected. Intersperse thesemovements with those of more modern composers. There are now many collections which are invaluable for teachers whose pupils have but a limited amount of money to spend on their music. Easy Sonatina Album for the Piano; First Parlor Pieces; First Recital Pieces; Modern Sonatinas; Standard Compositions for the Piano. Two volumes, first and second grade. Any or all of these will assist you greatly. The easier sonatas of Haydn and Mozart may follow the Kuhlau and Clementi Sonatinas.

THREE QUERIES

"1. My fingers are very long. and I have trouble with my third finger as it will not keep a curved position. How can this be overcome? 2. How far ought I to have advanced in five years ?3. Will you please tell me what Op. means? For example, Op. 39. My teacher told me it meant the piece should be practiced with the metronome at 39." G. C.

1. Practice five finger exercises for a time with the curved position much exaggerated, even practicing some with it curved under so far that you strike on the flat side of the nail. When you have it a little under control, practice your scales and arpeggios very slowly with close attention to position of fingers. This will probably require weeks of close study on your part.

2. This depends entirely on the amount of talent you possess and the number of hours a day you can devote to practice. With average talent you should be able to play with facility in the sixth grade.

3. Op. is an abbreviation for opus, and is a word taken from the Latin, meaning work. or composition. In the case you mention it means the thirty-ninth composition written by that composer. "My first productions were not one whit better than those of 'everybody else—and with commonplace works one had better not venture very far from home."—G. E. LESSING.