Myths About Professional Education in Special Music Institutions

Myth No. 1

Parents sending their child to professional education will have guarantees that the child will receive a quality, first-class education.

Disclosure

A guaranteed quality education is a rare occasion right now. The indicator of a teacher’s level is his class concert. If each one of his students plays technically competently, freely and musically, yet preserving his individuality in performance, then you may safely come to this teacher because there is a guarantee of quality education.

The more reputation a school has, the better quality professional education it offers.

A school reputation now unfortunately can’t be an indicator of education quality.
The only guideline here is the work results of a specific teacher.

Myth No. 3

It’s possible to learn professional, masterly piano playing only if one receives a college and conservatory education after spending 16-18 years on it.

The correct result of professional education is:
The 1st stage — free use of all musical means of expression.
The 2nd stage — expansion of your repertoire and successful performance on stage (competitions, tours, concerts).

Studying in professional schools only allows to acquire the 2nd stage. Contacts, connections, recommendations and diploma on hands — that’s all that an education in professional schools can offer you. But without passing the 1st stage competently, it’s almost impossible to acquire the 2nd stage. That’s why students of these institutions so often come for help to various tutors, attend master-classes and open lessons of other teachers.

Myth No. 4

A student will fill up his missing knowledge with tutors, at master-classes, or with professors giving private classes.

In reality, students are just compelled to visit tutors and attend master-classes in hope to fill up the missing knowledge and find answers to accumulated questions.

In reality, all tutors, professors and teachers combined will give only 5% of the necessary knowledge. Up to this day, there was no single tutor that could set a student on his legs completely within 2 or 3 months (or more) of tutoring. Tutors become life-long wheel-chairs. A lot of time and money is spent on tutors with minimal results.

Myth No. 5

A student who completes studies in professional schools learns all about the musical means of expression (MEMs).

1) A student who has studied for 16–18 years in professional schools may only count on getting familiar with some 8 MEMs (sound timbre, articulations, harmony, dynamics and balance, pedal, phrasing, form and meter) out of the 15 necessary MEMs.
2) “Knowledge”, “abilities” and “skills” must be given on each one of the MEMs. But in music schools only 10% of “knowledge” (0% of “abilities” and 0% of “skills”) is given about these eight MEMs.

Myths About Teachers

Myth No. 1

The more you pay your teacher, the more quality education you get.

Unfortunately, today teachers get big money not for a quality knowledge, but for their reputation which is created with connections and titles (“honored”, “professor”) instead of their effectiveness of teaching.

Myth No. 2

By offering free training, a teacher shows his high level and, therefore, makes himself some positive publicity.

Free = irresponsible. Most likely, this teacher isn’t sure about his abilities and doesn’t give any guarantee of a quality education.

Myth No. 3

Humiliating a student (i.e. when a student isn’t explained which method to use to correctly and effectively perform his idea, but at the same time a correct result is demanded, and at the same time he is blamed for his lack of knowledge) is necessary to gain a good result in training.

It just shows a full incompetence of this teacher. The result of such training will be an appearance of constraint and stiffness in student’s playing. The consequences for this student will be a low self-appraisal, a feeling of being good for nothing and uncertainty.

Myth No. 4

If a teacher treats his students with delicacy, the students will get a more quality and professional education.

Delicacy can’t replace the necessary knowledge about the musical means of expression. Delicacy during a lesson may smooth out the lack of knowledge of the musical means of expression. But when playing, the student will still feel dissatisfaction and uncertainty of expression.

Myth No. 5

Brilliance of one or two students is an indicator of their teacher’s high level.

This is just an indicator of brilliance of those students, but not an indicator of the teacher’s professionalism. The teacher’s professionalism isn’t measured by one or two students, but by his entire class. Also, the teacher’s brilliance isn’t measured by brilliance or fame of his teachers.

Myth No. 6

Parents-musicians are a guarantee of their child’s excellent professional education, no matter what the level of his teacher is.

As a rule, parents are a type of life-long, free tutor who has no necessary knowledge about MEMs.

Myths About Student Abilities

Myth No. 1

Failures in a student’s professional education (falling behind in technique, musicality and artistry) while having a great desire to learn are caused by the lack of talent.

These failures are caused by the lack of a competent teacher, and as a consequence, the lack of knowledge of the necessary MEMs that are needed to play masterly.

Myth No. 2

Failures in technique are caused by an insufficient playing of exercises, etudes, virtuosic pieces, small hands, short fingers and various psychological obstacles.

Quantity can’t substitute quality. If you use incorrect methods of sound production, you can’t master technique with quantity, but it’s possible to end up with “overplayed hands”. But quality may sometimes substitute quantity — with correct sound production, each played exercise or etude will give a 100% improvement of technique.

Myth No. 3

Technique (the dexterity of fingers) may only be developed before the age of 18–20 years.

There’s no such limit. The limit in technique is caused by an incorrect sound production. And because by the age of 18 when each student already develops his methods of sound production(often incorrect and ineffective), a feeling emerges that fingers won’t run, hands will get fatigued and tensioned, that the reaction won’t be as precise, and so playing in fast tempos will become “dirty” and various jumps won’t be played “cleanly”.

People sometimes say that hands “ossify” by the age of 18 and, therefore, fingers can’t run faster due to this age limit. This is nonsense because pianist doesn’t play with bones, but with ligaments and muscles which can always be developed correctly.

Myth No. 4

If one pianist plays technically better than another — it means that pianist is more gifted.

As a rule, it all depends on a teacher’s competence in the early stage of his student’s training. And that student who plays technically and musically better may be less gifted than the other who has problems with technique.

Myth No. 5

A student will solve all his problems by hours-long everyday studies.

In reality a student is forced to study many hours every day because he doesn’t know anything more effective to solve his problems and he can’t think of anything else to do. Sometimes, hours-long studies do some help, but then the student becomes dependent on them — he knows that if he doesn’t study for one day, he will fall back.

With correct, smart and conscious studies, everything has to be the other way around — it’s possible to study at least one hour every other day. It takes 2 weeks (not 2 months) to learn a mid-level piece with such studies.

Myth No. 6

Natural technique and musicality.

Musicality and technique are developed with a guarantee due to mastering all MEMs.

Myth No. 7

A student won’t be able to catch up with his classmates if he is 20 years old and behind his classmates.

All backlogs in performance are caused by the lack of knowledge of MEMs. If all knowledge, abilities and skills are correctly given to a student, he’ll in one year catch up and surpass his classmates, whatever his age is.

Myth No. 8

Relaxation exercises are a key to free sound production.

A feeling of relaxed hands that is produced by relaxation exercises is in no way connected with a feeling of freedom in hands which is the right feeling that is produced by the correct sound production when muscles feel where they need to exert and relax as in inhaling and exhaling.

Yes, relaxation exercises give a sense of weight, but as long as students don’t learn to control this weight within the correct sound production, hands will again begin to constrain while playing the more difficult and virtuosic pieces. Relaxation exercises relax hands, but this isn’t enough for a free piano technique.

Myth No. 9

Existence of various equally effective training “schools” or effective methods of sound production.

All what’s considered to be various “schools” are simply so called traditions — a superficial imitation of traditional playing of various musical pieces. But in principle, there can’t be various effective “schools” because there’s only one effective method of sound production. More to it, none of the “schools” teach the musical means of expression in full measure. None of the “schools” have a successive training system which would lead to guaranteed positive results. It’s possible that there was an effective and systemic training system in the beginning of the last century, but today all these “schools” are lost — chaos, lack of system, irresponsibility and incompetence rule in piano education today, and all teachers’ shortages are blamed on students’ lack of talent.

Today, such notions as “the Russian piano school” or “the European piano school” are just a brand name for those people who are nobodies themselves, but cling to the big names of their teachers in their third or forth generation.