The lack of expression in one’s playing
After all that hard work learning the notes, analysing rhythms and conquering the technique in a piano piece, sometimes a student’s performance can still fall flat. It’s not surprising that expressive playing is something that piano students struggle with, however, since us teachers often leave this part until the very end. Only when our students know the piece backwards and forwards do we talk about adding feeling to their piece.
Unfortunately, this means that our students are least practiced in the art of bringing music to life for an audience. To cure expression omission disorder, we need to bake the artistry into the learning process – not add it as a layer of icing at the end of the learning process.
Symptoms
Prescriptions
Pick a Painting
In lesson
Discuss with your student what the story, feeling or message behind her piece might be. Talk about it in terms of historical context, composer and structure, as appropriate to your student’s age and level.
Once you have come to an agreement on a backstory, discuss what type of image might describe this. Search online for a painting, photo or other visual representation of the backstory. This could be anything from a painting done during the composer’s time to graffiti art of a key word that represents the piece. Remember: it needs to be something your student understands and connects to the music – so let her do the choosing.
Print out the picture and two other random images. Place the pictures on the music stand, on top of the piano, or anywhere else that will be in your student’s eye-line while she is playing. Ask her to play again, this time as if trying to convey to a listener which of the images she has picked out for the piece. Tell her it should be clear to anyone listening which picture she has chosen without any words being used.
At home
Attach the image to your student’s piece with a paperclip and ask her to take a moment to look at it before she plays each day. Tell her that you will be repeating the same ‘Pick a Painting’ exercise at the next lesson and you want it to be even clearer to the imaginary listener which one she is describing.
Gesture Gist
In lesson
This exercise is best done before your student knows a piece very well, but it can be done at any point in the learning process. Pick out three or four performances of your student’s piece on YouTube/Vimeo, preferably by well-known pianists who have very different styles or approaches. If your student is playing a piece that is not recorded, you can use a piece she is not playing just as an example.
Play the videos on a device that your student can see while sitting at the piano. Ask her to imitate the general movements the pianist is making as the video plays. She shouldn’t play anything on the piano but instead ghost play or play “air piano”. Repeat this for each of the performers you have picked out.
At home
Assign your student practice of her piece in these three or four distinct styles. Even if her piece is different than the one she was imitating she can still replicate the style and apply it to her own piece.
If she already knows the piece quite well, challenge her to play the piece in two of the performers’ styles at the next lesson in a way that will enable you to guess which performers she is imitating. If she doesn't yet know the piece, she can play air piano instead with a recording of the piece. Separating the gestures from the notes in this way is often more beneficial, as it will allow her to focus purely on the large movements and see the bigger picture.
Related Diagnoses
Articulation Anaemia
Dynamic Deficiency
Fortissimo Fixation
Pianissimo Preoccupation
Wrist Lockdown