Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Can stupid people play the piano??

Have you ever met a proficient classical piano player who is stupid??.

Have you ever heard a jazz/improvisor who is not extremely creative??

Have you ever heard of an accomplished "play by ear" pianist who is not an astute "thinker"??

I guess what I'm trying to say is that being a proficient piano player is kind of an "I.Q" test of sorts!; no matter what type of music you like to play, if you are good at it, I just don't think you can be a dummy!!.

The differences between music styles can have profound similarities, yet be so different in how the musician ends up with the finished song.

For example, I simply cannot play classical music!. I just can't abide by all the structured rules set forth in that type of music.

(pp, mp, ff FF), timing, lots-o-sharps, flats, signature changes, pedaling rules....on and on. Okay, so I'm a moron!! , But at least I have the ability to "switch" over to the creative side of my brain in where I can excell.

I do find it very interesting that some very accomplished classical pianists (which I have great respect for), cannot improvise or "play by ear" to save their lives!

Then again, you have people like me who are horrible sightreaders, don't follow any rules, don't really even know how to properly read music, but have some way of improvising songs that they can barely read in the first place!!

In either event, to me, it seems that you have the very studious (brainy) type of people who really accel at a structured form of piano playing..(classical), and then you have the other type of people who seem to do much better when creativity is involved and the rules (structure) is left up to the performer rather than writen in the score.

Just as a side note, I am the type of person who simply will not read a set of instructions. No, I am not trying to beat the system, or do it my way, its just that after 10 pages of safety instructions and the beating around the bush way to get the task accomplished to satisfy the lawyers, I'd just rather figure it out on my own.

Maybe I lack discipline and "structure"!, or maybe, I'm just more creative and am seeking a better way to do something. In either event, what ever means by which you play the piano (or any instrument for that matter), just the fact that you CAN perform it well is a testament to your intelligence (at least at some level, in my opinion), for I think that truly "stupid" people (low I.Q), are neither "structured", or "creative", and therfore most likely cannot play anything!

So, consider yourselves very smart....in one way or another!

Was just thinkin of ya SH...and wonderin how your doin?? hangin in there?? hows that M&H? recorded anything?? too many questions?? lol here's to ya...miss ya around here

Les

That post was much too difficult for me to understand, what with me being a classical player an' all...

:-)

Being serious, I think musicality is an innate sense and although it may correlate to high intellect (musicians certainly like to think so), it may also have a lot to do with opportunity and exposure.

I also think that playing by ear can be learnt. Some learn it as a means of avoiding the hard work of becoming a proficient sight reader. Others becuase they just fancy it.

In my case I am not great at playing piano by ear. I can do it, but I am classically trained and I find it quicker to just get a score and play that.

However, on guitar I play almost everything by ear, even very complex work. I just made a choice to do that, even though I can obviously read music.

In the same way, I expect you could learn to play classical pieces from a score if you really wanted to.

A

you dont need to be smart to be creative.....that being said i think my kids were creative at the age of 1, they drew pictures, etc. they werent brilliant but they were creative. i also dont think you have to be smart to play piano. they just need to understand the notes etc. even stupid people can learn that over time. it doesnt take a rocket scientist to play the piano just someone with some extra time, and will to learn....... my 3 year old just started lessons and he is doing great. not saying my son is not smart, but he is 3 and cant read yet, but yet he is understanding the piano.....

Hi
There are plenty of people who do both and do them very well so I don't think they are mutually exclusive (playing classical "structured" music from the printed page versus "creatively" improvising). There are people who excel at one and not the other, and then lots of other very smart people who aren't good at either-- but have other talents. So there are at least four categories!

You know the old saying: "There are two kinds of people in the world- those who think there are two kinds of people and those that don't"

Hmmm; ok, how's this then?

1.)Structured only (say classical for example)
2.)Structured/creative (classical/jazz/improv,by ear,etc), basically everything
3.)Creative only (i.e non-structured jazz/improve/by ear)
4.)other??

Hi Hunky how ya doing?

I'm stupid and lazy most of the time (just ask Mrs Seaside ) ...so yeah, I reckon its possible


Lee

Creativity is its own kind of intelligence.

Anyone can play the piano. It is a question if they can play well.

Frycek is right; most of the recent trendy theories of intelligence emphasize "multiple intelligences," of which artistic ability and/or creativity is just as important a component as verbal intelligence. It's just that we as a society have traditionally valued verbal intelligence more, and our IQ tests and SATs etc. focus on it (and quantitative ability) and neglect entirely the more creative aspect.

No

Well,, , , , maybe.

Yes????

Um, , , what was the question?

Sorry,
Is there a smiley that has had to much wine?

Mike

Yes, it's me....

Not any more.

Brilliant!

Take what you are good at and declare that to be the standard.

I guess maybe that in itself is the definition of high intelligence.

It's Not Having What You Want, It's Wanting What You've Got. (Sheryl Crow)

"Take what you are good at and declare that to be the standard."

Ok, that was clever!, I mean really clever

I saw a television show a few months back on a young man who was so mentally impared he couldn't dress himself. Experts evaluated his basic cognitive skills at the level of a 5 year old.

However, after hearing a piece of music (piano or otherwise) played once he could play it perfectly on the piano first time, and could improvise and styalise to an extrodinarily high standard....

did anyone else see this? I think it was an Australian program, so probably not!

Yeah I was just about to mention that. You beat me to it