If you've ever had a chance to hear Benjamin Zander speak, or read his book, you know he's a great proponent of "one buttock playing" - here's an excerpt from a video I saw about him on ARTS:

Bejnamin Zander preview

The man is one of my biggest role models in how I work as a coach AND as a musician. I do both activities on one buttock.


----------

Now the question is... is that "necessary" to get a good sound out of a piano piece? I don't mean using the hand work of Liberace or Howard Goodman, which is pure showmanship, but ... can one get the SAME sound out of the piece but just sitting there playing it, as by traipsing the bench on one cheek?

I've started noticing HOW people play in addition to what they play and what it sounds like, and here's the example that brought the question to mind:

Claire de Lune

This is a reasonable facsimilie of the notes on the page, but to me, even without watching the video but just listening to it, it sounds like "notes on a page."

So the question for the room is: do you think that a change in the player's "body technique" would improve the sound of the piece?

(Well, that and voicing his piano down a bit!)

LOL...if it's worth doing it's worth using both cheeks!!

But really, is this serious, or just the obvious euphemism--I could watch the video here at work, but wouldn't be able to hear it. I'll have to check it out when I get home.

edit: Ah the joys of the internet! I see that he is indeed serious, and doesn't mean "half-a**ed"!!

I think that if 'movement' comes from conveying the appropriate emotion, fine. I don't think you should have to "try"...

In my opinion, this is a result of the
abandonment of fundamentals. In the
18th and 19th centuries students were
taught to play with a coin on the back
of each hand. They played with the score
and with their eyes on the score not on
the hands. This is in effect all that's
needed for the proper development of
technique: you play from the fingers
primarily and don't look at your hands
when using the score.

Then Liszt, who was taught in the above
manner, started playing without the
score and showboating, with wild
arm and body movements. And then people,
employing the most slipshop kind of
logic, started to believe that showboating
was the proper way to play the piano,
and that everybody--even those without
Liszt's unique talent--should play with
the whole body and without the score.
Thus, today you have the situation where
everyone is taught to memorize what they
play and to use the whole body when playing.
And the results speak for themselves:
90+% of all students stalling for life
at the advanced-intermediate level;
students unable to read, since they
fall into the trap of relying on memory
to play; countless systems of whole-body
playing--all fundamentally wrong--
and several new ones devised every yr.,
plus, myriad therapeutic systems to
"correct" the damage done by the many
whole-body systems.

Now we've got the latest flavor of the
month: one-butt playing.

Gyro, that was a really half-@ssed response. :p

Cheers,

DF

Piano*Dad, now THAT was a good pun.

Yes, the buns will start flying thick and fast now!


Sophia

I dream of someday stalling at the advanced-intermediate level ... maybe by the time I'm 90.

Yeah Gyro, there's such a huge shortage of top notch concert pianists, and we all owe it to Liszt. Do you even research any of this stuff before you post? Do you ever make a post where you aren't way off base?

Just go on youtube and watch "Imagine...being a concert pianist." Music conservatories have more than enough students that are well beyond the intermediate-advanced level.

Look at Lang Lang or Kissin. Both of these guys have very large movements in their playing, and you're gonna tell me that their "showboating" is damaging their performances? Give me a break.

I don't think it's so much showboating as it is to adding some interpretation to the music on the page.

OR... should every pianist play the same piece EXACTLY as written on the page, with no variations?

Because if that's the case, then why train any new pianists at all? Just record the ones we have and keep passing, down (as they call it in "Galaxy Quest") the Historical Record???

I do not think it is necessary to get cheeky to get a good tone.

I think there is some confusion about "using the whole body". Just because a pianist moves around while playing does not necessarily indicate that he is using his whole body to play. It could be he is moving his body around to compensate for a lack of good use in part of his body.

Flip side of the coin: Just because a pianist is centered and playing with little superfluous motion does not necessarily mean he is not using his whole body.

The types of movement necessary for piano playing are sometimes deep and subtle. To use one's whole body--IMO--means being aware of the kinesthetic senses throughout your body, being firmly planted on your sit bones, supporting your torso through your core and having a good degree of freedom in all the muscles of the torso.

As to playing with a coin on your hand... I'd really like to see anyone play any of Chopin's Etudes like that! Impossible and unhealthy.