Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Beethoven vs. Chopin.

When you've clocked up your 1000th post in a month maybe? won't be long now, will it -
I have sympathy for newcomers too, but I also think there's nothing wrong with encouraging people to do some thinking for themselves. And no harm in pointing out that for some of these questions there just aren't any answers that are worth the time to write.

....and the amazing thing is I'm still looking for my first good post.

But then why not just ignore those posts? Stay away from them and say nothing, if that's how you feel? And maybe there are others who will feel otherwise.

I mean, I did feel otherwise. I gave answers to all his questions, and I thought they were worth the time to write.
I enjoyed writing those answers.

And I think those answers were excellent, if I do say so myself

Of course. And I do. I ignore many, many posts, otherwise I'd have a much higher post count than I do for the time I've been here . However, as I said, I still think it's worth pointing out to a poster that some questions cannot be answered meaningfully (even by BruceD )

Why? I have no idea why you think my response should have been repressed. It wasn't gratuitous - I really do think that what I said is true, and I think there is no fault in letting the OP know that some people think that way.

My coach/teacher who is a Professor at the Wollongong Conservatorium, name Slobodan Zivkovic told me "the trouble with my pupils with perfect pitch is they learn the notes too easily. I have to be very careful with their preparation."

It's not necessarily impatience; it's sometimes a case of mild disbelief or just bewilderment. It's hard to understand why a student who is playing such works as the Chopin Fourth Ballade and the Beethoven "Waldstein," and who already has an opinion from his teacher on the question, would ask an internet forum to opine for him which of two pieces is the more difficult. Someone playing at that level surely has enough musical experience and knowledge to judge a work's difficulty by reading through it. He already knows, one might presume, that various difficulties, both musical and technical, offer different challenges to different pianists.

Therefore, the question posed seems like a very peculiar one with which to "start a conversation." A more engaging way to "start a conversation" - particularly from someone whose claims suggest pretty advanced pianism - might be to raise some particular technical or interpretive challenges for discussion or opinion.

And since you are bringing some of us to task for the way we respond to forum posts, I would hope that you would realize that, as individuals, we all have our own ways - whether you approve of them or not - of responding on internet forums (fora?).

Regards,

WHY?

This was a new member. Would you rather he/she hadn't joined, or hadn't begun posting? That kind of reply is sort of like scaring the person away. Why would you want to do that, on a post which at worst is a little insipid but might be (and was) of some interest to some other people?

Sorry, but I think it's tantamount to saying "You stink" to a beginning student.....

Good answer -- but I have a good answer to your good answer.

First of all, as I mentioned in a much earlier post, it's entirely plausible (although I agree not common) that someone who plays those pieces would legitimately have that question. I gave the example of myself, back in the day, when the first major piece I worked on was Chopin's F# minor Polonaise and I didn't have much idea how it compared to other pieces. (I didn't realize for decades that it's considered a very hard piece.)

But the main thing here is that I think you and others are being a bit too concrete about the reasons that people say or ask certain things. As I said in another above post, even if someone does know an answer or could figure it out himself, he might ask the question "to make conversation," to start making contact, to get a ball rolling between himself and others. You mean you yourself never do that? If you don't, you're unusual. It's a content of the social graces of our society. And I would think that on an internet site it's not uncommon for a new member. As long as they're not saying anything objectionable -- and this person certainly wasn't -- I think they should be welcomed, not slammed down. And this was a slam down.



Of course y'all have your ways of posting and replying, and I don't pretend to think it matters if I "approve" or not. But I hope that what I'm saying might have an effect on how people view these things. I'm not sure that some of the people here realized that they were sort telling this new member to take his ball and go home.

P.S. I don't know if it's forums or fora either.

I don't understand why the same select group of people say the exact same thing in each one of these threads (if you can play these pieces, then you should know). First of all, many people are curious about what other people think. Second, it is hard to tell what is more difficult at speed when you can only play through both pieces very slowly. I am learning Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto, which is obviously a hard work; however, when I was deciding which concerto to learn, I requested for people that had already played these pieces to give me their opinion, and this helped me in my decision. It is annoying and unhelpful to tell the people to decide on their own if they ask a question.

Thanks.
I was afraid I'd be a minority of one on here.

I knew that I couldn't be the sole believer in what I was saying, but who knew if anyone else would happen to join in.

And I think we can be pretty sure our new member Tsunami appreciates it too.

That doesn't logically translate to "those who commit to memory easily have perfect pitch". It may translate to "those who have perfect pitch are often good memorisers"...

It's been suggested on previous occasions that people may post apparently sincere yet actually frivolous questions about advanced repertoire as an oblique way of boasting without appearing to do so and as a covert way of fishing for compliments.

"I began playing last year and I've just started learning Mazeppa. Do you think I'm making normal progress?"

"I'm learning Rach 3 but I don't know what fingering to use on the first page. Can somebody help me?"

Sometimes these inquiries are made in naïveté, and sometimes they're transparently calculated to impress. In any case, I've seen answers to such questions that were far more brusque and dismissive than anything in this thread.

Steven

Yes -- and in fact it doesn't even approximately translate into that.

Yes indeed.
If someone does that habitually, or even I suppose just more than once it's obnoxious.

Otherwise, and especially IMO if it's from a new member, that's different.

The reason I said anything about it on this thread was that it was about a new member, and a young one to boot. It would seem to me that we want to encourage such people to come here and be here, not slam them down.

This person seems perfectly capable of dealing with the responses he got; it is rather condescending to think he isn't. When I respond to a post, I don't especially pay attention to writer's age unless they make of point of it; this person didn't, that I noticed. But now that you have brought it up as an issue, I checked his profile and see he is a high school senior. And is into rap, metal, and hip hop. All of which lead me to think he doesn't particularly need to be treated with kid gloves.

My post, in the context of the whole thread, was simply reinforcing a message several others had already given. And I still think it is a perfectly legitimate response to the question. Feel free to disagree, but you aren't going to change my mind (nor my online persona).

wow you all need to stop being so elitist and arrogant. He asked a simple question... He could care less what your all's opinion is on the fact that he is asking this question. If you don't have an answer, don't post... Simple as that

And calling people with a genuine opinion "elitist and arrogant" helps how?

wr only defended his opinion because it was criticised. Why don't we all accept that each other's opinions, as opinions, are valid. Novel, eh?

If you think that I and others are being elitist and arrogant, that would seem to be a problem on your part, since we aren't. And, speaking of arrogance - you aren't in a position to say whether he does or does not care about opinions about his question. I hope he does care, and as a result, tries to frame such questions with a little more thought in the future. And finally, when people say that a question should really be answered by the person asking it, or is otherwise unanswerable, it is an answer to the question. Whether you like that answer is a whole different issue.

No, the "correct" answer would to give your opinion on the issue that is in question, rather than tell him whether or not he should be able to ask it. It IS arrogant to say that he should care and "try to frame such questions with more thought", as this is a public forum, and not only was there nothing wrong with the question that he asked, but you are also telling him what he should and shouldn't be able to ask

As with the earlier thing of "why would someone ask questions like that," I think you're taking what I said too concretely.

It's not just about "him," it's about how it might affect others who are thinking of joining and posting, and it's about the basic atmosphere of the site toward newcomers, younger people, and those who maybe don't know as much as you do or don't have exactly the same kinds of social approaches.