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On my downward spiral to deconstruct my playing and become a piano player i have now purchased the ten week course of finger excercises. Google piano yoga and youll get to the website. The creator is a female russian pianist coming from good stock.... her greatgrandmother was horrowitz's sister.. i have been taking my playing apart now for about a month. Full of frustration, and quite a lot of sadness but i know it'll come good in the end... anyone seen her site before? Anyhoo... merry xmas all... chin up, enjoy the festive period and lets make 2013 a wonderful year for piano pleasure.

My gawd! Thats where I must have been going so very wrong, as I learned the piano from a man whos stock was (lets just say)at best dubious.

Although ( to be fair) he did introduce me to fourteen friends (during visiting hours) in the psychiatric ward who were all distantly related to Napolean Bonaparte.

I prefered his third best mate "David" whos ancestry could reliably be traced back to an illegitimate offspring of Lord Ernest shackleton (pre polar expedition).

This of course made him more "important" than folk deemed to be of lesser stock, like say Kate middleton is.

UK Paul UK
I hope you like your course. Let us know how it works out for you!

Unfortunately, I have no history. I was left on the front steps of a hospital and put up for adoption as a baby.

The only yoga experience I have had was when I was about 21. I signed up for a yoga course and the instuctor said we had to put our hands in the other person's mouth during some kind of positon we were to take. The woman was probably in her 40s who had to put her hand in my mouth and I never got over that. That was it for me for yoga.

As far as playing the piano, there is no greater joy that can be expressed in words of simply playing the tunes/pieces you have learned and learned well. Whether playing them in the dark or playing them in the light, the whole body has to be relaxed as you experience the music created by the piano player, you.

There you go then rostosky... you missed your calling due to dubious bloodlines in your teaching influences.... theres no excuse for your good sense of humour though;-) and leave my kate alone.... ive done plumbing work for her parents.... though Will beat me to sorting out kates plumbing.. shes proper posh now, were not aloud to bring up her sordid past in buckleberry.... which is basically thatcham.... which is rather similar to mordor. .

"Unfortunately?" Yet you landed on your feet ( albeit to tightly for the undersize romper suit) at the doors of a hospital.

I was less fortunate, my mum aborted me at 29 weeks and put me in a plastic bag in the skip.

Unfortunately at that time, there lurked a crowd of "freegans" (like vegans except they get their food from skips hence the "free" part of "freegans")

Anyways, thinking I was 12lbs of good stewing steak hiding in a non recyclable carrier bag in the skip, they fished me out and took me home to their squat.

Imagine the anger they exhibited towards me when they realised I was not the free meal they had hoped for.

They made do with a nut roast out of a packet and left me to my own devices.

Obviously, crawling about in a squat full of hippies floor all i found to eat was the obvious dope, lsd, speed and downers that had been lost for ages, and carpet fluff mixed with hippie toejam.

I had to slowly gather a plectrum ( the other thing found on hippies floors) collection to sell on ebay in the future when ebay got itself invented.

Later in life I too joined a yoga class to learn how to be very bendy to impress the ladies.

In the very first yoga class my mat was deemed "exceptionally inappropriate " and I was made to sit the lesson out in the corner.

I still have my milla jovovich undraped mat.

The second run in with yoga happened very recently. Three midddle aged ladies from the village I live in in wales set up a yoga group.

Normally we all understand the word "couger" and interact with such as and when we see fit or our needs dictate.

However, in wales uk their are a new bread of predatory women in their autumn years known, as "krugers"

I named them such after the friday the 13th films,. these welsh yoga ladies scared me and scarred me.

Also they didnt eat as well as the freegans, the yoga ladies only eat chickpees, lentils, whole foods and some horrid goats cheese and live yoghurt. They also do stuff like saving the planet and recycling, ( I think thats cycling more than once,and I dont even go cycling)
They also tried to give me leaflets and I definately have no need to start a leaflet collection. Also the leaflets where not even interesting to read, they just had things on them like "upcoming events in fishgaurd " which mainly consisted of owen rhys singing about the sadness of the demise of coracle fishing OR learn to knit a bobbleless hat in just 7 weeks with local wool "artiste" Gwyneth evans ( age 83 going on 17 in an altzheimer like fashion)

Bog snorkling ( annual event allready knew of it) championship on Tregaron bog next april, be there or stay clean and disease free forever. ( no dogs or loose women)

How about if we keep this topic vaguely piano related before I close it?

Thanks.

Damn near wet myself reading that rostosky.. good effort my man. If your improv on the piano is anywhere near that standard your a demon!

Full marks all round guys, but for the sake of keeping the thread open i'll give a little more info on the creator of this piano yoga....

Her name is genia.... http://www.piano-yoga.com/

I'm not too convinced with my piano teacher and her system is being taught in oxford which is a 40min drive but possibly worth a look as slim pickings round here..... anyways, the ten week course is rather interesting and will fit in nicely with my routine so i will see how i go...


Considering knocking the lessons on the head.

Teacher is pretty good but keeps dissapointing me with answers to my questions.... shes not very pushy and doesnt seem to explain anything to any degree so im just paying for playing to someone really and i need to be inspired....

Eg. Her response to explaining her process of sight reading was that she doesnt know really.... some people can do it... some cant.

...and the sooner the better!

sorry for the off topic Paul,( I got reprimanded) back onto the piano related topic you started and would you say the yoga method works with all brands of piano?

I was going to ask about the fact that you I'm reading that you are taking lessons since about 2 months, and thus how the deconstructing fits in with your present teacher. But in this last post it doesn't look like that part is happening. Is your teacher involved in your technique at all? Or is it all about "how to play this piece and the next one"? What's happening with the "finger yoga" and does it involve more than fingers? I think "construct" and "reconstruct" (in stages? gradually?) has a better feel to it than "deconstruct". You don't want to put yourself into a tizzy of confusion.

I did yoga for many years, never taught. It's a way of stretching the body in static poses, whereas music is dynamic and involves action and shifting balances. The idea makes me leery. The site does not show anything concrete - it is full of talk, promises, and hints of better things. If this person plays well, she didn't learn it by practising yoga. If I did want to learn yoga, I would go with a yoga instructor who has full training and many years of experience teaching it - not a pianist who has gone on a tangent in yoga. The whole thing makes me uneasy.

Hi Keystring,
I've been interested in whether there are positive benefits of practicing yoga in general that can be helpful with playing the piano.

One of my challenges I work on is getting my body to relax when I'm practicing piano. I do a few simple stretches before practicing and it seems to help some. I've often wondered if there would be additional benefits if I incorporated some yoga stretches into my routine. What has been your experience with this?

I'm still not entirely sure what its all about myself but there seems to be different aspects of her system. Her website is very well laid out and lots of interesting things. In my book there are warm up excercises for wrists, thumbs, fingers and feet plus aligning seating position. Then its flat fingered finger drills slowly. Thats the first few pages anyways.... should be any piano type i would think....


It may seem strange but if i can try a lesson with a system concentrating on working with the body then it may help.... my back is knackered from work and sparring. Theres just so much i feel i have learnt from this site and its opened my eyes to how i want my learning process to continue.... im willing to adapt obviously, however i dont think im willing to settle for an average teacher anymore... its too comfortable and not pushing my boundaries..... if that makes sense!

Ps its not arrogance about my skills..... im a deeply average beginner with little talent but after ten years of playing on and off and being aprox grade 3 i know theres good teachers and i think i need to find one....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os_MOx-bbqI&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Genia describes her system..... i dont know.... i just want to do the best with my time. Its possible im just not jelling with my teacher and another local person will be better. These lessons are damn expensive..... 55£ an hour.... i currently pay £30...

I'd definitely recommend looking elsewhere for quality instruction. This clearly isn't somebody dedicated to the craft of piano pedagogy and thus their students.

Read these two recent threads, as well as the following third link for great advice in selecting a piano teacher. Lastly, I'll simply add to the list of tips below that those teachers with experience in teaching adults will likely work out better for you than those without.

https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...iano%20Teacher%20--%20W.html#Post2000473

https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...Selecting%20a%20teacher.html#Post2001713

http://pianoteachersfederation.org/Choosing_the_Right_Teacher

@bobpickle

Thankyou for the links, looked through them all and definately considering a change....

I also know i could have a break from lessons and use my time to understand the theory side and scales/harmony for a while... through this site and research i know there is so much i would like to cover.

I agree completely. Lately what I've been realizing, though, is that a good teacher is what it takes to be able to take it all from being overwhelming and simply intangible theory to practically applicable, however.

Yes, although to give her some credit, maybe i just need to find someone more compatible... right... just off into the music store to buy my daughterher crimbo pressie... 3 year old .... violin or xylaphone i think!