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Would like to hear her play something other than the scale tricks. Has she played on or does she have something other than the digital piano to practice on? Also, is she taking lessons from a teacher that is independent (not connected to a university)? Just curious.
Always working to improve "Chopsticks". I'll never give up on it.
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She must be really good at Bach. Does she have any Bach recordings?
1915 Mason & Hamlin AA (Rebuilt)
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She is working on perfecting some music for a competition coming up in about 6 weeks (the first movement of a Diabelli sonatina and a short work by Tchaikovsky), but to be honest I don't think any music that she can play is as impressive as this scale video.
She has played quite a bit of Bach: all 18 preludes, all 15 inventions & sinfonias, and a lot of the Well-Tempered Clavier. But most of this has been sight reading. Not much of this is at performance level, and I think there are many notes in the WTC that she can't reach yet (she can only reach a 7th). But yeah I have seen her sight read fugues out of the WTC with hands together the first time and get mostly the right notes so she is definitely highly coordinated in this way.
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I quit...
Yama B3
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I haven't even done half of the Inventions in 9 months, lol.
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A young student who enjoy scales? That in itself is a miracle.
All those Bach pieces were things she sight-read through? That's a great exercise, but it would also be beneficial to pick some of her favorites to get to a performance level, so she can refine the smaller things that make great pianists great. And she's only seven? Wow!
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.... all 18 preludes, all 15 inventions & sinfonias and a lot of the WTC... Oh my. I'd love to see a vid of her playing some Bach. Best of luck in the upcoming competition.
The difference between dreams and reality is action.
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So cute! Amazing how she doesn't take any time to think about each scale combination, just dives right in. Awesome! Is there going to be a follow-up sight-reading video? That would be equally awesome . . .
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I agree that this child is somewhat of a phenomenon, accomplishing "tricks" that many of us who have studied for years are unable to do, at least not as spontaneously as this child can.
However, without wanting to rain on the proud papa's parade, nor diminish this child's remarkable abilities, I do see these videos as a bit of a circus show. Otherwise, apart from their being a father's bragging rights, I don't see what purpose they underline.
It would be more interesting, now that we've seen two of these types of videos, to see what this child can accomplish musically with some real compositions.
Regards,
BruceD - - - - - Estonia 190
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I have to agree with Bruce. I'm also curious about what role, if any, Rose's teacher is playing in her musical education.
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SiFi - I actually thought about making a video of her sightreading but then I figured that it wouldn't really be that interesting. Maybe some day. Isabelle1949, BruceD, DameMyra - Rose's current piano teacher (who she just started with about 2 months ago) has a doctorate in piano but is not associated with a university. And yes, that digital piano is what Rose uses to practice at home. Her teacher has been bugging us to get an acoustic for her. Personally, I don't think that an upright would be any better than the high-end digital that we currently have and so we've been thinking that we will get Rose a grand, but perhaps not immediately. What's the role of Rose's current teacher? So far she has just been helping Rose prepare her music for this competition coming up later this summer. Rose's lessons with this doctor have consisted mainly of improving Rose's technique (wrists up, fingers curved, etc.) and also giving attention to the details of her two pieces (articulation, dynamics, etc.). Rose has done about zero scale work with her current teacher. So Rose's current home practice schedule includes scales (obviously), reading (she's already played most of the music we have in the house so most of the time it isn't truly sight reading anymore), and doing the homework assigned by her teacher. Rose is also learning violin as a 2nd instrument and enjoys singing. I also do a bit of ear training and theory with her, and sometimes she composes a little bit. All of this music stuff takes quite a bit of time but she enjoys it for the most part and we homeschool so it is doable. So what's the purpose of this thread? I think I mentioned it at the start. I think there's a relationship between her ability to do scale combinations like this and her ability to sight read. I was wondering what other people thought about this, and if they believe it, then maybe more pianists should spend more time doing scales tricks like this in an effort to "coordinate their fingers" and have the nice side effect of an improvement in their reading? And here's another thing we could discuss: nature vs. nurture. I do believe that Rose is bright. Some of this she was probably born with. But she's also been given a lot of attention. I don't have much of a background in music, but have always had an interest. I'm trained as a scientist. Because of this I've probably asked Rose to do things on the piano that a normal teacher wouldn't. I've long been intrigued by the research which indicates that playing music is good "brain exercise". Studies like this https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130212112017.htm which imply that those who start learning an instrument at a younger age have changes in the brain which don't seem to be there for people who started later have been in my mind these past couple years that Rose has been learning piano. Perhaps polyrhythms come so naturally to Rose because she learned them at such a young age? She learned them at age 6 because I encouraged her to. I can't imagine that any teacher who wasn't her parent would ask her to do this. Maybe piano teachers should encourage more of their youngest students to do brain exercises of this sort?
Last edited by pianopap; 06/06/16 09:41 PM.
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There is a disconnect here, at least for me, between being able to sight read Bach fugues and playing a Diabelli sonatina in a competition. If she has the ability to play all the Inventions and Sinfonias I would expect her to be performing more advanced works in a competitive setting.
I'm also curious about her teachers. Exactly how many has she had? I know you mentioned earlier in the year she was studying with a man who had a Bachelor's degree. And you asked if getting someone with a Doctorate might be better. Now it seems you have someone with a Doctorate, but you say that right now all she is doing is helping Rose with hand position and working on perfecting the two pieces for an upcoming competition.
And I hope you take this the right way, while all these scale tricks might be valuable in your research about music and brain exercise, they might not actually result in your daughter being able to develop into a musician. If you have faith in this new teacher, then I would allow her to guide your daughter and make the necessary pedagogical decisions.
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Rose's current piano teacher (who she just started with about 2 months ago) has a doctorate in piano but is not associated with a university. And yes, that digital piano is what Rose uses to practice at home. Her teacher has been bugging us to get an acoustic for her. Personally, I don't think that an upright would be any better than the high-end digital that we currently have and so we've been thinking that we will get Rose a grand, but perhaps not immediately.
What's the role of Rose's current teacher? So far she has just been helping Rose prepare her music for this competition coming up later this summer. Rose's lessons with this doctor have consisted mainly of improving Rose's technique (wrists up, fingers curved, etc.) and also giving attention to the details of her two pieces (articulation, dynamics, etc.). Rose has done about zero scale work with her current teacher.
Sounds excellent. I know the scale and rhythmic tricks are impressive in their way, as is reading of advanced music, but this basic technique foundation and detailed artistry work on seemingly easy pieces are what makes a real musician. I hope this is now the bulk of practice time at home and that the other stuff is extra and just for fun. Congratulations on finding a good teacher. And yes, if and when you are able to manage getting a grand for her, she will be that much more into the piano because she will be able to hear so much more!
Heather Reichgott, piano
Working on: Mel (Mélanie) Bonis - Sevillana, La cathédrale blessée William Grant Still - Three Visions
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She's exceptional, and that fact limits the value of any research using her as a subject, as any finding will not be generalizable to any typical subject.
Learner
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She is truly remarkable and must be very bright. I believe she was born that way and no amount of training would be successful in another child. She is a rare and gifted child. Now, what good is all this scale playing doing? It's very impressive, but no one wants to hear scales for 1 1/2 hours. In fact I turned the video off after a couple of minutes because I got the point and my mind started wondering off. A suggestion, take it or leave for what it's worth, take a step back from her music education and give her to a good teacher. Her keyboard facility is good enough by now. It's time to concentrate on real music. Put the scales to bed for a while. You have a wonderful daughter but you don't need me to tell you that. Care enough about her to step out of the way and let a professional teacher (a good one) take the lead.
Do or do not. There is no try.
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Am I the only one that doesn't see the purpose in drilling a child to do some wacky scales?
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Am I the only one that doesn't see the purpose in drilling a child to do some wacky scales? Are we sure that this child has been "drilled" in preparing these scales, or is she just extremely gifted for this particular type of digital and mental dexterity? The purpose? That's another question I'll leave for the experts. Regards,
BruceD - - - - - Estonia 190
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At least she appears to be enjoying it. I don't see it doing any harm but as others have expressed you would hope energies would be steered towards real music.
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DameMyra -
Rose did play an invention at a competition back in March. So if Rose can sightread a fugue getting most of the notes, then why not play one at a competition this summer? Well, I think partially the reason may be her hand size. There may be some notes she just can't reach or some parts that are supposed to be legato but Rose can't play it that way because of her hand size, etc. And also I think there are some subtleties in performing fugues that Rose may not appreciate yet when it comes to balancing the dynamics of the individual voices.
Rose has had two piano teachers in her life so far besides me. I started teaching Rose piano in the fall of 2014 when she was age 5 1/2. I was her only piano teacher for the first 6 months. Then she had a weekly lesson with a guy with a bachelors from March 2015 to March 2016 and she started taking lessons from a lady with a doctorate in April 2016. I'm mostly happy with the switch that we made so far and I like Rose's current teacher. Her new teacher is more detail oriented than her previous one was when it comes to perfecting pieces for performance. I have no doubt that this increases the odds that Rose will perform well in competitions. Since Rose now spends all of her lesson time on just these two performance pieces, I do wonder if Rose is missing out on other aspects of being a well-rounded musician, but these are things I try to do with her at home on my own (ear training, theory, sight reading, etc.).
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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