I am a member of the forum and I wondered if any of you educators of music know who said this?
"Piano playing is 99% sweat and 1% genius?" Thank you in advance for your reply please...This saying I read once many, many years ago...Sandy B

I believe that quotation, which goes:

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

is attributed to The Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Alva Edison.

I also like the quotation attributed to Yogi Berra, who, when speaking of baseball remarked:

"Ninety percent of this game is half mental."

Awww! You beat me to it, ipgrunt! And I love that Yogi Berra quote!

Alas, I said this about a week ago....

I said it here:
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/2/12696/2.html

Dear Son of a Pro...Thank you so much for your response to my post... Most appreciated...I am the daughter of a deceased Pro too...Dad was a pro sax player in Washington DC... in the 20's and 30's... A society band ... My dad said," I put on my tux and went to work... for a band leader called...Leon Brusaloff..." Not certain of the spelling... Anyone else have a music professional mother or father? I would love to hear your story... Input? Sandy B

HHhmmm...it really depends...in my very own experience(s), it's all hard work mastering the piece's main framework, but when it comes to delivering the essence of the piece and communicating interpretation - that requires gift and musical maturity ....

This is a highly subjective statement though and it may varies with time and different types of pieces ???

My father was the commander of the aggie band in colledge. he would be in charge of making the formations perfect. He was also a mean trombone player...

"Piano playing is 99% sweat and 1% genius."

I disagree. One can easily sweat by practicing improperly. It takes much more than 1% genius (in my opinion) to know how to sweat.

I would say also the reverse although I wouldn't necessarily put the word "genius" into the definition. Maybe 99% brainpower or thinking, 1% sweat.

I currently have a teacher and trying to make improvements on my technique as well as undo some poor habits. I'm more mentally worn out when practice is all said and done than I am physically. It's mentally taxing trying to undo habits. Perhaps you could call it "mental sweat".

It seems to me about coordination more so than genius.

I also disagree with that 1% inspiration. I don't believe there is any great pianist out there with no (or just 1%) inspiration in playing piano. To do well at anything, it takes a lot of will power and everything else.

First of all, when he says sweat he means doing work. You dont get good by not practicing. If you look at it in percentages the majority of your time is spent on practicing not on thinking.!