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Hi there,

I wonder whether anyone has read 'improve your piano playing and increase your enjoyment' by Dr John Meffen.

I got the book yesterday as it was recommended to me, in my search for a better practice methodology and for away piano learning.

What I have read so far has been shared, advocated and debated in this forum, though the author's elaboration is insightful.

If you have read it, what are your thoughts ? Your take on ?

The amazon reviews I just browsed seemed to have nothing but praise. Perhaps if you quoted a few topics and/or passages you'd like to discuss, those of us without the book could try to contribute.

Got a used copy from Amazon and would recommend it. It's a bit short, but at the same time concise.

I feel the section on correcting and preventing mistakes is useful in particular and I go back to it from time to time.

I should also revisit the chapter that talks about touch and balanced arm.

I read it a few weeks ago. I intend to pick it up again and go through the practical parts at the piano, as there are some useful ideas on tone, chord voicing, etc.

Now that i am reading the book after my first skim, I will be interested to hear your insights into the application and consequences of these quotations:

'The brain is a self- organising, pattern-recognition and pattern-using system'.
'If we leave matters to our self-organising system, it will devise some plan of action to solve whatever problem we are tackling, but might not be the best one.'

While I concur with these assertions, I am sort of disturbed on the consequences of these assertions. My interpretation is that I can not trust my brain to come up with the best solution, hence I need to direct it through some preparatory work (more relevant knowledge of some sort).
On the other hand, there is common consensus that the actual learning process happens in the background, when sleeping,...

I am not sure to reconcile this. It is a tall order to ensure that every action results in the best outcome.

I appreciate your thoughts.

Well I understand what you are saying but I wouldn't worry too much about it or you'll drive yourself mad.

One way I interpret that is say with fingering. Sure you can play a song and it might sound perfectly fine. However, you might be using inefficient fingering. That' is something someone else might point out to you. And then it will be much easier and smoother to play. And now you will have that knowledge and your brain will start organizing things using that new info.


When I was taking lessons and reading music they way I knew how (the way my brain organized it) i did ok. But my teacher would point out different things in the music or different ways to look at it. Now I could have just as well continued with they way I was reading and that would have been fine. But what she snowed me taught me a new way to look at the music so next time I could interpret it much faster. And to see how everything was connected.

Every one had strengths and weaknesses so we all can learn from each other - better ways to do things. But I wouldn't worry too much

Also I kind of see that statement as If you have a habit - the brain is organized to continue that habit until you intentionally set out to change it. But that is only necessary of that habit is bad or self defeating.

However, in my work I am.a very organized person. Oddly enough it was my learning disabilities that made me compensate this way. So, I am easily able to find solutions to problems at work and organize information so others can make sense of it. And I and also very efficient! While people are trying to figure out how to get things done - I already have it done.

So (blah blah blah) my point is that sometimes your brain will come up with the right and best way and sometimes you will seek the council of someone who knows a better way and its up to you to know the difference.
Am I making any sense?

Yes.

Rick

Yes - this is why the ability to memorize isn't random from individual to individual. Those who easily memorize music (aside from children naturally gifted with the ability) can generally can do so because they understand such patterns as musical form, harmonic (chord) progressions and analysis, melodic/motivic development and phrasing, etc. The better you can learn to recognize such patterns (this is greatly enhanced through a thorough understanding of music theory), the faster and more efficiently you can learn new material.




As well as you should be. The sooner we all learn and accept that the intuitive way is generally incorrect in learning how to learn to play piano (I say this because teachers should teach you not how to play, but how to learn how to play so that you can be forever successful on your own), the sooner we can truly start making progress... that is of course after we learn the correct methods. This is why self-teaching is inefficient, at least for beginners. See my links I list here for further elaboration: http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2102811/Piano%20book.html#Post2103187




There are literally thousands of different technical demands found in the modern piano repertoire, and while the number of ways in existence to learn each of them is significantly less, it's still by no means small. Only a very experienced pedagogue (teacher) could guide you through all of them. Meanwhile, a true self-learner would likely take very long to muddle through but a few technical hurdles, if they manage to satisfactorily clear them at all.




Yes - our brains just so happen to learn best when they're not working on the thing you want learned. See here for further elaboration: https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubb...t%20before%20a%20breakt.html#Post2100763




You seem to have a very nice book there. After reading through it, you'd probably really enjoy a book that goes into detail on efficient practice methods. For that I'd recommend looking at the following in the order listed (topics presented may overlap to some degree, but looking at things from multiple angles is beneficial)

• Chuan C. Chang's eBook at http://www.pianopractice.org/ ; this is a book on how to spend you practice time in order to achieve the best, most efficient results. While not an absolute authority on the topic, this is a good first step in the door. Much of what he talks about is very confusing at first, but the concepts are ones you'll find good teachers recommending all the time and so even if they're not fully understood upon first introduction (as few piano-related topics are), the earlier I think they're introduced, the better.
• Madeline Bruser's The Art of Practicing is a nice guide by a very accomplished pianist and teacher on how to practice efficiently and painlessly by making full use of the entire body at the piano. She also discusses how practicing isn't a chore as it may so often seem, but instead, a gateway to a world of unadulterated beauty that lies within written music.
• Gerald Klickstein's The Musician's Way is a book that covers a wide variety of topics from how to perform confidently in the face of nervousness to how to best divide up your practice time. I list this book last because it's not instrument-specific and so is least relevant to the topic at-hand, though still very good.

But of course, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't say that your time was best spent as a beginner by finding a good teacher to start learning good habits with (as it so happens, whether or not they regularly devote lesson time to teaching students how to practice on their own whatever material is assigned is one of several good interview questions).