Have so many hard-working piano students really received a good piano education? Are their fingerings correct? Has your musical accomplishment improved? Are they studying music, or just for exams?

In the opinion of pianist Dr. Jenny Q Chai, a large proportion of students are struggling to take exams. Chai Qiongyan has been hailed as a "brilliant, fearless young pianist" by the New York Times. She is not only the champion of the Yvar Mikhashoff Pianist/Composer International Competition in 2011, but also the first prize winner of the Keys to the Future International Contemporary Piano Competition. He is also the winner of the 2010 German Government DAAD International Academic Exchange Music and Art Award.

Dr. Chai started playing piano with his mother when he was 3 years old. He can be said to be a very experienced “piano boy”. At the age of 13, he was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music, known as a gifted music school, with excellent results. After that, he began to help his mother teach piano students during the summer vacation back to China. He has been in contact with Chinese piano children for 18 years. Recently, in an interview with Bund Education, Dr. Chai Qiongyan summarized several major misunderstandings among Chinese piano children.

1. Learning to play the piano is utilitarian and helps grow the seedlings

Chai Qiongyan told reporters: "After contacting many students and parents, I found that they have big misunderstandings. One of them is The grades have become a standard for measuring students’ piano proficiency.”

There are many reasons why parents use this as a measurement standard. One of the reasons is that many teachers claim how fast the test is and how many years it takes. It is possible to get a level 10 piano test, which gives non-professional parents the misunderstanding that level 10 is the highest level of piano. In fact, from a professional perspective, the level of the examination is not high.

This is not to say that the grade examination has no merit at all. After all, the judges are all very professional teachers, but "the more professional the judges are, the more they understand the hard work of the students, and sometimes they will barely reach the grade." The students who are required to pass the exam are given recognition for their hard work, but what is unexpected is that these students will continue to take more difficult exams such as level 9 and level 10 in the second year. You know, reaching the previous level is already a bit difficult. "Going to school will only increase the burden," Dr. Chai said with a helpless expression when talking about the children taking exams.

What parents need to understand is that music is slowly cultivated by children through long-term comprehension and practice. It should not be utilitarian and should be tested continuously, and the worst thing is to encourage the children.

2. Failure to master correct postures can harm the body

Excessive attention to grade examinations will produce a series of chain effects, such as too radical learning methods, and even teachers who only pay attention to Students complete the music without caring about the correctness of posture, force exertion method and fingering, which will ultimately cause harm to the students' bodies.

“Before many of my students came to study at my music school, many of them had physical problems due to incorrect and too radical methods. They suffered from tenosynovitis and spinal problems while playing the piano, and some even In the end, I couldn’t even pick up the cup,” Dr. Chai told reporters.

For those particularly gifted children, the situation is even more serious. Because the student himself is extremely talented, his piano teacher will speed up his grade examination. In this way, the child will continue to practice and practice hard for repertoire such as grade 9 and grade 10. The teacher only cares about grades but does not teach relaxation and correct playing techniques. He only demands fast and loud music. We can imagine that their wrists will begin to become inflamed, which will eventually not only lead to them having to give up piano learning, but even affect their daily life.

It is not just a problem of the hands. Playing the piano is an activity of the entire body, which requires correct sitting posture and placement of hands and feet. "Many teachers are not teaching postures. I see many students have no center of gravity, their upper bodies are curled up, and they are completely stiff."

This is not alarmist, there are many children with physical problems.

Dr. Chai mentioned that she has a student named Paul, a 19-year-old boy. He is very talented and loves music. When he met Paul, he had already passed the piano level 10 exam.

However, it is regrettable that the training Paul experienced before was entirely designed for grade examinations and lacked orthodox and complete training, including posture correction, gesture correction, etc. The sequelae of this is that his back muscles are very stiff, and he will suffer from back pain soon after sitting upright while playing the piano. Afterwards, the doctor suggested that he wear "back-back braces" to play the piano.

After correcting and mastering the correct posture, Paul was admitted to a famous music conservatory in the United States and received a half-award scholarship.

Paul was finally "rescued". But not all students are so lucky. Dr. Chai once met a female student whose wrists were repeatedly inflamed due to long-term incorrect posture when practicing piano, and she eventually failed to play the piano.

3. The practice repertoire is fixed, which misleads students

How do current exam teachers teach piano? Dr. Chai told reporters: "Generally speaking, teachers who emphasize grade exams will only practice two or three grade exam songs in half a year. They practice them repeatedly and will not change them at all."

Such practice* *There will also be a situation: many students do not know music at all, and the music they can play is completely played from the back. The teacher plays one sentence and the students play one sentence.

Children who learn piano in this way may not be able to play even level 4 music half a year after passing the level 10 exam. "Because they don't know music music at all. I myself have met students who passed level 10 and were very confused when reading music. Some students who passed level 6 and level 7 didn't know any music music at all,". If students who don't know music and memorize music are asked to switch from playing with two hands to playing with two hands, they won't be able to do it at all. "It can be said that they used to rely entirely on mechanized body memory to play music. Once they play with one hand, they cannot complete it. Such students cannot go far at all. It is very misleading."

Then, correct What should the method be?

The suggestion from Dr. Chai is to update the difficulty of the music every week or every two weeks. The more pieces students learn, the more they develop their skills and their understanding of the composer's style.

In addition to the examination repertoire, students should also play the etudes carefully. There are many exercises with different fingering methods in an etude. For example, a series of etudes by pianist Hanon and Czerny, which are practiced more frequently by Chinese students. Dr. Chai also suggested that when practicing Czerny, you should not give up Kramer's "Etude Collection". This etude is very necessary for practicing relaxation and the combined use of different wrists and arms.

When practicing, students can set different paces according to their own levels. Talented students can go faster, or skip some familiar skills.

4. Without learning music theory, the experience is superficial

Dr. Chai also mentioned another typical Chinese problem. That is "thinking that speed and loudness are the criteria for good technology", in her words "this is extremely superficial". Although some students can play very fast, they have many defects in timbre.

The piano is different from other things. The weight and movement of each key can affect the tone it produces, which requires very good control. "The standard of truly good music should be the combination of timbre, melody and understanding of the track, just like singing," Dr. Chai made an analogy. This means that learning piano should not just play the melody, but also add your own understanding. Therefore, the study of music theory is particularly important.

Music theory, literally, is the principle of music. However, many Chinese students and teachers simply think of it as "sight-singing and ear training", but it is actually much more than that. Music theory includes many things, including music literature, piano literature, and the stylistic characteristics of music in different eras.

Only after you have a certain understanding of music theory and integrate your own feelings can you produce soulful music. "Like many different styles, for example, piano impressionism is completely combined with impressionist paintings. When a pianist plays, it will have the feeling of French Impressionism; while the baroque style can be played very delicately, with a sense of lines, and the music is You can feel the obvious color contrast in the music. These are all based on my own understanding of the background of the music, the style of the composer, the style of the era, etc., and then I performed it with my own hands," Dr. Chai explained.

So, whether learning music or practicing piano, it should be a very balanced process, with balanced development in emotions, technology, and basic knowledge according to your own different situations.

Dr. Chai’s tips for piano students

Supplement music theory knowledge and learn more about the lives of musicians and composers

·Listen to more symphonies and music Good opera composers don't just write piano music. Their symphonies and operas can also help students better understand the composer's style.

·Don’t imitate CD students. By imitating CD, you can only learn the skills of a three-legged cat. Moreover, the interpretation of different songs should have its own understanding, and cannot simply imitate others.

·Be careful when choosing a piano teacher

Music students pay great attention to the teacher. There is a very close inheritance relationship between teacher and student, with many movements, fingerings, Understanding requires a teacher to teach by your side. Therefore, when selecting a teacher, you can pay special attention to his resume and ask who his teacher is. If it is a famous teacher, it will be much more credible.