I think everything is a question of conditions. For example, master classes are fitting me like a glove. A few hours with a group of students, giving my point of view, advices on specific works, and sharing thoughts about music is really something magical and challenging for me. I’m not only teaching, but also learning from all these different personalities we meet in a master-class. Both the student and teacher must be like a chameleon and adapt very quickly.

For students, the preparation of these master-classes is also very interesting: they have to consider the work in all its aspects and be ready for anything, to challenge themselves in front of a stranger. For me, the preparation of a master-class is also a good way to broaden my knowledge: I take time to analyze the works to be performed during the session, and if I have time, sit down at the piano and sight-read them.

As for an education on a long term basis, I would opt for a solution that does not exist yet, as far as I know. I would have very few students, but really take care of them. Of course make them practice their piano, but also learn them how to take advantage of their skills and show them what is really the job of a pianist. Ideally, I would listen with them to recordings, criticize concerts, make them read books, but also enable them to follow me in my working days and let them observe how I manage my job and my piano practice.

Unfortunately, in schools, we are often inundated with students and do not have enough time for such an experiment. And in private lessons, students are often too young or not involved enough. I often learned by observing, and I realize now that my studies didn’t prepared me to work as a pianist. I’ve learned to play the piano well, a sine qua non conditio, but it’s far from being the only skill you need as a pianist.

I would have loved to follow my teachers in their daily musical life, see how they practice the piano, how they prepare for a concert, in fact, to learn what the job consists in, and this long before leaving school …

Finally, I would say that I like teaching, but I do not like the actual way you have to teach. I would like to teach piano, but mostly by sharing cultural moments. It might be time to create a school promoting this method?

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2. The art of piano playing
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Heinrich Neuhaus (Russian of German origin) was a famous pianist and pedagogue. He studied in Vienna under Leopold Godowsky, then he went back to Russia in 1913 where he taught in many conservatories before running his own class in Moscow from 1923 until his death in 1964. There studied the most brilliant pianists of the XXth century, among them were Gilels, Richter, Virsaladze, Zak, Lupu, Krainev, Naumov… Piano genius, he devoted his life to teaching.

His book, “The art of piano playing”, is a series of comments based on his experience, a bit like his diary as a professor. With precise examples as well as general principles or anecdotes about his pupils, Neuhaus unveils what is according to him the art of piano playing.

Even if we do not immediately understand everything, reading this work is an advantage on the long way to master the piano. I like to re-read it every two or three years, it brings my mind back to reality. I recommend you to read it and wish you to get the best of it!

For those who already read it, how has this book helped you?

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In order to learn by heart and avoid accidents during a performance, it is necessary to work on various forms of memory. I believe that a pianist, while playing, call upon 4 memories:

An intellectual memory: We know the tonal path, structures…
A mechanical memory: By dint of repetition, the fingers find alone their way on the keys.
A visual memory: We have a mental image of the score which takes place. We can visually anticipate the fingers position.
An auditory memory: We hear intervals or chords in advance.

The pianist’s work will thus strengthen each of these memories and teach them to complement each other or replace themselves if need be. I would classify the mechanical memory as the most uncertain, it is very risky to only rely on this one. It is what most of pianists do though…

Let’s now come to my 10 tips for improving your memory at the piano. All are based on my experience, but have proved their worth among many others. They enable to practice the 4 forms of memory and to feel at ease in order to play by heart in concerts.

1. Analyze what you have to play. What is the tonal path? What form has the piece? What specificities do you notice?
2. Be very attentive to the music itself: what is this chord, what interval do I hear here or there?
3. Do not allow doubt to set in. If you doubt, open your score and check through.
4. Do not try to memorize big sections but limit yourself to few bars.
5. There’s no point in repeating 50 times the same thing in order to retain it. You only train your mechanical memory.
6. Play as slow as possible by heart, each hand separately first, then together, while mentally visualizing notes before playing them.
7. Practice away from piano: take time to read the score and to memorize all its informations: phrase, rhythm, dynamics…
8. Inwardly visualize your playing and play your piece mentally, each hand separately, then together.
9. Be able to begin from anywhere: in the middle of a phrase, a bar or a beat.
10. Always finish a practice session by playing your piece very slowly: you will thus correct the mistakes or inaccuracies which have occurred while playing at the tempo.

I hope these advices will be useful for you and will make you feel more at ease during auditions or concerts!

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Indeed, once the conservatory is over, we are confronted to stewardship problems. Most of the time, not enough supported, we must manage everything by ourselves: solicit concerts organizers, manage press relations, deal contracts…

However, at school, we never heard about this at all. I know our studies are already very heavy but a little training to music management wouldn’t have been too much and would have enabled many of us to save some precious time.

I’m thus asking the question: Why did no one have the brilliant idea to integrate management modules or an overview of the different jobs we’ll deal with through our career and which will help us in our course. I think it has become essential in our education.

When will there be extra courses in conservatories?

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This is a dangerous topic. I don’t intend to discus generaly about musical training and teaching but I’ll focus on the particular case of contemporary music, because it takes less place in the education than it deserves, when it’s not completely “forgotten”.

In conservatoires and universities, If you must study Beethoven’s sonatas, Bach’s fugues, romantic pieces, you’re not forced to play Berio, Stockhausen, Manoury and so on… When exams are coming and a contemporary piece is in the program, students are stressed because they are not used to this music, or simply think that they can do what they want: nobody knows.

However, for us pianists, studying contemporary music is fundamental. It enables to get with anonther view onto piano, and especially to acquire all the possibilities of piano, of which precious little people are aware.

Teaching contemporary music, yes but how? There is the real dilemma. I’am against a special course for contemporary piano, because it would confine in its ghetto this music. But training teachers to sensitize their students, and guiding them in the way to play those pieces. But this big work upstream piano classes is missing. Indeed, rare are opportunities to read a contemporary text during theorical classes, and the piano teacher can’t assume alone piano courses and sensitization to new repertoires.

If we can have some good examples (SBAM in Belgium), sensitizationis always punctual and therefore not so beneficial, and these target only students with a nearly achieved education. The problem requires us to get back to basics of the first years of education. Make listen to the youngest this repertoire, and Stop quarrels between teachers could enable a march. It is completely unacceptable that nowadays some teachers still consider a certain repertoire as unintelligible noise. We mustn’t, as teachers, restrain the field of vision of our student, but widen it, guide and not impose. Today’s music must be a part of studies as well as the others classical musics. It’s up to students to like or not, we don’t have to inluence them or truncate history of music.

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