Learn vs Catch

Before I turned 12, I was always told that I am a slow learner. Back in the 1990s, my Primary school still had streaming and I was put into the middle zone.

I thought I did well for my 2nd streaming exam at age 12, but turns out I was still placed into the same middle zone.

Only at age 15 did I managed to "upgrade" into a fast learner and thereafter, I shined. Secretly, I contemplated that my learning has to do with my looks... but that is a story for another day.

....I guess I am still a slow learner? I don't know why, I just feel like... I am a slow learner at the start of everything. I see my peers absorb, react & subscribe to anything at almost twice of my speed! I remember fighting to sit at the front desk of every lesson, and then slowly.... mentally I zone out.

But it is only in my 30s that I realised - Yes, I am a slow learner. But I Catch Things Fast. While I observed that most of my juniors, contemporaries & even seniors are quick learners but they almost never catch the gist of what they are learning. Especially for music. Specifically for piano. It's like having a wealth of knowledge, experience & connections but they don't belong to you because you don't know how to use them. And even if you know how to use them, you are not using them appropriately.

Would you be able to understand what I mean? If you can't, it means you also cannot catch... probably you would be wondering what does catching even means... 

Well, catching is a natural sense of 抓 the music. You just know what to listen to, how to practice, how many times to practice, practice what, when to change the piano etc. Catching has nothing to do with your speed of learning or your intelligence level. Wealth & connections play no role in speeding up your sense of catching.

The ability to catch the music is a talent. I know I have it. And I think it's because I'm a female.

What about you? Can you catch?

The Toughest Period (s)

Learning the piano requires a very specific energy, isn't it? Some of us find it easy to locate the right notes on the keyboard. Others find both-hands coordination a breeze. The luckiest among us "click" with the piano, and "woke" our inner music.

I would wish to say - that the piano journey ought to feel easy, relaxed & inspiring for every learner. But that would be utterly idealistic to the point of foolishness.

I had two toughest periods in my own piano journey.

The Start - I did technique training for years before my Shanghai teacher gave me "real" repertoire. I did not disobey at all and I'm glad I didn't. Due to my almost solid technique, learning any genre of music seems to feel so easy for me. I hope I don't sound too cocky again.

The End - I thought my final grade shall be LRSM. Turns out, I made it to FRSM! There was a 10 plus year gap in between my LR and FR. The piano really requires me to be very patient and weirdly, I. have. patience?!

I never struggled in the Mid-Journey. I enjoyed every single exam, performance & competition. I was such a happy goose in my mids hahaha I swear I practiced the piano on the dining table. In front of my primary school frenemy. And I even tried to practice piano on my friends' backs!! Hahahaha!

How about you? Where was the toughest periods of your piano journey? Lol... I truly believe that playing the piano should not feel difficult because music should feel natural. But I find every learner struggles deeply when they first encounter posture, notes & rhythm. Perhaps we should all normalize struggling...

Separate Hands, Both Hands, Se-bo (?)

Something out of the ordinary happened today. Someone told me, "I cannot practice separate hands. Even if I master separate hands, my hands together will still sound as if I did not practice separate hands at all. I need to do both hands straight away, or nothing will work for me at all."

Obviously that was such a long paragraph and there are so many points to dissect & understand.

First of all, I think all of us need to realise that separate hands applies usually only for keyboard, piano & organ players. I highly doubt string players ever practice separate hands.

Next, separate hands simply refer to playing both hands, separately! Can it deepen to separate voices practice? Definitely! Can separate hands mean just one-hand? Of course, especially for lower grades!

We need to understand 1. Why SH practice still slaps & 2. How to transit from SH to BH, physically, musically and emotionally.

Haha, this post is definitely for all my regulars! Aww.....

The key words are playing-every-note and coordination.

When teachers & parents drill SH, we are forcing students to sight-read/listen to every single note. You should hear E as hopefully solfege Mi, and distinguish the difference between a sharp & a flat, both visually with the score, and aurally through your ears. Not to mention one-hand may already have chords! Even I struggle with hearing chords, I wonder how my genius self can immediately master BH if I don't practice SH?! Don't you need to figure out the intervals in between the notes? Press into the depth of the key. Ensuring no surface-level playing. Probably rhythm too. Ah, definitely rhythm. I have a feeling beginners know their notes, but cannot match their rhythm. And. I. can. prove. it.

As for coordination, even the best of us struggles with it, and it is so normal. I won't skip SH simply because BH seems a little, or very much, unattainable for me, compared to my peers. I truly believe, music starts at the bottom, small, simple, note-by-note. To achieve BH, you have to play SH first! Even if you are a top-to-bottom kind of person whom dream big before diving into the details, eventually you need to come down too!

That being said, I encourage students to attempt BH immediately when they acquire a certain confidence in their piano journey. Players whom can hear the entire music before even playing the piece, for instance, shall benefit greatly from immediate-BH practice.

Myself especially! I feel that I am always too small in terms of my thinking & music. Doing BH immediately definitely suits me. After all, I already know my foundations, basics & it shalln't hurt me to go big.

If there is something to tell my younger self, I won't bother telling me to play SH or BH. Rather, I would tell my younger self to separate.the.freaking.voices.&.harmonies. After all, music is not about S or B. It is about the music.        Can you hear it?