Thursday, June 1, 2017

Creating Piano Maestros With The Taubman Approach

By Charles Patterson


Achieving perfection on the keyboard is no longer about extensive practice. New information reveals that there is a formula that maestros use to hit their best potential. The Taubman Approach was developed after analyzing the techniques used by the best pianists over five decades. This eliminated the notion that these maestros used the trial and error method to reach their great achievements.

Over five decades, Dorothy Taubman, a Brooklyn based pedagogue developed this approach with the aim of solving some of the technical problems that affected players. The idea was to find an ordered and rational way of playing with ease. Her suggestions have enabled ordinary pianists to graduate into world renowned instrumentalists.

Dorothy further recognizes that a pianist is more than an instrumentalist. Despite sitting behind the grand piano, he is an artist who has the capacity to control and influence the crowd. As such, her quest went beyond playing with brilliance and ease to understanding and achieving full artistic expression. It is only by recognizing that one is an artist that a pianist will realize his potential.

Her assessment was motivated by the revelation that children intuitively play with ease yet the transition into adult consciousness reduced the skill of a player. The natural expectation would be that adults found it easier. Her hypothesis was that there must be simplicity in complexity. This is the point she discovered that existence of coordinated motion that allows each finger and body part to produce its best.

The discoveries made through this investigation changed the way people viewed and played the piano. A pivotal revelation was that accuracy in motion was achieved when fingers produced mid range response to motion through the least possible effort and as a result produced accuracy. It was tension at the challenging sections that pushed the player to be more accurate.

Where movements are coordinated, each part of your finger acts to its best mechanical advantage. An example is where the forearm initiates motion because it is incapable of the speed produced by the large upper arm. Further, she concluded that to achieve freedom and precision, coordinate movements must be guided by the principle of maximum results with minimum effort. Breaking these rules and failure to obey these principles led to a painful and mundane playing experience.

Among the major outcomes of this analysis was the revelation of musculoskeletal disorders that affected pianists at the time. These disorders were attributed to poor playing skills. It was also revealed that recovery or relief was realized when a pianist understood and followed the rules. In fact, following the coordinated motions rules enabled pianists who were previously injured to achieve more prowess and skill mastery than before they experienced the injury.

In her revelation, a pianist finds relaxation after using the right motions. This does not hamper the ability of a player to resume since the right motions have already been ingrained. In her conclusion, it is correct diagnosis that solves technical problems other than extended practice. As such, students find challenges not because they are less talented but because they lack knowledge of the correct technique.




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