So, the information in Phil Best's Play Piano Fluently method isn't the kind of information that can be absorbed simply by reading or watching. You have to not just read and watch the instructions, but you have to "do the work" as instructed. By "doing the work," I've found that instruction that might "seem" understandable on first blush or listen can actually change in my mind. Something will "click" as the work is being done. This has happened a couple of times since the last blog post. I believe that this "discovery" way of learning is far more effective than trying to nail down an exact meaning by pestering the teacher.
The course is ingeniously laid out in 15 steps, each step building upon previous steps. I'm currently forging ahead to Step 3, and have had a few epiphanies during the past couple of weeks. (If you'd like a summary of the steps, you'll probably need to purchase the course. It's very affordable).
Play Piano Fluently is built upon awareness techniques. For Step 2, I've begun to use "listening awareness"--pretty much a hyper-conscious real-time awareness of what sounds are being made by the keyboard. This allows me to feel the rhythm cells I'm playing and know exactly what they are in terms of musical vocabulary. (For a definition of "rhythm cells," you can peruse Phil's site). Previously, I'd been trying to use a "visual awareness" or some other cue to keep track of the rhythm cells.
The second epiphany just happened yesterday, and I'm even more excited about it... because it opened up Play Piano Fluently's Step 3.
You don't have to learn how to "touch your nose." You should be able to do it without looking. Likewise, if trying to become a fluent pianist, one needs to have a similar relationship with the keyboard. Previously, I had been trying to generate or keep a visual of a small section of the keyboard in my mind's eye and then try to "see" where my playing finger was in that. Too complicated and missed the point. I just needed to realize that the piano keyboard "block of keys" I was concerned with was stationary... in other words... not moving and right in front of me--just like my nose is right where I left it. I was supposed to be able to start anywhere within that particular "block of keys" and know where I was.
Now, the words to get me to practice like that were all available in Phil's course. Everything to get me to think like that and practice like that was there. Only, I interpreted what was written as a sort of need to see something in my mind's eye. Without the "stationary" idea... the idea that the things I'm interacting with are not moving... nothing was "clicking" in my head. Yet, much like the picture of the two silhouettes facing each other that look like a vase when you switch perspectives, I didn't see it that way.
Now that I understand what Phil was getting at, I'm confidently practicing away and feeling that I'm making some really good progress. I don't need to visualize my nose to touch it; I don't need to visualize blocks of keys to play them. I just need to know "where they are" and have my fingers and hands know this as instantly as they know where my nose is. And it's easy--because the keys are right where I left them.
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