Another trend that bothers me, which I fortunately haven't seen in my feed for a while: the contest of who can play such-and-such difficult piece at the earliest age. "10 year old plays Scarbo!", etc. IMO music should be a form of expression, not just a competition...
This is very accurate. I don't know when this stupid trend of "comparing" music happened. Classical piano has recently become infested with these people trying to put a "rank" on pieces or picking pieces depending on their percieved notoriety. It's so unbearably shallow and childlike, I completely avoid any piano communities and try not to read comments on classical pieces nowadays. Avoiding light show pianists and those click-baity channels is step 0. My guess is that this garbage started with the "light show pianists" on youtube. Each playing the most generic overplayed "difficult" pieces leading to a very narrow view of classical piano music. (Of course it's been proven, thanks to your great work, that even those weren't actually played, but rather sped up). But also it could just be the huge inflow of young new piano learners looking for the "most hard sounding" piece, as they usually do. It's a stretch to expect them to look for anything other than which youtuber plays moonlight sonata the fastest, or who played some obscure piece the best. Please never stop making these videos. The truth needs to be said!!
You are completely right. Nowadays people spend more time focusing on comparing how difficult a piece is, rather than comprehend the TRUE story behind every composer work. When we get in that mindset we can study that piece in an "easier" way, and spread a message to the listener, but of course there are many pieces that requires a good technique. We are very lucky to live in a period where we have FREE access to many interpretations on UA-cam of classical pieces, and I love hearing all the difference of those, without the need to find the "perfect" one, because it will never exist 😅. Giving musical pieces a difficulty is really subjective, it depends from the capabilities of the musicians regarding technique, dynamics and so on.. The most important thing is to never forget that music is something to enjoy and we don't need to be so harsh by label every piece. Thanks for this great video, keep it up ! 🙌🏻.
Bullshit. Don Juan is more difficult than Norma. Joking aside, I think that people are so obsessed by difficulty because they assume that someone who plays a difficult piece could perfectly play all the easier pieces, without realizing that to play even Fur Elise perfectly well, you need to be on the level of a professional pianist.
Yes I agree with everything in the video, well said. Another thing I think that is getting a bit out of control is the way how some people keep trying to say "Oh, XXX is the best, YYY's interpretation is terrible," sometimes these opinions feel like, even if it is just a personal preference, they feel like as if they were meant to genuinely discredit or defame an artist. I think playing piano takes a lot of skill and dedication, and that everyone is unique, hence there shouldn't be a definitive correct way of playing that everyone must try to reach. This is one of the other things that I feel frustrated about the classical music community(especially the piano community), is that we always compare to see who is the best, and whoever is not, I've seen a lot of people call them trash even though pretty much all of us are worse than those performers. I love your videos about technique, but I also like these type of short talk videos, it really helps address some issues within the community that I feel myself. Also, please forgive me but "top 10 hardest piano pieces" videos are addicting to watch when I'm bored
I think you're missing the purpose of these kind of rankings. When I look up "[composer]'s [type of piece]s ranked by difficulty", what I'm really looking for are recommendations. I'm trying to answer a question like "I've never played a Chopin etude, which ones should I try first?" or "Now that I've learned Beethoven's sonata op. 26 to my satisfaction, which one should I tackle next?" Difficulty rankings answer both of these types of questions.
I dont mean videos that are trying to help out people who want to find their right piece,I'm talking about videos that purely focus on "what's the hardest piano piece" and "which one is harder, this or this". Comparing the hardest Liszt piece with the hardest Alkan or Sorabji or whoever, isnt going to help out anyone.
I’ve noticed you talk about playing a piece “convincingly” in a number of videos (for example, “but can you play a convincing second movement?”). What does that mean exactly? Could you possibly do a video on this topic?
Hasn't it been this way for a long time already? I remember having the same thought regarding piano playing "as a sport" maybe 15 years ago. All the same, I really wish the trend would end.
That's so funny, I always thought the Tech in PianoTechSupport stood for Technology. So I naturally assumed you were reaching new piano audiences using technology...? Doesn't make much sense come to think of it now tho😅
Another trend that bothers me, which I fortunately haven't seen in my feed for a while: the contest of who can play such-and-such difficult piece at the earliest age. "10 year old plays Scarbo!", etc. IMO music should be a form of expression, not just a competition...
This is very accurate. I don't know when this stupid trend of "comparing" music happened. Classical piano has recently become infested with these people trying to put a "rank" on pieces or picking pieces depending on their percieved notoriety. It's so unbearably shallow and childlike, I completely avoid any piano communities and try not to read comments on classical pieces nowadays. Avoiding light show pianists and those click-baity channels is step 0.
My guess is that this garbage started with the "light show pianists" on youtube. Each playing the most generic overplayed "difficult" pieces leading to a very narrow view of classical piano music. (Of course it's been proven, thanks to your great work, that even those weren't actually played, but rather sped up).
But also it could just be the huge inflow of young new piano learners looking for the "most hard sounding" piece, as they usually do. It's a stretch to expect them to look for anything other than which youtuber plays moonlight sonata the fastest, or who played some obscure piece the best.
Please never stop making these videos. The truth needs to be said!!
You are completely right.
Nowadays people spend more time focusing on comparing how difficult a piece is, rather than comprehend the TRUE story behind every composer work.
When we get in that mindset we can study that piece in an "easier" way, and spread a message to the listener, but of course there are many pieces that requires a good technique.
We are very lucky to live in a period where we have FREE access to many interpretations on UA-cam of classical pieces, and I love hearing all the difference of those, without the need to find the "perfect" one, because it will never exist 😅.
Giving musical pieces a difficulty is really subjective, it depends from the capabilities of the musicians regarding technique, dynamics and so on..
The most important thing is to never forget that music is something to enjoy and we don't need to be so harsh by label every piece.
Thanks for this great video, keep it up ! 🙌🏻.
Bullshit. Don Juan is more difficult than Norma.
Joking aside, I think that people are so obsessed by difficulty because they assume that someone who plays a difficult piece could perfectly play all the easier pieces, without realizing that to play even Fur Elise perfectly well, you need to be on the level of a professional pianist.
Fool, clearly Lucrezia is the superior
Yes I agree with everything in the video, well said. Another thing I think that is getting a bit out of control is the way how some people keep trying to say "Oh, XXX is the best, YYY's interpretation is terrible," sometimes these opinions feel like, even if it is just a personal preference, they feel like as if they were meant to genuinely discredit or defame an artist. I think playing piano takes a lot of skill and dedication, and that everyone is unique, hence there shouldn't be a definitive correct way of playing that everyone must try to reach. This is one of the other things that I feel frustrated about the classical music community(especially the piano community), is that we always compare to see who is the best, and whoever is not, I've seen a lot of people call them trash even though pretty much all of us are worse than those performers.
I love your videos about technique, but I also like these type of short talk videos, it really helps address some issues within the community that I feel myself.
Also, please forgive me but "top 10 hardest piano pieces" videos are addicting to watch when I'm bored
I think you're missing the purpose of these kind of rankings. When I look up "[composer]'s [type of piece]s ranked by difficulty", what I'm really looking for are recommendations. I'm trying to answer a question like "I've never played a Chopin etude, which ones should I try first?" or "Now that I've learned Beethoven's sonata op. 26 to my satisfaction, which one should I tackle next?" Difficulty rankings answer both of these types of questions.
I dont mean videos that are trying to help out people who want to find their right piece,I'm talking about videos that purely focus on "what's the hardest piano piece" and "which one is harder, this or this". Comparing the hardest Liszt piece with the hardest Alkan or Sorabji or whoever, isnt going to help out anyone.
I’ve noticed you talk about playing a piece “convincingly” in a number of videos (for example, “but can you play a convincing second movement?”). What does that mean exactly? Could you possibly do a video on this topic?
Great video!
I really agree with your point.
Question: I want to start learning Chopin études, which one I start from?
"Can you play rush e?"
great video! :)
Hasn't it been this way for a long time already? I remember having the same thought regarding piano playing "as a sport" maybe 15 years ago. All the same, I really wish the trend would end.
That's so funny, I always thought the Tech in PianoTechSupport stood for Technology. So I naturally assumed you were reaching new piano audiences using technology...? Doesn't make much sense come to think of it now tho😅
fr
Noice
You are only posting this because you cant play Liszt ballade 2 ;)