At 02:49 PM 6/22/00 -0700, you wrote:
...>How long would it take the average, dedicated (let's
>say an hour of practice a day) adult (with no prior
>piano skills) to learn how to play through your
>average Verdi piano reduction score? Two years? Ten
>years?
I would think: two years to be able to play it through, mostly a tempo,
but much longer to be able to do so fluently and learn a vocal part at the
same time. Rough estimate based on my own experience.
>Like many singers, my ear is developed enough so that
>I can listen to a recording of an opera three times
>through, and be able to sing the part. Obviously,
>there is a stigma attached to this, akin to the "dumb
>singer" who needs a repetiteur.
This is amazing, if you can sing it from memory that is. If you can sing a
role after 3 hearings you should have no trouble finding work. Also, music
is sound -those dots and squiggles are but an approximate plan - so so long
as you can form your own conception based on hearing I would be pleased.
However I have heard many cases where it is obvious which recordings a
singer has been listening to - I heard a soprano on the radio a few days
ago whose Faure owed as much to her admirable Dutch exemplar as to the
composer; a singer here did Strauss with Schwarzkopf's phrasing and
portamenti, but not, unfortunately, her pronunciation. I could go on with
examples which show that singers use recordings even more than they ought
to get not only the notes and such but even interpretative ideas, so, in
the vords of Bela Lugosi, "Bevare, bevare!"
I was going to send a long post about my own piano experience yesterday
and decided it would be no use to anyone! Oh well, the besic point was that
with only ten minutes a day, after a year I felt much more comfortable with
the instrument, and could use it as a tool and at least get the gist of
accompaniments. I mostly practiced sight-reading, which should be done
slowly, so that you actually learn, but occasionally you can try picking
out what you can, while goaded by a metronome. I picked ten minutes,
because it was easier to slot it in, and daily frequency is more valuable
than longer periods less frequently.
I was also going to suggest using MIDI accompaniments, either of your own
construction, or downloaded from internet sites, which, however, tend to
shy away from anything recent enough to still be under copyright. When I
give people my own compositions to work on I make such things available
along with score and/or parts, and I expect composers will increasingly
employ such means. It is certainly reasonable to ask of them, especially if
there is anything unusual or counter-intuitive in their idiom.
john
> like unconscious imitation
>-- even if you listen to three different recordings.
>And, of course, then you're stuck when it comes to
>world premiers, obscure and unrecorded repertoire or
>art songs, and the like. But is it practical to
>expect to be able to gain that level of piano
>proficiency as an adult? Does anyone know what a
>reasonable time frame would be for that?
>
>Isabelle B.
>
>=====
>Isabelle Bracamonte
>San Francisco, CA
>ibracamonte@y...
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>
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John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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