In the Olympiad era, bespectacled piano teachers and their students are assumed to be lockouts, pouring over eclectic music manuscripts in sheltered studios of higher learning. We’re viewed as eternal bench-warmers, leading sedentary lives; practicing archaic music for hours at a time in a monastic rhythm.
But these are missperceptions.
Most pianists are members of the piano gym club, training day in and day out to master complex motor movements and feats of coordination that rival the rigorous prep of elite Olympic athletes.
For example, try playing a perfectly smooth and sculpted A Major Scale in crisp soft staccato, without a note popping out among 64 ascending and descending in rapid speed.
Mental image assist: the “trampoline effect.”
Maybe it’s not the same as climbing a ski slope, and then heading downhill at 150 miles an hour, but just the same, tackling a scale or arpeggio at max tempo, can…
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