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C. C. Chang's Piano Book
I wanted to give some background on my dad's piano practice book. My sister and I are grandstudents of Claude Debussy, and possibly great grandstudents of Franz Liszt. Our piano teacher, Mlle. Yvonne Combe, was a child prodigy who, at 16, performed Saint-Saens' concerto with Saint-Saens himself conducting the orchestra. Many of her students went on to attend Julliard or Manhattan School of Music and become concertizing artists. One was a resident artist of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, home to some of the most highly regarded thinkers of the 20th century. I started piano lessons when I was 7, and three months later entered a NJ state piano competition. I came in third place that year, and first place the year after. My little sister gave her first recital when she was 4 1/2. We almost always came in first or second place, and first, second and third place winners would perform in Carnegie Recital Hall. My dad assumed he had two little Mozarts for daughters, but you'll see in a moment that's not true at all. My dad is a retired physicist with a PhD from Cornell. He spent his entire career in the Bell Labs/Bellcore system, but as a parent, he occasionally took us to piano lessons, recorded our recitals/competitions, etc. He also plays the piano, but not as well since he didn't have the teacher we had. But after years of sitting in on our piano lessons, he decided to see if he could apply the techniques we'd learned to improve his piano playing, and it worked. He then started systematically writing down these techniques, and put this online on a webpage. He also found piano and music chat groups, and spent a lot of time researching and molding this information based on what he learned. WELL. In 2004 he got a follow up email from someone in high school. This person had stumbled on my dad's book two years ago and thought it was awesome, and took the information and looked for a piano teacher who would be willing to teach him, using the techniques in my dad's piano book. What was the end result? After three months of lessons, this guy entered a concerto competition and came in first prize! He beat out some competitors who'd been playing piano for 10 years. The judges were stunned. This guy now has a website with performances you can download. So, you see, it wasn't that sis and I were special, it's the technique that is special. Use the wrong methods and you can play an entire lifetime and get nowhere. Learn the right techniques and there's no limit to what a child might accomplish. Here's a link to my dad's book:http://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm Having a bad experience can turn someone off to music, or even learning. If you know of a child somewhere who is struggling to learn piano, please pass this link along.
Perfect Pitch
While I'm at it, I'd like to mention some of my observations on the subject of perfect pitch. Both my sister and I have (or had) perfect pitch. That was due to several factors. Genetics may have played a part, but here are other things to consider:- We not only took piano lessons, we took solfege classes, which involved sightreading, sightsinging, ear training, understanding the rhythms and timings, dictation (writing down what was played), etc. Many of the students eventually were close to having perfect pitch.
- Our dad kept our piano tuned. At the time he was a student who couldn't afford a piano tuner so he taught himself how to tune pianos.
Unified Theory of Learning?!
Here's a quick update. My dad has been getting some intriguing responses on his piano book that have nothing to do with piano. One person said this book was helping him get through college. Very often schools teach you things, but not how to learn. A painter wrote to him and said this book applies to him as well, he reads it and then translates it to his business. And other similar comments, which makes sense, because there are general principles everyone applies, whether they realize it or not, to learning, problem solving, critical thinking, etc. Maybe my dad has finally put some flesh on a unified theory of learning?
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