Do Some People Not Have to Practice?

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin, this is LivingPianos.com. The question today is, are there some people who just don't have to practice? They can just play? It seems that way a lot of times. And as a matter of fact, there's a whole bunch of people out there who are trying to prove how great they are by acting as if they don't have to practice.

But is that really true? Are there some people who just don't have to practice? You know, it's funny, I was just listening to a podcast today of Evgeny Kisen. One of the questions was, how much did he practice as a kid? And truth be known, as a kid he didn't practice very much and didn't really have to. He could kind of pick things up pretty quickly. But when he became a little bit more serious and was working on more sophisticated literature, he realized, yes, he had to practice a lot. And when you listen to Kisen, I got a chance to hear him in concert just a couple of months ago here in Cleveland at a solo recital. Yes, this man practices, believe me. So what is this about people who say they don't practice? My wife in New York did a lot of gigs, she's a flutist and played with all kinds of groups. And oftentimes she'd be at a rehearsal and they'd hand out all the music to everybody in an orchestra. And then when the rehearsal was over and the concert was maybe in a couple of days, a lot of people, especially like the Juilliard students would go, I don't need the music. And they'd leave it on the stand as if they don't have to practice. It's too easy, they don't need to practice. Well, Florence, she'd take the music, she had no bones about preparing.

Could she have winged it? Of course she could, she was able to play the rehearsal.

But that comfort level you get when you practice makes it so much more enjoyable. Why be on the edge of your seat struggling to get everything perfect when you can just enjoy it? So people will pretend that they don't have to practice. And a lot of those Juilliard students probably went to the library, got the scores out so they can go in there super prepared, look like they're just geniuses who don't have to practice. I don't know whether to psych people out to make them feel like they're not worthy, maybe they'll give up because they go, oh man, they don't even have to practice and I'm practicing hours a day. I don't know what the motivation is. I've got a personal story now and I'm not going to mention this concert pianist's name, but this is really shameful. We were at an in -home concert and this was down in San Diego, very, very accomplished pianist, a young guy and he was playing all kinds of music and it was great and then later he was talking about that he didn't really have to practice very much, really. He said yes, he could just read music and he could learn it. And sure enough he took this extremely difficult transcription, something that you wouldn't think anybody would know.

Somebody's had it and he goes, oh can I see this? And he acted as if he never saw it before and he went through and read through it and he read through it really on a concert level and then he said he gets into such a mode of concentration that it's so intense that that's how he learns his music, that he loves to play for people and read it and that experience is such an amazing experience of concentration that he just learns it and took the music away and he started from the beginning and sure enough he was able to play it from memory after just reading it one time. I was blown away. As a matter of fact my whole idea of music and what's possible in the world flashed in front of me and it was like I couldn't even get this out of my head. I remember talking to friends about this and it's like what are we doing? People could just do this. Well you know what? I went on his website and there was that piece in his repertoire on his website. I went oh my god I was duped. I really believed him. About the next day by the way it was wiped from his website. It wasn't on there anymore but he didn't get it quick enough.

I saw the game he played and I was really disappointed in him that he would stoop to such a thing to try to make him look so great, odd enough to practice. Later on I discovered oh yeah he practiced a great deal. I knew people who knew him and he would practice hours and hours a day. So no everybody has to practice. Don't believe the nonsense of there are people who could just play at a high level without working. It doesn't happen. It's a myth perpetuated by people who want to seem like they're super human in their talents. I practice and I'm proud of it and if you also practice and you're proud of it leave it there in the comments at LivingPianos.com and we'll keep working and improving our playing and expanding our repertoire and enjoying the process and making performance effortless. That's what it's all about and if you're interested in this sort of thing check out in the description. You can have a strategy session with me if you're interested in getting your playing on a higher level. Thanks for joining me again. I'm Robert Estrin, LivingPianos.com your online piano resource. We'll see you next time.

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