Should teachers be learning from the way piano lessons are given?

Do students learn piano pieces in the same manner they study academically? Is there anything an A-level student can learn from the way a concert pianist prepares for a performance of Beethoven`s Hammerklavier Sonata? Or are the domains of academia and music utterly incongruous, with nothing but the pithy maxim ; `work harder, and you will achieve more` being applicable to them both?

An article by Kathryn Paige in Pianist magazine suggests that there may actually be some overlap between the concert hall and the classroom. In an article entitled `Developing and maintaining repertoire,` Kathryn Paige explains how it is important for pianists to study and master a broad large range of repertoire if they wish to advance, and claims academic students may have something to learn from the way pianists study and practice.

`What happens when you learn more than one piece in a similar style and of similar technical level is interesting - your brain makes connections and links new pieces with patterns and similarities already encountered. This makes the learning process much quicker and ultimately more pleasurable too.`

It seems multiple pieces of similar levels of difficulty work through an interconnected and collaborative fashion in the mind, with techniques learnt in one piece helping the pianist overcome the technical problems of another.

`Of course there are those who are impatient and like to jump from one anthology to the more difficult one without pausing for breath. They are very similar to children who are pushed from one grade exam directly into the next by misguided parents and teachers. Ultimately it leaves the player bereft of musical background, understanding and enjoyment.`

This type of learning goes against what one might call a `Cartesian` model of mind: that when we acquire a new skill, or assimilate a new piece of knowledge, we build up and develop a discreet area of the brain that correlates with this skill or piece of knowledge. This theory of mind goes back at least as far as Rene Descartes, the seventeenth century mathematician and philosopher. Put simply, the theory states that whatever beliefs an individual can express, there exists a correlated internal representation of these beliefs in their minds.

Kathryn Paige is claiming that pianists learn in a more holistic manner, with the ability to play a specific piece made possible through the learning of many others. It`s as if the expansion of a pianist`s repertoire facilitates a shared cognitive recourse, with each piece acting as something like a battery cell. A novice with just one or two pieces under their belt will find progress difficult; ; but someone more experienced, with dozens of pieces already learnt, with have a whole powerhouse to fuel their advancement.

In many ways Kathryn Paige`s claims are not particularly novel: pianists have known for years, centuries even, that learning more pieces will improve their technique, and the mastery of certain technical problems will be beneficial to their overall performance. Piano `etudes` or `studies,` which developed during the early nineteenth century, were exercises to help the pianist overcome specific technical challenges. Composers such as Hanon and Czerny wrote many etudes, each of which would focus on a particular technical aspect of piano playing, such as rapid octaves, or chromatic runs.
For many decades this genre was rather dry and academic, and it took the genius of Frederick Chopin, the great Polish composer, to elevate the etude into an art form in its own right, capable of standing alongside the prelude, sonata, and ballade.

A more subtle aspect of Kathryn Paige`s claim is that `multiple pieces of similar levels of difficulty work in an interconnected and collaborative fashion in the mind.` This certainly feels logically sound: one would not expect the mastery of grade one pieces to provide much help during the performance of a grade eight piece.

Here the analogy between learning an instrument and learning academically can be made. As a child I had to endure weekly piano lessons - I use the verb endure deliberately, as I dreaded these music lessons, for which I possessed neither interest nor aptitude. Over the years I advanced through the grades, more through brute force learning - `practice practice practice` being the mantra in my home - than any inherent musicality on my part. It seemed that I was forever studying for the next exam, the sole purpose of my lessons being nothing more than to pass tests. By the time of each grade exam I could play the three selected pieces fairly well, but this was the limit of my repertoire, the very extent of my ability. I knew nothing but exam pieces, and even these I associated with assessment and judgement. To me the piano was a machine to pass exams, and music itself a sound form to be scrutinised by examiners. In the words of Kathryn Paige I was `bereft of musical background, understanding and enjoyment.`

I wonder if the analogy could be made between this type of musical learning, and students in the classroom. Are we just training students to pass exams, rather than instilling in them a love of knowledge, and educating them in a broader, more holistic fashion? If you teach a student to love music, they will become their own teacher; and in the same way, if you engender a passion for knowledge in a student, they will seek it out for themselves.

If we only teach students how to pass exams, we will be simply providing them with a narrow set of skills, a restricted amount of knowledge, selected according to the possibility that it will feature in a test. By teaching them in a more comprehensive manner, they will come to see the interconnections between different subjects; and in this way their knowledge will be less an isolated patchwork of different topics, and more an expansive, conceptually linked ability, which will have application outside the exam hall.

If for example a student is working towards an exam on the French revolution, their teacher could drill into them a list of dates and events, chronicling the long build up to the uprising: costly interventions in North America, a number of bad harvests, the childless marriage between Louis VI and Marie Antoinette. A sterile list of facts and dates, which the student dutifully commits to memory, in the hope that such questions will come up in the exam.
Or in addition to these important facts, the teacher could explain what a revolution means in any society, pointing out the the similarities between the events that led to the storming of the Bastille, and the English revolution of the 17th century, along with the Russian revolution of 1917. While imparting knowledge about these other key historical events, the lesson could include such diverse details as British parliament, and the music of Shostakovich.
In addition to this, the Victory of the Americans over the British in the 1760`s could be cited as a profound influence on the French revolution, and its seemingly innocuous inception - a series of punitive tax laws - would introduce an economic element into the lesson.
The metric system could also be discussed, as it was introduced during the French Revolution. Between 1789 and 1799 the revolutionaries introduced the Republican Calendar. This new time system featured 10 hour days, with 100 minutes per hour, and 100 seconds per minute. This bold chronological overhaul was intended to reduce the religious aspect of the calendar, and making it almost impossible for Catholics to keep track of Saints` days and Sundays.
The calendar did not last, but the spirit of decimalisation lives on in the new measurement system which includes the kilogram and metre.

In this manner science, music, art, mathematics, and economics can all be brought into the history lesson. In the same way a pianist`s ability is enhanced by learning many pieces, the student`s knowledge will be increased by being taught a broader array of subjects. Teaching students merely to pass exams is like giving them a torch that can generate only a narrow beam of light. By showing them the interconnections and overlaps between different subjects, they shall be empowered with the full illuminating power of knowledge.