Why Difficult Music Isn’t Always the Best Teacher
1. Difficulty
There are some types of players (myself included when I was learning) who attempt to make big jumps in piano progress by attempting difficult pieces. The belief is usually something like: “If I just have the willpower, which I definitely do, if I can learn a difficult piece then I can get better at the piano so much quicker and skip playing a bunch of easy music”.
The difficulty with this is that learning the piano is not entirely made up of learning new things or making your hands do something difficult. It’s also about the level of learning that’s taking place and the skill that you are trying to acquire.
Pieces of music that are potentially above the optimal level for you often give the illusion of productivity because you will be able to slowly but surely work your way through the piece. However, it also disregards what learning an instrument actually is.
Here’s an example to illustrate the problem:
Imagine you were trying to learn a new language. Now imagine you try to learn that language by reading a piece of Shakespeare in that language because Shakespeare has a wide range of vocabulary and if you can just work your way through it then you will have learned the language. Well…yes and no. There is no doubt that you will pick up some of the vocabulary from context, but the rules of the language will be very loose and you likely won’t know how to use the language in everyday life at all.
Difficulty alone doesn’t determine whether you are able to gain a lot from the music, but rather the knowledge and ability you have coming into that piece of music and what your approach is, does. For many pieces of music (without a teacher who is able to walk you through what you are seeing), you will likely be reduced to only focusing on getting through it and pressing the right keys.
2. Learning
There is a concept in language learning called “noticing”, which was introduced by someone called Richard Schmidt. I’m not entirely sure why this needed to be a formal language term when it is clearly a term used in everyday English. However, “noticing” in language learning is “the conscious process of registering specific linguistic features, forms, or grammar structures when reading or listening for them to become intake for acquisition.”
Essentially, in the world of “comprehensible input” (which is a language acquisition technique where you listen and read a lot), the content needs to be at a level where you are able to “notice” what is happening in a meaningful way to acquire the structures and words. If a piece of content is too difficult, you won’t be able to notice anything in a meaningful way because there are too many things to notice and you maybe aren’t aware of what to notice.
This concept is also largely true for music. If you are attempting to play a piece of music at a level where you aren’t able to “notice” things (chords, scales, phrasing, tone, technical movements, balance etc.) then the learning that you can take from that music is going to be quite limited. Much of your time might be taken up with just trying to read notes or with physically trying to get your hands to do what you want them to.
To some extent a teacher may be able to alleviate this for you by pointing out some of those potential things to notice. However, if there are too many things within a piece of music, it can still limit the “a-ha!” moments that you feel from seeing the true impact of a concept within the music.
Essentially, if a piece is too difficult it becomes a game of survival and you aren’t able to notice anything. Whereas a piece that is challenging and introduces a limited number of new concepts enables you to “notice” those concepts and really learn from them.
3. Balance
That isn’t to say that difficulty doesn’t have any value at all. Difficult music can stretch you and highlight weaknesses. It will be difficult to learn how to play a technically challenging piece without noticing what technical challenges you are having. However, music that is n+1 (n being your current level, +1 being just above your current level) allows you to consolidate and apply the skills you have already while also accumulating new skills in a meaningful way.
Players that improve quickly tend to spend the vast majority of their time playing music that allows them to think, experiment and listen in a way that passes to long-term memory. Whereas those that learn pieces way beyond their understanding tend to improve their technique at a similar rate to those learning n+1 pieces but develop a large gap in their understanding of the music.
So, the real key is to balance your approach. It’s ok to reach for difficult pieces that keep you motivated, but if you want to be a well-rounded and quick-learning musician, try to balance your playing between: easy pieces that let you just play, challenging pieces that let you learn and hard pieces that motivate you.
Matt
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