Touching With the Mind

SEP 24, 2012:  Learning the score of a piece of piano music away from the instrument is the quickest way to really learn where the notes are, there's no question about it.  Otherwise, you're trying to learn by touch.  But it's the mind that comes first, then the fingers.

The problem with learning the notes away from the instrument is that it takes a lot of concentrated thought.  There aren't too many people who can sit there hour after hour and learn the notes and the patterns.  You have to pause a lot, because memory and abstract concepts are involved.  And then you have to imagine touching the instument while you read.  But often enough the touch you finally do produce on the instrument after this is much more pleasing than the kind of touch you improvise at the instrument while learning the notes straight off the page.

The other way, just learning it from the score directly to the instrument, involves a lot of fumbling that you can do without if you get all that organized away from the instrument.  You also find that you remember more of where the notes are and what comes after what if you simply get that stuff done at a desk.

But learning away from the instrument has its drawbacks. It's possible to underestimate a technical difficulty while sitting there reading.  However, with time your judgement is likely to improve.  I think the best places to learn away from the instrument are the tricky ones.  It's nice to really know and conceptualize those places that would be so draining to the mind and fingers if you're reading the music while playing----and get them worked out before you sit down to play.