Artist/Educator Archive Interview - Randall Scott Faber

I was intrigued by the challenge. As a child, I loved being able to conquer piece after piece. In making a career decision, I chose music because it offers a lifetime of artistic and intellectual challenge.

I had one teacher for the first ten years of study, which is quite atypical. Her name was Lucille Dinsmore. Though I didn’t recognize it in my youth, I owe much of my motivation and discipline to her influence. Musically, the artistic and aesthetic sensitivities of Charles Fisher and Eugene Bossart at The University of Michigan School of Music transformed my playing.

I am in love with sound in relation to the feel of the keyboard. I become absorbed with the subtleties of musical color and nuance. The most satisfying part of teaching is helping the student to perceive and to communicate these expressive possibilities.

The dropout rate for second and third years of piano study was untenable, even embarrassing for our profession. Students were attracted to the music of their peers, but did not relate to pieces in the prevailing methods. Nancy and I, together with our publisher, addressed this problem by writing the PreTime to BigTime Piano Library, which offers students fun, recognizable pieces at the appropriate level of difficulty. Meanwhile, we continued to test the pieces in Piano Adventures for broad student appeal. While the issues of motivation were paramount, we were also concerned that many piano students failed to become confident readers. We wanted students to have the theory skills and creative opportunities of a multi-key approach, but without compromising reading skill. The available methods typically espoused a single approach to reading. We took a composite approach to ensure multiple skills were brought to bear on the reading process.

In many ways, all students are self-taught in that real progress at the piano comes during the practice session, through the student’s perception and reflection. On the other hand, it would be cavalier and perhaps a bit foolish not to avail oneself of another’s experience and expertise. It is inefficient to learn solely on one’s own. As an adolescent, I was a self-taught pop musician. If I had found a teacher of this style, I would have saved hundreds of hours of rather useless repetition. To exemplify how one can "dead-end" on one’s own, I’ll share a story from my experience. At age fifteen I attempted to read several college music theory texts in order to improve my pop playing. You can imagine my frustration in trying to apply the rules of 18^th century counterpoint to the pop styles of the 1960s and 70s! A teacher can prevent this sort of confusion and quickly move one out of a rut.

A most common problem is the tense or locked wrist. A pianist must use the wrist to shape the musical phrase. Technical gesture for the purpose of musical expression is good policy and good prevention.

Avoid practicing on an out-of-tune piano. This is just as important for the beginning student. Avoid tackling major pieces from the repertoire too soon. Stretch the runway a bit for technical development, musical maturing, and for continued reading skill.

Learn your music theory well and work to understand its application in the pieces you play.

Put the student first. Build competence and self esteem; not competence at the expense of self-esteem. We don’t know what role music will play in the student’s life. Let’s not assume professional goals, and yet, let’s not rule out the possibility.

Test your material in your own studio. If it doesn’t work with your own students, no publisher will want it. If your students love the material and it fills a need, it deserves to be published.

American society places too much importance on the word professional and an unfortunate connotation for the word amateur. A professional practices art for money; the amateur out of love (amour). Isn’t the latter more admirable? Let’s learn to respect the amateur. However, if you are really good and you cannot live without making music, then consider becoming a professional musician. This was the advice composer Ross Lee Finney gave Nancy.

A successful musician is one who can play the style of music he or she desires, and can do so for the enjoyment of others. A successful music educator is one who helps another get there. Once this basic success is achieved, new goals are always set regardless of one’s level of advancement.

We live in a world of competition—competition for ideas, customers, and attention. It is no wonder that the arts are also highly competitive. Nonetheless, I personally feel competitions are over-emphasized. They certainly have motivational value for some students. Unfortunately, they are motivational primarily for the winners. That leaves a majority feeling left behind or left out. We have to keep in mind that students differ in personality. Some thrive in a competitive arena; others abhor even the concept. I had a very talented student quit lessons when I recommended that she compete. She didn’t want to "beat" anyone. Another student with exceptional pianistic skill could never take a prize because he was always entering high-profile competitions. The competitions demoralized him and he stopped working hard. For those who wish to compete, an appropriate and well-timed competition can provide an incentive for hard work, acknowledgement for achievement, and a selection process for an arena that offers little job opportunity.

I treasure a beautifully played moment in the cadenza of Beethoven’s 1st Piano Concerto, when the student performer completely captured the essence and pacing of a soft transitional passage. When the student replicated it in competition and then on stage, I felt fully rewarded. My worst teaching experience was hearing the mayor’s daughter tell me in her lesson that I didn’t have to be mean just because she was slow. That was a turning point for me in understanding the purpose of the piano lesson, and the importance of the teacher-student interaction.

I once played a recital in which I felt I had transcended time during a Mozart Sonata. It was as if I could slow or speed time itself, thus allowing complete control of every articulated passage. It was a unique metaphysical and artistic experience that I only had once. My worst performing experience was getting caught in a memory loop in the final movement of the Chopin B Minor Sonata. The fourth movement has a relentless, perpetual-motion character. It was terrifying to be falling into literal perpetual motion. I was slightly comforted to learn years later that the esteemed pianist and teacher Adele Marcus suffered the same experience with the same piece.

I think we will see a large-scale surge of interest in acoustic musical instruments in the next few decades as a retreat from ever-present technology. Teachers can share with students their enthusiasm for the enveloping sound of vibrating strings. By providing a quality grand piano at the lesson, the teacher draws the student toward such appreciation. My hometown of Grand Rapids has a wonderful old performance hall with Steinway grand pianos in the ballrooms and auditorium. The opportunity to play frequently on these beautiful instruments in these grand halls had a strong influence on me in my formative years. A student needs to experience the sense of power, control of sound, and beauty that the piano possesses. My advice to teachers is to build strong local music organizations and take your students to piano concerts and recitals. Also, use any student interest in popular music to increase motivation to play. Most students will want to move into more complex music as their skill develops.

I like different pianists for different repertoire. I appreciate Paul Badura Skoda and Andreas Schiff for Bach because of their clarity of line and reserved interpretations. Mitsuko Akida’s Mozart is magical with her subtle treatment of the small phrases. Murray Perahia plays Schubert with such clarity of tone that one senses perfection. I like the emotional temperament of Ashkenazy on Beethoven over the oft-favored intellectual interpretations. On the other hand, I prefer Pollini on Chopin to the early 20^th century romantic stylists like Artur Rubenstein. That, of course, is just personal taste, and many may disagree.

We need to give more live performances that children can easily attend. Bringing students to live classical performances is crucial. The concert hall experience produces an emotional response that a recording alone cannot. I am moved when young students visit backstage after a recital with a glow of enthusiasm on their face.

Teach 45-minute lessons instead of 30-minute lessons. You’ll get better results and you will need the time to do a good job. Don’t push to produce music majors and don’t treat your students as if all will become music majors. Respect the uniqueness of the individual’s life, interests, and abilities. Work hard to build the individual’s competence, and do so without comparisons. Your music majors will emerge, but more importantly, hundreds of your students will be enriched by music and the learning skills that develop.

I always love seeing the student’s joy in receiving a new book and moving to the next level. The greatest frustration is the difficulty of maintaining enthusiasm when facing long hours of teaching.

Studio teaching is a lonely activity. Teacher organizations can be a big help in providing a social forum with peers. I feel it is important that membership not be exclusionary. Teachers who have not had opportunity for advanced training should be welcomed and mentored by those more experienced. If you are, nonetheless, faced with an exclusionary situation, ask for provisional membership and work steadily at a program of continued education. Never be intimidated. Regardless of training level, you are likely to have unique qualities in your teaching that are critical for the success of certain students. Use the organizational contacts to pass along students that need a more advanced teacher. Ask for and accept referrals for those students who need your unique teaching style.