"Seeing the Big Picture": Piano Practice as Expert Problem Solving

Experts in many fields approach a new problem by identifying the general principles involved before starting work on details. Do expert musicians similarly begin work on a new piece with the big picture, an artistic image of the piece, in mind? To find out, a concert pianist recorded her practice of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Music perception 2003-06, Vol.20 (4), p.465-490
Main Authors: Chaffin, Roger, Imreh, Gabriella, Lemieux, Anthony F., Chen, Colleen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
(ML) Music (General)
Behavior
Cues
Experiments
Focus
Learning
Memory
Music practice
Musical forms
Musical motives
Musical performance
Musical structure
Musicians
Musicians & conductors
Musicology
Pianists
Problem solving
Special Article
Tempo
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Experts in many fields approach a new problem by identifying the general principles involved before starting work on details. Do expert musicians similarly begin work on a new piece with the big picture, an artistic image of the piece, in mind? To find out, a concert pianist recorded her practice of the third movement,Presto, of J. S. Bach'sItalian Concerto, commenting as she did so about what she was doing. The behavioral record of where playing started, stopped, and slowed down indicated the musical dimensions affecting practice, while the comments indicated the main focus of the pianist's attention. An artistic image for the piece was already evident in the initial sight-read performance, guided work on technique in sessions 1-6, and was transformed into a plan for performance by practice of performance cues in sessions 7-8. Interpretive details were added in sessions 9-10 and remaining problems touched up in session 11-12. Despite its pervasive effects on practice, the pianist's artistic image was mentioned only indirectly in comments about technique in sessions 1-6 and about structure, memory, and interpretation in later sessions.
ISSN:0730-7829
1533-8312
DOI:10.1525/mp.2003.20.4.465