As long as someone can play piano, he or she is not necessarily a pianist. The way to become a professional pianist is not a simple scheme or pattern which can be used and experienced equally by every person.
I am not speaking about simple piano playing, what I often prefer to define as a pushing down of keys, depressing pedals like the accelerator of your car with a typewriter technique. Not at all.
It is very important not to strive after a quite impersonal and unattractive style of playing.
How do you consider your being a pianist?
Did you set your own mission statement about your personal musical development? If not, believe me, you should.
Unless you want to play rather for yourself in your free time and not for public.
But remember: being a pianist is only the step before you become an artist…

The interpretation: the motivic thorough-composition is hearable through a modified piano playing.
What is actually the art of the motivic thorough-composition?
Developing a theme is nothing but the quintessence of the composer´s work.
How does it happen?
No matter how often, how slowly, or fast, or even loud or soft the theme is announced, this is a very personal decision of the composer. The motif could even be the emblem, which is representing the entire musical work of the author.

Let´s draw our attention to the striking theme from Beethoven´s fifth symphony:

Score picture: Beethoven – Main theme from the Symphony No.5 Op.67- Source: Wikipedia

This is doubtless one of the most important and innovative themes in the music history. Figuring the steady fight of Beethoven against the fate, this famous opening strongly influenced the further development of the traditional sonata form.
According with insiders, the sonata form represents the central point of the [...]

This column is dedicated to extraordinary personalities of the piano world. Great pianists of the past, sometimes remembered as “Immortals” or even “Legends” will be featured on this place.
It will be different from other portraits or features about those artists, it will be more like a portrait of pianists who deeply influenced and inspired other musicians and non-musicians.
Thepianist.com starts with Glenn Gould, the eccentric Canadian pianist who certainly set a milestone in the history of the piano and pianists.
A large source of information has been written, spoken, broadcasted about Glenn Gould.
It will not be necessary to put more information about him, as it is already available. And everybody knows that there are controversial opinions about his interpretations.
Let us simply remember Glenn as someone who wanted to change the old patterns of classical music, to bring more life in the masterworks of great composers, to suggest new and original approaches to [...]

“I practice very industriously…” – Quote Ferruccio Busoni, Letters to his wife 1895-1907, London, Edward Arnold & Co. http://www.rodoni.ch/busoni/bibliotechina/letteregerdaEN/gerdaEN1.html

Do these words of Ferruccio Busoni sound familiar to you? They certainly do, especially if you are a pianist with your heart and soul like Busoni was. He was the pianists´pianist, the musicians´musician. To be as good as he was, or at least if you want to play with his virtuosity and to have a profound knowledge about piano playing, you have to do only a simple thing: practice!
Oh my God, this terribly sounding word…our teachers threatened us with it, I am sure that the more your piano teacher repeated this word during the lessons, the less you wanted to do it.
I practiced up to seven hours a day during the time of my former music education, not only because my teachers said that, but also because I felt that spending many [...]

Do you believe in coincidence? Or do you prefer to believe in a perfect master plan of the universe? Well, if you are reading this blog, it is probably not a coincidence. You just found this blog because you are making music. Maybe making music is the main component of your personal expression, maybe you are a music student, or music is your profession, either as a career or as a music teacher. Anyway, making music is the part of my life which drives me since my childhood.
Music is my life, this is the reason why I simply decided to be a pianist. But I don´t want to remain “just” a pianist.
Professional development as a pianist is as much essential as personal development in life. Remaining “just” a pianist would mean stopping at a certain stepping stone without considering a wider perspective of experience.
You should not find satisfaction as a [...]

Understanding the score: the precondition of musical interpretation
There are basically two types of musicians: the first ones declare their artistic Credo remaining true to the score, the others rather prefer to remain true to the musical masterwork. The first kind of musicians is strictly approaching the written notes. The score represents an indispensable fundament for the study and the examination of the composer´s work. To understand the composition means to capture exactly the text of the score, almost being obsessed with details. An analytic artist doesn´t question the written indications of the composer, as soon as the musical thought is put down on paper, the masterwork shows its perfection. The artist is not reflecting anymore, he just needs to achieve an accurate performance at the instrument to justify his exact study and faithfully approaching the score.
Sometimes this artist also makes use of additional helping methods for his meticulous analysis of [...]