#1 The Reality of Failure

An Open Letter to My Children

Now that you are well on your way into adulthood, I would like to take a moment to share some thoughts with you. I have enjoyed those many occasions when you have come on your own to seek my counsel, what parent wouldn’t! However, I think there are some things I would like to share with you which transcend those issues we have talked about from time to time.

The one constant I know you will face throughout your life, since you are MY children and I can see already how you have modeled your own life after the example your Mom and I have set, is that you will fail often and even spectacularly many times throughout your life. Many of your peers and even other family members will not experience the level of failure you will get to enjoy because most will never choose to live life in the deliberate and goal oriented manner you have chosen.

As I am sure you know, every year starting in mid-December through early January I spend a considerable amount of time reviewing the previous year and planning the next year. If you looked at the records I have kept for most of the past 25 years (which you never will get to see) you will notice right away how badly I have done year after year in meeting my goals. You could rightly say I have failed in just about every endeavor I have undertaken. However, the irony is that despite missing most of my goals, I have accomplished more than I could ever have dreamed.

The best part of failure is that you will very seldom fail utterly. Each goal you set, each project you start will, by the very act of pursuing it, will take you further down the road of life than if you had done nothing. Even failing spectacularly often result in the important lessons on what NOT to do in the future and what maybe what to do next time.

And there will always be a next time. You must always be planning your next endeavor. It is very easy to wallow in self pity when you have the wind knocked out of you. If you stay there long enough you may never get up again.

The vast majority of people tolerate failure long enough to find a place where they can coast through the rest of their life. What a mediocre way to live! It is better to seek out challenges which push you to grow, accept each set back, and then… “wait upon the LORD (who) shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (One of our favorite verses.)

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com



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Rule #9 Listen in Depth

Back in my student days it was a cumbersome or nearly impossible to listen to different interpretations of a work one right after the other. The school library may have a few duplicate recordings but not many. Today you can hear dozens of different renditions on uTube of just about anything. Try this exercise: Listen to the first minute of a work played by four or five different musicians. Do it again and this time observe the different details of tempo, dynamics, articulation. Observe how the music changes as these details are changed. How does tempo change the character of the melody? How does the articulation change your focus of attention? Is there a counter melody somewhere in the accompaniment? How does this affect the texture? A great piece of music cannot be played fully all at once; it contains more material than can be brought out in a single performance. Learning to listen below the surface can open a whole new horizon of understanding.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com



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Dear ANR

“I have been told by me teacher that I should only use a tuner who uses a tuning machine and I have been told by another person that I should only use a tuner who tunes by ear. What is the truth?” Pat

This is a great question.

Here is one way to consider the answer. I play a great sounding 7’ Steinway and Sons grand piano that I rebuilt to my own specifications. It has a huge bass and clear treble. Now, with this tool, I can play beautiful music effortlessly and I will never make a mistake. Right? Of course not! The piano is simply a tool, a very good one, but still a tool, just like a hammer. It is up to the user to use the tool adequately and with skill to be successful.

Whether a piano tuner uses a Electronic Tuning Device (ETD) or they tune with only their own ears and mind, their success has less to do with the tool they use than the skill they bring to the tool. I have seen tuners who were using an ETD execute a beautiful stable tuning and others who I wished they hadn’t touched my pianos. I was left wondering if they actually listened to the mess they made of the tuning.

The same goes for aural tuners. Virgil Smith was one of the finest aural tuners I have ever met; people would fly him all over the country to tune their pianos. Other aural tuners would be better off with an EDT. It is more important to check the tuner’s skill and experience than to look for any particular tool in their tool box.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com



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Commandment #7 Thou Shalt Not Say “Can’t”

This is the most destructive word which can ever be uttered! It is forbidden in my studio for it is a lie. Unless you are missing a finger or a hand, you most certainly can, you just need some help and time. “Can’t” means I quit and accept failure; it is a statement of finality.

Another word which will get my ire is: “try”. In the words of the great philosopher Yoda, “Do or do not, there is no try.” “Try” implies “I expect to fail.” What a self-fulfilling prophesy! It is much better to say: “I will do this!” and then determine what must be done to succeed. If you decide that the cost of “doing” is too great then you can decide to “do not”. The use of these simple words changes our focus from anticipated success to expected failure.

While this does not guarantee success it certainly increases the chances of success and it makes us much more uplifting and encouraging people to be around.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com



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Rule # 8 Distributed Work

We have all been guilty of trying to cram for a test, or writing a paper the night before it is due. What is the usual outcome? Not good! The human mind needs time to fully absorb new information, neurological pathways take time to form and become stable. Part of becoming a professional musician is the ability to absorb and perform music in as short of a time as possible. However this ability is really a reflection of solid earlier study which created a broad familiarity with a particular type of music. Taking time to carefully learn something new, giving yourself time to revisit the material many times over many days or months is the surest way to fully absorb and integrate this new material.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com



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Journey Interrupted Update #3

As I waited for my left hand to heal from surgery, I took the opportunity to explore the very limited literature for the right hand alone. There has been very little ever written for just the right hand at the piano. However I did find one interesting nugget. Charles Alkan wrote a series of Etudes in his Op. 76. The first one is for the left hand, the second is for the right hand, and the final is for the hands reunited. These are substantial works with the Right Hand Etude running about 24 pages. It is written in a theme and variation format. It has the expected Alkan challenges but sits very well in the hand.

For therapeutic purposes I have returned to playing the 15 Two Part Inventions of Bach. One of the most interesting editions of these and the Three Part Sinfonias is the Alfred Edition with Willard Palmer as the editor. As part of the preface of each set, Mr. Palmer produces a chart of about 15 different performances, editions, and commentaries’ tempos. For most of the works there is about a 100% difference between the fastest and slowest tempos. As an initial part of my rehabilitation I am exploring how to create effective interpretations at the slower tempos. As my hand improves I will move to the other side of the scale and explore the changes which occur in the character of these pieces as their tempos increase.

One aspect of much of Bach’s music which has always fascinated me has been the flexibility of his music to make sense at a wide variety of tempos. There is content within every note such that even pieces which are traditionally played very fast such as the 4th invention in d minor can be played quite expressively at a slow tempo as well.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com



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Rule #7 The KISS Principle

One of my favorite rules is: Keep It Simple Stupid! I am often guilty of analyzing a passage or even a written performance instruction to death.

This also reminds us that simplicity is the beginning of expression. We should project the central idea or line and then all else becomes secondary. Playing too many important things makes for a cacophonous mess, or is simply a case of lazy playing. Think about the single most important element and make sure that is clear first.

Many editors also will suggest elaborate fingering schemes which add unnecessary layers of difficulty to otherwise simple passages. I am not nearly smart enough to remember all of this fancy finger dancing so I always choose simple, easy to remember fingering patterns.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com

 



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Commandment #6 Thou Shalt Concentrate at all Times

Technical facility is only developed with repetition, sometimes massive amounts of repetition. And here lies the problem. It is very easy to let the mind wander far afield as we slug through the 20th or 30th repetition of some passage. On a certain level mechanical facility is only arrived at when conscious control has faded far into the back ground. A certain degree of “mindlessness” is our goal. But this is not a time for day dreaming, but rather a stepping back and becoming mindful of a higher level of activity. As mastery is achieved incrementally, you become aware of a larger context. You fit the details into the larger context of the phrase or series of phrases.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com

 



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Commandment #5 Thou Shalt Practice Every Day

While this might be self evident to those of us who have made daily practice a life time discipline, we shouldn’t assume everybody shares our understanding of its importance.

In the studio of a client of mine there is a poster showing the difference in how long it takes to do 100 hours of practice. At 5 minutes a day, or 30 minutes a week, it takes 4 years to practice 100 hours, but 30 minutes a day it only takes 9 months to do the same work.

Cognitive scientists can also demonstrate the greater learning efficiency which occurs to more substantial study periods done on a very regular basis. The 30 minute per day practicing student will actually accomplish 5 or 6 times as much learning with the same total time invested as the 30 minute per week student. Athletic coaches figured this out long time ago, hence the daily practices most school athletic teams employ.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com




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Me and Charley Hanon

I, like most pianists, have a long and at times sordid history with Monsieur Hanon. As I begin to rehab my left hand I thought that maybe a return to the simplicity and repetitive nature of Hanon may be just the therapy I needed to restore coordination and strength following the surgery.

Going through my filing cabinets I found my original copy of Book One of Hanon’s virtuous exercises. I was a little taken back by the dates my first teacher, Velma Snodden, (yes, the little old lady down the street) had written into the book. I had started this endeavor in my second year of lessons. Upon completion of this book with her I moved on to the unending joys of Czerny.

My next contact with dear Charles was my freshman year at college. My teacher said he preferred the “pure” technical work of Hanon to the quasi-musical works of Czerny, so back to Charley I went. Somewhere along the way I had heard it is best to play these gems in all 12 keys, and certainly you can do better than the posted speed limit of 108 to the quarter. So always being one to over-do everything, I spent my youthful energy working every one of the first 20, in all 12 keys, to the magical speed of 144 to the quarter note. Ah, the follies of youth.

I did succeed in my endeavor and in the end asked myself if it had really been worth the effort. There is no way to truly answer this question, though I think I did reach an answer because I never used them in my teaching and had never once played them again after reaching this milestone.

And now here I am in my maturity returning to Monsieur Hanon’s exercises in the hope I will be able to play again at the level I had become accustomed. The paths we take through life sometimes takes us back to where we began for the most unexpected of reasons.

Andrew Remillard
President
ANRPiano.com



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