Euphoria and the Taubman Technique
In the following YT video, Dorothy Taubman proclaims that "the feeling of playing at the keyboard should feel euphoric".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suwdLaYBaAs
I am just beginning the Tonebase course with Robert Durso, and I'm delighted that we can learn it as members.
What has your experience been with the Taubman Technique? Do you find it has affected your playing either technically or musically? Do you experience the euphoria DT speaks of whild playing?
I'm very interested in the experience of others with this method.
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I've been taking lessons with a Taubman teacher. After decades of being taught by performers, I finally have a teacher who is trained as a pedagogue. And euphoria is the right word. Suddenly I can play with ease and am beginning to internalize the principles of the technique.
Ironically, one of my former (performer) teachers is now taking lessons from Robert Durso, and he's also very pleased with the results.
The Tonebase course is very good, but if you really want results, engage a teacher. The Goldandsky Institute website can help you find a teacher near you.-
Brian Buchbinder Your experience with private lessons must be fantastic. I know what you mean about being taught by performers rather than a true pedagogue.
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I've been taking lessons with a Taubman teacher for a little over a year. I wrote to the Golandsky Institute and Bob Durso gave me a name of a teacher who lives in the same city as me! I agree with Brian that finding a teacher who is trained as a pedagogue in the Taubman approach is extremely important. You need the assessment and the feedback from the teacher with respect to whether you can approaching the technique in the right way. This is something that can only be attained with an in-person session. The teacher needs to feel how you arm, hand and fingers move when you are on the keyboard. It is when all the tensions are released with every note that you will feel the lightness and ease with which you can move across the keyboard. I guess one can equate that with 'euphoria'. I was amazed at the feeling that I get when I get it right. This is what we need to learn so that when we practice, we can assess whether our fingers, hand and arm are aligned and we are executing the technique correctly.
There is a lot more that I can talk about the Taubman approach but it will be too long! I don't think you will regret learning the Taubman technique, and I hope that you can find a Taubman teacher near you.
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Agnes I am so happy you found a Taubman teacher. I had so many issues with muscle tension, and I did all the "Independent Finger Exercises" that can actually cause injury. One teacher had me tied up in knots, and I wasn't his only "victim".
They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. If I were younger, I would jump at the chance for in-person study. Right now, I'm enjoying the lessons on tonebase.Would you say it improves musical expression as much as it does technique?
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Janice I started with my current teacher at 72, so you're nothing like too old to begin. Agnes is correct that you need the personal attention of a teacher, though we're doing fine with in-person lessons every 6 weeks or so, with weekly zoom lessons. And of course it improves musical expression. I spent years doing what teachers told me, including scales, arpeggios, practicing passages in different rhythms, and worst of all, practicing slowly with a metronome, inching up the speed, and wondering why I still couldn't play with proper expression even though I'd brute-forced my hands into playing faster.
With Taubman, velocity isn't a goal. It's a choice you can make, because if the choreography of the body is correct, all effort drops away. I'm sure I'll hit the limit of whatever ability I have, but I'm coming to believe that proper technique can go a long way as a substitute for natural ability. Someone like Gould must have been amazingly gifted in order to play so well with a technique that makes anyone watching wince in pain.
PS: Yes, I'm in a cult, and if they asked me to turn over my assets to fund a gold statue of Dorothy Taubman... -
Brian Buchbinder I’ll be 72 on 8/22! I’m totally inspired by your post as I lost both parents recently(mom was 96, dad 97). For some reason that made me feel old all of a sudden, and I’ve never been the type to be bothered by age. I feel so fortunate that I studied piano as it gives me so much enjoyment, as I’m sure it gives to you. Zoom lessons are something I’ll definitely look into. Thank you so much for sharing.
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Janice One way to remain feeling young is to tackle endless projects, and learning piano is certainly that, along with slogging through Finnegans Wake and reading Proust in French.
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Janice From my experience of a little over a year, the musicality comes with the technique, naturally in a way. The rotations give you a much better tone and control, the shaping and the walking hand and arm adds more musicality to your playing. Rotation is fundamental though. With me, my teacher focused on rotation for a good six months or so before she starts introducing the concepts of shaping and walking hand and arm. I didn't play scales or arpeggios, but rather started with playing a couple of short Persichetti exercises to learn rotation, then moved onto a 2 part invention. She used a Chopin Nocturne to introduce shaping and walking hand and arm after the Bach piece.
Adding on to what Brian Buchbinder said about 'velocity isn't a goal' with Taubman, that is absolutely true. Once you've grasped the techniques, you can play any piece with ease, including the fast pieces. I am not there yet, but with what I have learnt and experienced, I believe that in time, I can hope to achieve that.
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Brian Buchbinder So true. Janice Brain science research in the last couple of decades have shown that the brain has plasticity. It is a large piece of muscle, and like every muscle, if you don't use it, you lose it. Research has also demonstrated that learning a musical instrument is very good for the brain. New neural pathways are formed where they have never been. So, what a good time to start your re-training with the Taubman approach? My mother did not start learning the piano until she was about 80, and that was after a mild stroke. She has lost some mobility in her right hand fingers, so my sister and I suggested learning the piano, which is something she has always wanted. We think that helped her, as one can't tell that she's had a stroke that affected her hand. So glad that you are finding Bob's video helpful. He is a very good teacher.
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Janice I'll be 72 on New Year's Eve, and I started Taubman lessons when I was about to turn 70. So it's never too late!
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Agnes It's amazing that your mother began piano at the age of 80, and happy that it helped with her recovery. I've read some material on brain plasticity, and it's extremely encouraging in terms of lifelong learning. The responses on this thread have truly inspired me to change my attitude and keep applying myself.
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Janice Tonebase is a good community as it has a very supportive group of people in it. We get encouragement and inspirations through the interactions with other members. Good luck.
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I will say that I just had my fourth lesson with Bob Durso and it's been wonderful. I have watched his lessons on Tonebase and have watched and rewatched the Taubman tapes several times over the years, but having lessons in person with him is decidedly different. That said, doing a ton of research has helped speed up my progress.
The subtleties are very interesting, almost overwhelming. Yesterday, for instance, he showed me how to do an overshape while moving out on the piano key. My teachers had taught me shaping before, but it always seemed a natural consequence of overshaping that the fingertips played further back on the keys. It was a strange feeling doing the opposite. He also pointed out that I need to lift my thumb slightly before it plays when doing crossings toward the center of the piano so that my thumb can be more actively involved. It was definitely a lesson where I will spend time today reviewing the video and taking notes.
Bob is a great teacher and I'm very happy with him. I did have to get over my initial fear of driving into Philadelphia, but I look forward to going and am always excited about practice afterward.
Re: musicality--I studied performance and pedagogy with two wonderful artists who I still visit regularly, and I like to think I have a decent grasp on the artistic image for my repertoire. That said, unlike what Adele Marcus said in her interviews, having a vision does not always translate into the ability to do it. Bob and I haven't discussed musicality yet (after all, it is only lesson four) but I would say that I feel more free and grounded at the piano and better able to express myself at the instrument. -
I wrote to the Golandsky institute a couple months back. Bob Durso responded and set me up with a Taubmen teacher out of Mexico City. I guess there aren’t any Taubmen teachers in East Texas at the moment haha. Anyways, we’ve been doing zoom lessons twice weekly.
I’ve had carpal tunnel-like symptoms for coming on 2 years and only this month have begun to have no pain at any point throughout the day. I’ve had a couple flare ups a few days back but that’s all in the last week and a half. I’ve been really focused on my daily routine and treating my scoliosis/kyphosis and other tightness I have in various places in my body using a method called Clinical Somatics, a type of ‘stretching’ with a very specific methodology that seems to have already had a lot of positive effect. I’m much more aware of where my body is located in space, when I’m out of alignment, and what is tight on me. It’s also helped me feel whether or not I’m rotating my forearms etc. And I also think my range of motion of my shoulders was very diminished, and this seems to be helping me… augment it. Lol.
I had a lesson yesterday. We’ve just been doing Mozart K545 as it’s a good piece to move through the simpler techniques. Yesterday I spent almost the whole 30 minutes working on 1 bar. Playing D -> F# back to D with 1/2/1. The principles overtime become less conscious and having someone to guide me with actual concern for my pain, is very reassuring. He mentioned another student with very similar symptomology to me who’s now doing fine, which o find very reassuring. The clinical somatics has really helped release a lot of tension I’d learned (forward/ hunched posture, mis-aligned hips, mis-aligned shoulders, and more). These are things I didn’t really think I could do much about. It begins slowly by teaching you to engage your lower back muscles and your abs, and works out from there to shoulders, hips and even iliopsoas release (a very deep muscle).
All in all I’d highly recommend. I’m sure there are other ways to do it, and wouldn’t say that this is the only way, but it seems to be a highly explored method with a very high success rate, so what is there to argue with? Very happy I reached out to them. My teacher Hugo is great. Hope you find what you’re looking for.
Tyler
