7/21/2019 Geiseking Quotes

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The capability of listening with a critical ear to one's own playing, and of keeping one's touch under continual control, should be developed systematically bythe utmost concentration, as the thorough training of the ear is a prerequisiteof rapid progress.

The brain should be uninterruptedly trained to memorize short phrases. The teacher should insist upon beginners, and even children, learning to play from memory at least on or two measures in every lesson.

...the hand, which at the same time must be kept under muscular control, is nowallowed to drop on the keys, which should be pressed down "until we feel the ground," as Rubinstein is supposed to have said. The arm must, as it were, rest onthe keys.

We commence with training the ear in the following two directions: first,tone quality; and second, tone duration. This intensive training of the eardifferentiates my system from others. To listen unceasingly to tones asthey are played, and to control their accurate execution, is the road thatmust lead quickly to a polished technique. The fingers are the servitors ofthe brain, they perform the action the brain commands. If, therefore, bymeans of a well-trained ear, it is clear to the brain how to executecorrectly, the fingers will do their work correctly.

Relaxation is of the very greatest importance. Only by means of the relaxed

arm can impulses proceeding from the brain be transformed, withoutrestraint, into finger movements.

Inaccuracy and uncertainty in rhythm and dynamic feeling become so firmlyfixed in the brain that they can be mended only with great loss of time, ifever.