I took piano lessons for over seven years from age ten, practicing up to eight hours on weekends. My successes in life and lifelong dedication to the piano [see (85) About the Author] gave me every reason to believe that I should be successful in piano. Although I became a choir accompanist and church organist, I was struggling with the Beethoven sonatas — difficult passages remained insurmountable no matter how long I practiced. This made no sense because there have been thousands of proficient pianists in the world — how did they all learn? I was told that musical talents and perseverance were the only ways, but I suspected that there are teachers who know how to teach. They must have written books. So I read books and they all taught the same things: practice scales, arpeggios, exercises, start with easy lesson pieces, etc., which I was already doing. Even published interviews with famous pianists gave no clue as to how they learned, except to endlessly tout their exceptional talents, an obviously self-serving device with no pedagogical value. Was lifelong, daily, total dedication to piano, at the exclusion of everything else, the only way?
我从十岁开始就上了七年的钢琴课,在周末练习了八个小时。我一生的成功和毕生的奉献精神[参见(85)关于作者]使我有充分的理由相信我应该在钢琴方面取得成功。尽管我成为合唱团的伴奏者和教堂风琴手,但我仍在与贝多芬奏鸣曲作斗争-无论练习多长时间,困难的乐章仍然无法克服。这是没有道理的,因为世界上有成千上万的熟练钢琴家–他们都是如何学习的?有人告诉我,才华和毅力是唯一的方法,但我怀疑有些老师会教。他们必须写书。所以我读了书,他们都教了相同的东西:练习音阶,琶音,练习,从简单的课本开始等等,这些我已经在做。甚至对著名钢琴家的公开采访也没有任何关于他们如何学习的线索,除了无休止地称颂他们的杰出才能,这显然是自私的,没有教学价值。唯一的办法是终生每天都全心投入钢琴吗?