• Pianist Zone

  • Discussing Molly Gebrian (Splinter Discussion of "Molly Gebrian 7 Months Later")

PianoMonk (something like Mile's Davis' Blue In Green)

Immediately - I'd SUCK recording something like that. I have no feel for jazz; I'm so square that a table appears round next to me and while by now I know things like to "not clap on the wrong beat", I have feel for it. My performance in comparison to yours, or someone who grew up with this kind of music and owns the language, would not reflect how effective my practice approach is, compared to yours or theirs. It would reflect that background, and those (lacking) abilities.

That's a more concrete example of what I was trying to say in my previous post.

    PianoMonk Please re-read my last post. (Which may very well be the last)
    Here's hoping that all of you find ways, any way at all, to find joy in learning to play the piano.

    I've read yours. But have you read mine?

        Ithaca Trolling??? Really???? I had no idea my comments, and my impressions of Molly, would touch off such a firestorm.
        I'm done.

          keystring I give up. You win. Forget I ever said anything. PianoMonk has left the building.

              PianoMonk I don't think you read any of the comments refuting the ideas in your posts. Or you didn't understand them, or just chose to ignore them.

              twocats To address earlier points in the thread: she doesn't have to have coached the best or to be a world-class musician. Her teachings are about how to be more efficient and spend less time to achieve the same or better results.

              Quoting myself here. Her methods are about personal improvement and learning efficiency based on how the brain works.

              Some of her advice has helped me and I look forward to trying other things that she has suggested. I'm grateful that the research exists and that she put it out there in consise form, tailored to musicians. If there's something I find doesn't work for me, then I won't do it. It's all a personal journey and the only comparison I need to make is with my past self.

                  Pallas My intention was never to "divide people or put them down" - that is just your own (mis)interpretation.

                  One day I saw this thread and a thought occurred to me, so I posted it. There was no hidden agenda. People did not share my view, that's fine, we don't all have to agree on things and I do not feel insecure about my choices. PianoMonk recently posted some views which I agreed with, and I enjoyed his humorous take on things so I responded on the thread. You may dislike our opinions and not appreciate our humour, but it is a stretch to call our posts disrespectful. However, you clearly have a problem with me and have done everything in your power to make things uncomfortable for me, including reporting me to the mods in the hope that I'll be banned from this site. In short, you have turned into the very sort of person that you so often complain of - a bully.

                  "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                      PianoMonk That's a shame, your posts are intelligent, entertaining and amusing, I think it would be a real loss to this forum if you are driven out by people who have had a sense of humour bypass.

                      "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                        Nightowl when someone says "please don't call us names, I don't find it funny" the response is not to double down and insist that it is funny and it's just a different sense of humor, but to say "sorry, I didn't mean to offend you" and then don't do it again.

                        I was not offended by the names but I don't think the responses to the people who were upset by it were appropriate.

                          Multiple posts in this thread have now been flagged and the thread has devolved to the point where it needs to locked.

                          rsl12 locked the discussion .

                          • rsl12

                          • Post #142
                          • Edited

                          Hello fellow Piano Players,

                          First of all, thanks for your patience as we sorted through all the flagged comments. When we get flooded with flags, we can't always respond to every user individually, Also, when the issue is big, it takes the mod team time to discuss it. So we appreciate your understanding.

                          I have created this splinter thread for off-topic comments in "Molly Gebrian - seven months later". The original purpose of that post was to gather the opinions of people who have used Molly Gebrian's methods for the last 7 months. All other Molly-related discussion belongs here. But before you continue your conversation, please remember that there is only one official rule at PianoTell, and it is:

                          rsl12 Be nice to each other. Don't routinely make other people's experiences worse. Comments that contain personal attacks, hate speech, trolling, unnecessarily derogatory or inflammatory remarks are not welcome and will be removed.

                          Many of you participants in this discussion will probably agree that other people's comments have made your experience worse. But also consider the possibility that one of your own comments has worsened another's experience. I hope you will all agree that:

                          1. Making people feel like they can't participate because they don't agree is not welcoming behavior. As long as the original poster hasn't explicitly said otherwise, it's entirely okay to state a disagreeing opinion, and to criticize someone else's approach to doing something. But...

                          2. Criticism should be done with a lot of consideration of others' feelings. The harsher the criticism, the more careful you should be.

                          3. If people are offended by a joke or criticism, It's not nice to shrug off their feelings, or to restate the joke/criticism in a more emphatic way. Please use manners and show some consideration.

                          To those of you who find yourself often in the middle of a controversy, consider that you may be part of the reason for escalating tempers. If you have a moment, this article may be helpful: "The Art of Disagreeing Agreeably".

                          Based on what I've seen of your past behavior, I feel confident that this conversation can carry on in a more civil manner. Please be nice.

                              rsl12 unlocked the discussion .

                              Thanks @rsl12 for the reminder of our rule here at PT and for getting us all back on track! And thanks for unlocking and separating these threads!

                              Now, PT friends, please carry on! There are lots of ideas about pros and cons of MG's approach (I have some of my, pros as well as cons), so let's get on with that discussion!

                              I don't follow MG. I watched some of her videos last year and that's all. Frankly, planning & tracking every little detail of practice is too much for me. Sounds like too much overhead and potential cause for disappointment. My goal is simply sit on the bench and do something piano, every single day. Still failing at this some days 😀.

                              However, I still find MG discussions useful. Like; importance of sleep, breaks, splitting the piece into manageble bits, correct repetitions etc. Some of these might be traditional ideas but it doesn't really matter. It was useful to me.

                                hebele Sounds like too much overhead and potential cause for disappointment.

                                This is one of my main concerns with the MG approach, that's it's not sustainable for many adult learners, and that as a result, it might end up making people feel discouraged, as if, by not following the method just so, they're wasting their time or something.... I feel like it would be helpful to have a "toned down" version of her approach, that is maybe a little more accessible and do-able, but that still gets some of the core components.

                                Kind of like trying to diet or eat healthy, where there ought to be a method that helps you do your best even if it's not adhering to the diet all the time....

                                    ShiroKuro I haven't read the book, I've only watched the video series about spaced practice that I shared here. And then I'm picking up nuggets here.

                                    It seems that she doesn't have a specific method, but a lot of strategies that can be taken piecemeal? For example, 10 second microbreaks. I was annoyed and wondered if I could browse my phone during the breaks but it turns out that 10 seconds is very short. Or random practice. I have flagged my trouble pages to do focused practice on those and am trying to get away from my habit of starting at the beginning and then stopping to practice when I hit a trouble spot.

                                    I don't do her rule of repeat until clean 3x3 (I think?) because that is overwhelming. But I am taking it to heart that the more I play it cleanly, that's what's getting written into my neural pathways and I shouldn't let myself get away with repeated mistakes in the same spot.

                                      rsl12 Thanks for creating this splinter thread - it's a great idea and I appreciate the way that you carefully included all the posts which were slightly off topic in the other discussion.

                                      I also appreciate the additional points you made and I would like to add something in relation to point 3. Here in the UK, our humour is often rather barbed in comparison to American humour. It is common for friends to tease each other fairly brutally and have ongoing running jokes against each other. Despite our stereotypical "stiff upper lip" reputation, we Brits are actually pretty good at laughing at ourselves, it's a very British trait. However, this episode has reminded me that people from other cultures may not share this type of humour, so I will dial it down in future.

                                      Thank you for your moderate moderation, I appreciate your way of handling things.

                                      "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                                          • SStub

                                          • Post #149

                                          I like what she writes, and even though much might not be original with her, she gets credit for organizing it into a coherent whole and putting it out to the public.

                                          What is holding me back is how to follow her rules bullet points advice in the context of weekly lessons. I would like to bring to the lesson each piece I'm working on (because I value my teacher's input and I pay to take lessons), but what if a piece is in the no-practice break of the schedule? What if I need to revise my practice schedule based on my teacher's input? I can sort of see ways to work around these problems, but what I'm left with is only a small fraction of MB's practice points. Which is fine by me. Take what works for you, leave the rest.

                                          • SStub

                                          • Post #150

                                          Pallas P.S. @Stub I would like to purchase some of your calm equanimity. I have $5 and half of a Twix, so I hope that's an ok down payment. 🥸

                                          Whoa! How did I miss this the first time through? You can keep your five bucks but I'll take the Twix. Also, a Kit Kat would work for me as well. 😍

                                            • rsl12

                                            • Post #151
                                            • Edited

                                            Nightowl Thank you for your moderate moderation, I appreciate your way of handling things.

                                            Thanks for the nice compliment. But it's not just me--the moderators (Navindra, ShiroKuro, BartK) work as a team. All of this is based on group decisions.