WTF-Beta

So recording the voices of other people as well? I thought wiretapping was illegal.

It wasn't that long ago that people would show disdain towards anyone who used Google, or god forbid, Wikipedia, to get answers to bolster their point of views. Now here we are (not me, but you already know that) fully embracing a system based on stolen goods that believes it's own lies. How times have changed.

ROFLMAO!

@wtg said:

Anyway, I wonder if people who are immersed in music, have a brain wired for it, and who devote a lot of time and energy to it, see this as the equivalent of cheap wine in the world of piano lessons, and somehow not up to their standards. We need to remember that for some people, cheap wine is totally OK and even enjoyable!

Maybe Payam will get folks into playing, enjoying, and spreading piano music and spreading piano music widely. I think that's a good thing.

I think some (perhaps a lot) of established teachers are up in arms over Payam because it is promoting itself by propagating blatant falsehoods about traditional and other methods. To suddenly appear and tell everyone they've been doing it wrong with nothing more than flimsy marketing isn't going to settle with people who, as you said, have invested themselves heavily (money and time) in the study of music and teaching it.

A good thing because it may get more people interested in piano? There is a limit. They are cheating their teachers by taking 75% of the lesson income. One has to question the quality of the teachers they will obtain.

The way I see Payam right now, it's like those "Learn piano in 2 weeks" frauds that comes along every now and then. But if it works for someone, if only to get them interested, that could be seen as a benefit. And as it was pointed out in the video I posted, Payam's method is not all that dissimilar to a lot of standard methods, despite their claims. But I am worried that they will be taking advantage of ignorance. And it does sound like their main interest is financial, not musical.

@Mary-Anna said:

I've read that some think that the quality that we perceive as a more musical tone or varying "touch" is a function of how a pianist plays in a legato or staccato style.

I haven't read any of the articles posted here except the OPs. But I have always thought something similar to what Mary-Anna said. Unscientific, but the way the end of one note blends with the beginning of the next note (and with notes that are played simultaneous or have been held before) is what I would imagine is responsible for different tone qualities. There is quite a range of possibilities for tone blending when going from one note to another. That overlap of decay and newly articulated note is where I'd focus.

In a way, it's a little peculiar that we focus so much on the drop out rate. We don't do that with the visual arts. It doesn't seem like we hear about concerns about the number of young people who stop making art. (Maybe it's just me.) Or sports. Or any other endeavor that requires strong effort.

@wtg Although I suspect the drop out rate is high, the study you linked states,

While these fabled statistics appear frequently in informal pedagogical
discussions, there is very little data to support these opinions. Even among researchers, statistics regarding dropouts are often simply based on impressions ... [pages 3-4]

Reading further on page 4, it's not surprising that a lot of dropping out occurs just before, or early into puberty.

@ShiroKuro said:

60 Minutes failed at investigative journalism on this one, it was one big infomercial.

Crappy Bull Shit

I'm about half way through that video I posted and if it's the one SK is referring to, yeah I agree: gross.

One thing Meghan appears to have missed... when the Payam click shows 4 years of progress, the performers do not appear to be the same person in each clip, and the youngster in the first clip appears to be well under ten years old (like may 6 or 7?) and the 4th clip shows someone well into their teens. I think this is a little more sleight of hand.

@wtg This one, maybe?

@wtg From the brief filed by 35 former federal judges:

“The parties have used this lawsuit—which was never an adversarial proceeding over which the Court even had jurisdiction—as a means to allow a “commission” controlled by the President to dole out $1.776 billion in taxpayer dollars without constitutional or congressional authority to do so, and to confer unlawful private benefits to the President and his family by purportedly prohibiting the United States from prosecuting any and all claims against them.

And the parties have plainly tried to shield this conduct from necessary judicial scrutiny by short-circuiting this Court’s inquiry into whether the lawsuit is in fact an actual case or controversy by [seeking to dismiss the case] before they announced the “settlement”—clearly in hopes of preventing the Court from ever completing that inquiry, which, if it comes out against the parties, will undo their collusive “settlement.” ….

Accordingly, because “[t]he parties’ ‘collusive’ activity perpetrated a fraud on the judicial machinery itself, by fostering an appearance that the litigation involved adverse parties, when, in fact, it did not,” the Court should void its prior dismissal and reopen the case to assess in due course whether a fraud occurred.”

"Mr. Trump, tear that sign down!"

How delicious.

Brilliant!

I think we are witnessing the death of a civilization. Ours. It is absolutely obscene what is happening.

Pleased and happy to report that the Lilac buds made it through the freezing temps a few weeks ago. Standing on the deck last evening, I was bathed in fragrance. Very happy to have Lilac blossoms. (A mock orange to the left of it, very heady when it flowers.)

I will tell you what is not going to blossom: The giant Aliums, for the fourth or fifth year in a row!! They've had their chance, now they will be moved somewhere else in hopes that they've simply been unhappy with their location. I don't know why they won't blossom. They blossomed twice in seven years.

All the canes on all my roses succumbed to our harsh winter. Sigh. They are all putting out new growth at the base, though, so maybe they will pull through the set back.

Republicans are so classy.

But won't this be better for Talarico?

Nothing says shit hole country like a UFC cage fight at the WH.

Happy Birthday, Joe! Many happy returns of the day!

I watched one of their promo videos and it was a bit of a turn off (but that doesn't mean they don't have a good method... for some students). It put me off because they were lying within the first 20 minutes. Piano in almost every other form is taught the same way as it was in Mozart's time, they stated. Come on. Do they think we aren't not going to notice how ridiculous that statement is? There's the Taubman method, Suzuki method, Alfred method, etc., etc., etc.

I taught myself when I was around 6 with a book one of my Aunts gave us, via a diagram that mapped the keys of the keyboard to the grand staff. That was it until my mid 20s.

I maintain that no one method is going to work for every one and the best approach is tailor made.