Good playing. Conclusions.
In the final article of this section, I will provide a short list of mandatory conditions that have to be fulfilled to estimate your playing as good at the beginner’s level.
- Ear for music.
- Accurate rendering of the music sheet.
- Correct hands positioning.
- Correct sound production — all sounds should be full-fledged and noble.
- Control over tempo and its changes — the ability to play at any possible tempo and to change it abruptly or smoothly no matter it happens in a separate phrase or the part of a piece.
- Control over timbre — although it cannot be completely separated from the sound production, timbre has its own nuances, that you should be able to control.
- Control over dynamics — from piano-pianissimo to forte-fortissimo and all the intermediate gradations.
- Control over articulation — from legatissimo to staccatissimo and all of the intermediate variants and nuances (tenuto, marcato, etc.).
- Control over picking (righthand downstroke only, upstroke only, alternate picking starting from upstroke, alternate picking starting from downstroke, several strings in one pick direction, etc.) including tapping.
- The ability to play any possible ornaments (trills, mordents, gruppetto, etc.) including vibrato, glissando, etc. as well as the specific for this instrument bends.
Remember!
If you are not able to play perfectly at least one nuance from this list, your technical execution cannot be called good!
If you are able to control everything of the above, phrases and pieces that you play will sound correct. However, that will not be enough to convey emotions and create musical images. In other words, decent playing on the beginner’s level cannot be called music in the full sense of the word.
To make the performance good from the musical point of view, save technical, you have to acquire other skills which I will describe in my subsequent articles.
