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The Piano Shop On The Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier
I recently found this book in my local public library and checked it out, more from curiousity than anything. What I found is a book that should be required reading for aspiring piano teachers and highly recommended for parents considering either starting their children on the piano or resuming their own studies of the piano that might have fallen by the wayside at some point since their childhood.
Thad Carhart, the author, tells of his experience while living in Paris with an obscure piano shop in his neighborhood. He had studied piano as a child, with mixed success, and was considering taking it up again. Carhart was intrigued, and a bit mystified, by this shop, well away from the prominent music conservatories of Paris, and became even more so when he went in and learned that a reference from a previous customer was required for him to deal with them. Once that was achieved he began a journey of learning and passion that most people cannot imagine. Luc, the proprietor of the piano shop, began to educate him on the mechanics of what makes a piano good, and what makes a good piano great. Part of this process, at first, is aimed at helping Carhart find and buy the piano that is right for him. After that is accomplished, he progresses to learning about piano maintenance and all that that involves. He also gets several lessons in piano history and a few on the current state of the piano industry, including a visit to the factory in Italy where Fazioli pianos are made and an interview with the company’s founder, Paolo Fazioli.
But along the way, one of the biggest lessons Carhart received was in passion. Just a few examples here:
- Luc on wealthy people who buy fine pianos as symbols of wealth instead of sources of music: “‘They might as well park a Mercedes at the end of their grands salons,’ he would rail, ‘for all they know of music! Today I tuned a Steinway concert grand in an apartment that was at least four hundred square meters and I swear it hasn’t been played in years. The owner told me it made him feel good to see it in the morning, and there it sits with the cover open as if Horowitz himself were about to enter and play. He might as well look at his Swiss bank book or his stock certificates!’”
- Luc on the pianos that suffer the fate above: “‘It’s like a great conversationalist who is put in solitary confinement,’ he once told me, and I better understood how for him a piano could suffer a kind of death, even though it was wholly intact and well maintained.”
- Carhart on his ideal piano teacher: “Years later, when I rediscovered the importance of the piano in my life, I imagined some like her, an intuitive teacher who could draw out the music from within rather than drilling it into me. Instead of relying on a chance encounter, though, I saw that I would have to seek out such a person and make clear my needs and expectations if I were to enjoy playing as an adult.”
Although I have never been to Paris, don’t speak French, and have never totally quit playing, I saw several things in this book that were familiar to me. The last shop I worked for reminds me somewhat of Luc’s. I have met teachers that remind me of every teacher described in the book. Most importantly, although I have lost it several times, I have been able to regain, at some point, my passion for music.
Teachers- Strive to be the teacher described above by the author. If the student, no matter the age, wants to make music and knows the excitement that can come from a good performance, nothing can stop them, in my opinion. If, on the other hand, the student is so bound up by the regimentation of technique that even when they do a good performance they will still berate themselves because that “quarter-note D in the fifth measure” was a shade louder than the teacher had said it should be, and another student will be resigned to “I can never be good enough.”
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