Rudolf Budginas master class in Idaho Falls

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On October 2, concert pianist Rudolf Budginas visited Idaho Falls to do a concert. That afternoon he gave a master class to three teenage piano students, one of whom was our son Zed. Our whole family was able to be there, and we all really enjoyed it.

The class was excellent. Rudolf was friendly and funny, but straightforward in noting areas for improvement and fun in guiding the students to better technique. A big part of his focus after hearing the students play was on getting them to relax and try to create the best sound for the piece. To not be boring. To enjoy playing.

He said that a key to improvement is not necessarily long practice sessions, but rather, hard work and focus on improving a particular deficiency during regular practice sessions. Just passing the time playing and replaying a piece won't result in anywhere near the improvement that focused, hard work with a goal will.

Which is advice that applies to most work I can think of.

Thanks for sharing your time & talent, Rudolf! And thanks to Ann Shively and others with Idaho Falls Community Concerts who made it happen.

Comments

  1. bkdunnSaturday, October 10, 2009 8:08:00 AM

    Not that anyone at that particular workshop listened to this advice, but at the writing workshop I attended a few summers ago, one of the instructors tried to teach us that "you don't learn to write a good story by writing a bad one". I'm not sure that's relevant now, come to think of it.

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  2. ErinSaturday, October 10, 2009 3:59:00 PM

    That's totally relevant, because if you play something badly over and over, you're practicing the mistakes. And chances are, if you're just playing a piece all the way through a few times and calling it practicing, then you're also incorporating the lame stuff into the piece, whether or not the notes are right.

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