Abby Whiteside

American piano teacher (1881–1956)

Abby Whiteside (Aug 27, 1881 Vermillion, South Dakota – Dec 10, 1956 Menlo Park, California) was an American piano teacher. She challenged the finger centric approach of much classical piano teaching and instead advocated a holistic attitude in which the arm and torso are the conductors of a musical image conceived first in the mind.

Whiteside majored in music at the University of South Dakota. After a period spent teaching at the University of Oregon, she studied in Germany with Rudolf Ganz. On returning to the United States and teaching first in Oregon and then New York City, she slowly developed the ideas for which she became known.

In spite of the remarkable results Whiteside achieved with her own pupils (many of whom were far from promising when beginning lessons with her), a technique based on independence of the fingers continues to be widely taught; although the notion is now widespread that an effective arm technique is essential to fluent playing and avoiding repetitive strain injury, few teachers have been willing to entirely abandon the concept of finger drilling. Critics have pointed out that only one of Whiteside's pupils, Robert Helps, became known as a concert virtuoso. The same charge could be levelled at an influential contemporary in England, Tobias Matthay, whose only single noted pupil was Myra Hess (actually not true, there were plenty more, like Moura Lympani amongst others). Where some argue that her case is not helped by the inadequacies of her prose style (it has been described as convoluted, unclear, repetitious and poorly structured), a comparison with Matthay reveals that her books are far superior in clarity of prose she was in any case first and foremost a teacher rather than a writer. The fact that she taught privately would have reduced her chances of having 'concert pianist material' students, since they would almost always prefer to study at a conservatoire. Many great pianists and pedagogues had few if any famous pupils, from Chopin to Dinu Lipatti they were offering training in authentic pianism, which is often somewhat at odds against the superficial acrobatics of the contemporary concert scene. Favourable testimonials from adult learners who have read her books are widespread. A recurring theme is that the very same Chopin Études on which she based so much of her teaching had been a stumbling block until her methods were applied. (It might also have some relevance that Chopin himself is reported to have opposed this idea of equalizing the fingers, which was beginning to catch on in his time.)

In addition to Robert Helps, two of Whiteside's pupils became noted teachers in their own right: Joseph Prostakoff, who taught the noted jazz pianist and educator Barry Harris, and Sophia Rosoff, who taught Harris as well as jazz pianists Fred Hersch and Ethan Iverson. Whiteside also tutored two American composers: Morton Gould and Vivian Fine. Miss Frankye A. Dixon another prominent pupil of Abbey Whiteside, who taught music at Howard University, in Washington, DC. She is the daughter of famed composer and musician the late Will H. Dixon, dubbed "The Original Dancing Conductor" by James Weldon Johnson, circa 1930. In the late 1950s, Rosoff set up the Abby Whiteside Foundation, dedicated to promote her ideas, train teachers and performers and organize recitals by pianists trained in Whiteside's methods.

Whiteside, Abby, 2003. Abby Whiteside on Piano Playing: Indispensables of Piano Playing, Mastering the Chopin Etudes and Other Essays. Joseph Prostakoff, Sophia Rosoff, eds. Amadeus Press, Portland. [Indispensables orig. pub. posthumously, 1955; Mastering orig. pub. posthumously, 1969]. .