The Exploratory Pianist

  Okay, imagine you have a new song to learn (we'll pretend it is F ü r Elise) and you really want to rush home from your lesson and play it through just the way you heard it. You know this song. You can’t wait to try your hand at those arpeggios! The melody will flow perfectly from one hand to the other, because you know how it sounds already. It’s so exciting! You get home and sit down on the bench. The score is in front of you, and you play the first few phrases, and it is still so much fun! When you miss a note or two, you pause and go back to fix it. Maybe you start over at the beginning of the piece, thinking that a running start will get you past the rough spot more easily. Maybe this even works on the first of those tricky parts. Then you stumble again. Do you start at the beginning again? And again, and again? We all like to sight-re   I like to sight-read a new song. The music is fresh and lovely this way, even when I have been listening to the...

" LP Record: Perspectives in Percussion " by DanCentury is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 . I’m sure this isn’t news to you, but language has a rhythm. Poets and lyricists use the rhythm of language to intensify their message or (occasionally) to create ambiguity. For example, if the message is about societal expectations versus true feelings, the words and the rhythm might be at odds. The words might be glum while the rhythm is quick and spirited, or the words might be about happy things while the poem or song marches along in a sober sort of way. Not only that, each language has its own rhythm, which often causes trouble in the translation of metered poetry. This is part of why some translations of Dante or Moliere seem so much better than others even to those of us who can’t possibly rate the translation on the accuracy of its meaning. So how does this relate to music? How can music students use this knowledge to help them with their learning and practice? There ...

fear of a little cat by wolfgangfoto CC BYND 2.0   One of the best ways to grow emotionally strong and to develop self-discipline is to do what scares you. I don’t mean that you need to learn how to hang glide or tame lions. I don’t mean for you to do things that are frightening for everyone for a good reason . I myself do not feel particularly drawn to the idea of (for example) taking research equipment into a burning caldera or hunting Burmese pythons in the Everglades. I could imagine myself feeling a little fear in the moment if I found myself doing one of these things, and that would affect my reactions. Nevertheless, this is not what I mean. I do not mean chasing down a random, possibly dangerous, situation that will probably cause you to feel fear. What I mean is this: there is some non-dangerous (probably) activity that you could try, but you keep putting it off. You don’t delay out of boredom, as with dishes and tax returns. You don’t put it off because,...

    I love to listen to Rachmaninoff! His chords are lush and his motives sing with heart-rending clarity. His cadences range from comfortable to surprising without ever failing to provide a satisfying transition into the next section of the music. I willingly get lost for hours listening to Rachmaninoff's music. One day, as I trolled through YouTube, I found a recording of Rachmaninoff playing his own compositions. I was thrilled! And then I listened to it. The sound was lifeless. The chords were limp and the melody just barely stood out from the background. The whole song sounded like someone had stuffed it full of cotton balls. I was so disappointed!  I walked away from that recording with a multitude of questions running through my head. Rachmaninoff was a renowned virtuoso. How could he have played so very badly without knowing to destroy the evidence? Or maybe it was a problem with the recording technology of the 1930's? Maybe they just didn't yet have the ability t...

I have always wanted to learn to improvise. I don't really care which genre of music I learn to improvise in, but I want to learn some improv skills. Baroque and Romantic are probably my favorites, but Jazz and Classical are also nice. There are also some random 20th-Century pieces that really knock my socks off. I could happily learn to improvise in any of those genres. I noodle around a little on my piano, but my regular practice takes much of my playing time. As a result, making things up on the fly only gets a few minutes a day.  Much of my improvisation is based on some mistake I made during my warm-ups. My mistakes are much more interesting than the exercises. When I play an off note in the midst of my Hanon or Philipp, I will usually play around and see what I can make of it. The results are often satisfying, but none of these pieces is much more than a little ditty,  and they typically lack organization. I want to get better at this. I stumbled across a mention of part...

Piano-Related Activities to Add Interest to a Day at Home My state's response to the covid-19 virus has me mostly staying home for the next few weeks. Our state's schools are closed for the next three weeks. Public meetings of more than 25 people have been banned. Restaurants are limited to sending people away with take-out orders, and no-one will be allowed to sell open beverages. Band and choir rehearsals have been canceled. My piano lessons are either being postponed or taking place over an online platform. We are not in lock-down, but we are clearly being encouraged to isolate ourselves. My keyboard labels are made from vase weights. Three weeks can seem like a long time, and finding some new activities can help pass the time. Here are a few piano-related possibilities that I hope to try over the next few weeks. I attempted to organize them from easiest to most difficult, and I hope to report back once I have tried the ones that are new to me. Easiest: Pl...