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 ...