A part of preparing to perform music is a psychic readying -- we need to be prepared to accept very fine results. Perhaps this seems strange, since so much practicing of classical music focuses on avoiding mistakes? Our practice can prepare us to receive. Any sense that we don't deserve or are not entitled to extraordinary music making can impede it. Especially if time is short or preparation is scant, we may play less well than possible … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2011
Stay Down
Playing for me in a recent masterclass, a pianist performed Liszt's etude "Wild Hunt." At the end of two measures of melody (m. 60), he raised his wrists immediately after playing the last note in the bar, releasing his fingers from the keys -- although the notated duration of this sound is the longest in the line. The piano is a device that never came with a set of instructions. In a sense, musicians are always making how-to guides. And … [Read more...]
Piano Vocal
Preparing the month of shows I'm hosting on Q2 -- sent me into a studio for several hours of recording voice tracks, my commentary. I was wearing headphones so the microphone-heard sound of my own talking was in my ear. It made me wonder all over again: Do the sounds a pianist makes from the piano have any relation to that person's physical voice? For me it's concerning if a musician has a particularly harsh or unmodulated speaking voice. One … [Read more...]