Home | List of Articles | Submit an Article | Contact Us

Piano Music, Perfectionism, and Self-Expression

Is your heart in the music? If so, it won't matter what you play so much as what is received through your playing. Do you still think you need to learn 43 chords to sound good or are you concerned with the joy of expressing yourself through this wonderful instrument called the piano? People who sound like they know what they are doing may indeed know what they are doing but does that mean you want to listen to the music?

Let's look at pop music for example. Here is a music that is produced so tightly and carefully that nothing is left to chance. Not a crackle or hiss, not one static spot on the entire 3 to 4 minutes of the track. Yet after a few listens or even after a single listen, the mind may grow disinterested.

It's like a sporting event - exciting and enthralling while you are there but once over let down and perhaps even a little depressed. Now most (but not all) pop music is like that. It gets you hooked up for a few minutes, gives you a feeling, usually of excitement, then its gone. New age music on the other hand is a more sincere and heartfelt expression, and as such, mistakes are allowed.

Id like to share something with you. When I recorded both "La Jolla Suite" and "Anza-Borrego Desert Suite" I made mistakes. "La Jolla Suite" was recorded live so I couldn't help that, but the Desert Suite was done in one take. I wasn't so concerned with the production value as the emotion I felt at the time I was playing. I could have gone back and redone the tracks I didn't like so much but then I could have gotten stuck in a perfectionist's rut.

No, I decided that a "wrong" note here and there wouldn't kill what was heard and might even make it sound more authentic. So if you hear a mistake it may sound like I don't know what I'm doing. Perhaps not. But that doesn't concern me. What concerns me is one thing and one thing only - am I present at the piano. Am I there in spirit as well as body? If so, I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and now teaches an online class. Stop by for a FREE piano lesson!

Related Articles:

Three Ways Music Can Help You To Lose Weight - Music is the key to the soul. It can lift you up and put a smile on your face or alternatively it can bring you down and reduce you to tears. Music is powerful and fortunately you can use it to help with your weight loss. The interesting thing about music is that the same track or song can induce different emotions in different people. If you me ...

Sound Heals: Music Medicine Soothes the Soul and Body - Internet Researchers throughout the world are reporting intriguing new ways about how sound vibration heals the body, mind, spirit and the environment. The words people choose to speak and the music people listen to have profound power to decrease pain, draw people out of emotional and mental isolation and even clear polluted water. And scientis ...

Fantasy International Film Festival, Scripting With Pilar Alessandra, Hip-Hop Filmmaking, Country M - AFI Fest 2005 features international competitions of new films from emerging filmmakers, global showcases of the latest work from film masters, in addition to a November 11 tribute to Johnny Depp. ASCAP and MySpace.com host a new showcase series (visit the site to enter your band), and has featured performers on hand for a November 4 showcase at Lo ...

Tunes To Go: Music From Your Computer to Your Car - (ARA) - The digital audio revolution is in full swing as music lovers worldwide are using their computers as high-tech jukeboxes. But you're not just limited to listening to songs on your PC while you check your e-mail. It's easier than ever to manage your collection and listen to it in your car, whatever your destination. "It's great to hit ...

Three times more sales of CD with the Belarusian music - For the last half-year, sales of CD with the national pop music in Belarus have grown almost three times. Among the best selling Belarusian musicians English-speaking group Atlantica, Tsyany-Tolkaj, J-mors and Alexey Hlestov. In opinion of Nikolay Sapunov, the manager of West Records' Belarusian catalogue, it is associated mostly with the decision ...

Higher Intelligence Through Music - You Are What You Listen To Can music really help you think better? Yes, according to the research that has been done so far. Listening to, and participating in music creates new neural pathways in your brain that stimulate creativity. Studies have shown that music actually trains the brain for higher forms of thinking. There was a study at th ...

For a Complete list of Articles with summaries Click Here