Listen first, learn later?

When is it acceptable to listen to a recording before learning a piece? Most of the time, I am strongly against this as a learning method.  For purposes of interpretation, copying someone else’s recording will always sound like a copy.  It will never sound like you. One scenario I heard of two pianists who played [...]

Repeat performances: 10 unique approaches

At some point in life, you will find yourself repeating a performance or two. Every performer I know, as well as some I’ve read about, has a unique way of dealing with repetition: A costume designer who works on Broadway splits the difference between depending on the reliability of a long-term job and thriving on [...]

How Decision Fatigue Can Affect Musicians

We are faced with so many choices every day, we are constantly making decisions. How does decision fatigue affect our practice sessions, rehearsals, and auditions?

The ones that got away

With apologies to Mendelssohn, there are 2 “Songs Without Words” that I forgot to include in my previous post. Op. 53, No. 2  ”The Fleecy Clouds” This song needs to move.  Fleecy Clouds don’t need ploddy triplets!  When I play this, I imagine clouds on a windy day. There are big dynamic contrasts, sforzandi, and  melodic [...]

Emily’s Movie: Music for Piano

Immediately after recording chorus music last week for an upcoming DVD about Emily Dickinson, we began recording some piano pieces she might have heard or played. Again, my goal was to keep the listener in mind, achieving variety of tempi, dynamics, and styles. Since free downloads of this music are not available, I hope my descriptions [...]

Emily’s Movie: The Chorus

Image by mfigrs via Flickr We recorded a good deal of audio for an upcoming DVD about Emily Dickinson this week. The music will be pieces from Emily Dickinson’s lifetime ~ music she could have sung, heard, or played on the piano. We began with the chorus. Since various singers were interrupting their out-of-town summer plans, [...]

The nerve!

More tennis!  Ready?  Wimbledon! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ During the men’s quarterfinal match between Rafael Nadal and Mardy Fish, I was glued to NBCSports.com. Watch the 5-minute highlight reel. Although I have been following tennis for about a year, I had known very little about the American Mardy Fish.  It was nice to have [...]

Update: The Creative Economy Project

The Rethinking the Creative Economy Project continues! There are more interviews to be transcribed than I thought!  3 down, 17 to go!  Glad I asked! So far, I have ”met” a poet, a collagist, and a potter.   Having worked in a corporate law firm for several years, which used repetitive language in the extreme, I have [...]

More about Emily’s Movie

And the project happily continues! We have a recording date!  Wednesday, July 6th at 1:00 p.m.  (I’ll be practicing on July 4th.  You?) This is for the scratch audio track, for which I will be playing: Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata seven of the Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words” some finger exercises by Bertini I will also be [...]

Call in the Cavalry!

All of us have received last-minute phone calls from people who sound absolutely desperate.  We need you!  The earth will stop turning if you don’t play! So you drop everything, cancel appointments and dinner/movie arrangements, get ahold of the music somehow (usually by calling every other accompanist you know ~ the call came so late, the [...]