A Few Minutes with The Piano Instructor
Live practice session excerpt.
This is the first session of Mozart’s piano concerto in D minor, K466, second movement, recorded today. (It’s actually the second session but somehow I didn’t record it yesterday).
This definitely shows that I, personally, do not start off flying across the keys in an amazing fashion.
I lurch forward, missing accidentals, working out fingering, dropping whole phrases altogether.
Read the following very carefully:
Everybody sounds like this when they first start a piece that is a little bit out of their depth.
(Not necessarily LIKE THIS, in particular. I just mean it sounds…like it needs work).
And guess what? You should sound like this—or some variation thereof—if you’re pushing yourself. Otherwise you’re just sight reading.
This needs to be posted because new musicians think they are supposed to sound like [insert newest social media piano superstar].
Nah. Those musicians worked to get there. You’re doing just fine.
Play this for someone, and then tell them I just started yesterday.
Almost all artists will nod knowingly.
This is how it starts. For real.
Now can you hear this recording and not judge?
Now can you hear this recording and then hear the equivalent of this in your life, where you are growing and learning and returning to a child’s heart mindset?
Can you hear the equivalent of this in your life and not judge any of it?
Can you hear the equivalent of this in your life and identify the people who are judging your beautiful brave courageous growth?
Can you hear the equivalent of this in your life, witness the people who are judging you, and then not judge them?
That’s the power of music, and of being real with it, and of showing all sides of it.
It’s much deeper than the vibrations generated by the piano.
It goes to the heart of vibrations generated by each of us.
