Music and feelings
So, I have come to the realization that I really can't stand listening to good piano players, and I mainly mean the ones who have taken lessons for years and are basically way too trained. Let me explain.
From my perspective, music is my form of emotion. When I am mad I go and play really mad/depressing music. When I am sad I play really slow, depressing music. When I am happy I play fun music, and when I just want to feel I play everything else. etc. This just doesn't apply to playing the music, it also applies to listening to it. I love to listen to music played by others because then I don't necessarily have to worry about a key change or chords coming up, I can just sit there and feel. Unfortunately, most of the people who feel comfortable playing in front of others are the ones who have been taking lessons for years. In my mind, most of these people are way too "trained." They have been taught repeatedly to play what is written as written, and as kids they always wanted to see how fast they can play it so any time they aren't truly practicing, they play everything really fast. More often than not, for the people I meet who are "trained, " they are never taught to put their own emotions into what they are playing, which is really sad. Some songs it makes sense not to do so, but other songs need that sense of feeling in order to be heard.
On Sundays, I go to church early to play piano mainly so that I can feel the music. I really don't mind if there are no pianos available, that just means that I can just sit and listen. But lately, all the pianists who are playing are putting absolutely no feeling into their songs. They are playing the hymns and other beautiful arrangements perfectly with very few mistakes, but there is no emotion in it, I can't feel anything from it. Playing hymns straight makes perfect sense when you are accompanying people, but if is just you and you are playing it for fun, then for heaven's sake PLAY IT! Put the words into the piano so that others can hear and feel what you are saying. And these beautiful prelude arrangements don't mean anything unless you can feel the words behind the music. I will admit, I am not an expert at doing this, but at least I try. The people I am listening to are so much better piano players than me, but in my eyes they are just too trained. They are capable of making these pieces sing out, but they don't and that really saddens me. That is the main reason I can't abide listening to these people, they basically just suck all the emotion out of me and make life very bland.
I know that this post probably sounds very conceited, but just think about it from a different perspective. What if you wanted to feel something today, whether it be happy or sad or whatever, but everyone around you is just feeling blah. You too will eventually feel blah as well, and that is a hard feeling to abolish. That is how it is with music and me when I am listening to trained players. Without music, I don't really express my feelings and I normally just end up in blah land. I need music to express myself. So those of you who are reading this and see yourself as one of those "trained" pianists, please put emotion into your music, feel it, revel in it. Otherwise, what is music for?
posted by bandjam @ 2:04 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
While I can understand your feelings on the matter, there are other things that come into play. When I play piano publicly, I approach it much more differently than I approach playing while I'm alone. Even my emotional pieces that I usually play privately will become unemotional when played in public. Yesterday was a great example of this. After church I started just cranking out hymns, waiting for people to leave. After an hour and most people were gone, I started playing some memorized pieces. After everyone was gone, that's when I started playing for myself, and I get to emote myself, but no one will ever be present when I do that.
There is also the view of the performer as opposed to the view of the listener. I know in many instances in our master class when performing for each other, there was a significant difference in the emotion the player felt he was putting in as opposed to the listener, who isn't taking as active a role in it. So some may percieve your playing as unemotional, while they consider theirs emotional when they are at the piano playing.
Everyone does music for a reason, and most do have an emotional connection to it. Yes, I am definately one that falls into intelectualizing music, but there is an emotional attachment to music that I have that's even stronger than yours, and most of them are probably the same way.
As a side note, you should find some original recordings of Charles Ives. I bet he feels the same way as you do. You would have to dig a little deeper to find his stuff. He's a composer, but he tends to play more of what he feels than ever actually focussing on the notes in his playing.
Anyway, that's my two cents (okay, probably a little more than that). About time you wrote something anyway.
Sorry I haven't written in a while. I was actually writing a different post, and I noticed that I never published this one, so I sent it out.
As to your point of view, I partially agree but the people I've been listening to are basically playing monotone (if that makes sense). Everything is perfectly structured with an invisible metronome, no changes in volume or emphasis at all, and the notes are played as written, no more no less. Also, another thought I have is if an individual knows that they can play certain hymns, why so they play them all the time in the exact same manner. I know that practicing is a good thing, but you can at least make the song harder or pick a different song that is more difficult thus expanding your abilities and knowledge. Otherwise, what are you getting from the experience besides a weekly confirmation that you can still play the hymns? Anyways, that is a whole other conversation that is probably just my opinion versus that of the world. sigh
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