Why Bother?

I have briefly abandond this blog, but due to the silence from the fans, I have started it up again.

I am so much faster mind than just that few weeks ago.

Now I can play the piano, and boy, does that involve memory, memory both visual, physical, and memory aurally for the song. At times, you memorize where your hands are when you look at the keys, at times you read the music and play, assuming your hands have memorized the keyboard in general with your peripheral vision (prompting you to throw you hands this far, or maybe turn a wrist.) Of course, you have to be able play the song without reading the music, which means you really have to memorize it. But then you play it, and you realize there are three or four more layers of physical memory – mostly in your hands: for instance, at one point you need to learn to move both arms and hands together, at times move this hand only, or more typical, change a previous pattern you just learned because it conflicts with something else, and something else trumps. Typically what trumps is how the piece has to sound, in which case you need to adapt your hand motion (s) to create the sound you need.

All of this has a positive effect on the mind. The last paragraph, to me, is clear when I read it at a certain pace, just like the song you are playing needs to be clear for whatever given speed you are playing. Eventually, you wish to be able to play freely at all speeds, fast when the tonal structure dictates fast changes so you don’t get muddy, loud in this passage to balance all the notes you are striking, or simply one of numerous notes needs to be accented just thusly because that’s how it sounds the best.

I am playing Joplin, and the beauty of his pieces are many. The hand motions are intuitive, and built for speed. They are easy, which is good because, for me now, the tonal aspects are challengingly beautiful and need to be treated foremost, they trump all considerations. A 7th chord with a third is a delicate beast and needs to be precisely. Joplin always rides the melody, so the song stays with you. Joplin was genius teacher, the pieces teach themselves to you. You can always reduce hard sections to the bare bones and they sound great. The pieces repeat each section, so you learn them faster, and when learned can play with two different effects for variety. The sections, once overwhelming to the player just a month ago, can be done in day or two of concerted effort. The entire piece sounds great, dissonance and resolution enough for even the greatest of players to stay involved. Plenty of sections can be made more difficult, adding complex tonal additions, that all must then be resolved. I am playing Solace, but before that I was doing the Entertainer. Solace has more color in the first section, The entertainer builds strength. Both can absorb a variety of hand techniques, for instance both demand you learn to throw your hands, and if skilled, could also be played by gliding lowly over the keys. But primarily Joplin teaches you class. If you sit up, hold your wrists high, strike down precisely with your fingers and go for it, the pieces always sound better. This physical action, it’s grace bestowed upon the player, that is what Joplin means by class.

By no means am I an accomplished pianist. My emotional colorings are still limited by my range of physical motions, or lack there of. But my renditions are spirited, I can play loud and carry the piece, and I can let it go and rip it – all at times either playing through mistake free, or else dealing properly with any mistake, that is, proper recovery.

What is missing here, only is the beauty of the song as it plays. It’s so wonderful.