Music is Love in Search of a Word

I'm a pianist and organist with a great love for classical music. I spend my days teaching piano, playing concerts, and playing or singing at churches. It's a wonderful life!

[itscolossal]

The Grandeur of German Pipe Organs Photographed by Robert Götzfried

[negativespacewalk]

@ampersandtrain I feel like you would appreciate this

[ampersandtrain]

Thanks, these are really cool!

[chopianista]

Franck - Piano Quintet. With a performance by wonderful musicians Joshua Bell, Marc-André Hamelin, and Steven Isserlis, how could you go wrong spending a half hour listening to this?? If you don't have that much time, just listen to the first movement, it might be the most beautiful thing you encounter all week.

[thecuriouspianist]

False notes are human. Why does everything have to be perfect? You know, perfection itself is imperfection.

Vladimir Horowitz

(via thecuriouspianist)

[stuffman]

People have written a lot of touchy-feely pieces on this subject but I thought I’d get right to the heart of the matter

[pervocracy]

This is 1000% more motivating than every preachy “real writers write every day” post on all of Tumblr.

[thats-what-sidhe-said]

I call this the “two cakes” rule and remind myself of it when I start comparing myself to other people.

[chopianista]

Working on a harmonic analysis of the "Habenera" from Carmen, so naturally I'm watching the Aristocats version of it instead. Good luck trying to get the catchy melody out of your head!

[thecuriouspianist]

How to turn a practice session into a self-care session

During first few years of our relationship, I couldn’t convince my partner that I liked playing the piano.

Isn’t that strange? I had committed the vast majority of my twenty years to studying this instrument and its history, but the person closest to me saw no evidence that I actually enjoyed it.

I don’t think I’m unique in this. How many times have you heard a student say “I hate practicing,” or a professional vent about how irritating it is to learn new music? Until very recently, I hate and I can’t were far more present in my internal dialogue than I love or I want to learn.

With this mindset, is it really a surprise that our practice sessions are full of anxiety?

If you’re like me, and the sentence I’m going to go practice now is often code for I’m going to go have a guilt-ridden panic attack at my instrument now, try a few small steps toward building a new mindset.

Step one: Tell yourself that playing your instrument is a comforting activity. Right now, that may or may not be true! Right now, touching your instrument might be one of the biggest panic triggers in your life!

But I promise it’s possible. It’s as simple as reframing your attitude toward making music. For instance, do we *have* to go practice, or do we *get* to go practice? Do we allow internal space for constant frustration at the learning process, or do we focus on how rewarding it is to watch a passage grow more beautiful day by day?

Step two: Every time you sit down to play, think about one or two things that are soothing about being at your instrument.

For instance:

I get to be alone

Playing Chopin makes it easier to handle sadness

I like the way the keys feel under my fingers

I feel powerful when I play octaves 

It doesn’t have to be much. Just notice something that comforts or soothes you about making music.

Step three: Experiment with going to your instrument for relief when you feel anxious. Often we avoid playing when we’re in a negative place emotionally. This just reaffirms our belief that practicing is scary and difficult! Instead, start thinking of a practice session as a tool to feel better. Breathe deeply. Truly listen to what you’re playing, so attentively that frightened thoughts have no room to speak. Find something beautiful in the passage and play it a few times just smiling about how beautiful it is.

Let yourself enjoy playing. Let the anxiety go; you don’t need it. Focus on how much you love the beauty you can draw from your instrument. After all, that’s why we all started playing in the first place.

[paradiddlette-deactivated201601]

When the conductor decides to start a piece way too fast but both he and you know there’s no going back now

[mistletoemoses]

@whobubble

[chopianista]

I know the feels on both sides of this one.

[la-madamina]

It seemed appropriate.

[chopianista]

Kim Andre Arnesen - Even when He is silent. “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining And I believe in love, even when there’s no one there. And I believe in God, even when he is silent." Fitting words and music for these tumultuous, and sometimes dark times.

[sureshsingaratnam]

“Strauss, Richard” #toosoon @soyoumusik

[pablobeecaso]

Music majors know what’s up.

[soyoumusik]

Remember that what you do is important.

[mikrokosmos]

Elgar - Enigma Variations

I usually write my own musings about works, but the description of this video was enlightening enough that I’m just going to share it here: 

“At the end of an overlong day laden with teaching and other duties, Edward Elgar lit a cigar, sat at his piano and began idling over the keys. To amuse his wife, the composer began to improvise a tune and played it several times, turning each reprise into a caricature of the way one of their friends might have played it or of their personal characteristics. “I believe that you are doing something which has never been done before,” exclaimed Mrs. Elgar. Thus was born one of music’s great works of original conception, and Elgar’s greatest large-scale “hit”: the Enigma Variations. The enigma is twofold: each of the 14 variations refers to a friend of Elgar’s, who is depicted by the nature of the music, or by sonic imitation of laughs, vocal inflections, or quirks, or by more abstract allusions. The other enigma is the presence of a larger “unheard” theme which is never stated but which according to the composer is very well known. The identity of the phantom tune left the world with the composer, and guesses have ranged from “God Save the King”, “Ein Feste Burg” and “Auld Lang Syne” to a simple major scale.” - olla-vogala

[perezhilton]

[stupendousmelody]

When you are one with the music

[thirstym8nd]

Luvs it

[rae-redacted]

WHO IS SHE

[no-man-an-island]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Alondra de la Parra.

[thecuriouspianist]

sunday morning

[via]

[whatshouldwecallpiccolo]

When someone is playing your favorite piece and says they don’t like it

[madopiano]

*me when someone turns pages for me*: Yes turn the page. Turn it. I am nodding. TURN THE PAGE PLEASE I AM NODDING FOR A REASON I NEED TO SEE THE FIRST BAR ON THE NEXT PAGE ASAP

*me when turning pages for someone*: ok they are nodding but there are still two bars left on this page?? Do they know? Do I turn it?? DO THEY KNOW????