Knowing what you want.....Becoming informed

As I was practicing last night it occurred to me that in one of my excerpts, I wasn't exactly sure of what I wanted the excerpt to sound like. This led me to listening to recordings of it and singing and playing through it with different styles. This is the topic of the blog today.

So many of my students come in to lessons and they are not sure if what they are playing is right. I ask them if they have thought about what they want it to sound like and the usual response is"nope". So I have them think things like what style the piece is written in and what the dynamic and rhythmical structure is. Once they begin to think and make decisions about these things they can start to formulate an idea about how they want it to sound.

One way to become informed is to found out when and why the music was written. Then listen to recordings to have an understanding of how others have interpreted it. Studying, reading about, and listening can be great starting points to become better informed of the music you are playing.

I equate this to acting or painting. An actor must read through the script and think about things such as context, mood, style, feeling, etc. Once they can better understand these things they can start to create their own interpretation. A painter must determine which style they are painting in as well as what texture brush to use or what colors of paint to use. From there they can create their own interpretation.

Once an understanding of the music is gained and the music becomes coherent in one's mind then an informed interpretation can be made. These are a lot of words to basically say, "learn about the music to become better informed. Once you are informed you can decide what it is you want the music to sound like". One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to play music without being informed. This either leads to the music being stylistically wrong and boring or you copy someone else's interpretation.

If you are one of my students and you are reading this then try applying this before your next lesson :)

Posted in: Practicing