PianoTell Recital #1 Is Now Live!
rogerch Why do our brains do this?
Lol, in a distant past I read a book about it. It was a book about riding a motorcycle (translate to eng: "Upper Half of the Motorcycle"). The author was a professor in physiology and psychopathology at the university of Heidelberg, Germany. And riding a bike was his hobby. So he wrote a book about it. The first half of the book itself was just about learning theory, how the brain(s) work and all the stuff. And the second half was about riding a bike itself. (Not interesting here)
He divides the brain into the unconscious and conscious parts. The conscious one can do everythig. But is is faulty and slow and very limited capacity. It is used for learning. And after you learned something, the task is handed over to the unconscious brain, and the conscious one has then capaticy for new stuff to learn (slowly). The unconscious brain works way better, way faster, way more reliable. But it needs to be programmed (or trained) by the conscious brain before.
Unfortunately, if you are in danger, the conscious brain gets active and tries to help the unconscious one. (Making things worse.) He wrote a nice experiment about it:
Draw a line on the gound, 30 cm (12 inches) wide. And then you must walk on that white line. Is this a problem? No.
Then build a plank, 30 cm wide, raise it 10 cm over ground. Difficult? Not at all.
Raise the plank 1 meter above ground. Difficult? Not really, but it starts here.
Raise the plank 5 meter above ground. Difficult? Yes, now it is.
And now pout this plank inbetween the Petronas Twin Towers, 400 meter over gound. Most of us would go down to the knees and use all four legs!
Here the conscious brain senses danger and takes over the contol. Of something that is basically a very simple motoric task. Up in the air, the conscious brain proofs again, it is way inferior to the unconscious brain doing the ground walk.
Okay, this is comparing apples and bananas and the red light of a video camera isn't killing you, if something goes wrong. But it is about the same concept.
Bottom line: nothing is more true than:
rogerch “Stop thinking and just play!”
diretonic Thanks for the feedback. You're right, my RH looks awkward around that point, you can see and hear the hesitation as I'm changing the position of my hand and not 100% confident about hitting the correct notes. I think I did follow the suggested fingering throughout the piece, but I will have a closer look when I next play it and see if I can find a smoother way to transition at that point. I was playing the piece very slowly so it annoys me that I was still unable to play it smoothly. I find some of the book 2 pieces quite challenging but I guess that's the norm when moving from beginner to what seems to be "early intermediate" level.
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
WieWaldi Thanks for sharing. That makes sense!
The solution, then, is to somehow train our brains that recording or performing isn’t dangerous. The only way I can think of to do this is to record and perform so often that it feels normal. This actually worked for me with public speaking, but so far not with piano. I have read that some pro musicians still get stage fright so maybe playing music seems somehow more dangerous than speaking!
I think the danger of performing is fear of embarrassment or humiliation. The danger of the red dot is fear of messing up the recording. Hmm.
- Edited
rogerch maybe playing music seems somehow more dangerous than speaking!
My theory on that is that speaking is a lot more forgiving than playing. While speaking we can pause a second to gather our thoughts, or more accomplished speakers have little distractions ready in case they are lost for a moment, such as a sip of water or side remark.
With music you have no such luxury, especially when playing something people are familiar with. A small hesitation, a wrong note, or even a forgotten repeat are all in plain sight.
You just can't stop for a few seconds, take a deep breath... the show must go on!
- Edited
@lilypad @Sophia @rogerch @Rubens @WieWaldi
The book WieWaldi mentioned reminds me of the American book The Inner Game of Music. It’s been many years since I read it, and actually I’m thinking maybe now would be a good time to start reading it again. It is about the “inner game,” in other words what happens in your head while practicing. And it takes as its starting point the idea that the way we have to practice performance — this is nothing new and is something all of us at PT have been discussing already, but it gives you concrete things to do to practice in ways to make your “inner game” as good as your other playing skills, and to get out of that habit those inner thoughts that get in the way.
In case anyone is interested:
www.amazon.com/Inner-Music-Barry-Timothy-Gallwey/dp/1447291727/
- Edited
WieWaldi I do and teach amateur motorsport. What that author said is very true. Building driving skills is a constant process of constructing muscle memories in consciousness, saving it to subconscious with repetition, and often bring established muscle memory back into consciousness to revise and refine. Not that much different from piano playing, right? In fact, one well-known young coach’s weekday career path is professional pianist.
One small aspect I may add is it’s not danger that bring brain back into making conscious (but sometimes incorrect) decisions. Rather, it’s the surprise or unknown that prompts brain try to figure out how to respond on the fly instead of relying on preprogrammed reaction. The problem is on the fly decision is usually based on instinct. However most really tricky situation are tricky exactly because the correct response is against common instinct.
Having a mistake affect a drivers driving rhythm is very common. They keep thinking about what happens before. And the resulting distraction will cause more mistakes in the corners that’s coming up. Instructors need to drill into students head nothing can be done for what already happened, so you always has to keep eyes up, look and think forward.
I may have read about this book in another place here on PianoTell, can't remember, but I wanted to make a strong recommendation to you to get it and read it.
Dr. Gebrian has a rather unique background - as a performing musician Julliard quality, as well as a neuroscientist. I have, instinctively, been doing a lot of what she recommends, but... I confess, she's taught this old dog some new tricks and helped him refine some of his old tricks - and I'm only 25% through the book!
Regarding messing up a performance at the end when recording, I totally resonate with that. I've experienced it myself, and it explains why recording a 3 minute piece of music may take 8 takes to get to one that I like that I don't screw up the ending. I am going to try two of Dr. Gebrian's suggestions to see what effect they could have:
- Divide the piece up into chunks by difficulty level; practice the hard bits separately, to which I will add, practice transitioning into/out of those hardest bits.
- Practice in chunks in reverse order, i.e. ,start at the end of the piece, practice the ending, then add a preceding section, practice from there to the end, and continue the process until you arrive at the beginning.
Hope this is helpful.
lilypad Wow! I really love this composition and you certainly made it feel larger than life. The Fabers never fail to impress me. Are all the compositions in this book this good? I enjoyed your performance very much and feel inspired by it. Awesome job! 
TheBoringPianist What an undertaking! I cannot imagine how you could have learned so much music in so little time. Astounding performance and certainly well-deserved that you managed to enter the finals. Captivating, enriching, and you certainly gave that Steinway D a full work out in the best way possible. Thanks so much for sharing this incredible achievement of yours. Bravo! 
--
Beach L168, Wish, baCh, WOW Petrof, Fake Steinway, VS
TIME
In my opinion, "Manhattan, 1928" that was the best one in the book. "Chanson" was very nice also, but in a different style. Luckily for me, from level 3 on up, there were more original form pieces by classical composers in the books. Classical would be my second favorite genre after jazz and some movie music. The Piano Piano Adventures supplemental jazz and popular arrangement books are another matter. I love almost every one of them. My copy of their BigTime Jazz & Blues is almost falling apart and I still haven't played everything in it.
Rob Wow, what a lovely composition and equally lovely performance! Bravo!
I loved the melody and theme on this and this appears to be entirely professional. This could easily be from a movie.
Have you published the sheet music to this? I would love to learn this! It's really beautiful.
diretonic You learned this by ear? That's next level. I really love the feel of this and it seems you hit the jackpot in terms of piano sound. I'm listening to other Dr John recordings and realizing that I enjoy his music a lot... so your morsel is ending up being quite a feast for me. Thank you!
--
Beach L168, Wish, baCh, WOW Petrof, Fake Steinway, VS
TIME
navindra Thank you so much for your generous comments. They mean a lot.
I don't have sheet music for this. I am untrained in notation, but have done a few simpler scores years ago, using Noteworthy Composer software.I don't have the program on this computer, but I will search for the original installation disk, and if I can find it, I will give it a go.
- Edited
...a few more comments to end.
24. Rob — Sunday Morning
Very pretty with a wistful mood, flowing so naturally that it has a familiar quality (which was also said of the Beatles music, so you’re in good company!). I could definitely hear this as the theme music to a TV family drama.
26. Rubens @Josephine — Waltz Op.70 no.2
If I could play Chopin’s music this well I’d be playing it all the time. Beautifully played by both student and teacher.
27. Serge88 — Misty
Surely everyone who enjoys music from the Great American Songbook would have played this at some time or another - remarkable that Errol Garner didn’t turn out more popular tunes given how good it is. I like this arrangement and the way you play it but just one thought; here and there it sounds as though the melody is being swung a bit (slightly dotted) which I might have smoothed out to straight 1/8 notes - of course it’s a personal choice and your playing is enjoyable none-the-less.
28. twocats — Rustle of Spring
Raised a war-baby with the ‘wireless’ as the sole source of home entertainment and with some classical pieces having a prominent place in the popular music of the time, Rustle Of Spring was a piece I heard often enough for it to become familiar. Thanks for sparking an evocative childhood memory, your performance was beautiful,
29. navindra — Bluebird
This is a charming piece I’m sure I’ve heard before (a film?, TV show?). Some technical difficulties I suspect in the RH later in the piece but you dealt with them fearlessly. A really confident performance in such an extraordinary setting, great to listen to.
….and a thank-you to all who participated and especially Navindra for setting up the forum and this recital - an incentive to get off my a*** and put in some effort, a tonic for the jaded.
Player1 Beautifully played, with a nice tone. You have obviously been playing for a while but I feel I should at least mention that you are sitting high in relation to your keyboard but perhaps this is what is comfortable for you. But if you develop any neck, back or shoulder pain I would consider it, and putting your music up towards eye level with a stand of some sort. I rigged a stand on a tripod when I had a digital. Sorry if this is unwelcome, I'm older and this is at the forefront of my mind.
This is a common reaction to my seating position so no worries. I'm just really tall and I don't want to raise my keyboard beyond the normal piano height because I'm planning on getting an acoustic in the future and it's difficult to alter the height of those.
I'm having no issues with the ergonomics, it just looks awkward. But then I get the same reaction when I drive a car.
Again, no worries on commenting about it.
Player1 If it works for you! No worries about the acoustic really - you can always get a nice padded adjustable height bench! I think lots of piano players are tall so some I am certain adjust up to fit that. Tall usually means you can reach octaves and beyond with great ease! a big asset! Lastly, if you have a beautiful wood bench you wish to continue with then there's also firm cushions. Don't worry, I'm finished 
Rubens @Josephine Josephine only has 5 years of experience? What! That was absolutely amazing! I really loved the delicate trills and I'm sure I wouldn't have known that Rubens did the B part if you hadn't call it out... the stitching was surprisingly seamless. That's quite some technical magic.
This is a story and duet like I've never heard before. I'm sure Josephine would have no trouble conquering that B portion... but I'm really glad it all came together and Rubens was able to patch that in!
Wow, I certainly wish I could play like this after 5 years. Those trills are absolutely lovely and delicate. I'm also pleasantly surprised at how nice the Kawai onboard audio sounds.
Bravo to the both of you!
Serge88 Thanks so much for the nice relaxing and jazzy feel. I really love this kind of music and you played it like a pro. Very nice!
twocats That was magical! I loved everything from the delicate rustling sounds all the way up to the majestic and grandiose thunder. Wow! What an impressive piece that no doubt requires quite some technical chops and virtuosity to pull off. 
I'm so glad you decided to participate as this is quite an incredible way to close the recital! Thank you and Bravo! 
--
Beach L168, Wish, baCh, WOW Petrof, Fake Steinway, VS
TIME
navindra Wow! What an impressive piece that no doubt requires quite some technical chops and virtuosity to pull off.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! But I'll tell you a secret: it is actually not a very difficult piece and sounds impressive because it has a lot of notes! I'd guess it's around Grade 8 RCM? It's a nice one to add to the repertoire list because it's a crowd pleaser 