Tag: Chicago piano instructor
Overwhelmed by greatness.
I was on Tidal and looking at a Beethoven Sonata, the “Pathetique” one. I said looking because before I would have to press play on any given interpretation I had to chose one. And there lays the problem: too many great ones. I then proceeded to go on YouTube to be guided by a specialist…
My piano.
Today is the day when my piano gets tuned. I can hear the tuner, Randy, doing his work right above my head. As I listen, I always wonder if I could have done his job. The answer comes pretty quickly: no! It seems impossibly difficult to hear the minute little difference between the tones. So,…
Moving the continent.
There are many reasons why you should pay a teacher to study an instrument. One of the benefit that’s not talked about vey often is the fact that a teacher can hear/see your progress from week to week. If you are serious about your playing and you diligently practice every day hoping to get a…
How long should one practice?
Loaded question if ever there was one. Usually teacher throw a fake card to evade the subject, something like “It depends”, or ‘What do you want to achieve?”. I’ll give you the skinny, I won’t try to avoid to answer: “You give me a half-hour 6 times a week and we’ll be good friends”. There!…
Beethoven trivia.
Here are a few facts. The professional orchestra came to be, in large measure, as a vehicle for the incessant performance of Beethoven’s Symphonies. And the art of conducting came from just that. The first 33 1/3 r.p.m LP, in 1931, contained the Fifth symphony from Beethoven, and the duration of the first-generation compact disk…
Listening experience.
As I have mentioned in earlier post, I now routinely sit down and listen to some music. I do nothing else: I relax, eyes closed and open the cabbage leaves on each side of my melon to explore the garden of sound proposed to my attention (we are in the fall, which is the gathering…
The 3 maybe 4 big ones.
I’ve been getting some CD box sets lately. I Got the George Szell one, for example. That was after I purchased the Vladimir Ashkenazy one. We are talking about classical music, here. George Szell was a conductor who directed the Cleveland Symphonic Orchestra. Ashkenazy is a pianist who’s taste and interpretation happen to coincide a…
Amadeus
We were watching yesterday the movie “Amadeus” with my Sweetie. We were presented with the Director’s cut, a version I hadn’t seen yet. Two scenes, previously unknown stood out. The first one is when Mozart wife Stanzie agrees to delivers sexual favors to Salieri in order for her husband to be able to teach young…
The business.
As I live my life as a musician, I realize that there are many more aspect to said life than I thought at first. I went into it assuming it will be mainly playing the drums or the piano for an attentive crowd, or talking and explaining things to an attentive student (my audience is…
Injuries
It is not easy to hurt yourself on the piano or the drums… at the beginning. It is not easy to get a tendon or nerve disease while practicing the piano or the drums… when you start. It is difficult to get a long term condition related to the activity of drumming or playing the…