Piano Video Lesson: How to Be Present When You Play the Piano

You may have experienced this if you've ever played on a different piano and think sound different, and as a result, you're playing with fresh ears. You want to be listening and engaged in your own music. And that's what draws the listener in and is what keeps you on track in your musical performance.

I'm Robert Estrin and you're watching LivingPianos.com. Thanks so much for joining me.

Today is an incredibly important subject with many ramifications, which is how to be in the moment in your playing.

It's so important. As a matter of fact, any of you who have performed for friends, for your teacher, you know how sometimes it's easy to become distracted. You want to be present in your playing and it can be so incredibly difficult. I'm going to give you some ways of thinking about this and approaching it that hopefully will be helpful for you. Others can share their ideas that have worked for you in the comments here at LivingPianos .com and YouTube.

The first thing I'm going to talk about is a little bit philosophical. We think that thinking is words.

As a matter of fact, the whole idea of thinking in your head is like you're stringing words together, forgetting the fact that words were invented for communication, to be able to express ideas to one another.

And you don't actually need words to think something.

Have you ever had a revelation that just came to you? Did you have to string words together in order to have that thought? Of course not.

The words express the thought, but they aren't the thought themselves.

This is how come there are those who master the art of meditation and clearing their minds from the internal dialogue to be able to just be in one and be able to have pure thought, not hampered by one word at a time, but just have the thought. If you've ever been in the state of flow in anything, whether it's experiencing a beautiful sunset or looking at a beautiful painting or just enjoying a moment of life without quantifying it and defining it with word after word after word, you understand that this is one of the most beautiful things there is in life that you don't need to label every single thought. Well, how does this relate to music? Well, unbelievably.

Because as you're playing music, the thing that will distract you more than anything else is starting to use words in your head and starting to think about what you're doing instead of just doing. Instead of being in the moment, thinking about the moment, thinking about what you're doing instead of just being what you're doing. How do you do this? How do you achieve such a thing? The most important aspect of being able to be present in your performance without being analytical and judgmental and kind of thinking about what note comes next, which is the death of a performance or thinking what comes two measures from now, worse yet, you can't think that way. It'll drive you crazy and destroy your performance. You have to be right at that moment unfolding with a sense of where you're going, just like in life itself.

You want to be living in the moment, of course, with a sense of continuity of where you are and where you're going.

And the way to achieve this in music is simply by listening.

Listen to the sounds. Become absorbed in the beauty of the music you're creating at that moment.

Rather than to be distracted with the mechanics or the fingers and all of that, of course, there has to be a certain amount that you keep present in the analytical sense so you don't take a wrong turn in the score or reach for the wrong octave in a piece of music. There has to be a certain amount of intelligence.

But moment to moment, it should not have to be bogged down with these intellectual ideas. Instead, enjoying the sound and exploring where it's going next.

The most satisfying musical performance you can ever have is where the music is unfolding, where you yourself are listening in anticipation of where it's going to go next.

You may have experienced this if you ever played on a different piano and then sound different, and as a result, you're playing with fresh ears.

And that's the secret of what you want to achieve in your musical performance. You want to be listening and engaged in your own music. And that's what draws the listener in and is what keeps you on track in your musical performance.

So remember, don't get hung up with intellectualizing what you're doing more than necessary. Just keep your wits about you, about not taking long turns, knowing where repeats are, knowing where you are in the form of the piece. If there are leaps that you have to quantify where they're going, naturally you need to have that intellect alive.

But don't get bogged down with it. Enjoy your musical performance, listen to it, and everybody else will too.

That's the message for the day. I hope you've enjoyed this. Again, I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos .com, your online piano resource. You can bring suggestions, particularly my Patreon followers. I appreciate all the video suggestions and lots more to come. You can subscribe and ring the bell so you can hear about future videos. Thumbs up if you like it, and we'll see you next time. Once again, I'm Robert Estrin. LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/how-to-be-present-when-you-play-the-piano/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---