Music Video Lesson: What is the Secret of Music?

How many of you clicked on this thinking, what the heck could be the secret of music? What is it? It's unbelievably simple. And once you hear it, you'll go, of course that's the secret of music.

It's the secret of music as a performer. It's the secret of music as a listener. It's a secret of music for anyone in any capacity. It's a secret of someone doing sound for a live band. It's a secret of somebody composing.

It's the secret of somebody producing.

It's a secret for everything in music and that is listening.

Not just hearing, but actively listening.

Did you know that sometimes you can go to a concert and there could be a spectacular pianist on stage, somebody who's won competitions, somebody who can play brilliantly, the hardest pieces in the literature and you find yourself spacing out, not being able to concentrate and you think there must be something wrong with you. Why can't you concentrate on this great performer? Obviously playing all these notes and you just are bored somehow and you think what is wrong with you? You know what? It's not you.

The performer has practiced so much and they can play all the notes without even listening. They can go through the motions and their fingers know where to go, but they're not actively listening and creating the experience for you. If you as a performer aren't listening, the people, the audience will not be able to focus in either. The whole secret is listening. For somebody who is producing music, recording music, how they place the microphones, they might know exactly how to place the microphones to get a good sound out of the piano, but they mechanically put them right where they always have and then they just go to the mixing desk and maybe it doesn't sound good on that piano or in that room. Maybe it doesn't. They must listen each and every time. Did you know that even the weather, the humidity can affect the sound of how microphones hear sound? It's true.

So there isn't one way that you figure out how to play the piano or how to record the piano, how to listen as an audience. You have to be fresh with your ears every time you approach music whether it's as an audience member, as a producer, an engineer, a performer, a composer. Listening is the key. It's the secret to music.

Try it in your playing.

When you get done with listening to videos here, go to your piano and play something you've played a million times before and really listen with fresh ears and you'll be surprised.

In fact, did you ever notice you have something you've played a million times before and you get a chance to play it for a company or a concert and everything seems so different. It's because you're so tuned in at that moment. You're listening with fresh ears and it's inevitable that you're out of your comfort zone because you're not used to listening on that close, intense level.

This is why it's so valuable for you to focus in and listen in your practice so when you get to a performance you're listening with those same fresh ears creating something that's compelling to anyone with an earshot of what you're doing.

So again, that is the secret of music on any level and I wonder how many of you feel this and have already discovered this secret in your playing. Again, I'm Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. Check out in the description Living Piano Mastermind Club if you want to take your playing to the next level. We'll see you next time.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/what-is-the-secret-of-music/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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