Lesson 5

Dynamics. Contrast. Variety. <-- these are the things I lack.

When I listen to music, those are the qualities I love most. Horowitz modified the keys on his piano so he could have a greater dynamic range. Maybe it's because I'm naturally timid, and that is translated into timid piano playing. Horowitz was once asked who was the angel and who was the devil between he and his wife. He said he was both. As a musician, both qualities are necessary to convey emotion that keeps the audience interested.

Take a pencil. Draw 10 boxes in a row on a white sheet of paper. Leave box 1 white. In the 10th box, fill it in as black as you can. Fill in the rest of the boxes from the blackest shade, all the way to pure white. You should end up with a relatively smooth gradient. Think of each box as a dynamic level. ppp being the white box, and fff being the black box.

The point of dynamics is NOT how smooth the gradient from white to black is, it is how many boxes you use.

Take two great pianists: Vladimir Horowitz and Artur Rubinstein. Here, each play the same song; Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 "Funeral March." This is the very slow and eerie (and famous) third movement.

Rubinstein (watch at least until the 3:00 mark)


Horowitz (watch at least until the 2:15 mark):


Hear the difference?  Rubinstein's performance was even and predictable, but lacked emotion.  He used only half of his boxes.  Horowitz uses his entire dynamic range.   The emotion he conveys is inimitable.

What was all that about? Well, I only use 3 or 4 boxes, and those few boxes are on the white end of the scale. I play timidly. I don't convey enough "devil" when it's called for. I play music, but I don't vary dynamics much, and that makes for boring music. The skill and technicality is there, but the music is not.

Anyway, I have a lot to work on this week.

Lessons 3-4

Wow. I have been taking piano lessons for a month now. Every week has something new to offer. There is a marked improvement in my playing, but I've noticed the biggest difference in how quickly I can sight read and how much easier it is to follow the music and trust my hands to do what they are supposed to.

My teacher gave me a few more scales to learn and started me on arpeggios.

Lesson 4 didn't go very well. I have been swamped at work trying to get everybody back online. The main server failed due to a power failure, and every system was down. I have been there Monday-Saturday 10+ hours a day for the past two weeks getting everything back together. I didn't practice enough, and it showed.

For the past two weeks I have been working on three new songs:

The Allegro movement of Mozart's Sonata K. 545:
(I like this version because it's played slow enough to absorb the music)


The second is J.S. Bach's Invention No. 8:


The third is Chopin's Prelude in E Minor Op. 28, No. 4:


I love the Chopin piece. It's much more my style than the Bach or Beethoven.

Another piece I have been working on for the past few years is this one:

"Serenade for the Doll" by Debussy played by my favorite pianist, Vladimir Horowitz:


I taught myself this piece, and I can play it well, but I will never be able to play it at the same level Horowitz did. How he coaxed so much musicality out of his piano I will never know. He was a master in that regard.

I've always held that the more simple the piece, the harder it is to play. This piece is a testament to that. Not all pianos sound alike, and I have played ONE that could do this piece justice.

Last week I started organ lessons. My organ teacher is eccentric and very knowledgable. My first lesson was two hours long and I didn't even get to touch the keys. We talked and talked and talked. He is so excited to have a student like me, he is trying to teach me everything he knows as fast as possible. I think once I have had a few lessons, it will be out of his system and we can move on.

He worked for the Bigelow organ building company here in Utah, and has offered to take me up to their shop to meet the company owner. He also knows the SLC Tabernacle organists and has played the SLC Tabernacle, Conference Center and Cathedral of the Madeline organs. I can't wait to poke around up in Salt Lake City and meet lots of neat people.

A few weeks ago I was able to talk with a former assistant organist at the Cathedral of the Madeline. She(!) is the niece of my boss, and has studied the organ her whole life. She has been teaching at the BYU organ workshops they hold every August. I have been tempted to go, but never felt like I was a good enough organist. After talking with this organist, she encouraged me to go this year. She said she would meet me there and introduce me to some key people. She also encouraged me to attend BYU and do my Masters program there. She did hers there and was able to do it without incurring any debt because she was able to have students and work to pay for school. Once finished there, I would transfer out of state to complete the Ph. D program.

She also knows lots of key people in the industry, and has offered to introduce me to them. The professional organ society seems pretty tightly-knit if you ask me.

I have had lots of doors open for me already. I feel like I'm sitting on the top of an iceberg. Not because it's cold and my butt is wet, but because the networking possibilities placed in front of me could sink a ship.

Lesson 2

Lesson one threw me under the bus. Lesson two tore my brains out. I failed the first week of practice miserably. Part of it is because my teacher wanted me to learn music way above my current level, but mostly because I don't know how to practice. I told her I need structure and to know HOW to practice. If left to my own devices, I just plow through the piece without stopping, rather than learning the song one phrase at a time. It takes forever to learn a piece that way.

Lesson two taught me to be regimented and disciplined.  Today I practiced for three hours (Beethoven's Pathetique is on hold for a long time) on two new pieces and one familiar one that are lower in skill level and more moderate.  Couple doable pieces with a clear method to practice and, violá, progress.

Somewhere in this post there is a picture of a piano (I'm composing this post on my phone). It is located in the Eccles concert hall. The concert hall seats 300 or so, and is designed for un-amplified recitals. Nice, live acoustics. The piano is a Steinway concert D model from New York. It is a very powerful, bright sounding piano.

The concert hall is usually open and available to practice on. I have a few songs I have practiced enough to perform, but sitting at that piano in that concert hall, suddenly those songs seem petty and insignificant. I've got lots of improving to do.

My phone is about to die now and I need sleep.