Compising For New Age Piano

The first time I heard George Winston play back in the early 1980's I was blown away. I didn't know why I liked this music. All I knew was that it made me feel good and that was enough. I didn't even play piano back then but something about this music seeped into me almost haunting me. The way he let the notes ring out and wasn't concerned with pop flavorings. A new sound for the time.

When I began to play piano, I wanted to know how he did it. How did he create this music? I read somewhere that his method was to create the chords first, then improvise a melody over them. Great, but what chords and how do you know where and when to play them?

I then realized that George wasn't really doing anything radically different than most classical composers who think in sections. Composing is all about using the techniques of repetition and contrast. Now in most of Winston's music, there is a lot of repetition going on with the contrast coming from the melody. The chords are repeated in certain patterns, the melody played on top, but there still is a framework operating here.

For example, if we take 8 measures of music and call it a (A) section, we have composed. We have taken chords, put them into some kind of order (no matter how tightly or loosely) and have composed. It takes a certain skill to keep the music fresh after a certain number of repetitions. This skill has to be practiced. It can not be taught. This is a doing operation. You can listen to music, but to learn improvisation and composition, you must do it.

Now the secret is this: You may repeat a section as many times as your interest remains with the music. As soon as you become bored in your improvising, so will the listener. For most, having one section isn't enough therefore we bring in the (B) section. This could be anything from 4 to 8 bars of new material. This new material is also repeated and eventually we return to the (A) section. When you start to think in sections, you can unlock the mystery of most music.

Author By: Edward Weiss

Good News For The Hopelessly Untalented

Have you ever been told that you were good at something but not good enough to make it a career or life ambition? Especially with music, if you're passion is music you are hopelessly outnumbered right from the beginning. "You better have a back-up job" or "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" are common refrains heard from well meaning adults who inadvertently had their dreams crushed out of them.

The world has more then enough computer programmers and engineers and these professions are well paying ones. What are we musicians to do? Well, for one thing we can forget about needing "talent" to make it. What is talent anyway but a person's ability to connect with his or her audience. You might think that talent means technical proficiency. You couldn't be more wrong.

Here's the good news. Connect with yourself and your art and you automatically become talented. This means you don't have to wait years and years before you begin to share what comes out of you with others. In fact, most so called "really talented people" last in the limelight for a few years or so and then burn out to non-remembrance. If you consider yourself hopelessly untalented you are focusing on the wrong problem.

The question isn't do you know enough. The real question is, are you confident enough to believe in your own abilities. If you do, you will go far. If not, there's not much hope. Those who are able to let go and connect with the music inside of them are already truly talented.

Author By: Edward Weiss

How To Sound Like You Know What You Are Doing

Is your heart in the music? If so, it won't matter what you play so much as what is received through your playing. Do you still think you need to learn 43 chords to sound good or are you concerned with the joy of expressing yourself through this wonderful instrument called the piano? People who sound like they know what they are doing may indeed know what they are doing but does that mean you want to listen to the music?

Let's look at pop music for example. Here is a music that is produced so tightly and carefully that nothing is left to chance. Not a crackle or hiss, not one static spot on the entire 3 to 4 minutes of the track. Yet after a few listens or even after a single listen, the mind may grow disinterested.

It's like a sporting event - exciting and enthralling while you are there but once over let down and perhaps even a little depressed. Now most (but not all) pop music is like that. It gets you hooked up for a few minutes, gives you a feeling, usually of excitement, then its gone. New age music on the other hand is a more sincere and heartfelt expression, and as such, mistakes are allowed.

Id like to share something with you. When I recorded both "La Jolla Suite" and "Anza-Borrego Desert Suite" I made mistakes. "La Jolla Suite" was recorded live so I couldn't help that, but the Desert Suite was done in one take. I wasn't so concerned with the production value as the emotion I felt at the time I was playing. I could have gone back and redone the tracks I didn't like so much but then I could have gotten stuck in a perfectionist's rut.

No, I decided that a "wrong" note here and there wouldn't kill what was heard and might even make it sound more authentic. So if you hear a mistake it may sound like I don't know what I'm doing. Perhaps not. But that doesn't concern me. What concerns me is one thing and one thing only - am I present at the piano. Am I there in spirit as well as body? If so, I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

Author By: Edward Weiss

How To Handle Creative Frustration

Forcing never works. Period. If you try to make something happen, you are guaranteed to be frustrated. This is the root of all creative blocks. My answer - walk away and come back later. It is my belief that trying hard is counterproductive to the creative process. Believe it or not, music should come easily. If it doesn't something is wrong and do you know what that something is? It's your ego telling you that you have to make something happen.

Art only happens when you're not trying. When you're in flow. When everything comes together of its own accord. I haven't felt like playing piano for a while now - a few weeks. So what! When I sit down to play, it feels horrible so what do I do? I don't try to come up with something, I understand that there is a time for everything and those who tell you that you should sit down every day and practice and play till your fingers hurt are sadistic and really don't know too much about the creative process.

Michelle Cassou, author of Paint, Power and Passion says that there are no creative blocks. That the problem is that we are trying to control the creative force. And of course, this cannot be controlled. So my answer on how to handle creative frustration or blocks - walk away and come back later.

Author By: Edward Weiss

The Secret To Successful Practicing

I never practice. Why? Because I don't believe in it. I don't believe in it because it's boring and because it's self-defeating. Why spend hours playing scales when you could be improvising your heart out. The improvising itself will give you all the practice, all the skill you need to master technical difficulties. Your intuition will come up with unique fingering solutions that a teacher could never give you. This happens in the moment when you are not thinking but letting intuition lead you.

Here's a true story. A violin player complained to Beethoven that he couldn't play the notes he had written down for him. Beethoven replied "Bah. Do you think I care about the notes and your puny fiddle when the spirit moves me." I think he meant that the notes were secondary to the creative inspiration.

The secret to successful practicing is to play what you like when you like it. If you are motivated, it is because of your love for the music and what better motivating force is there than that. This will lead you to becoming technically proficient. And technical proficiency is secondary to emotional content anyway. If you feel like you must practice scales go ahead, but it won't make you a better piano player. It may make you a better technician, but it won't help you where creative expression is concerned.

Author By: Edward Weiss