Chapter Twenty-Three - Song and Dance
A funny thing happened when I split with the “Music of the Night” woman.
We were taking Argentine Tango lessons from Marcos Questas. This is something she wanted to do, and although I had vowed to stop spending money on dance lessons, I agreed because I had never properly learned Argentine at my former studio.
The night before one of our lessons, she and I had an argument, and she didn’t show up. This caused me to switch over to Marcos’ partner, Ruta Maria, for a one-on-one lesson. Best thing that could have happened.
A big problem I was having was keeping my shoulders from going involuntarily up. I explained to Ruta that this was largely a function of the way I listened to music. In piano and conducting, my prep came from my shoulders. I felt everything in my shoulders... building crescendos, excruciating arm pain, fluctuating dynamics, neck kinks, quiet adagios, wrist stiffening... all stemming from my shoulders.
"In Argentine," Ruta explains, "we listen, feel, and move with the music from our center." We spent a whole private lesson just refocusing our energy from the heart.
It changed how I breathed, how I felt... how I listened. It relaxed the stress out of my arms and shoulders. It made me inhabit music differently.
When I got in my car and switched the radio on, I realized this might be a new method for the piano. I rushed home, sat, centered myself, and played.
Passages that were laborious to struggle through before were now a piece of cake. My fingers flew faster and lighter... with more grace. Suddenly my arms were not in devastating pain.
I still cannot dance the Argentine tango, but one Argentine tango lesson had a life-long impact on my piano career.
It should come as a surprise to no one who has ever ridden in the car with me and been deafened by my singing, that I love karaoke. Billy Joel, Elton John, and showtunes are my go-to’s.
I’ve even took lessons with Mia Milan (Singing Studio LA), who transformed me from a complete amateur to a bonafide weekend karaoke warrior. She immediately found some weird habits like I moved my jaw around and I never used my diaphragm to breathe.
What I realized about singing, however, is you have those huge goose bump raising moments which you experience. You have a chance to emote and make yourself feel a song differently than when you are playing. You can create drama and passion which you experience with your voice.
Now use that sensational feeling in your composition or playing.
I have found that I now have a method as I’m writing for instruments to translate that emotional roller coaster when holding a singing note that rivets everyone in the room... and put it in a score.
What is it that you can do on the piano or orchestrate that will move the musicians and audience to tears?
It may be a cheat. But I’ve taken music experienced differently and used song and dance to enhance the piano and composition.
My Director of Photography, Jesse, once told me that in my writing, it was important to not just type from behind a desk, but to live life. Bring those life experience into your creative practice.
Do the same thing with writing music. Do the same thing with anything you’re creating. Add life to your work.
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