ChatterBank1 min ago
Musicians
How do they do it?
How do they know what keys to hit, what strings to pluck, how hard to blow, what buttons to press. Organists - multiple keyboards, hands & feet. Are they from another planet?
Continually amazes me.
How do they know what keys to hit, what strings to pluck, how hard to blow, what buttons to press. Organists - multiple keyboards, hands & feet. Are they from another planet?
Continually amazes me.
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I mind on an experienced pianist saying he was playing on a piano and he kept making mistakes.
It turnt out the piano had extra keys to give a greater range and they were normally hidden by a flap but it had been left open.
He was sitting in front of what he thought were eighty-eight keys but hadn't realized the usual keys were now offset a wee bit.
It turnt out the piano had extra keys to give a greater range and they were normally hidden by a flap but it had been left open.
He was sitting in front of what he thought were eighty-eight keys but hadn't realized the usual keys were now offset a wee bit.
Pub pianists were the best, not only playing against the hubbub noise of the pub but usually playing blind, face turned away from the piano, smiling at the punters sat behind them.
I'm in awe of musicians. My friend is a bassoonist and often plays in front of an audience with an orchestra of various sizes that she only met that day.
I'm in awe of musicians. My friend is a bassoonist and often plays in front of an audience with an orchestra of various sizes that she only met that day.
TCL@23:52 reminds me of someone I worked for some 40 years ago. He was a brilliant pianist but told me a story of his student days when he was invited to a friend's house, where he was offered a chance to play the mother's piano. He found he was making a complete mess of it whilst his friend tried to hide his smirks. His friend finally admitted that his mother had small hands so had had a piano specially made with smaller keys to enable her to play chords which required a large span ie, the separation of the keys was non-standard. Like touch-typists, you don't look at the keys but just throw your fingers to where you expect the keys to be; if someone has moved the keys you're in trouble.
I think, at the primary school I went to, recorder playing was reserved for an elite group of girls. At the time I couldn't work out why they were involved but no one else were even made aware of any offer. Was the start of realising that it was a girls' world, and the boys just had to put up with it or they'd get a rep for not being manly or the like.
Dizzy Gillespie once said that the definition of a pro player is someone who can play the same thing..... twice.
The discipline of motor/mental skills that comes from having a good teacher, then practice.
Plenty of great blind players of course. You don't need to see what you're doing (eventually.) In fact, you'd have no chance of doing that on a sax. There's just a 'home' position. As someone above said, rather like typing.
On a piano, it helps that Middle C is found right by the lock (for the lid.) Locate that, and you're 'home'.
The discipline of motor/mental skills that comes from having a good teacher, then practice.
Plenty of great blind players of course. You don't need to see what you're doing (eventually.) In fact, you'd have no chance of doing that on a sax. There's just a 'home' position. As someone above said, rather like typing.
On a piano, it helps that Middle C is found right by the lock (for the lid.) Locate that, and you're 'home'.
It amazes me too. My son is one of those blessed musicians who from a very, very young age could play by ear, and instinctly knows what cords to play. He can pick up most instruments and play them. We have no idea where this has come from. It's a gift. His lounge is now a music studio. But hes not made music his vocation.
