Juilliard graduate helping dedicated adult pianists who love challenging repertoire practice less while learning more.
πΉ I quit fugues at 50 {video}
|
I started my 1989 Cliburn audition with the Bach B flat Partita. Someone left a comment I keep coming back to... Good question. Here's the answer I didn't expect to give. No judge ever told me. No scoresheet. Nothing written down anywhere. I built that story out of an absence. I always paired my Bach with my Chopin. People complimented the Chopin. Every single time. Nobody said a word about the Bach. So I decided the silence meant something. π€¦ββοΈ No comment became "not good enough." A room lighting up over the Chopin became proof I was weak somewhere else. I carried that for over 30 years. I call this the Compliment Compass. You let what people praise become the map, and you let what they don't mention become the verdict. But silence isn't a verdict. It's just silence. You're probably doing this right now with something in your own playing. Some passage, some piece, that you've quietly decided is your weak link, not because anyone told you, but because nobody mentioned it while they were busy praising something else. πΌ A tiny experiment for you Ask yourself: do I have actual evidence? Or do I just have an absence of praise? Write down the real feedback you've gotten. Then write down what you assumed. They're usually not the same list. If you haven't seen the video, watch it here ββ |
Lisa Spector, Piano Ninja
Juilliard graduate helping dedicated adult pianists who love challenging repertoire practice less while learning more.
After I shared my Cliburn audition of the Bach B flat Partita, the comments on YouTube and Instagram kept mentioning my trills. People noticed how easy they sounded. Here's the thing. I haven't practiced a trill inside a piece since graduate school. π€·βοΈ Over 40 years ago, I learned a five-minute warm-up from John Perry, R.I.P. I've done it almost every practice session since. When a trill shows up in whatever I'm playing, it just works. I don't stop to negotiate with my wrist. I don't wonder...
I don't believe in endless hours at the piano. I believe some of your best progress often happens away from the piano. That's why two years ago I created, Beyond the Keys, a 3-day piano retreat in beautiful Monterey, California. πThis year, it's October 8-11. This is not your typical adult piano camp.Gil said it better than I can... Watch a 90 second trailer here. β¬οΈ No grinding. No judgement. No pretending you don't compare yourself to the person next to you. Just a room full of pianists who...
Someone caught it. 23 seconds in, on the Gigue from the B-flat Partita, the one from my 1989 Cliburn audition. A mistake, small, just a switch in the notes. He commented so everyone would hear it. Barely noticeable, but he felt good catching it. π₯Ί I replied without thinking twice. "My motto now is Screw Perfect. Just Make Music." 131 likes on that reply. More than the comment that started it. That reel also got me 466 new followers on Instagram which lead to celebrating 10K followers...