Juilliard graduate helping dedicated adult pianists who love challenging repertoire practice less while learning more.
πΉ Screw perfect. 131 people agreed. also 10K
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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. 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 Saturday. π I keep coming back to the order those two things happened in. Nobody showed up because I played it perfectly. They showed up for this... You may have been trained to treat a mistake like something to explain, apologize for, or edit out before anyone hears it. But the people listening aren't grading you against a score. They're listening for something real. A switched note doesn't undo that. Chasing an invisible standard of perfect might. πΌ A tiny experiment for you Next time you catch a slip in something you've recorded, don't reach for another take automatically. Ask first: does this ruin the music, or does it just remind me I'm playing it live? Those are different problems. Only one of them needs fixing. |
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...
I started my 1989 Cliburn audition with the Bach B flat Partita. π Watch it here. β¬οΈ 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€¦βοΈ No comment became "not good...