Monday, June 18, 2018

Piano movers laugh when I inform them they sweat less than before my piano concert!

I regretfully missed the actually "tilt onto the dolly" part of the move of the Steinway Grand 6 foot 6 inch piano but I assume it went as this youtube vid shows.

And so I practiced on that piano at least a half hour to an hour a day sometimes several hours a day - for 12 years. I composed music on it and then I performed a "senior high school" piano concert - memorizing Bach's Italian Concerto in F, a Mozart Sonata, a Brahms piece, and then my own compositions were not memorized (I had the scores printed out by computer program). This was back in 1989 - my technical skill was actually terrible - I stumbled in my memory - and amazingly recovered. It was the most stressful moment of my life - cold hands, sweat pouring. It was kind of hilarious.

I think there is some film that captures this! Oh yes Mel Brooks.

No - no - not Mel Brooks. ALBERT Brooks!

Yes this was it!!

This is one of the funniest scenes on film because I lived this. It's called "Flop Sweat."

But my emotional expression was good - and that is the most important part. In fact I was actually rocking as I played! Oops. We video filmed the concert and I had a VHS tape - long lost now. Good thing. haha.

I did have this long sixties hippy hair though - so rocking at the piano was not that out of style I guess.

The reason I got into piano is kind of a mystery - as my relative informed me that I had sat quietly for an hour at 3 years old - through her piano lessons. Also my relative seemed very happy playing piano and so there seemed to be some mysterious secret to the piano.

So I was always more interested in the PHILOSOPHY of music than in the "technical" skills - especially after I discovered the problems of Western tuning - a year or two before my piano concert. No - technical perfection to me is boring - as is Western tuning. Sure I will listen to Western music as we are inundated by it - and sure I get the "chills" from a good moment in music.

But the best for me was definitely the "slow" movement or middle movement of Bach's Italian Concerto in F. Memorizing that middle movement - I think it definitely rewired my brain waves.

I had a high school friend inform me she assumed I was stoned all the time - because I was so happy in high school. In fact I was voted as a "prince" onto the homecoming court. Actually my happiness was from the music - my heart-brain synchronization - from the slow 60 bpm middle movement of the Bach.

I didn't realize this until I had an EEG done a couple years after my intense piano training. The nurse exclaimed in shock at how strong my alpha brain waves were! This surprised me as well. So I figured it must have been from my 12 years of piano training. Then I learned about the Mozart Effect increasing serotonin and alpha brain waves - from the slow middle movements at 60 bpm.

This is not the "normal" interpretation of the Mozart Effect which now emphasizes increased beta dopamine as visualization right brain memorization skills. Sure there is that as well - that is what the "chills" are from music.

But the serotonin alpha is much deeper and opens up the heart for the laughter and happiness. Blues music also does this - and so I got into the blues more from about 15 years old - after being into the Beatles big time - from a young age. The first album I bought was Sargent Peppers - from a hippy store - but we had Meet the Beatles already - and another early Beatles album - with the covers of Chuck Berry, etc.

My high school friend thought blues was boring - but I learned to play Chuck Berry on the piano and then I saw Chuck Berry LIVE at Pine Ridge Reservation. He sat in his car that he drove all the way up from the South. He had more energy than the whole audience put together (which was a meagre crowd).

No comments:

Post a Comment