![]() ![]() Ask yourself how things sound, how they feel–really question the music coming out of your instrument. ![]() Your focus will be heightened and you can put all concentration into musicality. There is nothing to distract you–all you can do is listen to the music. Practicing in the dark can be quite meditative. If you can eliminate the need to focus on where your hands are going, you can use more of that brain power to focus on the sound, which is most important. Playing an instrument requires a lot of different modes of thinking. This is very important.Īs you saw from the video of Lang Lang, once you take away this discomfort of uncertainty, and have complete confidence in what your hands are doing, you can really focus on musical expression. The takeaway here is that he doesn’t need to look at his hands, they just KNOW where to go. He’s always looking around or closing his eyes. The perhaps over-dramatized facial expression is a good example to observe. And quite often, their eyes are closed! Check out this video of pianist, Lang Lang, and watch where he’s looking. If you’ve ever seen a pianist perform, whether live, or on a recording, have you noticed where they are looking? It’s rarely at the keyboard. It works almost as well as total darkness. It does wonders! And if you are afraid of the dark, or haven’t yet memorized your music well enough, don’t fret–try practicing without looking at your instrument. I even practice in the dark from time to time. Though this may seem quite silly, there are many reasons for practicing this way. My solution for him: practice in the dark. Trying to combine a complex melody with a jumpy left hand, no matter how repetitive it may be, can be tricky–IF you aren’t comfortable with your instrument. During a recent lesson, one of my students was having trouble getting jumps in the left hand of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words: “Venetian Boat Song.” The right hand contains the melody, and gets more complex over time, and though he assumed the right hand was the trouble, it was the left hand. ![]()
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