Tuesday, August 31, 2010

One of my students has the ear of a composer. When he doesn't approve of the note choices of a composer whose work he is reading he changes the notes without thinking about it.

As he is a visual arts student I asked if he had ever copied a painting. Yes. Well, every time you play this piece you are copying the composition; your errors are not acceptable if the job is to copy the work as it is, not as you would prefer it to be. Playing a piece on the piano can seem like a repetitive activity unless approached with a fully awakened sense of responsibility.