I Can Show You How I Hear

After a lifetime of figuring out how to do so, I can do that and play the piano at the same time--really.  I mean there is no impediment, no extraneous process that occurs in my brain between the nano-instant when the vibration enters my inner ear and the movement that comes out of my finger tip.  Note that I put the vibration first, not after.

How is that possible?

It is the very essence of musical hearing that we hear in advance of the sounds we make.

Artur Schnabel put it as an imperative:  "Hear first, then play."  I put it as a fact of life:  A musicians hears in advance of playing.

So do children.   I have seen it happen that a child, knowing what the next note will sound like, will refuse to play it and will move to a more acceptable alternative.

This activity of hearing in advance is what my work, Tonal Refraction, visualizes.