One Angel at a Time

I often talk about perceiving music one tone at a time, but that needs some clarification, especially about that use of "time."

Time perception itself is hugely enlarged in the action of playing music.  The ear picks up on millions of vibration events, either taking delight in them or being horrified at their range and intensity.

The trouble is that listeners not engaged in the activity of performance take in that kind of time awareness only subconsciously.  Music teachers suffer greatly from that kind of listening over-simplification.  Needless to say, time is far easier to deal with when it is controllable, i.e., predictable, reliable, tedious, boring.

The essential difference lies in the bass notes and the long tones.  These are what inform and enrich the life of vibrations on the piano.  Attending only to the melody just does not allow room for that level of auditory magic to occur.  That magic is the essence of the time I am trying to describe, a time that seems so out of time.

Top voice only; right hand principally--these are the basic rules behind much piano training, to this day.

This post got its title from a certain pin head.