"In My Dreams" - The Experience of Freedom in The Piano Duet Paradigm

This video is a kick-and-a-half...and it's revelatory! It took place in one of my workshops. Mary Cunov was discouraged from playing by her early piano teacher. But Mary's dad was a Dixieland trumpet player. She LOVES Boogie-Woogie.

In improvised duet with me, for the first time she had the opportunity to let herself "go." As we played together, her creativity becomes obvious. Finally, the music that's always been inside of her came out!

WHATEVER your experiences have been--both in music and generally--KNOW that there's a FREE spirit inside you, READY to be released!

"I'm a Piano-ist!"

Rosie Chernila started piano with me when she was five, or maybe four. From the outset, we played improvised duets together. And from the beginning, they were beautiful. She has a delicate touch on the keys, a lovely sense of rhythm and phrasing.

Several months later, she exclaimed, "I've learned all I need to know. I'm a piano-ist!" With that, she decided to stop lessons. I took her declaration as confirmation. I was succeeding. Rosie was in touch with herself - an essential individuality that was being released through her music.

Music--especially when created in duet with another person--bypasses the limitations of language, of age, of physical or even cognitive limitations. I often speak with my philosopher father about the liberating effects of musical duet. When he first saw my duets, he was struck--and continues to be--by the freedom of expression afforded those who sit with me at the piano. We are working outside the traditional parameters of language and musical "narrative." Together with my students we are creating our own own narratives. My dad will be presenting a paper on this topic at Oxford University next summer.

Rosie's resumed her piano lessons. I'm delighted. Look and listen closely and you'll perceive her distinct personality. It's already there, emerging through the music. She's six now. I always feel something between us, a subtle and beautiful connection. Yesterday, we recorded this spontaneous duet.

Moments of Delight

Today, I had a wonderful lesson (if you can call it that!) with a student who studied piano for many years prior to working with me. Our duets are incredible - free, virtuosic, inventive, HAPPY! We spoke about "moments of delight," our mutual experience of inspiration as we improvise together.

Become aware of the moments of delight that arise in YOUR day-to-day life. These moments will often occur unbidden, but they are significant. The experience of awe you feel will allow you to encounter/enter a different realm, an ineffable dimension of beauty and lightness that is otherwise invisible, and yet always there.

"Duet is Like A Garden" - A Student Reflects on His Experience

This letter was written by a 17-year old student of mine named Erik. He is an unusually thoughtful young man. Anticipating an insightful response, I asked him to reflect on his experience of improvised piano duet. I just received this:

"In duet, the intertwining notes and chords are almost like a garden. It grows, if you nurture it, and eventually it becomes this big full thing before you have to cut it all away or it dies down naturally.

(Here, you can listen to an improvised duet that Erik and I created.)

"Duets display the combined emotional and musical efforts of two people in creative growth. The music can spark something in everybody as long as the ear is open. As the notes and chords grow and come together, they become one sturdy piece of music, filling this invisible canvas like an aural painting. A colorful, musical expression. In that, they're just as essential, if not more so, than what's created with paints and brushes -- we all need our prized music collection anyway, not everyone has a prized art collection.

"Music reminds me of colors, and what I've been thinking of here, I probably would not have thought of if I hadn't been listening this week to the music of the group, YES. I've been studying their layers of music -- listening to lots of progressive rock bands like them. A lot of their songs and pieces tend to sound like these big things, but a lot of the time it isn't as big as the ear perceives...



"I don't think I can describe my emotional expression with music; it just is. I can just let it be, and let it happen. I can't describe how I play anything, I have no idea what I'm doing at the piano, I just go for it and what comes out is what comes out. I don't think I'm alone there. Steve Howe (the guitarist in Yes) can't describe how he composed some songs...

...and Neil Young has a fascination with recording things "in the moment", which I haven't heard him elaborate on, but I imagine it's probably because once the moment's gone, the emotion is gone, and the initial magic of the song is lost as well. And that's what I can relate to, I think.



"The point that I'm getting to is that, unless you know exactly what you're doing with your instrument, you can't over-think it. But who wants to know, or hear someone who knows exactly what they're doing, anyway? If the music is truly expression and art, it all has to spontaneously happen in-the-moment.

"I hope you've had a wonderful week, and I wish the very best,
Erik"

When the Saints Go Marching In - The Duet Paradigm in Action!

Tanny Labshere is one of my students - a young woman with exceptional musical abilities who was born blind and is also hearing impaired. We began working together four years ago when I started teaching music to Tanny and other women at Riverbrook Residence, New England's oldest and finest facility for women with disabilities.



My relationship with Tanny has progressed and deepened over the years. You can hear it in this improvisation. Something is happening through the medium of music. A CONNECTION. It's unpremeditated. We're each creating music individually and yet we're also TOGETHER.

Listen for what's beneath the music--the relationship between us. You're seeing and hearing two individuals who are independent, free, and inspired, and who are also collaborating creatively in response to each other. This dimension of relatedness is there, between everyone. You can sense it in your interactions. It's subtle. I suggest this: really listen to another person at the same time that you're listening to and expressing yourself, risking, stepping into the unknown. That's what we are doing here. THAT is duet!