"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!

"A Bottomless Pit of Flowers"

Maia Vlcek has been working with me for three years. I find myself delighted and inspired in our lessons because I KNOW that, even on days when she arrives from school tired and a little bedraggled, she will come forth with music that is striking, original, beautiful. She never fails. Maia is a wonderful example of the limitless creativity that EACH of us carries. She is simply allowing it to flow forth. We amusingly refer to it as her "bottomless pit of flowers."

This is one of the first duet improvisations we did together--we recorded it three years ago when Maia was eleven. It's gorgeous. I often listen to it when I want to focus or relax.




EVERY individual, in fact, has a bottomless pit of flowers inside of him or her! For each of us, it comes out in a different way. Your task is to determine how you can most easily access that infinite source of creativity inside you. In what way do you most readily express yourself?

Maia is a beautiful and inspiring example of creativity in action.

This duet was recorded yesterday.

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"

Light, Music, Spirit

It was an extraordinary day playing the piano at both the Worthington and Chesterfield, MA Congregational Churches, and then for a friend's 70th birthday party. There were many moments of joy and inspiration. I'll share the highlight: Rev. Doug Small gave an especially compelling sermon for the first Sunday of Advent. Following his sermon, I played an improvised anthem medley, blending Minstrel Boy, America the Beautiful, Amazing Grace and finally, Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. The church itself was built in the 18th century--simple, light-filled. At the last note of the anthem, I was overcome with the feeling that one longs for--a sense of something greater than yourself. The physical light became a metaphysical light. It was BEAUTIFUL. I played to THAT. Truly a blessing.

New Podcast About The Piano Duet Paradigm(TM)

In this 1-hour interview with David Roel on TalkShoe Online, I discuss how music bypasses the limitations and defenses we often unconsciously carry. In The Piano Duet Paradigm, two people become inter-supportive, generating a field of trust and exploration. New realities emerge. The Duet Paradigm is a spiritual practice, one which is imminently human, real and tangible, one that gives rise to an awakened experience of the creative force that flows through each of us.

This quote by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin goes to the heart of what I observe and what inspires me to share this work with others: "Together we exist and forever we will recreate each other."

You can listen to this interview in its entirety here

New Television Interview - "Spirit of the Berkshires"

In this just-released interview with Dr. Andrew Cort for his "Spirit of the Berkshires" series, I talk about the role of music in life, healing, and human transformation, and describe my work with the women of Riverbrook Residence in Stockbridge, MA. The interview was aired on CTSB-TV, a local cable channel.

Spirit of the Berkshires - Episode 8 from Andrew Cort on Vimeo.

Road Trip – A Musical Journey with Hope Garner

I’m starting to think that heaven is a place on earth. I’m seeing miracles unfold before my eyes with increasing regularity—through music.

About eight months ago, I began teaching piano to Hope Garner. Hope is fourteen years old. As with many of my students, I improvise in duet with her. From the outset, it was obvious to me that Hope is unusually free in her musical expressivity, ranging over the keyboard like it’s home. She'll play shimmering phrases high up in the treble one moment, and rumbling bass rhythms the next.

Hope loves singing, too. And she writes her own songs. Her mom, Claire, is a singer and guitar player. Hope has a wide range of musical tastes-—she loves Phoebe Snow, Stevie Wonder, Hannah Montana, Cake, Bjork and Brian Duncan. When she grows up, Hope wants to be a singer (and a cook and cleaner).

Hope likes to refer to herself as having “Up’s Syndrome.” As I've realized, it’s true. She is a success story made possible by love, faith and modern medicine. Her first three months were spent at Bay State Hospital in Springfield, MA. She was born with five holes in her heart--congenital disorders such as this are common to children with Down’s Syndrome. Claire explained how, when babies are born with genetic disorders, it takes awhile to know what they’ll be capable of. Despite her rocky beginnings, by the time Hope was in kindergarten, she knew the alphabet and could spell her name. With the incredible love and support that Claire gives her, Hope has developed into the girl that comes and sits with me at the piano.

Hope’s musical journey is central to her life’s journey. And so are road trips. Hope loves to go on excursions with her mom. They’ll get in the car (their current vehicle—a Jeep—is dubbed the “J-unit”), play CD's, and travel around the East Coast, staying at bed and breakfasts or friends' or family.

I recently recorded a duet with Hope and played it back to her. I asked her what she’d like to name it. We agreed that “Road Trip” was an apt title. As you’ll hear, this piece is both a musical journey and reflective of Hope's life. We sat and listened to the piece on my stereo. I asked her what she thought of it. “It makes me cry,” she said, so quietly I almost didn’t hear her. "Why?" I asked. “Because it’s amazing.”

Here is our duet, “Road Trip”

Meeting Vice President Biden

It’s not every day that the Vice President of the United States stands less than a foot away from you, gives you a disarmingly warm hello and a very firm handshake! Thanks to a dear friend, Bernard L. Jones, that’s exactly what I experienced yesterday.

Bernard, a Democratic State delegate from Colrain and Vietnam combat veteran, had invited me to a special reception in Boston for Vice President Joe Biden. Together with several hundred other people on the roof deck of Fenway Park, I listened to the Vice President speak about the issues confronting this new administration. He described his visits to hard-hit industrial communities throughout the United States and the economic necessity for health care reform. His speech was sober, personal, and finally...uplifting. Not in an impractical or hyperbolic way. His optimism was authentic, real.

I was hoping to hand him a DVD of my piano duets with the women of Riverbrook Residence. Through the medium of music, women with disabilities are exemplifying—emotionally, cognitively and socially—the spirit of change he and the new administration stand for. I knew that the Vice President would find this work meaningful and inspiring—just as Governor Deval Patrick had the week before!

As I learned from a Secret Service agent, however, no one is permitted to hand the Vice President anything, except perhaps a business card. So I gave my packet of materials to another friend, Michael Wilcox, through whose connections we hope to deliver it to the Vice President.

My aspiration is for the Riverbrook women to be recognized at a national level. Specifically, I imagine them performing in the First Lady’s new White House Music Series. They will help make the White House the “People’s House”—as First Lady Michelle Obama is seeking to do.

Through their music, these women, who in other circumstances may have been relegated to the fringes of society, are inspiring people throughout Massachusetts. They demonstrate why the optimism Vice President Biden expressed last night is justified—they prove that beauty, creativity and freedom are our nature, inherent to us all and unfettered by any limitation!

Watch this YouTube video of a performance by the women of Riverbrook Residence.

Jose Antonio Abreu - The Transformational Power of Music

I recently discovered through a musician friend, Judy Gerratt, this amazing Venezuelan man, named Jose Abreu. He has developed a system of teaching music to young children and created youth orchestras throughout his country. In this video on the TED site, he describes why and how music is having a transformational effect on Venezuelan children.

Here is a quote from near the end of his speech:
“The huge spiritual world that music produces, which also lies within itself, is the end of overcoming material poverty. The minute a child plays, he is no longer poor. The historian, Arnold Toynbee, said that the world is suffering a huge spiritual crisis…I believe that to confront such crisis, only art and religion can give proper answers to humanity, to mankind’s deepest aspirations and the historic demands of our time."

It is precisely because he goes to the heart of music—to its spiritual essence—that he is able to catalyze individual and social change. His reflections on the transformational power of music mirror what I’m observing in my work with women with developmental disabilities. (see video) I would state in this way the part of his quote I italicized: ”The minute a person plays, she/he is no longer disabled.”