"A Duet is Something You Feel" - A Student Reflects On His Experience

Tyler Henry, my young student, reflects on his experience of playing music in duet at the piano.

"For people who are listening, the first thing I want to say is that (when you perform on the piano), it's not about the attention that you get, it's about playing for the people, for you...A person has different emotions, happy, sad. So, find an emotion that you have now and just start to play..."

Inspiring advice for us all!

The Ultimate Duet

In prayer this morning, it suddenly occurred to me: I am in a duet with God, the Creator, or Spirit--that which is all-pervasive and ever-unfolding. And even more, the Creator is in duet with me!

In prayerful silence, I reflected on my inner "posture" and recalled what happens in piano duet--receptivity, listening, attentiveness. I open to another person and who he or she TRULY IS, making room for the possibility of an extraordinary outcome. The same was happening in prayer.

Indeed, the ULTIMATE DUET is with the Creative Force of the Universe. When we come into life, our birth is a beautiful expression of duet--God or Spirit in duet with matter, giving form to Itself as us. And when we leave, we are often reminded once again of its Absolute presence, its inherent and infinite nature, its purity and goodness.

At any and every moment along the way, we can rekindle our connection to this Divine Force. Simply choose to LISTEN FULLY and UNCONDITIONALLY for that "still small voice." In so doing, we realize that it's ALWAYS been there. We enter into the ULTIMATE DUET.

Here are several principles of The Piano Duet Paradigm. As I'm realizing, when used as prayer or meditation, they can awaken our relationship to God.

LIBERATE one's senses to listen wholly and fully to ANOTHER human being (or God, the Absolute, Spirit). In so doing, we begin to hear the natural, true "voice" of the other (of the Creator) at the same time that we begin to experience OUR OWN.

New and even MIRACULOUS POSSIBILITIES are REVEALED.

Harmony recognizes harmony. (Pythagoras)

These MIRACULOUS, NEW results are the manifestation of GRACE.

As we experience GRACE, we gain SELF-KNOWLEDGE, awakened to the CREATIVE FORCE that works through EACH OF US.

MGMT - A Piano Student Succeeds!

Twenty years ago, Ben Goldwasser, co-founder of the band MGMT, began his musical career at the age of nine in duet with me at the piano. He was one of my early students. Ben's father, David, said that it was the support and creative freedom I gave Ben that helped him gain confidence in his abilities. MGMT has become world-famous and nominated for two Grammys.

I offer this as encouragement to EVERYONE. When the creative spirit is nurtured, recognized and freed, it can lead you to amazing places! Good on 'ya Ben!

Inspiration at the Right Moment - Barry Lopez, Writer and Naturalist

A year and a half ago, I gave my first transformational retreat in the Berkshire Hills of Lenox, MA. Together with the participants who'd enrolled for the weekend, we'd explore the power of duet improvisation to awaken our creativity, to hear our unique "voices" as expressed through improvised music, and finally to leave--I hoped--with a new sense of life and its possibilities.

The night before the retreat began, I was nervous as I contemplated the schedule, the myriad practical details, our activities together, my aspiration for the weekend. At 11pm, something compelled me to turn on the TV, which is unusual. There on PBS was the final episode of Bill Moyers' "Journal," a show in which each week he would interview a person of note--an artist, public figure, spiritual leader. I had heard of his guest, author, Barry Lopez, and vaguely recalled that I'd been inspired years earlier by something he'd written. As Lopez began to speak, however, I realized that I had been blessed. Here was EXACTLY the right message, the right person to strengthen and affirm my vision just as the weekend was about to begin.

To give you a sense, this is an excerpt from the interview. He is speaking about writing; but, really he is encouraging us to CREATE. There are real and positive effects that our creative acts can have on another human being:

"And when you can open up (to your creativity) and come out of your own little small tiny place in the world and...you try. And you get something on paper. And you give it to somebody. And you say, "Well, what do you think?" If it really works, they (will) read it and they will say, "I think I'm going to be okay."

Barry Lopez was expressing what compels me to do my work, my reasons for encouraging others to trust in themselves, in that which lies often untapped in each of us--one's own true voice!

It was no wonder that Bill Moyers chose Barry Lopez as the final guest. Moyers said in his introduction to the interview: "So many people have inspired my own work that I had a difficult time making that choice. But i finally decided to ask someone whose curiosity about the world, and pursuit of it, have set the gold standard for all of us whose work it is to explain those things we don't understand"

You can watch the interview in its entirety here on the PBS website:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04302010/watch3.html

Here in My Heart - A Story of Music, Faith and Love

The following article was printed in The Advocate, North Adams, MA - October 19, 2011



Over the past 30 years, as a musician, composer and teacher, I have taught piano to hundreds of students of every age and background. And yet, what probably comes to mind when you think of "piano lessons" has little to do with what happens for people when they sit with me at the keyboard.

Imagine yourself discovering that you can create music of disarming beauty -- even if you have little or no musical background. Imagine finding a confidence that defies any preconceptions you may have about yourself or life. Imagine experiencing reality in a new way as a result of creating music together with another person, where limitation and fear are replaced by positivity and love.

From the outset, I was drawn to playing in duet with my students, and I developed a unique approach to piano duet improvisation. The result is that a person with no musical background or "ability," and even with a disability, is able to create beautiful, original music. In the process, I've been transformed, finding a deep faith in life and in our innate human capacities that often extend far beyond what we (or others) may have imagined.

Here's one inspiring example: Stephen Lepotakis has studied with me for two years. Stephen was diagnosed with autism early in his life. His mother, Sheila, explained how the first clue was in his verbal expression, which stopped developing at 18 months. Stephen is now 22. In our lessons,he communicates more through music than through language. Sheila has said, "If we could put to music everything he needs to learn, he would absorb it all quickly. He would surpass so many of his deficiencies."

Stephen enjoys my Steinway grand, which gives him 88 keys, as compared to his small, electronic keyboard at home. At his lesson, he glides his hands up and down the piano in long glissandos and gleefully plays fast sequences of notes in the bass. It's those exuberant, percussive sounds that lead his mother, Sheila, to lovingly refer to him as "her little Chopin."

Stephen loves music and numbers and telling time. Appropriately, among his favorite songs is the Chicago classic "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is." As he performs this song in duet with me, he will look at his watch in the midst of it and call out the time: "3:42 p.m.!"

Another song Stephen loves is the Chicago hit "Here in My Heart." The theme of that song perfectly expresses the effect my working with Stephen and my other students has had on me. Sheila and her husband, Neil, were advised early on that they should resist changing their lives to accommodate their son's, and yet their love for Stephen comes from a place that's deep and natural. I've been inspired and touched by this wonderful family.

Stephen expresses through music some of what he can't convey through language. He has a wonderful sense of rhythm and is capable of subtlety and nuance. I only need to give simple suggestions and he's right there with me. It truly is a collaboration. Stephen and I performed at the 2009 Jolly Jaunt fundraiser, for which he received the "Most Spirited" Award. We chose our duet version of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" to play for 350 people at the Community Resources for People with Autism fundraiser in 2011, receiving a standing ovation.

My work with Stephen and all of my students has been a revelation. It has allowed me to recast the traditional piano duet into a model that can be applied to any human relationship -- at home, school and work. The elements are unconditional listening and presence, faith in another's potential, a spirit of exploration, trust that an extraordinary outcome is possible and curiosity to see what happens. In day-to-day interactions, when you create these conditions for another person, or you are blessed to be given them, joy, creativity and love will flow forth.