Life Lessons from the Keyboard.

This is the English translation of my Japanese article for Nikkan San, a part of my bi-weekly column, “The Way of the Pianist” to be published on March 19th, 2023.

 

“How can you play so fast?” I get asked sometimes. Usually, it’s the children in the audience, with their big eyes wide open, really wanting to know.

There are passages with many notes between the beats, like 8, 12, 16, 32… If you think of them as “fast” or “difficult,” then playing them musically becomes out of reach. Instead, it’s better to think of the expression that could not have been achieved if not for these notes. Maybe it’s an emotional outburst; cascading light, wind, water; pearls all over wooden floor; or the ineffability of a supernatural phenomenon…. When the image becomes clear, you are not playing notes in succession, but the meaning that they collectively express.      

“If you think “C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C” and try to play them fast one after the other, then it’s a lot to do, but when you think ‘the note C to the C one above and try to draw a line in between, then the speed becomes a necessity.” That’s how I explain it to very young audience members.

As the performing arts industry is waking up from the enforced hibernation in the years of Covid, my calendar is beginning to fill up, too. I am writing this on a flight to Japan.

I am looking at a busy itinerary. Hiroshima-Hyogo-Aichi-Wakayama-Tokyo… Will I find my way around? Will everything be on time? Can I eat and sleep to perform my best despite the jetlag? …I can let myself get caught up in these worries. But my decades of practicing at the piano reminds me to think of it a bit differently.

This itinerary is just like those note-y passages. When I focus on my mission to deliver the power of music, and to serve as a bridge between various sectors, languages and countries, I feel lucky with all these opportunities to share what I have to offer. It’s just like how my playing starts to be led by the music, when I start to think of each note as a part of the whole of music.  

The way I think, and the way I live is informed and inspired by my practice as a musician.

I think I might catch the beginning of the cherry blossom season this year – a rare treat!