This is an English translation of an article to appear in Nikkan San on May 16, 2021. It is a part of bi-weekly my column, “The Way of the Pianist.”
“Rubato” is a musical term from an Italian word rubare, meaning “to rob.” It’s an abbreviation of the phrase “tempo rubato,” to rob time. The term indicates the player to expand the intervals between the regular beats with some flexibility. A moment of suspension before a fall. A hesitation before a confession. When something beautiful makes you forget to breathe. When I take a rubato, I think of these things.
As of the May 6th, Los Angeles County’s safety measure has now been lifted to the yellow tier with a smooth distribution of vaccines against COVID-19. There have been some positive shifts in the music industry as well. I, too, have become engaged for some recording projects this month. It’s exciting to be practicing for a real projects for the first time in over a year, but I have been careful not to over-practice. More than worrying about fatigue and overuse injuries, I am thinking about my brain and cognitive optimization. I stop practicing at a point when I still want to keep going. That makes my brain review all the input I’d given it in the practicing up to that point during the break. In a sense, this is also a rubato. Rather than to be singularly goal oriented, it is more interesting look up from your work and take a look around, maybe even a walk around. This weekend, despite it being only a few days before my first recording session, I went to the beach. In the sound of pebbles rolling around in the waves, I found inspiration for the thirty-second notes I was struggling to execute. By letting go, and enjoying the momentum, the fast notes come out naturally, with grace.
Bill gates, who has made news headlines with his divorce announcement earlier this month, does dishes every night, as does Jeff Bezos who has become even wealthier during the pandemic. Doing routine mundane work can have the same effect as meditation, enhancing your sense of happiness and creativity. Even under pressure, it is important to take a break from your task and goals. Our brain is not designed to keep its focus on one point 24/7. It’s like trying to stare at one small dot for a long time. Soon, your eyes start to become blurry, losing focus. We need to sometimes shut our eyes, or look elsewhere at something else, to regain focus on what it is that we are trying to see, or accomplish.
Cooking is one of the activities that incorporates all of our five senses, a wonderful brain stimulant. So are eating, and of course, music!
