Re: Any rituals or superstitions about your recita

[allchopin]

i pet my black cat 13 times before i drop my mirror on the floor and step on the cracks to get to my car. yeh then i definietely do really good.

[chopiszte]

Well, you wouldn't miss your 15 notes on Chopin Etudes iif you would take the time to open an umbrella before you leave the house!

[allchopin]

hmm never heard of that one.

[BuyBuy]

Glenn Gould used to dip his hand in hot water before performing on the stage...

In a way, though, it makes sense : it allows your hands to move more easily and takes of stiffness.

[R.Q.]

I don't know if this is a ritual, but I like to rub my fingers in flour before a performance. That way I don't slip on the keys when I get sweaty.

~ Young Virtuoso

[eddie92099]

Rubinstein would either spray hairspray on the keys or put rosin on his fingers - apparently that also stops the fingers from slipping,
Ed

[R.Q.]

Hairspray sounds like a good idea. Probably not as messy as flour.

~ Young Virtuoso

[allchopin]

who is willing to defile their keys by spraying hair spray on it! thats a horrible idea.

[NetherMagic]

aah rituals and superstitions

when i play during recitals, i also keep my left foot to the left of the soft pedal or whatever pedal you call it, you know, the leftmost pedal of the 3

[ThEmUsIcMaNBJ]

the una corda pedal...

[NetherMagic]

yes i believe thats wut you call it

what is it used for anyways?  I've never used it even once in my entire piano experience

[Ktari]

on grands, and certain uprights, the una corda shifts the hammers so instead of hitting 3 C# strings, for example, it only hits 1 -aka the "soft pedal" maybes everything lots more subdued, and, well, soft!!

I used to like to use warm water, but I found it kind of dries out your hands => slipping. I don't like washing my hands right before playing either (thus, no water) because it's more slippery without those finger oils (sounds gross -ew!). I dont really have a ritual, unless you count those re-usable chemical heat packs. hehe after burning my thumb in an attempt to make my own (<-- chemistry geek) i finally gave in and bought some, hehe

[eddie92099]

The Una Corda actually will move the hammers to hit 2 rather than 3 strings (at most - in the treble) on modern pianos, not 1 out of 3 as Ktari said (making it, in effect, the duo corda!). On uprights, the hammers are shifted towards the strings, decreasing the distance between them,
Ed

[la_carrenio2003]

Well, returning to the main tonality, no rituals or superstitions at all? I didn't mean practical things you have to do for playing confortable, but actions with some magical meaning. Well, I assume it's just the time we live in. You see, I'm latinoamerican and magic is not a totally strange or freaking thing to us. It's normal let a little fantasy breaking into the quotidian, specially for us, artists, at least. Remember Gabriel García Márquez...

[eddie92099]

No. Whoa was s/he?
Ed

[eddie92099]

*Who

[la_carrenio2003]

He's  a famous colombian writer,winner of the Nobel prize of Literature.His most famous book is "One hundred years of loneliness" . It's translated to many languages: it's very cool, you have to read it...

[eddie92099]

What is it about?
Ed

[la_carrenio2003]

About several generations of the same family,but it's hard to explain... I highly reccomend you to read the book, you'll have a lot of fun.

[BuyBuy]

I started reading it a few years ago, but the edition was full of footnotes, and I couldn't help reading them all.

Eventually, I got tired of so many footnotes and quit reading... So I don't know really if I like the novel. I remember it incorporates lots of fantastic and curious elements.

[Ktari]

God, they made us read that thing in school... people say it like, totally changes their lives or something? well I just found it... well, "interesting" -there's so much awesome detail, and it has very good messages, but while reading it you might go "riiiiiighhht". anyway, all the analysis we did kind of killed it, but it talks about things like solitude, cycles, knowledge, fate -oh, and has a healthy big of incest ^^ you know how movies always have that gratuitous sex scene? well, almost every single book we read in world literature did too...

[la_carrenio2003]

Returning -again- to the main thread, is it really possible that none of you, guys, has even a little bit of magic sense in your lives? Or it's just that nobody wants to show himself as a supertitious person? Remember that we're here like in a masks ball...

[chopinetta]

oh rituals! i'm not fond of them. whatever i do i don't do good in recitals. oh yes, i shake a lot, and sweat and all those stuff! horrible! anyone can help with their rituals for that problem???

[Steinwayman]

I usually dip my hands in molten lead, then shampoo with hippo lard under a shower of ice-cold water from subterranean caverns of Saturn's moons, before quickly downing a cup of boiling pitch and flogging myself with birch wands. Does wonders for my concentration...

[eddie92099]

I usually dip my hands in molten lead, then shampoo with hippo lard under a shower of ice-cold water from subterranean caverns of Saturn's moons, before quickly downing a cup of boiling pitch and flogging myself with birch wands. Does wonders for my concentration...

How extraordinarily coincidental - I do exactly the same!
Ed  

[dinosaurtales]

I usually take a cue from my father-in-law, who says he's not superstitious, but there's no use taking any chances.  I bathe in goat urine and pray to the Steinway god before I play.  And that's just before my weekly lessons!

[sram]

i jerk off frantically with both hands...it warms them up and releases tensions.

plus fingers  really stick to the keys...

highly recommended.

[Bosendorfer_214]

I don't ever want to play after you...

I hope you were joking...I probably won't sleep for a week.

[xenon]

I wash my hands in warm water, gradually increasing the temperature.  This relaxes them.  Then, I towel them off very well so no vapour evapourates, which, by endothermic means, would cool off my hands.  I then shove them into my gloves to preserve the heat.  I then usually get very nervous, so I read over my music until I feel satisfied.  I then try to relax and think about the musical aspects and nuances.

[bitus]

Rituals help concentrating... It's kindof a brain routine
Water... yeah, it keeps sweat off for a while. I'm thinking... chemicaly, what keeps sweat away for a long time?
Back to rituals, I always read my Bible before i play, and always pray. I don't call that superstitious, but religious... It remembers me it's that it's not me that has any merit in any of these, but God that gave me the talent. This way i humbly give back for what i received...
Bitus

[eddie92099]

I always read my Bible before i play, and always pray. I don't call that superstitious, but religious... It remembers me it's that it's not me that has any merit in any of these, but God that gave me the talent. This way i humbly give back for what i received...

,
Ed

[xenon]

Rituals help concentrating... It's kindof a brain routine
Water... yeah, it keeps sweat off for a while. I'm thinking... chemicaly, what keeps sweat away for a long time?
Back to rituals, I always read my Bible before i play, and always pray. I don't call that superstitious, but religious... It remembers me it's that it's not me that has any merit in any of these, but God that gave me the talent. This way i humbly give back for what i received...
Bitus

Good point!  I also pray before I go up to the piano, and before I play my first note.  It always helps, feeling that God is with me to help me endeavour to play beautifully.

Ed:  

[dinosaurtales]

Don't have any actual rituals yet, but I'll have to develop some.  I will be joining a small group of local pianists that get together each month, and I am sure there will be some sort of *hazing*.  Any ideas - I mean REAL ones!

[TwinkleFingers]

you mean real as in non-goat-urine-bathing? not dipping hands in molten lead or taking showers in subterranean caverns on saturn?  who do you think we are? idiots?
A good hazing would be to accidently drop the piano key cover on someones hands while they play.  Also throw them indside the piano with some mice and moles and snakes.

[elena]

Hi,

Mine are not really rituals, but to concentrate and stay calm, I have to breath deeply, drink water and as well wash hands with warm water, have some chocolate
(on the backstage),
When I play I always think it's going to be the last time, and all the stress is no worth...But some time later, if they ask me to play, I won't say no, because it's the life I've chosen to live.

[dinosaurtales]

The chocolate sounds good.  I would be cautious about the water though. As I learned from hockey, there's a fine line between hydrating and overdoing it, IF you know what I mean!  It'd be a tough spot to be in the middle of the first movement of a really long sonata and have it *hit*!

[Axtremus]

Dino, Amen to that part about praying to the Steinway God.