play more deep

[piani0player]

hi everyone
          my teacher told me to play music more deeply.
but what is the meaning of deep?is that have something to do with feeling or emotion?how do you do it?

thank you

[xenon]

This is often associated with one's articulation playing the piano.  To play shallow is to not press the keys fully, thus getting a poorer sound, and not good sound.  To play deeply means to put all of your weight into your playing.  Shallow, is just like brushing the keys nonchalantly.

I'm pretty sure this is what your teacher meant.

[allchopin]

I disagree- i think he/she meant that you need more personal emotion and sentiment/passion into the piece.  Thus, deep is used in a metaphorical sense to mean emotionally deep. (rather than physical)
I dunno, try both and see what the teacher says!

[piani0player]

thanks to all
     my teacher said is emotionally deep.but how do you have more emotion and passion while playing the piece?
should i think of a story or play with feelings?where to find the passion etc?


thank you

[allchopin]

Nah i dont buy into that "think of a story" stuff...  A good idea to find a great interpretation of a piece is to listen to a professional recording of it, to gain perspective on how someone interpreted it.  You dont have to play like this verbatim, as you should generate your own style, but its still a good idea.

[rachfan]

To play with passion you have to have experienced true love but once in your life.  If you have been lucky enough to know that delerium of intense passion, and if you are playing an ultra-romatic work by Rachmaninoff or Scriabin, for example, there will be those lush moments and purple patches in the music for which you will have no difficulty playing with an extraordinary intensity of expression.  "Playing deeply" goes far beyond paying attention to matters of dynamics, touch, nuance, rubato, and the other features of the printed score.  All of that is important, but it really comes down to incorporating a mental imagery that overarches your interpretation of the piece that enables you to share a flare of emotion elicited by both the composer's intent and your own expressiveness simultaneously.  

Even in supposedly non-programmatic music, you can sometimes conjure up a possible scenario there.  Take the Rachmaninoff Preludes.  Op. 23, No. 10 in G flat strongly suggests (to me at least) two lovers saying a halting and awkward, but hopefully not a final "good-bye".  Perhaps he is leaving on a long journey, or going off to war.  Yet in the end, there's an overwhelming confluence of unbridled passion between the two.   How can one not have that picture or a similar one in mind when playing this piece?   Or consider the  Op. 32, No. 7 in F (which not everybody likes).  The "program" I find there for my own benefit in performing it is a couple of lovers in a horse-drawn landau carrigage riding through a park.  In the middle of the piece there is a sudden and unexpected whirlwind of passion.  (Hopefully the coach driver is keeping his eyes straight ahead on the path!)  Someone who can feel that brief tryst can play that piece like no other.  The last couple of closing notes there reminds me of the late afternoon sun glinting off the coach's side mirror as it rounds the bend and disappears out of sight.  Did Rachmaninoff visualize this same scene?  Probably not.  Would he think this notion is crazy?  Maybe... but then again, maybe not.  But it doesn't matter, as it elicits the proper expression in the moment to put the piece over to an audience successfully. Performance involves technique, expression, interpretation, style, attention to performance practices, etc.  But it also requires some imagination.

As a young student I recall another who had a phenomenal velocity and dexterity.  There was no piece written by Mendelssohn or anyone else marked prestissimo that she could not play in the most precise and flawless manner.  But her playing was forever mechanical, dry, and gray in color--much like a Czerny exercise.  There was never a hint of the slightest expression despite the frequent pleadings of our teacher.  Her playing was lifeless.  Nor could she ever play the lyrical side of the repertoire, because it was not sufficiently robotic in character for her.  She had no imagination.  So sad!    

[NetherMagic]

pianoplayer if you want an example of "deepness," try Chopin's Prelude Opus.24 No.4

1st time, play it following the beat.  Sounds pretty dull, eh?  2nd time, spice it up with rubato and changing dynamics.  Of if you can't do that, listen to a recording, then compare with your 1st time with playing that piece

[ThEmUsIcMaNBJ]

To play with passion you have to have experienced true love but once in your life.

Wow...  I love it...  Haha this is awesome.  Everything RachFan says is always right, so I'm goona believe you on this one.  I'm goona go tell my teacher I can't practice as much because I gotta go find true love or I'll never play well!

Hehe I'm j/k btw.  But seriously I really really like that theory!  I'm so involved in piano, I feel guilty if I'm on a date or something when I have a lesson the next day.  But now I know it's going to help my playing one of these days.  Hehe, I'm being serious here so don't come back and say you weren't being serious RachFan or you'll screw up my new system  

[rachfan]

Hi EmUS,

I agree with your approach--try it, you'll like it!  And it will help your playing!

[piani0player]

thanks to all.