Words of Wisdom (share yours!)

[lamia]

Sometimes you meet someone who says something about music so profound that it stays with you for the rest of your life (whether you agree with it 100% or not). They become "words of wisdom"

I thought maybe we could share with each other those words of wisdom. It can be about any aspect of music: performance, concerting, composers, composition, recordings - whatever. Just so long as it's related to music. The only rule is that CANNOT COME FROM SOMETHING YOU READ IN A BOOK (e.g. no quotes from some famous composer, etc). These have to be based on personal experiences. 

Mention who the wise sage was who said it, if you can.

I'll go first:

"Only tamper with what is writ in a score if it will improve it. Follow this rule, and you will not find many occasions to do so."

-Composer Luis Ramirez

[ted]

"The masters were great and we'll always love their music, but they're all dead and it's our turn now."

- my teacher.

[nicco]

"Try again"

- All of my teachers

[netzow]

"You are a professional, someone just has to hire you"
                                                                     My old Piano teacher

[lamia]

"The masters were great and we'll always love their music, but they're all dead and it's our turn now."

- my teacher.

Hey, I really like that one!

[lostinidlewonder]

Two things which have stuck with me:

"Stop comparing yourself with others. Music is a language, no one boasts that they can speak better than another person, you either can speak it or not."

I use to constantly compare myself when I was younger with other young kids and enjoyed the fact that I could play things others couldn't. But now that I am older that is no longer the case and in fact there are people who can play "better" than me now! But our musical journey is hindered if we compare ourselves with others. If you compare and find you are "better" than others you might slow down, like the tortise and the hare fable, you think you are far ahead so you take a break while the others who are slow and steady eventually will pass you. If you compare yourself with others and find you are much "worse" then this might depress you and your work becomes much slower. So I have learnt to never compare myself with other musicians, I have also learnt to apply this to my students. Often one asks me, so who is your best student? I have to reply to them that it always changes, "best" in my opinion is one who makes the most change in their musical ability. That can come from a real beginner or an advanced player.


"Don't let the music play you, you play the music." Roger Woodward told me when I was driving him through Perth city. That has always stuck with me.

[jlh]

Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.

-- Jedi Master Yoda.

I've gotten called on this one a few times before... my teacher would say "do it like this", and I'm like, "ok, I'll try", and she'd say, "don't try, do".

[jlh]

"Think ten times--play once!"

-- Jane Allen

[lamia]

Two things which have stuck with me:

"Stop comparing yourself with others. Music is a language, no one boasts that they can speak better than another person, you either can speak it or not."

I use to constantly compare myself when I was younger with other young kids and enjoyed the fact that I could play things others couldn't. But now that I am older that is no longer the case and in fact there are people who can play "better" than me now! But our musical journey is hindered if we compare ourselves with others. If you compare and find you are "better" than others you might slow down, like the tortise and the hare fable, you think you are far ahead so you take a break while the others who are slow and steady eventually will pass you. If you compare yourself with others and find you are much "worse" then this might depress you and your work becomes much slower. So I have learnt to never compare myself with other musicians, I have also learnt to apply this to my students. Often one asks me, so who is your best student? I have to reply to them that it always changes, "best" in my opinion is one who makes the most change in their musical ability. That can come from a real beginner or an advanced player.


"Don't let the music play you, you play the music." Roger Woodward told me when I was driving him through Perth city. That has always stuck with me.

Thank you for the wisdom and elaboration.

I way I always saw it, competition helps move some people forward, while it hinders others, as you stated. When I compare to others, it usually hurts (whether or not it inspires me to move forward or not); and maybe the most important thing in life is to be content with onself. So I'll keep your wisdom in mind.

[lamia]

"Think ten times--play once!"

-- Jane Allen

That's deep. Such wisdom might revolutionize how we practice.

[m]

If one day I go on stage and won't feel nervous, it would be the last day of me as a musician.

Ernest Anserme

[avetma]

“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music”

Sergei Rachamaninov on death bed.

[henrah]

"If you don't make a career in performing, never mind. You'll still have the music you love."

Leonard something methinks. Was given a link to him when I was feeling down about my ability to become a performer.
Henrah

[lisztisforkids]

 "In the begining the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people angry, and has been widley regarded as a bad move."
 
                   -Douglas Adams

[pianistimo]

'the commonest fallacy among women is that having a child makes them a mother.  this is similar to a musician owning a piano and thinking he/she is a musician.'  sydney harris

here's one from erma bombeck:

never loan ur car to anyone u have given birth to. (ok. that's not piano related)

[monsieurrenard]

"Pianists always think they're alone on stage, that's why they get nervous. They're not alone, they are with the piano, and when you can understand that and become friends with the piano, performance will no longer be a problem."

One of my piano teachers.

-Monsieur Le Renard.

[tompilk]

'the commonest fallacy among women is that having a child makes them a mother.  this is similar to a musician owning a piano and thinking he/she is a musician.'  sydney harris

here's one from erma bombeck:

never loan ur car to anyone u have given birth to. (ok. that's not piano related)

the first one is depressing.

[Derek]

anything worth doing is worth doing badly. - G.K. Chesterton

[thalbergmad]

"Why do you want to play those. Chopin says more with only half the notes"

My teacher on the Godowsky/Chopin Studies.

[ahinton]

'the commonest fallacy among women is that having a child makes them a mother.  this is similar to a musician owning a piano and thinking he/she is a musician.'  sydney harris

How very true!

here's one from erma bombeck:
never loan ur car to anyone u have given birth to. (ok. that's not piano related)

Bit of a problem for me to comment on that one...

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

"Why do you want to play those. Chopin says more with only half the notes"

My teacher on the Godowsky/Chopin Studies.

"There are so many important choices in life and it is so easy to make the wrong ones - so whatever else you do, make sure that you choose a worthy piano teacher".

Dunno who said that, but it seems to have been a piece of wisdom that escaped you if you chose a teacher who said that...

Best,

Alistair

[invictious]

"You should consider being gay or getting more oestrogen and progesterone injections, because the greatest composers, like Chopin and Liszt, were either gay or very feminine"

-Invictious 

[Derek]

wait a minute. liszt? feminine? ......no way. he was a major major ladie's man.

[mike_lang]

On the late Beethoven Sonatas:

"They are like fine wine...they have to age - inside you.  If you wait until you're 50 to play them, it's too late."
-Emilio Del Rosario

[tds]

"honesty is both the cause and prize of making music" tds

[mike_lang]

"Pianists always think they're alone on stage, that's why they get nervous. They're not alone, they are with the piano, and when you can understand that and become friends with the piano, performance will no longer be a problem."

One of my piano teachers.

-Monsieur Le Renard.

Or, another take on the idea of solitude on stage:

"In chamber music, your partners are your fellow musicians - cellists, violinists, clarinetists, etc.  In solo playing, however, your partner is the music itself."
-Emile Naoumoff

[bflatminor24]

Before a large piano concert, while waiting in the backroom, my fellow pianists and I sat nervously and apprehensively, dreading the moment each had to walk on stage, bow, and begin performing.

Some words of wisdom that alleviated my nervosity were:

"We're here to make music." (Simon Goldstein)

This took the edge off, and suddenly the concert was not about me showing off my ability, but me showing the beauty of the music I was playing. Communicate the music to the audience, not yourself.

~Max~

[practicingnow]

"There are so many important choices in life and it is so easy to make the wrong ones - so whagtever else you do, make sure that you choose a worthy piano teacher".

Dunno who said that, but it seems to have been a piece of wisdom that escaped you if you chose a teacher who said that...

Best,

Alistair

Godowsky would have agreed with his teacher - did wisdom escaped him as well?

[ahinton]

Godowsky would have agreed with his teacher - did wisdom escaped him as well?

Would he really? On what evidence do you claim this? Were it true - or rather if Godowsky believed it to be so - why would he (Godowsky) have published most of his Chopin étude transcriptions? Godowsky's love of and respect for the original Chopin études is well known; indeed, it is even clear from his notes in the publications of his transcriptions. Those transcription were never intended to supplant - or be thought of as supplanting, Chopin's études - which they could not, of course, do in any case.

That said, the principal problem with "Thal"'s teacher's remark seems to me that it implies that he/she perceived little or no value in the Godowsky works even as teaching material - an astonishing stance, given the plethora of valuable pianistic disciplines explored therein. There are plenty more pianists around (these days) who resort to some of them from time to time as part of their practice regimen, even if they do not also happen to perform them in public.

Best,

Alistair

[jehangircama]

Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.

-- Jedi Master Yoda.

I've gotten called on this one a few times before... my teacher would say "do it like this", and I'm like, "ok, I'll try", and she'd say, "don't try, do".

beat me to it 

on a musical note, "it is better to play the wrong notes the right way than the right notes the wrong way".-Busoni

[practicingnow]

That said, the principal problem with "Thal"'s teacher's remark seems to me that it implies that he/she perceived little or no value in the Godowsky works even as teaching material - an astonishing stance, given the plethora of valuable pianistic disciplines explored therein. There are plenty more pianists around (these days) who resort to some of them from time to time as part of their practice regimen, even if they do not also happen to perform them in public.

I happen to agree with you, I do like the Godowsky Etudes very much, they are at times stunning, at all times ingenious, and quite valuable in their own way, and I do play a couple (that's literally two).  A pianist, if he or she is able, should certainly study some of them.
That said, I also agree with Thal's teacher - that Chopin said more with less.  Musically, that is.  He also said it first. 

Personally, I do find a certain aristocratic beauty, a nobility in the directness of the Chopin Etudes that is not present in the Godowskies.  Ironically, I find that the thickness of the texture in the Godowsky Etudes kind of compresses their emotional range.  Sometimes the simplicity of the line gets crushed under the weight of so many notes, and it is rendered just a clever exercise in polyphony, instead of the succinct, eloquent stroke of genius that was originally Chopin's.
That's just my opinion.

I also suspect that part of Thal's teacher's point was that if one learns Godowsky before learning Chopin, it's like eating desert before you've eaten the meat and vegetables (and I happen to agree with Thal's teacher here as well.)

I'm getting hungry now 

[nanabush]

“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music”

Sergei Rachamaninov on death bed.

That made me sad a bit inside 

[kriskicksass]

That made me sad a bit inside 

"My hands! My poor hands!" -Rachmaninoff on his deathbed

I almost cried when I first read that.

[jlh]

I also suspect that part of Thal's teacher's point was that if one learns Godowsky before learning Chopin, it's like eating desert before you've eaten the meat and vegetables.

"Life's too short, eat dessert first."

 

[andyd]

"Look for the Beautiful, which is always there if it be music - look for the physical, emotional and spiritual beauty."

and

"Mean every note"


Andy

[invictious]

Use the force.

 - umm....forgot ...

[lamia]

"Pianists always think they're alone on stage, that's why they get nervous. They're not alone, they are with the piano, and when you can understand that and become friends with the piano, performance will no longer be a problem."

One of my piano teachers.

-Monsieur Le Renard.

That's so true! 

[jam8086]

"Why do you want to play those. Chopin says more with only half the notes"

My teacher on the Godowsky/Chopin Studies.

Oh man, that one is great.

Two more...

"Wrong notes are of little consequence. But to play without passion is inexcusable."
- Beethoven
(Even though I read something about how when an aristocratic student hit a wrong note, Beethoven stormed out into the street.)

"Competitions are for horse, not artist."
- Bartok

[avetma]

Applaud friends, the comedy is over.
Beethoven  as he was dying

[pianochild]

If you cant do it shoo it!  - i know a bit silly and cheesy

[jas]

I don't normally like quotes like these - they're usually snappy but mean nothing. However, I do like this one by Oscar Wild:
"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about."

*** right.

^Oh, for god's sake. What's wrong with saying dam-n? I'm sure most of us have inner strength enough not to break down in outraged tears at the use of it. Well, maybe. Outrage seems to be a firm favourite for a few people here.

[tompilk]

"My hands! My poor hands!" -Rachmaninoff on his deathbed

I almost cried when I first read that.

i did cry... weeped for hours... and im a 16 year old male...

[lamia]

Thanks for everyone's quotes so far but PLEASE, to avoid making this just another famous-quotes thread, Remember the RULE people: THE QUOTE CANNOT BE SOMETHING YOU READ IN A BOOK  (i.e. it must come from a personal experience.)

So  please, no more quotes from famous composers, yoda & etc., unless that person actually told you it in person!

[pianistimo]

teacher before the last.  'i only accept cash.'

[steveie986]

"The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." - Glenn Gould

[lisztisforkids]

"The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." - Glenn Gould

  Something Dasdc dosent really seem to get...

[ahinton]

teacher before the last.  'i only take cash.'

That one reminds me of another:

"In God we trust: all others pay cash".

Best,

Alistair

[paulmoony]

"Two to four hours a day are enough. If someone practises all day it means one of two things: either he has nothing else to do, or he has no talent."

- Evgeny Kissin

So True... So True..

[crazy for ivan moravec]

'scuse me... 

[lisztisforkids]

"Two to four hours a day are enough. If someone practises all day it means one of two things: either he has nothing else to do, or he has no talent."

- Evgeny Kissin

So True... So True..

 Yeah... If you have sufficent talent to play Chopin concerti when your 12.