What quality would you like to have define your playing ?

[m19834]

Freshness.

Oh, that's an easy one.  Just put on a clean pair of undies (why is it called a "pair"  ) and you should be fine  .

[gyzzzmo]

Oh, that's an easy one.  Just put on a clean pair of undies (why is it called a "pair"  ) and you should be fine  .

Or he should whipe his ass for a time, that would be a huge improvement too 

[m19834]

Or he should whipe his ass for a time, that would be a huge improvement too 

Yes, that's very true.  Generally speaking, it's a pretty helpful ritual as far as freshness goes, just ask tanman as he has started an entire thread about it   .

[db05]

Yes, that's very true.  Generally speaking, it's a pretty helpful ritual as far as freshness goes, just ask tanman as he has started an entire thread about it   .

Did I unwittingly start an innuendo - freshness and tastiness?

Don't worry, I use tabo, so I'm super clean, and I wear fresh underwear. btw, gyzzzmo, I'm a girl. 

havent seen concerto for 2 centuries. i wanna see you cook for me. cook some masarap filipino meal.

and of course i wanna hear you play!!

I don't know how to cook. But I know how to play.

[m19834]

Did I unwittingly start an innuendo -

Somehow I highly doubt it  .

[db05]

Somehow I highly doubt it  .

I was reminded of the freshness idea by what was supposed to be dinner last night. An otherwise delicious dish if the fish were fresh. So I want my playing to be like fresh fish.

[anne126]

My favourite pieces to play are usually the very melancholy pieces, so I think that I would like it if that word described my playing. Usually I feel very nostalgic when I play too, and I would like it if I could make the listeners feel the same way.

[keyofc]

God's love in my music
I would like for every one to feel it

[storyseller]

truth

[xxmynameisjohnxx]

I would have to pick innovative, deep, emotional, and original.

[kayordee]

I want my playing to be filled by plethora of fresh emotions, i want non-musicians to be able to identify the uniqueness in my playing and differ it from other pianists which all sound the same by their ears. I would also love a completeley different persona and style for performing each composer as if there was a whole other pianist playing the piece in there own unique way. i think that sums it up

[goldentone]

Not an easy question for one who seeks to to have an array of those coloring his playing.  I think you took the word out of my mouth, though, with "other-worldly" as the defining quality.  Maybe I can add to that with the wish that people will say that I penetrate and inhabit the music as they've never heard or known.   

[furtwaengler]

Force of nature.

[communist]

Icelandic

[richard black]

Icelandic

You mean, bankrupt?

 

[keyofc]

Well, I don't know what Icelandic means -
but when we are bankrupt - we may get filled up
with more expression !

[synthex]

?

[thalbergmad]

FREE

[vviola]

Freer than Thal's.

[pianist7]

Maybe "Beautiful," "Ingenious," Astounding," and the like.

[jinfiesto]

pianistimo, if you're a fan of amazing pianissimo, you should listen to louis de moura castro.

[m19834]

Monster.

[go12_3]

Spontaneous   

[deanalangraham]

Life is absurd. Most things that we as humans (I cannot speak for dogs or pigeons) do is absurd. As pianists we take that one step further - we sit in front of a box with wires in it and hit it and somehow the noise this creates moves people to tears, to riot, to retrospect, to ecstacy...you cannot 'want' to be radical just as one cannot 'want' to be 'cool'. You can only be you and the joy of piano is that it is in the one area of life where we are able to let others define us.

As you play you may think that you are being passionate, or grandiose or playful or radical...but that is not something for you to decide. That is for the audience, the impassioned listeners to decide.

You will play to an audience where some think you are vibrant, some think you passive, some think you awesome and some think you slow, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. Play with your soul or heart or scientifically reasoned being, whatever it may be, but don't, ever, try to pre-empt an audience's response. That way leads to arrogance and ultimatley failure in art.


THE ABOVE STATEMENT IS ONLY VALID IN MY OPINION AND SHOULD BE TAKEN ONLY AS SUCH

[lostinidlewonder]

For live performance for an audience I like to maintain the "triangle" of performance that we must consider the audience, the music/composer and the performer.  This is a vast topic so I will only hit on one issue of addressing the audience. How I see it, that you must address the audience with your speech in such a way that constantly binds the composer and the music for them to understand but at the same time you speech should have something in it that the audience can relate to and have a personal connection with, how you speak will unavoidably make the audience get to know you as the performer, some public speakers are more natural and their personally shines through but others are not so and are robotic and clinical.

Personally I think no matter how you play if you cannot speak to your audience your performance is already 50% gone. For me I think this is the most important aspect of my playing, that as soon as I play the audience knows what they are listening to, what the music is about, what the composer perhaps was thinking about while they where composing the piece and this needs to be revealed to most listeners by speech as often what I play will be the persons first listening (even if I play famous pieces!). You just cannot reveal that by simply playing because everyone will go off on a different tangent if you do not get them to focus on a particular emotion or story. Some people think that you are restricting the enjoyment of music by doing this but I disagree as even when one is encouraged to focus in on a particular emotion, the personal experience they can draw from it is naturally infinite.

So I can play a piece with expression and encourage a listener to hear sadness, happiness, what have you, but if you do not get them to think about where the composer drew that sadness from they might not enjoy the music as much. Like in Ondine from Gaspard de la Nuit, the part where you are only playing single notes. What is that supposed to mean for someone who does not know the poem attached to the piece? As soon as you reveal that they represent tear drop from the water spirit dropping into the lake as her love was not returned from a mortal man, then she picks herself up laughing, knowing that she is immortal and will live forever and dives back down into the depths back to her underwater kingdom (the ending flourish of notes). The imagery is just magical and I love to think about this exact story as I play. Not all pieces have such a strong story attached to it but all of them have emotion attached to it and we can reveal how that emotion was experience in terms of the composers life and ultimately ourselves.

[keyofc]

Deana,

Very interesting!
I would love to hear you music !

It's true we can corrupt our art if the audience becomes the
soul of the music.

[pianist1976]

I'd define my playing as pianistic

[pianowolfi]

Existential.

[chris_goslow]

You will play to an audience where some think you are vibrant, some think you passive, some think you awesome and some think you slow, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. Play with your soul or heart or scientifically reasoned being, whatever it may be, but don't, ever, try to pre-empt an audience's response. That way leads to arrogance and ultimatley failure in art.

Good point. As artists, we are here to express, to create, to conjure up from the nothing... and that is enough, without labeling or categorizing ourselves. 

And yet, it can be valuable to look at what quality or qualities drive us.
The original question on this thread has obviously provoked some interesting speculation and thinking. 

Lately, what has been on my mind as qualities I want to convey are:
joyful, transcendent, and inventive.

[m19834]

Magical .

[pianowolfi]

Magical .

I think your talent in that is obvious
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=25257.msg284874#msg284874