"Colour" ?? @.@ huh?

[boxofjuice]

uh, well I had just pass my grade one exam and there's this comment bout it being neat with some "colour" projected. My instructor says I need to project more "colour" and somethingt about more "sparkle". I suppose it's something about interpretation huh? but I don't know...COLOUR ?!! Can someone explain to me what's this about? @.@ is there like a technique or sumtin..like before you play get yourself into the right mood or think about yer feelings when you play the piece or sumtin? and like can I SEE or hear or whatever other ppl's colour? o.O nya...I'm clueless here. 

[pianowolfi]

uh, well I had just pass my grade one exam and there's this comment bout it being neat with some "colour" projected. My instructor says I need to project more "colour" and somethingt about more "sparkle". I suppose it's something about interpretation huh? but I don't know...COLOUR ?!! Can someone explain to me what's this about? @.@ is there like a technique or sumtin..like before you play get yourself into the right mood or think about yer feelings when you play the piece or sumtin? and like can I SEE or hear or whatever other ppl's colour? o.O nya...I'm clueless here. 

Colour is meant figuratively in the sense of producing a broader variety of tones and shades. It's a very common figure of speech among musicians. Also "sparkle" is figurative, of course, play brilliant, light, like a glass of champaign, or sparkling water. Or pearly.

Hope this helps

Welcome to pianostreet

[boxofjuice]

yeah figurative exactly..."broader variety of tones and shades" huh? how do I do that? O.O...wha? water? @.@.........I really don't get it. I mean I play the piece as it is, the dynamics, the notes, the articuation...what else is there to play to have more "colour"? -__-;

oh yeah, thank you. I'm new here. Nice to meet you pianowolfi.

[ramithediv]

yeah figurative exactly..."broader variety of tones and shades" huh? how do I do that? O.O...wha? water? @.@.........I really don't get it. I mean I play the piece as it is, the dynamics, the notes, the articuation...what else is there to play to have more "colour"? -__-;

I know it's hard to start with.

Do you memorise the pieces? I think that helps.

Don't just play the notes, feel the notes. Feel what the music is saying to you.

[prongated]

...they do colour in grade 1 exams? Wow...I personally have no idea what colour is until I was 16 - after I received my associate diploma then.

There are varying opinions in this forum regarding this, and much has been said before in this subject here. Many pedagogues and teachers don't help very much - most like Berman and Neuhaus simply insisted it's about imagining the sound which you then attempt to replicate on the piano. Some clues according to Neuhaus: look at the harmony, counterpoint, shape of melody...but he didn't elaborate further.

I personally find that balancing the accompaniment with themelody is one of the very basic steps in achieving different colours. How prominently you play the accompaniment, for example, will shape the colour and mood. e.g. the lighter, the more distant; the bolder, the warmer. This, while keeping dynamic level approximately the same.

Such description may not be very helpful - I thought of that one with a particular context in mind (namely Schubert Impromptu op. 90 no. 4, middle section). Indeed, it is best that you find out for yourself. A good music teacher will be able to show you the way.

[pianistimo]

yes!  about the only way to learn how to 'color' is to have a teacher sit down and play a few bars of something - and then immediately the student sit down and attempt to imitate the sound.  whatever techniques are used to create the 'color' are explained.

this is why taking lessons over the internet does not work for 'refinement.'  you can't literally see (close up) and hear (close up) the sounds that come from certain movements or pedalling.

pedalling is a good deal of coloration - but not the only thing.  touch can be used.  a light touch, a percussive touch, dynamic related touch, a heavy chordal passage with voicing.  rosalyn tureck said that in bach she used different touches for different voices.  i'm not sure that most people's brains are complex enough to do this - but it's worth striving for if you want a unique sound.  (*don't quote me - perhaps she used the word 'color' for different voices).

anyways - you can also write a list of adjectives (describing feelings or moods) and attempt to inflict them on the piano by whatever means.  scriabin used the idea of colors.  debussy - moods.  brahms - thinking of the violin.  chopin - that lonely shepherd boy with the flute - a sort of alto flute.  a youngish tenor sound is always entwined with chopin and when you find it and bring it out - that's the secret to chopin.  schumann - perhaps birds?  mozart, also, has many places that imitate bird sounds.  (his starling, remember!) beethoven, nature.  the crash of thunder.  the peal of lightening.  the soft rain.  the sunshine.  the river and creek.  the sound of language.  the repeatition of poetry.

[pianowolfi]

Technically "colours" can be created by making subtle differences between voices, between for instance accompaniment/melody, as prongated already pointed out. For instance in the beginning of "Für Elise": it's marked "pianissimo" so the melody in the right hand is most beautiful when its played very softly. And now, to be able to do this, you might want to play the accompaniment (left hand) even softer. The 100 attempts you need until your ear is satisfied with this balance between pp and ppp we call colouring (at least me )
The ideal, to me, is to play this beginning as tender as possible. It's a love declaration after all. So you won't want to go like a bull at a gate. There are 100's of possible nuances.

Secondly we have the pedal to create "colours". The differentiated use of the damper pedal (the right pedal) adds a lot of overtones (harmonics) that we can use for adding "colours" to our interpretations.

These two, differentiation between voices, and pedal, are some of the most important technical means to colour our playing.

[counterpoint]

What's the colour in piano playing? Very interesting question!

I think a lot about such questions "what is legato?", "what is rhythm?", "how to play cool or expressive notes", "what is colour?"

I think, it's all the same question. If you take the notated music as absolute, then the performance of the piece, that is as near to the notation as possible is the perfect performance. --- But it isn't.

To bring music to life, you have to find out, what the composer wanted to express with his music, and you will not get it, if you only play the notes exactly as written. You don't get the "feeling" just by playing exactly. Written music is like frozen music. You have to defrost it, before it is edible.

[elspeth]

Congrats on passing the exam!

Colour in music is a very odd concept - it's all about expression and imagery in your music.

There are loads of pieces of computer software around that you can enter a piece of music and variously edit it, print it and listen to it. If you enter a piece and let the computer play it back, what you will get is a numerically accurate but artistically meaningless performance. All the notes will be the right length, in the right place, at whatever speed you set. It will even work the dynamics out so that a note marked p will be played at one particular volume and a note marked f will be another, louder volume. It will be absolutely accurate, but dull.

If you then listen to a real person play it... they'll do all sorts of things to put an interpretation on it. Hang on to a note a little, bring out one note more than another, speed up or slow down a little, vary the dynamics besides what's marked... If you listen to any two pianists play the same piece it will come out differently.

You are training to be a musician, not a computer. When you play a piece, think about what images or emotions it makes you think of, and you will play it to express those. Just like when you tell someone how you feel in words, the words themselves are just sounds, it is the interpretation that both you and your listener put on them that makes them expressive. At extremes, shouting and whispering are different colours of your voice. Or, when you ask someone a question you will speak with a rising inflection at the end of the phrase. If you want to emphasise something you'll speak louder. If you want to reassure someone you'll speak gently but firmly. It's the same principle.

Colour is something you'll develop the more you play, and most of the time you won't stop and think 'oh, I coloured that piece!' - you'll just do it and be satisfied if you feel you managed to play the music with expression and meaning.

For preference you need a good teacher to help you with this - but whether or not you have a teacher, one of the most important things you can do to help is to listen to as much music as you can, not necessarily piano, but think about what you're listening to. If you listen to piano music, listen to it with the score, follow the music and think about what the pianist is playing relative to what's on the page - dynamics, tempo, pedalling, articulation... it's also useful to hear two or more recordings by different people playing the same piece and listen to the differences.