Why do we play music?

[lostprophet]

Why do I keep feeling that piano is just a mechanical process? I see all of these computers that can easily simulate the keys better than I can, they can often use 4 hands and play at impossible speeds. So why play piano if a robot will out-do anything you can even dream of, with almost no effort?

A lot of people say that piano is played with feeling, but I can't seem to hear anything like that, I haven't seen all that much difference between a robot playing and a person (though I haven't really heard much from either yet). I guess, since we can chose to stress certain notes for emphasis, or hit some notes harder, some softer, but is that enough to display a feeling? If a piece is written to feel agitated, wont a machine be able to hit the notes and get an agitated result? Isn't the feeling in the notes, the combination and timing? A person did actually tell the machine to use certain timings and to hit certain notes harder at certain points right?

The biggest difference I can think of, would be that a person could play the same piece differently every single time, whereas a machine can only do it one way, unless programmed differently every time.

Why do you actually buy a piano, and hit the keys, only to produce something that would be more easily produced by a computer? I don't know why I do it, lol. I guess it's just a more involved way to get into the music, and you can go a little deeper and get a little closer than just sitting back and listening. It is much more enjoyable to sing than to listen to someone sing, and it's much more enjoyable to play a sport than to watch someone play it. Maybe it has something to do with being in control?

When I see someone do something amazing that took so much effort to learn or build, I always want to try to match that effort to the best of my ability, I'm sure other people do this too. Maybe it has something to do with being compeditive? Even when you suck and you're only a beginner, you shrug it off and tell yourself that you're going to be better tomorrow, and it might be true. If you don't tell yourself this, you're going to get discouraged and quit because in your mind, you suck.

hhhmmmmm...

[jimbo320]

To answer a question with a question, why does music calm a beast?

[invictious]

We play music as we all heard the tales about Liszt and how he was able to charm ladies which his piano technique. It is difficult to charm ladies by showing them what the computer can play.

On a serious note, I would recommend listening to a piece much more closely if you are to, so to say, feel the feelings of the pianist and the composer. Certainly playing one note with more accent does not make it full of feelings, and it would be moot to say that the way the piece if played overall makes it full of feelings. It is not something concrete, but only something that can be felt within yourself.

What makes Horowitz's interpretation of this piece different from the guy playing the same piece in a piano store?

Just another example, in Debussy's Prelude, la fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair), how do you actually depict it?

Don't give up. Keep playing.

[ted]

I'm sure I have answered this before, on this and other forums.

Playing the piano makes me feel good, always and unconditionally, and "Feeling good is good enough for me", as some song or other goes. That's all there is to it really.

I can write screeds about common reasons which neither concern nor interest me. I don't play as a livelihood. I have absolutely no interest in competing with other players, performing, being great, "world class" or any sort of class. If I took any notice of that other recent performance thread people like me have no business breathing near the instrument let alone playing it. Although it is nice if others like my playing, my compositions, my improvisations, my recordings, in the end that doesn't matter. Selfish ? Solipsistic ? Probably.

[keyboardclass]

It's about experiencing rare and exquisite feelings - the type you don't have everyday.   You need a teacher to point out where the feelings are in the music.

[lostprophet]

Oh yeah... I was feeling like a robot when I wrote this, after days of non stop study. I snatched myself a day off, and started playing with my eyes closed. Now I can feel it a little , but I'm going to pay for this day off  .

I'm going to hold on to the hope that if you listen to a certain part of a song and focus hard enough, you'll eventually understand it in it's whole. I can't afford a teacher, I'm already paying enough to learn science

[pianisten1989]

We play music because we're stupid and doesn't want to make any money.

[Derek]

I'll give the answer my inner child wants to say: "Because it's awesome!"

Yeah...I'm with Ted on this one. It just feels so amazing to create beautiful sound at an instrument. And then, if others are around to listen, the more the merrier right? But at the very least, we play for ourselves. The pure joy of sound. And I agree with the previous statement about exquisite feelings we don't often feel. Music can create emotions and feelings that you just can't find anywhere else. It's the most glorious thing that sets humans apart from the rest of nature. Okay okay birds sing, but they don't sing Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto.

[pianist1976]

Because our bodies, minds and souls ask for it, because they need it! Because we can do it and sometimes we are not conscious about how lucky we are being able to play an instrument  

[alessandro]

Why "we" play music; my brains are too small to think of a common factor in the answer to the question "why".

Oh yeah... I was feeling like a robot when I wrote this, after days of non stop study. I snatched myself a day off, and started playing with my eyes closed. Now I can feel it a little , but I'm going to pay for this day off  .

I'm going to hold on to the hope that if you listen to a certain part of a song and focus hard enough, you'll eventually understand it in it's whole. I can't afford a teacher, I'm already paying enough to learn science

Interesting that the question arose after 'non stop study'.   So maybe, the question was more like (linked to you learning science): "Why do we (I ?) study music ?"
  
A few answers to the question "why do I play music" starting with bolder ones.

1°. If I make an educated guess, half of the people on this forum started playing in a young age, than stopped, and then picked up playing again.   I started playing when I was about 6, started studying a little when I was about 8 and stopped when I was 15, picked it up again when I was 32 and I'm 40 now.   I met the woman who is now my partner, and I felt happiness and we bought an upright.   The dark grey period of approximately 6 years I lived through just before meeting my partner, I had a feeling of immense loneliness, despair, and I found myself thinking a lot about music, and enjoying music a lot (in fact it was one of the only things I enjoyed at that time)...

2°. I think studying technique, passages, arpeggios, and finally, interpretation, is good for my brains, hoping to avoid Alzheimer, maintaining dexterity, hoping to get old in a good shape.   But one should keep some other "spare" interests; imagine arthrosis, and other characteristics of getting old, it could easily scare me a little.
  
3°. Listening to music makes me feel good, makes me feel alive.   I think I just sometimes try to recreate this feelings myself.

4°.  Since love is an illusion I tend to stick to, it is only art (music - playing the piano) that can replace the ineffable and the unthinkable.

...

Kind greetings to you all.

[ongaku_oniko]

Why do you work? A lot of people are better than you at your job.

Why do you study? A lot of people are better than you at academics

Why do you do sports? A lot of people are more athletic than you.


Just because something or someone can do something better than you doesn't mean you shouldn't try your best at it.

Why do people play music? Because they like to.

[thalbergmad]

I do it because I am no bloody good at anything else

Thal

[jimbo320]

A simple answer to a complex question, communication of our hearts and mind. Some of us tell stories and some of us tell feelings. It's hard to keep a good spirit down.....

Musically, Jimbo

[quiescen]

To get to the other side?

[sucom]

I play the piano because it takes me somewhere I wouldn't otherwise be able to go.  Playing the piano makes me forget about feeling ill, bills, arguments, stress - playing the piano is incredibly therapeutic - it calms the soul and puts you in tune with the natural flow of life. 

[nataliethepianist]

Hmm. I feel like it will take many years of playing, for me at least, to fully understand why the heck I am playing piano in the first place!

I can tell you now that I play music because I always learn things about myself. I believe any piece you play could come across as sounding happy or sad, depending on your mood and inner feelings.

Once I learn these "feelings", I keep playing because I wont to take them out on the piano, to be honest. A lot of people think piano is just sitting down and paying the instrument, but I think that once you have a grasp of the piano, you learn the piano is playing you. This is because the piano is "unleashing" your emotions.

Thank you for the interesting question.

- Natalie