How can I feel more passion for piano?

[walawala]

Hello, everyone.

I've been playing for nine years now and I'd like to say I'm at least an intermediate level. However, though technically I can play difficult pieces, I can never truly feel them or really dig deep for the emotion necessary to play it beautifully. I don't know if it's because I am young and inexperienced in real life (I'm thirteen) or if it's because I haven't been playing long enough, but it's really frustrating when yeah, I can play a crescendo, but I can't feel it.

A little background -- I feel sometimes I don't play piano for myself. My parents were the ones who opted for me to start playing and the nine years that have lapsed have often been extremely grueling. Because I don't have this passion, they are often the ones who have to remind me to practice and will get upset if I don't perform well at recitals or competitions. Which makes sense, considering they are paying for my lessons. For the past six months or so, though, I've been more determined to be more self-disciplined and they no longer have to remind me to go practice and the atmosphere surrounding piano class has relaxed. I really hope it's because of the effort I've been putting in and not my mother giving up on me (as she so often threatens).

So, now that I've established that, I want to immerse myself more into piano. Initially, my parents wanted me to play piano not as a professional, but just a way for me to enjoy music (though it has worked in the opposite effect sometimes, haha). That's what I want to do. I want to enjoy music. But how? Meditation? Appreciation? More research? My teacher? (I have a teacher)

Follow-up: I also want to get more into music as a listener. I do mostly classical, but I feel a lot of pieces I know or play are famous and well-heard. It makes me feel a little superficial. I'e played Beethoven's Pathetique (all movements) and his Moonlight Sonata (all movements) and Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu and Rachmaninoff's Prelude In G Minor and so on and so forth -- but c'mon. I want to listen to more things, maybe obscure, lesser-known, still difficult, but mostly beautiful.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks!

[iansinclair]

Good heavens!  13?!  You are very young yet, in terms of feeling passion (at least I hope so....).  It will come, and when and as it does you will be very happy to have the technical skill already in place to be able to express it.  The passion isn't really in the music itself.  It is in you.  What the music does is give you a means to express that passion.

So my answer to your wanting to enjoy music (presumably... more!) and wanting to get more into music... first and foremost, time.  Just give yourself time and patience.  That's the hard part.  But coupled with that, listen to music (really listen to it -- not just on your iPod or whatever as you jog!) with as much variety as you can find.  In classical, don't just stay with the romantic pieces (although they are often the most accessible -- and there is surely no harm to being carried away by the beauty and fire of some of that music, I still do) and don't limit yourself to piano.  Try some of the later stuff (Nielson, maybe?  Bartok?  Prokofiev?).  Drop back a few centuries; listen to some des Pres or Monteverdi or Schutz, for instance.  Or Bach!  Try some grand opera!  And don't just stay with classical -- try some various folk music -- Scottish or Irish; Appalachian (some folks love blue grass; others use the CDs as targets)... classic rock.  Country and Western.  And don't forget jazz and blues.  You'll find some of it you like, and some of it you really don't like at all; that's OK, you don't have to listen to it much!

But mostly, patience and time...

[walawala]

Thanks for the reply.

I do play a little Bach, but he's just so difficult and his music isn't really immersing as the more emotionally charged -- and I don't really understand him.

Also for the other suggestions, I am going through an experimental stage as far as listening to various genres. Classic rock is a favorite; I like some country -- but I've been a little wimpy regarding other countries or Appalachian or jazz and blues. Of the composers you've named, I'm embarrassed to say I don't know all of them (Prokofiev, Bartok, Schutz, and Monteverdi of which I do) but I've been listening to them.

Grand opera...well, that's a love-hate relationship that's similar to me and my piano. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't.

I guess time is an important factor after all, so thanks for the reply!

[brogers70]

Hi Walawala,

I'm just guessing, but my impression from your posts is that you are quite disciplined and motivated and smart. I don't know if there's a way to generate "passion" for music if you don't feel it, it's probably one of those things that will develop only if you don't try to develop it deliberately.

On the other hand, here's something you might find interesting. Pick your favorite composer; read a good biography of him (or her). Then listen to all of his music in chronological order, preferably following along with the score (you can find the scores on-line pretty easily). You'll find you really know him through and through. Also, try reading on music theory and even try composing some on your own.

When your parents have been enthusiastic about an interest it can be hard to figure out whether you're really interested, or you're just reacting to their enthusiasm (or pressure). But it sounds to me like you really are independently interested. So keep going.

[ajspiano]

Well I was in that position at that age..

Not to suggest that this is the right path for you necessarily, however, for me I found my passion for music as a drummer in a punk rock band at that time..  I also learnt guitar and jazz piano on my own.

I came back to classical music when I felt it..  when it was exciting again.

But in saying that, I do at least partly regret not being more disciplined with piano for those few years because I'd be significantly more technically proficient now if I had been. At the same time though, my study of other instruments and more popular musical styles is a big part of my skill set today that I wouldn't want to be without.

As far as "feeling" the music, while I think someone your age can take something from the kind of repertoire you mention, you are a little young to have experienced certain things in life that will make you understand the emotions that are drawn on by the composers in those works. As you grow up, not only will you feel the music as it relates directly to your experiences but you will also get better at placing yourself 'in the composers mind' and understanding what he felt even if you haven't experienced the situation yourself.

Not to say that you don't have emotions now, obviously you do.. but they change I guess, become a bit more complex and deeper when you experience things as a young adult, and especially when you are out on your own not relying on your parents so much (don't rush in to that though )

..of course I know you don't want to hear that, and its not all that helpful. The best answer is to not worry about whether you can feel the passion of beethoven and instead focus on playing music you do feel, whatever that may be. When you go listening don't limit yourself, listen to anything and everything in any style. Even the stuff you don't like impacts your overall perception of music, and your musical vocabulary.

[bernadette60614]

I didn't understand Faulkner at 16, the way I do now at 40 plus.  I think some great works of art become more accessible to us emotionally as we mature.

Why not get a Pandora account and see where it takes you? Pandora isn't expensive and you can sample all different kinds of music to see which moves you more.

[walawala]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

brogers70 -- Thank you for the kind compliment, though I'm not entirely sure I'm deserving, haha. I plan on doing exactly what you outlined and I'll let you know in the future how it goes, as summer is a little busy at the moment. I have chosen Beethoven because my teacher tends to assign me a lot of Beethoven and though he's kind of stereotypical and publically well-known, there is no shame in liking a popular composer!

ajspiano -- I hear what you're saying. I guess time is pretty much the hugest component of passion. Sigh. Patience is a virtue, I suppose. But, I think it's really interesting that you took a break from piano to concentrate on other musical things. I'm a little too wimpy for that right now (that, and my parents would flip, and I don't have a band to join, or have drumming skills, whoops) but I am learning guitar. And the best thing is that it's not classical! It's for fun! Whoot whoot. It's really fun to be able to take piano theory and see how it plays out on the guitar and it also has furthered my understanding of chords and how composers think and work. Inversions make a lot more sense now and, best of all, I can play a li'l Led Zeppelin. Because Led Zeppelin. And if anyone's interested, I have been broadening my listening view. I found out I rather like Pink Floyd. And the Rolling Stones. (Classically, I also like some good Chabrier.)

bernadette60614 -- I have a Spotify account, so I've been wandering around. Some pretty fantastic things have happened (did I mention Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones? and the Smiths, to some degree). And I've been trying to sit down and listen to folk and pop but those two drive me nuts.

Overall, though, I see an overarching theme of time. I'll give just that. Thanks, everyone!

[indianajo]

I took piano up as my Mother's suggestion to get over damage I did to my finger at age 3.  That worked, and I was pretty good at it oddly, so i rolled along with it.  Meanwhile, at that age my only emotion was enthusiasm for things I heard on the radio. I was wildly enthusiastic about the pieces in Disney"s Fantasia, Little Richard, Anthony and the Imperials and Carl perkins had me tuning the AM dial by night, then about the time Rock & Roll died (Pat Boone and Fabian took over the pop stations) they started FM classical radio & I discovered JS Bach's organ music. I had no idea i could ever play things I heard, the one time I asked my piano teacher to help me learn a pop song she told me that was obvious and i could figure it out for myself from chord theory.  (wrong.)  My Mother & I did the easy duet of Ferrante and Teicher"s Exodus which was about as good as it gets at 10.  then I was doing such great stuff in high school band, Candide, shostakovich 5th, classic circus marches, that I dropped piano and concentrated on that. Besides, in band there were actual girls; they didn't talk to me but you were doing something great together.  
In my thirties in the lonely evenings after work certain piano pieces kept rolling through my head.  I'd done the 1st movement of Beethoven's Moonlight, what about the second and third movements?  I had the record, I loved it why not?  i found a score to JSB Passacaglia & fugue in C min, it is my favorite piece in the world, why not?  (Took me 30 years to find a suitable organ, but)  I found Pictures at an Exhibition, the Chicago Symphony album is one of my favorites, why not?  and pop music, certain pop pieces grab me with passion. My first successes were Elton John pieces, the book wasn't as bad as they usually are, and I got to writing my own words to them.  (he is so weird).  The wild piano riff of One Fine Day again I wrote my own words.  I'm working on Lynard Skynard and Joan Jett pieces now, the top of the organ makes a nice electronic piano  the string can do the guitar parts and the feet the electric bass. I've worked out a nice Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies with the celeste and bass clarinet on the organ.  And on pure wooden piano, after 29 years of desultory practice and 2 good years after I quit working, I can really make Moonlight 3 sound like a motorcycle gang riot, and Pictures at an Exhibition sound like the steam train Moscow to Vladivostok in the snow or a royal procession of all the bigwigs in their finery.  
So find your passion and follow it.  Radio can be pretty good now, more selective is music streamed over the internet, there is not reason to not hear something that makes the hair on your arms stand up.  If no music does this to you, maybe you should take up computer programming or something. My Mother gave up the piano she bought in 1953 and became minor league famous at bargello, a mathmatical sort of needlepoint. Mother had a score of Rhapsody in Blue and never got within 5 years of trying that, but I can. I'm just starting to learn it.    So follow your passion, be you.   So many people on this forum are dedicated to the idea of being professional performers. Get real, it is a hobby, or maybe a second income if you play bars and weddings, but there is more chance you'll sell an oil painting than get paid for playing piano these days.  Unless you write a pop (or country these days) song.  If I could just find someone that wants to hear this stuff, it would be even more fun.  there was nothing like being in a band and playing all that wonderful stuff together.  We got invited to the Rose Bowl parade and Mexico City, that's how good we were.  Being in a good band is better than working in most ways.  Look how Fleetwood Mac stuck together as a band even though their marriages went to ****.   Find your passion and follow it! 

[danhuyle]

To feel more passion
- you have to be passionate about the pieces you're learning
- connect with the piece
- Know your piece inside out, and playing from memory is irrelevant.

You have to settle into the music and when you're at the point where you can play from start to finish consistently and you're comfortable doing this, then you can take things to the next level.

[pianoplunker]

Hello, everyone.

I've been playing for nine years now and I'd like to say I'm at least an intermediate level. However, though technically I can play difficult pieces, I can never truly feel them or really dig deep for the emotion necessary to play it beautifully. I don't know if it's because I am young and inexperienced in real life (I'm thirteen) or if it's because I haven't been playing long enough, but it's really frustrating when yeah, I can play a crescendo, but I can't feel it.

 What is a crescendo supposed to feel like ? 

[indianajo]

What is a crescendo supposed to feel like ?  

Sort of like an explosion but with a musical instrument.  Or more subtly, a train charging out of the distance and blasting by 10' away.  I've driven out to Nebraska and stood 10 feet from the Union Pacific track and waited for a freight train boring in on a crossing at 79 mph. Have you?  Get out and live.  

[ajspiano]

again I would reiterate that I don't necessarily think this is best for you , but you don't need to find a band to join..

you just need to find someone who plays an instrument and ask if they want to start one.

my first band was with 3 best friends, we all liked greenday so decided to try and cover a few songs. I played drums because I was the least bad at it out of the 4 of us.

we sucked, for quite some time, our parents referred to it as chainsaw music. We got better though, and were doing real paid gigs when we were 14 (about a year in). We used to rehearse all weekend every weekend. Fun times. And I learnt a lot about playing with other people in a way I never would've got from my piano teacher.

[ajspiano]

What is a crescendo supposed to feel like ? 

surely it depends on the piece...

I don't feel a whole lot of trains powering through chopin.

And when I was OPs age I felt that the phrases that open moonlight 3rd mov where shot gun rounds being fired.. the quaver accents being the reload of a pump action...

somehow I suspect that wasnt beethovens idea about it..

[soitainly]

 No one can force you to like music and you can't force yourself to like it either. Sometimes just being open minded towards a style of music or particular artist will be all that is needed to become passionate about it.

 I came to like classical music when I was older, I listened to and played many other types of music first. I grew up playing guitar in bands playing what you now call classic rock, but I listened to a little bit of everything. There is nothing wrong with trying out any instrument you can get your hands on, play any style that you like. If you aren't passionate about it, you won't be driven to do what it takes to play music well.

 You mentioned Beethoven as being kind of common, well the reason is that his music is very good, it has stood the test of time. I wouldn't completely give up on classical piano, but if you aren't motivated by it at this time, find something that else that really gets you exited. If it's Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, that's fine.

 As a side note, one of the big turning points in me learning to play expressively was delving into the blues. Even if I don't use the same expressive devices, it makes you really think about expression, the notes alone just aren't enough in blues, you have to really feel it or it sounds like junk. If you can apply that same feeling to all of your music, then you will be passionate about anything you play.