what do you see when you perform?

[tds]

ceiling?, hands and keyboard?, audience?, piano?, or else? tds

[pocorina]

Sometimes i close my eyes and see whatever is behind my eyelids, or dream my dreams.

Sometimes i watch my reflection in the wood (hate this - puts me off)

often i see a little filmstrip of events snapped from composers' lives the way i imagine them.

i watch my hands

i see the music in my mind when it is not there, because i have a photograpic memory

[BoliverAllmon]

I am just kinda staring off into space and coming out of it only when i need to watch my hands for a tricky section.

[paris]

my reflection , i love looking myself when i playing

[nicko124]

I don't think i am laid back enough or experienced enough to be able to focus on anything other than my hands and the piano keys at the moment.
Don't you find that you ned to do this in order to prevent memory lapses and put expression into the music?

[rhapsody in orange]

I don't think i am laid back enough or experienced enough to be able to focus on anything other than my hands and the piano keys at the moment.
Don't you find that you ned to do this in order to prevent memory lapses and put expression into the music?

I'm not a seasoned performer yet but well I avoided thinking of potential mistakes/memory lapses when I was playing. I focussed in producing the sound that I want.. and looked at the hammers hitting the strings of the piano =) Somehow made me less nervous and I enjoyed myslef.

[krenske]

i see many pretty colours.
it is very important not to play sober. i prefer to have a joint, which makes the phrasings very interesting but you've got to be pretty careful note-wise.

[pianonut]

i envision the sound i will make when i play because i am trying to gauge the hammers action as though they were connected to the keys.  if i am off by my guesses, it bothers me.  it is easier after a lot of piano playing and not necessarily in performance, though. 

somehow, in performance -  i just want to get through the piece and don't focus so much on sound as i do at home.  why do i feel so nervous?  i want to have feeling, but my best playing is from 11:00-12:00 am after several hours of practice and being totally relaxed (no one around).  i am used to playing for audiences, but an hour of memorized music is something you have to be practiced at, and i'm just getting back into it after a hiatus.

i do tend to feel inspiration from the composer's story (in the piece) and despite performance anxiety, usually at least get the gist of the idea across.  i would like to specify more details in performance more accurately, though, and don't like to miss any notes.

[lostinidlewonder]

In my minds eye or emotionally, the composer for some strange reason. Particulary the type of emotion captured in that piece, what it means to us. Through the life experience of the composer, the music they write is inspired, so I do feel a close connection to the composer themselves, their legacy, and memories of their life which enrich my own meaning here. I feel that this connetion also enriches the expression of your music presentation, both in playing and speech.

Also the physical routine that you have to go through to play the piece is a legacy left behind by the composer themselves. It is something their hands would have gone through exactly. I think that to me has always been a great facination with piano music, that my fingers are doing what this guy 200 years ago worked out and did himself. I dunno, that just makes me happy for some reason and is a big part of my focus when I play too.

Other than that often I look to the left of myself when I'm sitting at the keyboard. I cannot really look up to my right naturally without forcing myself for some reason beyond my comprehension. I may turn to the left so my ear is closer to the piano in p sections. In that case my eyes are not looking at anything just starting into blankness I am more listening than anything else. When i sit up right and looking at my hands still i am absorbed in the music itself and just governing my routine touch ensuring that they do what they have to visually.

I won't look at the audience, usually because if i try I will be blinded by lights and then have to play blindly for 10 seconds while my eyes readjust (definatly not a stress you want to put yourself through on stage which i have done once and never before.)

[Waldszenen]

I see only my hands playing what they're supposed to be playing. Whenever I see something else, I mess up.

[m1469]

Music (not the score)...  and sometimes me sitting at the piano playing.  I see my hands sometimes.  soul, life.... my future

[sharon_f]

i see many pretty colours.
it is very important not to play sober. i prefer to have a joint, which makes the phrasings very interesting but you've got to be pretty careful note-wise.

ROFL!!!!

[puma]

   Boliver, I too, stare into space while playing.  Always have.
   Just recently, I decided to look at my hands...WOW!  Ok that was fun, but I think I'll focus on an image, or just on the keyboard.  But that, too, will sometimes make me dizzy.  It's probably just that I'm so intent on listening that I really don't pay much attention to my hands....Well...Except for the stride piano.
    Krenske, lol, are you that serious about your pot?  Sometimes I think I see colors or what have you when playing.  Sometimes I hallucinate, even, when playing, more like synesthesia, I don't quite have a complete out of body experience.  Just today, when improvising on a Thelonious Monk tune, I started to hallucinate, or day-dream. It usually happens if I'm doing something repetitive over and over but I'm ENJOYING the repetition.  If it's boring, like a Hanon exercise, it's a serious reality check, for some reason.   The dream seemed very real.  Important note: this is done without the use of any drugs (I do smoke a lot of cigarettes, however).

[silva]

I see words when I play, words that tell a story, I think it helps to express the song/piece how it was meant to be

- Silva

[DMHM]

I see dead people

[silva]

hahahahahahaha

puma can u post a recording of ur stride piano, id love to hear it

[tds]

I see dead people

i hear you. i guess it can be useful to see dead people when performing certain pieces. lol, tds

[silva]

I suppose certain chords conjure up images......... if I were going to describe one (not sure wha the chord is..... the notes are B F Bb in treble clef (and in order B as in next to middle C and so fourth) and a high G in the bass (you know what I mean the note before the top line on the bass clef) 

this is a music teacher (and jazz pianist) at my schools favourite blues sounding bhord, and to me it conjured up an image of an explosion of realisation lol

haha
weird I know

but dead people..... I see that when I press low e hahaha

- Silva

[DMHM]

i hear you. i guess it can be useful to see dead people when performing certain pieces. lol, tds

but dead people..... I see that when I press low e hahaha

- Silva

You guys are just pulling my leg, right?

[tds]

You guys are just pulling my leg, right?

were you pulling ours? tds

[Waldszenen]

i hear you. i guess it can be useful to see dead people when performing certain pieces. lol, tds

Danse Macabre

[tds]

Danse Macabre

ehhh, that's cool! how did you make it slide like that?

[Waldszenen]

hehe nice trick innit?

You use the [ move] text here [/move] tab (without the space in the first tab).

weeeeee

[tds]

oh, oh....

[thierry13]

YAY!!!!! I MOVE!!! 

[tds]

YAY!!!!! I MOVE!!! 

two dollars for the ride, sir/mam. thank you...

tds

[lagin]

ROFL!!!!

What does this stand for?  I'm not up with all the hip lingo.  By the way Sharon, you last name isn't Fuhr is it, because I think I might know you if it is, and that would be cool!

[sharon_f]

What does this stand for?  I'm not up with all the hip lingo.

 
Roll on the floor laughing!

By the way Sharon, you last name isn't Fuhr is it, because I think I might know you if it is, and that would be cool!

Sorry but it's not.

[musicsdarkangel]

do you feel the wrath of satan as he leaves his couch for another beer and trips over, falling into a downward spiral through hell and eating a lot of food down on the way to the dungeon's dragons shoot fire is bad water makes you sick hip hop hippy to the hippy to the hip hip hop you don't stop the rockin I like piano.  if you are still reading this, you should really consider spending your time doing something else.  No really, it is all downhill from here.  How about doing something useful?  Practicing that Rachmaninoff concerto of yours?  That cadenza is a little bit tricky.  Wouldn't you agree?  Is there any limit to the amount of words I can put into this thing?  Maybe the site will crash because of my text scroll abuse.  -a poem by Sha

[Dazzer]

funny to see how the thread has degraded.

here's one

ROFLMAOWEABSWWXFOTVBIIGTWXFANBISTSOOY

Rolling on floor laughing my ass off while eating a banana sandwich while watching X Files on TV because it is good to watch X Files at night because it scares the sh*t out of you

as for what i see... i usually don't concentrate on seeing. at least i tend to zone out halfway, then not have any recollection of my vision after wards.

[sonatainfsharp]

I am always seeing a story when I play. That is also how I memorize music; I associate each phrase with a setence of a story. I associate every piece with something happening in my personal life.

[Waldszenen]

Must keep the rolling alive!