Outside influences on piano?

[musicsdarkangel]

I believe that part of one's piano playing is derived from intelligence, ability to understand, read, and health.

More specifically, I think that the more books you read, the more you have the ability to memorize (of course, practicing piano during this time would help more).


What can you do outside of playing piano to harness your performance skills to the best?  (aerobic excersize, healthy relationship, etc.)

I'm interested.

[Derek]

Definitely exercise. Reading books can be an inspiration---reading Dracula the other day made me play some really creepy improv.

And a healthy relationship? I don't know because I've never had a healthy relationship thus far. The initial infatuation can be an inspiration, though.

[Alde]

Live life! 

Apart from being 34 years old, I have experienced love, breakup, death, happiness etc.  It's the emotions that I have experienced that I can bring to my music making.  I think that is why I really enjoy watching older pianists - there is so much more depth in their piano playing.

I also find that reading biographies, researching history, visiting museums and watching movies (good ones) also help by influencing my interpretations on certain pieces.

[thalbergmad]

Live life! 

Apart from being 34 years old, I have experienced love, breakup, death, happiness etc.  It's the emotions that I have experienced that I can bring to my music making.  I think that is why I really enjoy watching older pianists - there is so much more depth in their piano playing.

I also find that reading biographies, researching history, visiting museums and watching movies (good ones) also help by influencing my interpretations on certain pieces.

I could not agree more. You have to have loved and lost.

[AvoidedCadence]

I could not agree more with the above responses.

Also, I submit that almost any kind of mental activity will help in some way with piano playing.  Examples:  learning a new skill, studying other subjects (math/logical thinking, art, philosophy, literature).  All these will improve mental acuity, etc.  Listen to non-piano music.

Also literature is important... especially exposing oneself to what influenced the great artists.  A friend of mine told me his teacher considered it essential to have read Anna Karenina to understand Rachmaninoff.  Similarly, Goethe to understand Schubert, and so on.

Horowitz was said to be a great fan of Chess.

As for having lived and lost - I agree.

Many of the great artists were depressed and reclusive... this gave them more intensity to channel into performing or composing.  However, this is not something I would like to see pianists deliberately cultivating. 

[bernhard]

You have to have loved and lost.

Yeah! It is much better to have loved and lost than to live with the psycho for the rest of your life.

On a more serious note: Nature! (watching the waves on the beach, walking in a forest in the early morning, scuba diving, going to the top of a mountain and watch clouds roll, etc.)

And in the “experience” category, nothing beats living in different countries (not tourism, but actually trying to make a living).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Bacfokievrahms]

Two words: Tantric sex ;-)

[musicsdarkangel]

Video games?? 

 

[musicsdarkangel]

On a side note though,

I was reading the info on some of these competitors in the Van Cliburn competition, and the majority of them are into sports, swimming, tennis, ping pong, or some athletic event, among other things (usually including reading, maybe movies).

Most pianists are pretty skinny...... is there a correlation here? 

Maybe ping pong and hand-eye coordination? 

[quantum]

Observing people interact on the bus, every day as I go to school.  One person makes a gesture, another reacts. 

Chess, ping-pong, sitting quietly in a park and watching the wildlife, go to the lakeshore and listen to the water against the shore. 

Looking at visual arts, both ones that appeal to you and others that disgust you. 

Film, go look at some independent films, stuff that was made early in film's history.  Salvador Dali's "Un Chien Andalou" can teach you a lot. 

Anything and everything to do with computers, web page design, Schockwave creation, programming emotion within MIDI files, new media art, diagnosing computer problems. 

Studying other instruments, especially how they make themselves dissimilar from the piano.  What other instrumentalists do, that pianists do not.