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The language of music

In the movie Tár, Lydia says in one of her speeches, she says:  "The link between music and language is what makes music unique to human beings-- Indeed, the common metaphors used to explain music are based on the idea that music is a language... albeit a secret one, and in this way, holy and unknowable. These joyful noises we make being the closest thing any of us might ever experience to the divine... yet something born by the mere act of moving air..."

The movie also quotes Leonard Bernstein:  "You see, we can't always name the things we feel. Sometimes we can. We can say we feel joy, pleasure, peacefulness, whatever, love, hate. But every once in a while, we have feelings that are so deep and so special that we have no words for them. And that's where music is so marvelous, because music names them for us, only in notes instead of in words. It's all in the way music moves."

What is this? 

Peace to You is a collection of some recordings of improvisational playing that I have found personally peaceful and calming. Perhaps it can do the same for you. Relax, find a comfortable seat, and enjoy.

How did this start?

For many years I have tried to do "improvisational" playing and failed. It was all I could do to "fake" it (memorize a piece and play it as if I were improvising - it can sound ok).  Recently I found a process by which I could follow a sequence of chords, and if I could just land "within" the chord on the beat, it turns out that the sounds work out and are easy to listen to - at least for some people.  

There are many "learn to play piano in no time at all" videos on YouTube, but most of them are geared to just that, playing piano in a conventional way. More are now talking about "chord progressions" and songwriting, which is more formal creation of music.  My own breakthrough, however, came early this year when I came across a book called "Improvise for Real" by David Reed.  It's available from your local library, and there are many videos you can watch for free on YouTube.  This book shows how it's entirely possible to play a series of chords, and staying within the notes of the chord, you can choose any of the notes that harmonize with it, in the simplest approach. Once familiar with what notes are part of each chord, I would play the chord on the left hand, and one of the notes of the chord on the right. As long as I landed on a note within the chord, everything sort of worked.

To describe the process in words, lacks the language of music.