A Musical Mind
People might ask me sometimes if listening to music is a different experience to me than to most people. It really is.
In some ways, it's like how magicians see magic tricks. Case in point: I recorded a cover of the Spider-Man TV theme in about 2.5 hours. Which would be impressive, but I had to "cheat" by recording it one hand or track at a time, since my hands can't move that fast. Then we had to film a music video for this song. It would have gone better if I hadn't recorded the song one track at a time, because then I would have been able to play the song correctly. I told the film crew that I'd be recording "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day in August and asked if they'd want to film it. I'll actually know how to play that one. I've been playing it for weeks.
In other ways, it's like how artists see color or how a filmmaker sees a movie. During a piano lesson, I realized the pre-chorus of Five for Fighting's "The Riddle" is exactly the same as the bridge in Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood". On the way to a lesson, I listened to a song that has a structure I love, and I noticed that structure today.
But it's even deeper than that, because I'm constantly thinking about what will help my students when I listen to music. A lot of my piano lessons today were helping people to learn the easiest melodies to play by ear. Of course, I had to know what the easiest melodies are, so every time I listen to a song, I'm listening for what this song would teach my students. I'm always analyzing chord progressions, melodies, and arpeggios for patterns from the professionals that my students would use on a normal basis.
So every time I'm listening to a song, I'm listening with the ears of someone who knows how to play the song, who is analyzing the song, and is teaching the song to others so they can become better at hearing songs and analyzing them.
In some ways, it's like how magicians see magic tricks. Case in point: I recorded a cover of the Spider-Man TV theme in about 2.5 hours. Which would be impressive, but I had to "cheat" by recording it one hand or track at a time, since my hands can't move that fast. Then we had to film a music video for this song. It would have gone better if I hadn't recorded the song one track at a time, because then I would have been able to play the song correctly. I told the film crew that I'd be recording "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day in August and asked if they'd want to film it. I'll actually know how to play that one. I've been playing it for weeks.
In other ways, it's like how artists see color or how a filmmaker sees a movie. During a piano lesson, I realized the pre-chorus of Five for Fighting's "The Riddle" is exactly the same as the bridge in Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood". On the way to a lesson, I listened to a song that has a structure I love, and I noticed that structure today.
But it's even deeper than that, because I'm constantly thinking about what will help my students when I listen to music. A lot of my piano lessons today were helping people to learn the easiest melodies to play by ear. Of course, I had to know what the easiest melodies are, so every time I listen to a song, I'm listening for what this song would teach my students. I'm always analyzing chord progressions, melodies, and arpeggios for patterns from the professionals that my students would use on a normal basis.
So every time I'm listening to a song, I'm listening with the ears of someone who knows how to play the song, who is analyzing the song, and is teaching the song to others so they can become better at hearing songs and analyzing them.
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