Insights from Mr. Ronan O’Hora

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It’s been another amazingly productive and inspiring week back at Orford, this time working with Mr. Ronan O’Hora! More poetic, fresh insights that make me ever so excited and energized to continue working on and exploring all I this wonderful music. I love the way these masterclasses bring about new perspectives, open up new possibilities, and trigger so many new thoughts and ideas to work on and experiment with.

Just again to share, somewhat scatteredly, the words and insights I have collected. Particularly memorable was the last class discussion where we just gathered and talked about many different issues and challenges of being a musician, an artist, a person. Words and feelings and realizations I will sincerely take to heart. Thank you Mr. O’Hora for sharing your care and warmth and knowledge and wisdoms.

“make sure you’re hearing the right things, and we’ll hear what you do

The intentions need to be strong 

Find the physical sensation of powerful harmonies

Listen all the way through the long notes

The pleasure principal is important 

You should look comfortable 

The sensation should feel natural for your hand 

*the hand needs to breathe*

Using motion of hands and not just fingers

Actually lift the hand off the keys 

Play rests actively

Finger legato can be paralyzing and tense

Legato is an illusion 

Use ears and motion to make legato 

Imagine first what it sounds like

Truely feel, remember, and practice the physical sensation of playing 

Your body has a wisdom 

It’s the physical gesture that works 

Don’t be inhibited by body 

Let it work for you 

When the music gazes upwards 

Spacial sense is essential

Physically look up when you want to feel the lift and reach and expansiveness 

Find the three dimensional sense of where these sounds are 

Don’t be stuck in the keyboard

How do you finish a note? 

Listen to its whole life 

How to lift off is just as important as the attack

Lift hands on rests to breathe 

Be aware of gestures and choreography

Keep bridge of hand firm and supportive for focused sound 

Open sound when wrist is free 

Be aware of controlling the resonance of sound

What does it mean to play freely?

Freedom?

Freedom from what?

First know what the markings are, what are the boundaries, the guidelines, the meanings and purpose and significance of those markings

First be specific to the markings, then you can truly be free

Pace accel or crescendo 

Excitement can come from holding back 

feel the resistance, the tension

Dance needs lift 

Upwards feeling in rhythm 


Singing quality means to feel the interval 

When you’re singing you really notice what the highest note is 

Make people forget about the hammer

Create long lines 

The music can sound faster if you are listening to every note

Tempo is abstract 

What is the character?

  

 *spend more time THINKING AND UNDERSTANDING MUSIC 

Rather than just practicing like the composer wrote an impossible puzzle! 

Know about the pieces you’re playing 

Be aware, find the physical sensation 

Having an idea is not enough 

How to feel it? Hear it? How to carry throughout 

Create social awareness, looking upward or downwards

Feeling the reach, the distance

*what are the important moments? 

Constant perpetual motion, pulse 

Forward drive, coherent, rhythmic integrity, achieving colors without taking time 

*where is the true climax, where do you want to go?

What is the most important thing for us to focus on? 

Return of the theme 

Playing with memory, what is the emotional development?

Now from the discussion portion:

How precisely do we have to follow markings for a convincing, or even “acceptable” performance?

It’s important WHY you do things

It’s not really about what you have to do 

But you should be able to first do what’s asked for convincingly, and ultimately it will help you play the piece better 

Focus not on what is marked by why it’s marked. 

Paradoxes are not contradictions 


How do we best approach performances mentally? What do we think about or focus on once we’re on stage?

Performance is a cathartic experience 

For a man it’s probably the closest thing you could experience to having a baby 

By the time you’re on stage you can’t engineer what’s going to happen  

You start and it takes you. It’s the ultimate “now” experience. 

The conscious mind is a lousy operator in the performance 

However,

*two conscious faculties you could draw on: listening and the physical sensations 

Not to over-trust your thoughts, The voices in your head are avoidance tactics to distract you from actually being with the music 

Even thinking about the music is taking away from the music 

The only way is to listen.

Be in the moment of performance 

:’) sounds kind of yogi-mantra-like

How to practice, prepare, become a better, balanced artist?

Separate the process of studying from performing 

Practice the physical awareness of your fingers on the keys, the sensations, feeling the keys 

Spend practice time with an idea, create specifically what you want through physical awareness 

Eg. carefully balancing a chord, calibrating each crescendo, accelerando

really think when you are practicing 

The greatest artists are not dogmatic, there’s more than one way.  

Most of piano repertoire you can’t solve or understand entirely from the piano 

You need a soundtrack diverse enough to draw from 

To be interesting you’ve got to be interested 

Follow your curiosity and passion 

What are your interest, what do you enjoy doing? 

Be clear enough about what you like to do 

And do that.

Dont be afraid to do what you like.

What’s unhelpful is “should”

what you “should” be doing, playing, learning  

Don’t be afraid to admit what you really like and don’t like 

More mindfulness…

When you’re about to practice, sit down and don’t play until you hear it, what exactly do you want?

Always ask yourself, what do you want to do now at this point? 

Why am I playing these notes now?


The most valuable commodity is energy 

Plan what you need the most energy for 

Don’t practice just because of worrying 

It becomes a neuroticism

Be mindful of how to preserve your energy 

Don’t be governed by your fears 

Practice to deal with an issue, or accomplish a specific idea   

To develop good habits 

Don’t let it become a neurotic crutch  

Practice the way you will deliver  

Understand there is a necessity of preserving deep artistic energy 

Don’t waste time practicing 

Don’t diminish sensation 

Stimilate your mind

Trust the fact that the work is done

newsTong Wang