Insights from Mr. Ronan O’Hora
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