my piano instructor is pretty cool
"Music is like a language. A form of expression. Now, my definition of a language is something where, for example, if i spoke to you, if i was trying to tell you something. In that act, I was trying to manipulate your mind into understanding what I was trying to get across. Manipulation though, for some reason, has always had a negative air about it, but it doesn't have to be like that. By speaking words, I'm merely trying to get you to understand by manipulating your mind with my words. But you see, music isn't like that, music isn't like words. Words have a definite meaning. I could go in the dictionary and look up a word and it will always have the same definition, no matter what... Look at those black dots on the paper before you... That's not music. A sequence of dots isn't going to help you play Mozart or Chopin. Think of them more as a road map to get you where you want to go with your own music. For instance, you drive right? and after this lesson you're going to drive home? Well you can't get from point A to point B just by looking at the map, you have to actually know how to drive the car and put gas in it and what not. No, to get home, or where you're going, you have to visualize where you want to go and how you want to get there. Just picture yourself seated in front of a large crowd, and that you're the best piano player in the world. Try to listen to the music that you're playing. You see, the music that you hear, and the music that I hear or two completely different things, and they always will be, because your definition of the best music in the world will be different from mine. Just keep that visualization in mind while your looking at the road map (black dots) and as you become more mature as a player, your definition of the best will most likely change, but always keep that image in mind. See, this is why I like music so much, it's like a language, but a more pure form of language, because it's different every time you play.. true music that is, improvisation. I could play something today in one key, and play something with the same key tomorrow, but every time it will be different. And true, music can also be a form of manipulation, because music has different emotional effects on people. Like many old people detest rock and roll, it angers them, but this younger generation, that have grown up with it, it actually makes them happy. You see what I'm getting at? Alright, well that's enough of my jabbering, i guess i'm a kind of stickler for jazz, i don't really consider big band to be jazz, because it's prearranged. True jazz, true music is something that you just make up on the spot, it's the only pure language i know...."