Sound Curation

All of my recordings are of a pianist playing the piano. I asked to sit in a piano practice room when my friend was just normally practicing for his weekly lesson. It was an average day for the pianist as he goes to the piano and works on what he needs to improve. However, if was very new to me as I have not spent a lot of time in the music department’s piano practice rooms. I told my friend to pretend that I wasn’t there and to go the hour without trying to make pretty sounds for my recordings. Throughout the hour of his playing I recorded three different versions of the piano piece he was working on which is Beethoven Op. 109. During my time observing his work ethics I was surprised at how many different ways there are to practice a piano piece. There is repetition, singing along while playing, and then what it seems like pretending that you are playing the piece for real like in a performance. Here are my experiences:

“Practice” is the first sound that I recorded. The pianist is working slowly through the piece and repeats parts that he feels he has not quite worked out smoothly. Working slowly through the piece allows your brain and fingers to remember what you are practicing. Repetition also is a helpful tool when you are trying to practice, and I feel that this concept applies to everything else in life. This recording is a rough take through the piece but can show the struggle through something new that a person is trying to accomplish. It is the smaller piece in a bigger picture that people usually don’t pay attention to, but this part of practicing is the most important part because you can’t get to the beautiful final product without the tedious part of practicing slowly.

“Ba Ba Ba” is the next sound I recorded and it shows another aspect of practicing or another technique to practicing. In this sound, the pianist is singing while practicing in order to keep the tempo right. Singing while playing the piano is difficult because the pianist has to concentrate on the singing and also concentrate on playing the right notes while keeping up with his speaking tempo. This kind of mind stimulation is difficult but just another form of practicing that develops good technique to make a brilliant pianist. However, one might not normally think of this kind of practicing while they are attending a live performance of a professional pianist. This recording can also show the frustration that goes into practicing and if the pianist is not getting the right results that he wants.

“Beethoven Op. 109” is the last recording that demonstrates the culmination of practicing and what kind of beautiful result it will produce. I recorded the main theme in this piece which I find is very beautiful to listen to. Even talking with the pianist, I found out how much he enjoys playing this beautiful theme. There are still some mistakes played in this recording which also shows how people cannot be perfect during a “performance” and that you have to keep on pushing through to finally get a result that pleases you and your audience.

I think that all my recordings can relate to artists at this school. Here at this school, we all experience practicing and working on something which we will perform or show to an audience of people. A lot of work goes into being an artist and a lot of that work goes unseen, only the final product is seen. However, I wanted to portray the hard work and time commitment that goes into producing beautiful art, and in this case beautiful sounds.