The Key to Creating a Richer Sound
1. The Tin Man
There are many forms of art that we have in the world, including movies, TV shows, paintings, apparel, website design, interior design, and many others. Unlike “interior design”, for example, music is largely a representational form of art, meaning that we are trying to “represent” a feeling, a story, or an idea using sound. So, in many respects, becoming a great musician is all about being able to effectively convey that feeling, story, or idea in a meaningful way, be that for just yourself or in a performance for others.
Yet, for many musicians, this is something that is often neglected in favour of technically being able to play the music. In other words, most people focus on note learning rather than conveying the point of the piece of music.
Imagine for a moment you are having an argument. Maybe someone pulled out in front of you as you drive down the street, maybe your partner forgot to take the trash out, or maybe there’s someone in your YouTube comments saying that there are only 12 major scales rather than 15 (I can’t relate).
In any of these cases, as you get angry, you might raise your voice, you might shout profanity out of your window, or you might write 4 paragraphs with lots of CAPITAL LETTERS explaining why there are indeed 15 major scales.
The body language and actions we take as we feel certain emotions are in many ways the most important aspect of expressing ourselves. It would be highly unusual to feel anger and swear out of your window at a fellow driver in a calm, deadpan, non-confrontational tone, right? So, why do many players play the notes in a piece of music, yet express absolutely nothing with their bodies?
2. Tricking Yourself
Expressing feelings with our bodies can greatly impact the sound that you produce. You might think that body language works like this in music; play something, feel something, move involuntarily. However, body language doesn’t entirely work like that, especially not while producing music.
A group of Stanford researchers found that if you deliberately smile, it can actually make you happier. I’m sure we all have firsthand experience of this. Have you ever been in an argument and tried to make the other person laugh or smile in an attempt to “lighten the mood”? The very act of laughing and smiling makes us feel happier and less able to hold onto the negative feelings that we have.
So when we play music, rather than playing something, feeling something and then moving accordingly. We should instead; move accordingly, play the music, and then we will feel something!
So how do you move in a way that represents the feeling?
Well…what does the piece represent?
Is the music still, quiet, reflective?
Is it grand, majestic, authoritative?
Is it aggressive, angry, agitated?
If you can decide what the music represents, then you can reflect this in the way that you move on the piano.
Let’s say the music is still, quiet and reflective…in this case, you might want to move as little as possible, your hands might move more slowly and cautiously, and you might lean back slightly to distance yourself from the sound.
If the music is grand, majestic and authoritative…you might make larger arm movements, sit straight, and open your body out more to show boldness and strength.
If the music is aggressive, angry and agitated…you might make more sudden movements and move more erratically.
Aligning your body movements with the sentiment of the music that you are playing can greatly improve the sound that you produce with very little extra thought and a much deeper connection to the music itself!
3. Playing with Presence
You may have noticed that the most captivating performers are those that have a command of the stage and their instrument. Singers will often run around the stage and take up lots of room; Freddie Mercury is a great example of this. Pianists such as Lang Lang have a deep, expressive look on their face and twirl around on their piano stool like they are on a mechanical bull.
As an audience member, it is these movements that show you what the player wants you to feel and help you understand the music. This is called emotional mirroring or emotional contagion. Which is “the unconscious tendency to reflect and experience the emotions of others, often without conscious awareness”.
If Lang Lang is playing a piece of Chopin and remains very still, moving very little, and playing the keys very cautiously, I am much more likely to experience the music as “still, quiet, and reflective”. Whereas if he plays the same piece of music with sudden movements and more erratically, I am likely to interpret the music very differently.
This means that as a player, a large amount of what we are expressing to an audience is picked up through body language. So if you are able to physically express yourself at the piano, not only are you yourself going to be able to feel the music more, but the audience are also going to be able to connect with both you and the music as well.
Matthew Cawood
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