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I explore how Music Makers can cultivate a mindful approach to piano practice. This method shifts focus from perfecting technique to embracing the journey, fostering creativity and personal growth. Welcome to the art of becoming a Mindful Musician.
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Music is woven into the fabric of human existence, influencing our cultures, molding our emotions, and shaping our cognitive development since time immemorial.
From prehistoric whispers to digital symphonies, music has undergone a profound metamorphosis.
We've witnessed a seismic shift from active music-making to passive consumption.
This transformation has altered our relationship with this fundamental aspect of human expression, leading us to ask:
Are we losing touch with our innate musicality?
Let's take a journey through time and sound to explore this question.
Music predates agriculture, societal concepts, and perhaps even language itself.
Our earliest ancestors found rhythm in nature's symphony, imitating the songs of birds, the whisper of wind, and the crash of waves.
These primal sounds formed our first language, a means of expression transcending words.
As civilizations bloomed, music intertwined with daily life, rituals, and spirituality.
Shamans chanted, leading communities into deeper states of awareness and healing.
From ancient Greece to indigenous cultures worldwide, music has been a powerful tool for community bonding, spiritual practices, and even medical treatment.
The universality of music across cultures speaks to its fundamental role in human experience.
Each society developed unique instruments, scales, and traditions.
Music wasn't reserved for only special occasions; it was life itself.
As societies grew more complex, we witnessed a shift towards specialization and formalization in music.
The 19th century saw the rise of numerous conservatories throughout Europe, institutions dedicated to training young musicians to become professionals.
This marked a significant change in how music was perceived and taught.
These conservatories became the breeding grounds for a new generation of music educators and performers.
As they spread to universities worldwide, they brought with them rigorous training methods and high standards of excellence.
Classical piano education, in particular, began to focus intensely on technical proficiency and flawless performance.
Students' desires to learn enjoyable, popular music were often superseded by their teachers' insistence on increasingly difficult pieces, primarily for the purposes of performance.
This approach likely gave rise to the 'strict piano teacher' stereotype that persists today.
From the early 1900s through the 1980s, concert pianists like Vladimir Horowitz and Artur Rubinstein became deified performers, setting a standard that all serious classical pianists sought to emulate.
Vladimir Horowitz Playing Scriabin 12 Etudes Op.8 No.12.mp4
The piano became a symbol of musical virtuosity in the Western world.
This evolution reflects a broader shift in our relationship with music: from a communal, participatory experience to a more imbalanced dynamic where "special talented performers" were elevated above the general population.
Music-making, once an integral part of daily life for many, became the domain of a select few striving for perfection and recognition.
This shift has profoundly altered our collective relationship with music, distancing many from the joy of personal music-making.
Before recording technology, music was ephemeral.
You either created it yourself or heard it live, fostering a unique bond between performers and listeners.
Fast forward to today, and we live in an era of on-demand streaming.
Millions of songs are at our fingertips, democratizing music access.
But this convenience comes at a cost.
Music has become ubiquitous, often relegated to blaring ‘background filler’ in stores, markets, and public spaces.
A curious paradox has emerged in our relationship with music.
Despite the perception of music being "free" in the streaming era, global spending on music reached a staggering $37 billion in 2000.
More recently, from 2010 to 2021, streaming skyrocketed from just 7% of US music revenues to a dominating 84%.
On average, we now listen to an astonishing 27 hours of music per week.
These figures reveal that we clearly value music enough to invest significant time and money in it.
Yet, paradoxically, we often treat music as a commodity to be consumed rather than an art form to be savored and created.
This disconnect reflects a fundamental shift in our engagement with music in the digital age.
As children, we're natural musicians.
We sing without inhibition, dance with abandon, and create rhythms instinctively.
This innate musicality is not just a childhood phase but a fundamental aspect of our biology.
Research shows that even in the womb, babies can recognize melodies and respond to rhythm.