How come I can't sit down at the keys at play a piece and "feel" it and relax. Why am I concerned about the mechanics of playing? Regardless if I have "mastered" / memorized . or just started the piece, I cannot get into the grove. Is there a psycologist in the house?



(Albeit that this is Liszt and Liszt is Liszt, but just look )

I find that I play the best music when I don't think about it. I play Jazz a lot, and good improvisations are when I look at the chords and focus on them, making a good melody. The best improvs I do aren't thought of, they are felt. It's the hardest thing in the world to do, but you just have to let go. Don't think, feel.

I also act on stage quite a bit. I learn my lines (and everyone else's), but ask me five minutes before a show, and I could seriously not tell you about 90% of my lines. The situation on stage cues my lines, and it feels almost spontaneous. The same should be with music. You learn the piece, and then forget it. Each time will seem spontaneous, as if this is the first time you are exploring the piece. That's where feeling comes from. Don't worry about the mechanics, don't worry about what is coming next, don't even worry about mistakes! Just worry about making the music. I have a really great recording of Rachmaninov playing his Second Concerto. In the last movement, at the quasi-glissando, he stuffs it up BAD. Like, really terribly. But he doesn't falter. He keeps playing, and the energy produced beats a 'perfect' rendition of the piece. The energy is incredible, and the feeling poured into the piece transends all of the mistakes he made.

Just forget about mistakes, and go for it. That's how you get into the piece.

Ah yes, but when mistakes do occur it's like nails on a chalk board. It can kill any mood. and removes me from getting back into the grove. this is where i have trouble.

For example right now I am going through CPE Bach's Sonata in F mvt.1 "Allegro" and my right hand (playing a combo of one 1/4 note and two 1/8 notes-- in 2/4 time) sounds too mechanical and I cannot plane out the right hand to make it feel relaxed.

I hope I make sense and do not seem as a rambling idiot.



-Juuf

Hmm
There is a solution to your problem.
It is called neuro-psychology.The method is based on the fact that when you look up,you remember positive things.Here are the steps:

1.take one or more deep breaths
2.close your eyes
3.look up
4.remember a very good performance you had and remember the feeling you had while you had that performance.When you have done that,you are ready for the next step
5.open eyes and walk on stage
6.While walking on stage,look at the public.Get them on your side.Get them to believe you are communicating with them.
7.sit down and play

Don't expect to succeed the above from the first try.Have to work at it

Avguste, That is a good technique to use for stage fright but I think Juufa is just trying to get into his music when he's at home. At least that's what I'm understanding.
Juufa- Yes, you do first have to know how to play the piece, notes, rythym etc. before you can let your feelings come out (go in, whatever). Once you have the piece learned, you play it with less concentration on reading every single note, and more on the lines, phrases, or dynamics that allow your feelings to rise to the surface. You begin to feel the music the way the composer intended. And then every time you play it after that, more feelings come out of your performance. Does this make sense? I get what I'm saying but many times others don't.

Don't you wish you could pop into that painting? I'd like to go to the painting that is similar to that one, but it's Chopin playing the piano.