Six months ago I took up tai chi (in part thanks to your books Alan), and have been enjoying it as a great way to unwind after a long day, to get me going in the morning, or in between practice sessions (when my neck/shoulders tend to get sore). All this is absolutely awesome, I recommend it! (FYI i use an ipad app to learn the movements, combined with youtube. not ideal probably, but easy on the wallet)
anyway, my question: how to integrate tai chi into piano?
- while playing?
- while sitting at the piano? (also nice to know how to do something in the car while commuting, without being too much of a hazard!)
- or anything else that comes to mind.
Any thoughts?
thanks
tom
A
Alanfraserpiano
That is a VERY big question.
Years ago I remember playing the Debussy Images Book I and my teacher at the time, Lauretta Milkman, telling me I wasn't playing the piano, I was doing Tai Chi at the piano. She meant it as a compliment, and I took it as such. There was a sense of the graceful, flowing movements of the form creating sonority and phrase shape at the piano.
That was 30 years ago. I am still finding new and deeper ways of integrating my Tai Chi practice into my playing. The sense of Self I acquire in the Tai Chi form transfers well into my playing on so many levels that it would take a book to describe it. In short, the form helps me experience the functionality of skeletal connection, and I then bring that same sense to the way in which I join myself to the keyboard to create sonority.
AFF
A
A pianist
Thank you Alan for your reply...
So it is like water, spilling over naturally into different parts of life? Or does it need someone with a bucket?
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