When it's time to step onstage into the bright lights shining down on you, and the crowd is cheering wildly for the show to start, there are so many feelings that can hit you all at once. Excitement, elation, nervousness, euphoria… and then the adrenaline kicks in with the first note!
There is so much fulfillment in performing music for a live audience. The great Billy Joel once said:
“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.”
It's on stage where we are able to deliver an experience to the audience, one that might stick with them for their whole lives. Although the audience may be contrived of many different individuals with various backgrounds and outlooks, the music somehow brings everyone together on one frequency and unites the audience, merging everyone participating into a collective consciousness.
“Art should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise." - Bill Evans
When we are performing music for someone, whether it be for a theatre full of people or in the living room for a couple of friends, we are opening windows of creativity within the minds and hearts of those listening. As musicians, we can help show others a piece of themselves that they had not seen before.
Through this art we can shine a different perspective into people's lives that can fill in another piece of the puzzle we are all helping each other figuring out. With each note placement, it is like painting through strokes of sound waves onto the canvas of silence. We connect with the intention of the composition and vibrate the space around us.
The piano is an amazing instrument in the way we are able to play like an arranger would write for an orchestra. The sheer spectrum of the instrument coupled with the 10 fingers of each player allows for an amazing ability to access all frequency zones of the low-mid- high ranges.
Also with the two arms of the pianist, we are able to divide up different rhythms between the two hands, therefore a plethora of syncopations are also possible just from one player! The depth of expression that can be achieved is infinite and really allows the personality of each individual to shine.
With so much power from one instrument also comes the responsibility of the player. It is through the medium of piano that we are able to share our interpretations with the world not only of the great works of the past, (everything from Bach & Duke Ellington to Bob Dylan & The Allman Brothers) but also our present-day music that tells a story about our culture and the current state of the world we live in. With this power of resonance with the human spirit through aural vibrations, we are able to morph the reality around us into a world that is hopefully better off when we leave it then when we entered it.
So find the music that inspires your soul, and chances are that same music will help inspire others around you! Then it is up to you how you share that music with the world, and someday maybe it will influence you to write your own music that tells your own story about the world.
Then take it to the stage (whether it be a small coffeehouse or large concert hall), let the lights shine down, and give it your best to inspire others to be the best version of themselves they can be. This could be just one way that we create a better world to live in for ourselves and the people of the future.