The piano has always been my friend and a place to 'connect' to the divine. After a difficult emotional period in 1996 I began to improvise at the piano as a way to express the deep feelings that were coming up that I couldn't express in words. I basically just vomited out grief, pain and rage every day for a number of years until almost overnight something changed. There was suddenly a 'voice' within the music that was expressing healing, kindness, compassion and hope. I had no idea where it had come from. At first I was afraid that it was just a temporary thing but it has stayed with me for twenty years. I play piano twice a week as a volunteer at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. It requires me to be empty and just to allow this voice to manifest, bringing comfort to patients and visitors and creating a healing ambience in the room. Best gig I ever had. I strive to perfect my technique and to expand my harmonic knowledge constantly. I will always be a student. I am currently looking to create a system of teaching 'free improvisation', allowing a musician to find their inner 'voice' and express it.
Music is what happens when I make the conscious decision to disappear. It is a gateway to being nothing but action.
I have no dream. I am just grateful for this present moment.
The world is perfect.
“Vair me o”. A welsh folk song my mother would sing.
Debussy, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Keith Jarrett, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Eagles, Beatles, Dawes. Any musician that is speaking through their instrument or music.
Silence
There’s no personal message but what seems to recur when I get out of the way is kindness, compassion, pathos and comfort.
Nervous if ego is present. A wonderful sense of completeness and perfection when it isn’t.
Which musicians? The one in their bedroom streaming on Reddit? The one on YouTube who also streams on Spotify, or the one who plays for the LA Philharmonic? What is a ‘musician’?
I am grateful to it’s creators for providing a music specific platform.
I don’t know that I get frustrated but I am constantly disappointed by the general public’s adulation of mediocrity.
There really is no local scene.
Depends on who your audience is.
Don’t know any.