Ask any serious pianist.
The keyboard changes all the time.
One day the keys feel long, skinny, wet, and slick. It’s almost impossible to keep your finger
from sliding off that thin slippery black key onto the adjacent white key. Other days the keys seem fat, dry, and
sluggish. On Monday it takes a huge effort
to get a certain sound. On Tuesday it
happens with no effort at all. And on Wednesday it’s pretty much impossible.
Does anything really change in the instrument? I know my piano sometimes sounds like it has
a cold. At those times in certain registers
the sound is muffled and indistinct. On
other days the sound is overly bright, almost painfully brittle. That’s mostly a function of weather. A period of humidity really does change the
sound. And dry weather (or running the
heat inside, which produces very dry air in the room) can make noticeable
changes as well. More or less moisture
in the felt hammers changes the sound. And the action may be a little more
sluggish or a little more responsive on certain days. Again, I think weather is the culprit. The action is largely wood, and wood changes
with weather.
Beyond that, I don’t think the instrument changes much. The keys don’t resize. These days they’re covered with plastic (not
ivory), and plastic is a dead and unchanging material. So what does account for the very different feel
of the keys from day to day? For the
most part it’s me that’s changing. Some
of that is probably physiological.
Like an athlete, there are times when I’m particularly stiff and
inflexible; other days I'm flexible and strong. But my brain doesn’t read that as a change in me; instead it
attributes the change to an external entity, the keyboard.
I’m also certain that much of this is not in my hands, but
in my head. Probably has to do with
expectations and state of mind. There is
that famous story about the concert pianist (pianist A) that had unusually small
hands. He was very
successful and had money to burn, so he had a piano custom built with slightly
narrower keys (maybe 5% smaller, I’m guessing) so that his small hands could
reach larger stretches more easily.
Another pianist (pianist B) knew about it and went to visit him. Pianist B was greeted at the door by a family
member and shown to a large room to wait for Pianist A. While waiting alone Pianist B sat at the piano he found there and played. He was amazed at how much
further he could stretch and how much easier it was to play certain
passages. Eventually Pianist A showed up
and a conversation began. Pianist B
expressed his delight at the new found ease he had discovered at the special
piano. Pianist A then confessed that
though he did have that specially scaled piano built, that instrument was in
fact in another room. The instrument
that Pianist B had been playing was a normally scaled piano. Because Pianist B
expected greater ease, he experienced greater ease: pianistic placebo.
Okay. There are no
absolutes. I get it. Heisenberg uncertainty. But we have to get by from moment to moment. Our brain has to instantaneously reach useful
deductions from a baffling diverse and huge set of data. If we don’t jump to
conclusions we’re likely to get eaten by that lion. Such is the human condition.
Extrapolate this to human relationships. Multiple variables
on all sides. No absolute truth. Pretty much total chaos. All changeable. This is the human world we live in. Small wonder we make any sense of it at all. I’m all for artificial self-constructed
reality, as long as the people in my life that matter to me are willing to graciously and patiently withstand my version. Maybe that’s what it’s all about? We construct an artificial reality that helps
us get by. After all, we just need to
get to tomorrow, right? We do the best we can and we search for others that will tolerate our peculiar construct. Inevitably conflicts ensue. Alter the construct as needed, but don't forget that the lion may be nearby. Look for consolation and comfort, but do your best to see the sun come up tomorrow. Be compassionate and somehow keep in mind that others are facing the same daily struggle.
Season to taste.
Good luck, fellow travelers.
Happy Thanskgiving!
No comments:
Post a Comment