Bach opens a vista to the universe. After experiencing him, people feel there is meaning to life after all.
I guess play piano, you know, because that's the thing I started doing when I was a little kid.
I think on a stage in front of thousands of people is a wildly invigorating and amazing experience, and it requires a certain skill set; then being in the studio, and being curled up in the fetal position under the piano, that requires another skill set.
As a young composer I had a particular fondness for Liszt's Beethoven Symphony arrangements for the piano, and to this day I enjoy playing non-piano music at the piano.
Fact is that I played piano and performed, as a young kid, a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Don't forget I was only eleven-years-old and to be on the stage at that age had tremendous impact on me. Basically love for classical music and performing as a kid on the big stage probably led toward this decision, which meant that music is going to be my big love but also my profession.
Truly to sing, that is a different breath.
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.
The Steinway piano is the most harmonious implement for musical intention. It completes what is beautiful and artistic.
I cannot write music. I cannot play the piano.
Comedy, I figured, was the thing that came to me the most easily. Playing the trumpet and piano took practice. I thought that was a waste of time. I'd go out on the street corner and be funny. In a minute.
The piano is an orchestra with 88. . . . . . things, you know
I grew up hard. I picked cotton and plowed with the mule and fixed the cars and played with the guitar and the piano.
Joyous Sound evolved from a gospel influence. Actually it evolved out of sitting at a piano and just picking out a riff, a gospel type riff. It just seemed to come joyously-something about the song, about living in another place of joyous sounds. I'm not quite sure-that's one I'm trying to analyze. It just came out.
I was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece.
I took piano and drum lessons when I was young, and took a lot of choir classes in high school. Beyond that I just play by ear and learn as I go.
My sister played the piano. She's two years older than me, and I always wanted to play something. So my grandmother got the guitar for me, and showed me a couple of chords to start off. And then I got me a book. Next thing you know, I was playing along with sister.
The mark of genius is consistency. Do we hear of naive genius piano players? If anyone knows of one, try listening to it for an hour.
I play drums, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, piano.
I'm learning to play piano. And also the musical saw.
I'm very glad my mother didn't let me quit piano lessons at age 10. She said I wasn't old enough or good enough to make that decision, and she was right. I remember at the time I was shocked. I did not like that my mother said those things to me. But when I got a chance to play with Yo-Yo Ma or more recently with Aretha Franklin, I thought, I'm really glad she said what she did.