SPOILER: It has nothing to do with muscle strength. In fact, the fingers do not have muscles. In this video I discuss the importance of mindful practice as I navigate Philipp’s “Exercises for the Independence of the Fingers”. Often, students of the piano ask how they can develop stronger fingers. Finger strength is not really […]
Author Archives: jjmyers88
Innovative notation to develop complexity in rhythm, meter, form and repetition
Within a barren soundscape of quietude, the beauty of its stillness is what captivated me the most. This stillness was compounded by the unpredictable unfolding of its rhythm. Upon first hearing, Beat Furrer’s exquisite Voicelessness, The Snow Has No Voice for solo piano seemed somewhat improvisatory, at least rhythmically. As I explored the limited recordings of […]
MusiCircus
Look Ma, I joined the circus! This weekend, Saturday, November 19th, at Town Hall is the John Cage MusiCircus. The preconcert lecture starts at 6:30pm and the multidisciplinary ‘happening’ starts at 7pm. I am kicking off the performance on the main stage promptly at 7pm. Moments later, several other performances—electronic, dance, poetry, visual art, readings, […]
A Performer’s Guide to the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
Did you know that John Cage made kits of preparations for the Sonatas and Interludes and sold them through a new music journal published by Henry Cowell? These kits contained 45 envelopes, one for each note of the preparations, that held the hardware he used for his preparations. Did you know that Cage created a document […]
Making better quality piano video recordings on a small budget
I’ve been asked numerous times how I manage to get my solo piano recordings to sound so crisp and clear on my YouTube videos. It wasn’t long ago that a home setup of audio and video gear yielded very poor results for pianists wishing to record their music. When I look back at some of […]
John Cage – Sonatas and Interludes LIVE recording
It’s safe to say that I’m no longer the same musician I was when I began working on the Sonatas and Interludes. In fact, it was safe to say, at the time, that when I first learned about Cage I was no longer the same musician. His ideas change people. His ideas changed art. This […]
Second Inversion Interview
KingFM’s modern classical music service, Second Inversion, just published a really nice interview with me about my upcoming Cage recitals. Thank you Maggie Molloy and Second Inversion. Check it out and help me get the word out by sharing it: The avant-garde and always-iconoclastic composer John Cage threw a wrench in the Western music tradition […]
Performance and Analysis: Cage and Scarlatti, form and micro-macrocosmic structure
image: Flickr/tin.G Part of the lecture for my upcoming lecture-recital of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes will discuss the path Cage took from his beginnings in percussion to explorations into Eastern aesthetics. Cage’s early period is bookended by these two important influences and nestled right in the middle of this period is one of the […]
Performance and Analysis: Rachmaninoff Etude-Tableau in g minor
Rachmaninoff’s Etude-Tableaux are meant to create a picturesque scene in the minds of the listener. If you recall my earlier blog post about the e-flat minor Etude-Tableau, I discussed my scenario of a man at the mercy of nature at its fiercest. In his g minor etude Op. 33 No. 5, I’ve become so entrenched […]
Performance and Analysis: Beethoven’s Tempest Op. 31 No.2 first movement
The focus of this article is to show the relationship and development of the motifs used in the first movement of Beethoven’s Tempest sonata. At this point in his composing, Beethoven began to distill his motifs to very short phrases, often just a few notes. The Tempest sonata is a great example of how Beethoven […]