Having a bad day? Play some wrong and ugly notes at the piano.
Piano students spend a lot of time focusing on playing the correct notes. The thought of playing wrong notes can be horrifying to some students. Yes, you want to learn your notes well and have accuracy, but wrong notes do have a place in musical training.
Have you ever tried to play wrong notes on purpose? Try making up your own piece, but make sure all the notes sound bad. Yes, you heard me correctly: all the notes need to sound very bad. If you’ve been programmed to only sound good, finding ugly notes can be a challenge.
One of the easiest times to find bad notes is when you are having a bad day. Since you feel bad, it’s much easier to make ugly sounds. Try it. It might help to do it when no one else is around so that there will be no judgment. Just experiment with finding harsh and dissonant sounds on the piano.
How we feel in our body has a direct impact on the sound we create at the piano. When a piece is joyous, it helps to have a joyful feeling in our body. When a piece is tumultuous, it helps to have experience with that feeling and play with that feeling in our body.
The next time you have a bad day, experiment with creating ugly sounds at the piano. You will get to know the piano in a way you’ve never know it before. It’s an entire new world to explore. I’d love to hear what you learn.
