Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums EVENTS! Piano Concerts, Recitals, Competitions, and Workshops I'm never happy with the way I sound

This is my first recording that I'm uploading. I would love to have feedback on it. What's good about it, what is bad about it?

The first 45 seconds is from a song called Free Flight - Herman Beeftink. The rest is some improv because I forgot the rest of the song.

I'm still a beginner. Everytime I hear myself play I think that it sucks. No emotion, timing is terrible. Not sure if this is really the case.

http://www.tempfiles.net/download/201207/251807/hh.html

Thanks for listening

It sounds good to me...Maybe needs to be a bit tighter and polished but this will come with time and with practice. You are doing well so don't be too negative.

Try and relate to the song to help improve your emotion and dynamics throughout the piece.

Everyone's more than a little bit critical of themselves than they need to be. It's just humbleness and perfectionism.

No true artist is ever satisfied.

We artists are perfectionists. That's why we have an audience to support us.

Perfection itself is imperfection. (Horowitz)

I can certainly identify with this mental chatter: "It doesn't sound good," "I don't sound good enough," all that stuff. That's just normal mind chatter. It's trying to protect us from harm, yet it comes out in this hyper-critical way. Believe me, I'm very familiar with it.

As for myself, I am starting to realize that I may never satisfy that hyper-critical voice. And the good news is, I don't need to. It's like a five year old child that refuses to calm down. Nothing I can do about it. But it's not me. I have the choice about what I do, because I'm actually in control.

When it comes to your own sound, I think it's important to listen to other people's feedback. If other people are enjoying it, if they think it's cool, that is good feedback. That says something. Especially if those people are people whose opinion you respect. If another composer tells me my work is good, that is wonderful. At the same time, if a customer who bought my CD tells me my music is great, that is also wonderful. Because they are my paying customers. I listen to them. Regardless of what I think of my own sound, if my CD sells a thousand copies to satisfied fans... that tells me I'm on the right track!

It can be challenging getting out of our own way, but we must endeavor to do so if we are to be happy as artists and creators.

Cheers,

Chris

Playing with a relaxed, deep and flowing sound is not the privilege of professional pianists and advanced piano students. This skill is available to everyone – even complete piano beginners.

You simply need to learn the basic secrets of a correct key attack – they will change forever your perspective on piano playing!

A correct touché can be mastered from the very first piano lesson, being that stable foundation on which we can build everything – a beautiful sound, a brilliant technique and a convincing power of expression.