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You're listening to the PianoPod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry
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about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.
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Last time we spoke to Madeleine Bruiser about her teaching philosophy, mindfulness in practicing,
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and common issues she encounters with her students.
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And now, the conclusion.
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Can we back up a little bit and talk about your early musical experiences, growing up,
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going to school, and then how your early career and how you eventually ended up writing your
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book and came to the art of practicing.
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Okay, so you're talking about going from age six to finish when I was 46.
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Maybe not every day, but...
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How did the art of practicing come to be?
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It came to be directly through meditation practice.
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Directly.
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I had been already teaching certain elements of it.
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As soon as I started meditating at 29, I was already teaching things like sing the left
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hand while you play the right hand so that you can really hear what's on the page.
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Just the sound coming at you instead of thinking about the sound, and also rhythmic grouping.
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This is an extremely powerful aspect of the work.
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I don't know if I can go into it too much now, but simply to say that rhythm is usually
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not taught well.
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It's really taught that the first beat is strong, the third beat is semi-strong, and
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the second and fourth beats are weak, and that's the end of it.
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You have to go one, two, three, four, one, two, three, and this is death to me because
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the first beat is strong by nature.
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If you emphasize it, you just kill all the flow of the music.
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There are a number of music teachers, not very many.
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One I know of in jazz and a couple of maybe three people in the classical world and different
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instruments who understand rhythmic grouping.
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There's also a book called Note Grouping, and it's similar in content to my chapter
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11 in my book, The Art of Practicing, which is all about rhythm.
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Rhythm is again in the body.
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When people use metronomes, they are shutting down their body.
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Human rhythm is not the same as mechanical rhythm.
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Human rhythm flows in waves, and it's very important that your life moves in waves.
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The heartbeat is like, and breathing goes in waves.
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Phrases go in waves.
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Music flows in waves.
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So that wave, it ebbs on the downbeat.
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You don't go one, two, three, four.
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You go one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, or two, three, one, two, three,
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one, so that it's constantly moving forward.
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It's kind of complicated to go into in an interview, but it's pretty well covered in
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the book.
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But nevertheless, somebody actually has to work in this because we're trained to stop
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at bar lines and to stop before beats.
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And we don't even realize we're doing it.
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This actually affects your technique because this kind of rhythm, as Yukimi was talking
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about, it's organic.
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This is how life flows.
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And so when you think of the notes in these groups and you feel these waves in these groups,
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your body works much more naturally and your technique improves.
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So what was the question?
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How did they come to the art of practicing?
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So I started teaching that along with the listening techniques.
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And I was more aware of what was going on with the hands and arms.
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So I was able to teach that, but it didn't crystallize until I had been meditating for
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eight years.
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And at that point, what happened was meditation is a practice of sitting still no matter what.
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No matter what's going on in your body.
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And that's the discipline of it, accommodating big energy.
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So I was accommodating a lot of big energy that spring when I was 37.
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Some heartbreaking things happened in my life and it was really painful.
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And I was sitting on my meditation cushion, feeling all this emotional pain and not moving.
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It was around that time that I noticed at the piano that I didn't want to move around
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anymore.
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I was able to accommodate the big energy of the music, all that flow of powerful energy
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without reacting to it this way.
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And I just wasn't able to go back to the other way.
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And a friend came over and said it sounded better the new way because the music was just
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coming through to the listener directly.
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So that week I asked all my students to sit that way instead of doing like this.
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And instantly, instantly, they all sounded 100% better.
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That was when the light bulbs were like, I could almost see them flashing in front of
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me and saying, you know, you don't have to hit your head against the wall anymore trying
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to become a touring internationally successful pianist.
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You are an important teacher.
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People need to learn this.
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This is your career.
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Everything totally shifted at that point.
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This is like six months after my New York debut.
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Right?
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I had my debut.
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Did I know it was going to be my finale?
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The irony.
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So I stopped pursuing concerts.
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I canceled a concert I had in Chicago.
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I was done.
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And I started giving seminars on the art of practicing.
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And then the book just evolved from that.
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I actually tape recorded a lot of the seminars, including the questions and answers.
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And those are the questions and answers that are at the end of most of the chapters in
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my book.
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Could you tell us how we should as a piano teacher to maybe introduce meditation to students?
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That's a great question.
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I've never told them to do it.
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I don't want to proselytize because I don't think it's appropriate.
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But what I've done is if a person is, it just happened yesterday actually, if a person is
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obviously kind of in a stressed state, they're speaking in very negative terms, they're nervous,
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they're just not settled down.
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I say, well, let's just take a minute to settle down.
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Just sit there, let your eyes relax, keep them a little open, and just notice your breathing
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for a couple of minutes.
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That's all I do.
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If you start calling it something, it actually is limiting what it is.
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Because all it is, is a space in the person's mind, you're offering them an opportunity
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to take some space that their mind desperately needs.
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And a little space goes a long way.
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So then if the person becomes interested in meditation after that, which definitely happens
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to some people, and in these days, because mindfulness is such a known entity, people
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ask for it more often, then I recommend a meditation instructor or a program.
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But I try to become their instructor because that's a whole other relationship.
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Exactly.
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Yeah.
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Thank you so much.
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Yeah.
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The three contact points, the feet are on the floor, the sitting bones are in contact
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with the bench.
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Then when you play a chord, the ends of those finger bones are in contact with the bottom.
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So it will actually, in contrast to the excess effort of doing this, when you lean forward,
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you really do that with a lot of energy.
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It throws your torso a little bit backwards because of the equal and opposite reaction.
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I see.
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Yeah.
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It seems so much easier when you do it that way.
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Right.
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But then there's also other uses of the forward motion of the arms, where instead of initiating
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it from the fingertips where you're grabbing and your arm is passive, you initiate from
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the shoulder.
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So you can do that when you just let the arm weight drop in, but you can also slide in
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and out of the keys, which is initiated from here.
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And the sliding motion is something that's not in my book.
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And it is something that I want to really create on a video for people so they can understand
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it.
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So if I just open a piece like...
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Let me show you that really close up.
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Okay.
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So I'm sliding in and out.
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So you can teach the student to just slide with all five fingers on the board.
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So they can slide this way in and out.
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And then...
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You'll notice things like I'm sliding in and I'm already coming out before I slide out
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on that one.
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This one slides in and it comes back out.
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Then I slide in.
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So there's a lot of...
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Even on the same key, you're sliding in and out.
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And I've just taught them to do a scale like that.
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You know, in, out, in, in, in, in, out, out, out, in, out, out.
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That's how complicated it is, but it's actually a very natural way to move your hand.
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Yeah.
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I can see how relaxed you are when you do that.
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The first thing that I always address with every person...
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I don't think I've ever seen anybody who's accomplished this entirely.
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Actually one person got it from my book.
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It's in the book, but to get it from the book is exceptional.
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It says in the book that you could practice letting the fingers relax on the keys when
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they're not playing.
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So if you do...
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Do it down here.
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You don't do this, right?
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Right, yeah.
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It comes down so that the fingers are doing the minimum and that's because they're not
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designed for power.
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And that's very important.
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People need to understand what parts of the mechanism are designed for what.
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The fingers are designed for precision, refined control.
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The arms are designed for power and flow.
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This is like the bow for the string player or the lungs for the wind player or singer.
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This is the flow.
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If you cut that flow...
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I could play that Mozart opening without that flow, just staying one place instead of sliding
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in and out and that limits what I can do.
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I'll try it, but...
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It feels awful and I just don't feel that it creates the same kind of musical flow.
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So it's a much more freeing experience for the pianist to allow things to keep flowing
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all the time.
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Right, right.
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So you have to...
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And then the shoulder is designed to position the hand in space.
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So it's not designed to do this, right?
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That's not going to help you.
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And it's not designed to do that, right?
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And then of course, so that's the mechanism, the playing mechanism.
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And then there's the whole supportive mechanism, the stability that's provided with the torso
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when you sit very solidly.
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There's also all this that you can do to reach certain distances on the keyboard.
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And then the wrist is really designed to move.
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So the wrist has eight bones that are lined up in two rows of four, and it is totally
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designed to move.
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It makes ovals all the time.
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So if I do this...
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You can make an oval even holding down a single key.
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Not that you should do it for no reason, but there's just all kinds of places where this
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liberates the whole mechanism.
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It allows you to reach stretches.
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It makes it easier for the fingers to put the keys down.
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There's all kinds of stuff.
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So I just kind of condensed a vast unwritten encyclopedia of piano technique into this
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tiny little thing.
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But this is really when I started out with singing today where we need to tune into what
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our natural abilities are.
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The body is designed to work a particular way.
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If you use it that way, you'll be able to play the instrument well.
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But just having this basic number of facts can really help people stop doing excessive
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work with the wrong part of the body.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Thank you for the demonstration.
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I think it's really helpful for people to see it in action, although of course, this
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is just the tip of the iceberg.
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And for anybody watching, if you're interested in this and you'd like to know more, I highly
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recommend you pick up the book, The Art of Practicing, or go to theartofpracticing.com
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and Madeline's going to be offering a series of online master classes.
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Yes?
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Yes.
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And I think the second week of June, it's going to start.
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It'll be once a week for two and a half hours.
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It'll be early afternoon on the East Coast so that people on the West Coast or in Europe
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can participate.
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And there will be a 10-minute mindfulness practice to open each session, 20 minutes
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of group conversation about anything that is coming up for people.
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And then it will work with each of three pianists for 45 minutes and they will have a minute
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of feedback from the group.
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Those three pianists will go through the whole six weeks.
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It's called a transformative piano master class series.
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By the end of the six weeks, something will be different.
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That's fantastic.
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Yeah.
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So if that sounds like something you would be interested in signing up for, please visit
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artofpracticing.com.
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All right.
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So I'm afraid we're running out of time.
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I feel like we didn't get to at least two thirds of what we want to talk about.
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But I think Clara has one more question for you, Madeline, and then we've got to get on
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to rapid fire.
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That's right.
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And for those pianists who are thinking, just take the action and enrol now.
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And I'm still so inspired from last year.
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And one thing I have a great question for you, Madeline, but I just want to reflect
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on one tiny thing that I feel like if it's not for the master class that I did last year,
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and it just happened to be, I don't even know where it came from.
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It just kind of landed in my hand and I was connected to, which I didn't know how to find
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you.
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And it was just through PTC.
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And I felt like you gave me permission.
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And I remember it was that night after I performed, I came home and I realized I have to transfer
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the student, my studio to online because that was the most rational thing to do.
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And I think that took a lot of courage.
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And I believe, and then my students actually are playing better than ever.
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And I have all these, so I want to know what your opinion is.
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What is, what's the future is going to be from after this year and a half or what is
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it going to be for PMS 50 years, a hundred years from now?
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I know that the pandemic is having a major effect on all of us.
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And I feel that it has a really powerful silver lining.
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I think that it's getting people to focus inward more because there's no choice.
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And there's less, so much less distraction.
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You know, you can't get on the subway and go here and there and all over the place.
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You're left alone in your house where your family is, where everything is more intimate
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and personal and it can't help but change us.
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So I think that people have been forced also to come to grips with horrible economic realities
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of not being able to make a living.
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It's horrible for performers.
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And you know, some teachers don't want to teach online and there are some students who
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don't want lessons online.
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So I think that this inward awareness, inner awareness is actually beneficial, but only
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up to a point.
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I think it's going to make us appreciate connection to other people much more.
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I mean, my husband and I both are getting the second dose of the vaccine this week.
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And within two weeks we'll be fully immune and we know this other couple that will be
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in the same position.
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And I said, let's have them over for dinner.
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I can't believe what that's going to be like.
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People are saying it's so good to shake someone's hand.
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I think and the appreciation of what a performance really means is going to be bigger.
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So I think a lot of things have been stripped away and we're not going to even know until
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the pandemic is over.
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And gradually in pieces we'll have more experience of being out in the world.
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So I think there is that.
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I would hope and I believe actually that making music is a practice that is evolving.
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The fact that schools are teaching the Alexander Technique.
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I mean, actually one of my students is teaching at a college and she's now teaching meditation
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at her college to the musicians.
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These possibilities are now more open because it doesn't sound like such a weird thing to
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the administration of the school anymore.
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20 million Americans are practicing mindfulness.
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Well, hey, maybe we should get with the program, right?
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So it's different.
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It's going to take a long time though.
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But I'm not sure that that's what your question was.
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But I do think that each individual is tasked with figuring out their individual situation.
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I think people need to talk about it, to have guidance from somebody they trust.
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And one of my biggest, I mean, my whole reason for being on the planet seems to be to help
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people, as I said, to believe in themselves, to show them that they're capable of so much
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more than they realized.
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They could play so much better.
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They could teach so much better.
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They could help their audience more.
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They could help their students more.
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That evolution, that's what I'm here to facilitate.
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So I'm hoping that the increase of inward focus and the increased awareness of how the
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mind and body work with music will actually somehow get people to, and also the forced
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discontinuation of how they were making a living before.
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There's a musician who has a wonderful website.
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I can't remember the name of it.
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Her name is Kaylee Miller.
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And she is a Pilates instructor.
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And she also has a podcast.
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And she's connected with a lot of musicians.
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And she's a major person in musician's wellness.
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And she wrote this article I came across recently that said, I've been forced to do other things
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for a living.
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Because I'm teaching Pilates full time.
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This is what I'm doing now.
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And that she appreciates certain things about it.
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And I read another article.
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This other musician is saying, well, I'm realizing that I want to be somewhat into arts administration
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so that I can help how the schools are teaching music.
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And I want to teach body mapping to these musicians.
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And I want to teach the violin.
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And I want to perform.
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That is a kind of hybrid career.
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It's really healthy, because we're not just a one track person usually.
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You have the abilities.
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And the world needs them.
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So that's what I think is possible.
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I think it's very, very painful for people to not be able to do what they love the most.
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But I think it can be a growth experience.
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Wow.
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Thank you, Madeline.
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That is such a wonderful answer.
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I really, really appreciate your insight.
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We have a new segment called the Piano Pods rapid fire questions.
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Question number one.
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Are you ready?
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Yes.
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Right.
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What do you consider comfort food?
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I love almond butter out of a spoon.
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That is quite healthy.
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Great.
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Loved it every day.
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Wonderful.
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Wow.
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Okay.
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What is your word or words to live by?
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Love yourself and then you can love others.
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Great.
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Beautiful.
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What is the most important quality you look for in people?
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Love.
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And the word do you think is the worst quality in people?
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Aggression.
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I will continue.
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Name three people who inspired you, living or dead.
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Well the first would be my meditation with Chichigam, Trungpa or Bhikshu.
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I was unbelievably fortunate to play the piano for three times.
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Actually the picture of that happening the third time right here.
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This was the end of a three month meditation program and I played for him in New York when
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he happened to be staying at a house with two Steinway grands.
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Oh my gosh.
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Yeah.
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I know you don't want a long answer.
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It was beyond words.
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It was like the best piano lesson I ever had and he knew nothing about the piano.
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Oh my goodness.
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Wow.
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This is a Tibetan who appreciated Western music immensely.
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Right.
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This is a very, very extraordinary human being.
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So definitely him.
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Three people.
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One was Anakham Pressler who I studied with for two years when I was 17 to 19 who emphasized
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imagination, creativity, sound, magic, all the things about being an artist.
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I felt like I became an artist.
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I didn't have another teacher like that before or after.
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And was the question who I admire?
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Three people.
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Living or dead.
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I admire Mozart.
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He inspired you.
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Mozart.
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Mozart's music.
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Name one piece in your current playlist.
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Schubert, G flat, and Prompto.
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Okay this is a new one.
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I don't know about this for rapid fire but name one change you would like to make to
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music education in the U.S.
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I would like to have a national conference at which thousands of music teachers attend
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and where the whole point is to open up and talk about the primary need we all have to
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be open, vulnerable, and genuine and what are the components of making that possible
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in making music for your students.
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Great.
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Wonderful.
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Okay so if you could only listen to one piece for the rest of your life what would it be?
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That's a tough one.
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Oh I know.
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00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:02,040
Of course I know.
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The second movement of the Mozart concerto in A major, K4-88.
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Second movement in F sharp minor.
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My favorite piece of western music.
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Oh there you go.
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And finally please answer with one word.
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Fill in the blank.
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Music is blank.
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Love.
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Perfect.
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00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:32,440
So everybody that concludes this episode of the PianoPod which I am very reluctant to
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end.
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Thank you so much Madeline for joining us.
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We want to remind everybody to check out your website artofpracticing.com and remember Madeline's
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online masterclass series will begin in June.
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If you enjoyed this episode please read and then review on whatever podcasting platform
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you use.
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If you're watching it from YouTube please hit the thumbs up button and be sure to subscribe
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00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:00,040
to our channel.
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00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,880
You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,360
The links are in the description below.
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If you have feedback for us please leave it in the comments or direct message us by social
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00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:22,920
media or you can also email us at the pianopodnyc.gmail.com.
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We look forward to seeing you all on the next episode of the PianoPod.
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Bye everybody.
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00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:27,920
Bye everyone.
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00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:28,920
Thank you Madeline.
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Thank you so much.
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graveyard