January 23, 2023

A singer-songwriter I am not

Dispatches from the Imperfection Lab

The most frustrating part about practicing a concerto—to be played with orchestra—is that the piano part always has these aggravating holes that just make for very unmusical practicing. Like Laura Dern saying “pew pew!” while shooting her blaster in Star Wars, I can’t help but (badly) sing the orchestra’s bits while playing the piano part.

This little video is from the middle-ish section of the first movement of the Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel concerto; both the singing and the playing are a bit of a mess because this was me testing out how much stuff holds when I play it cold—that is, not warmed up. I swear I have higher standards of musicianship, promise.