Inspiration
Sunday, November 17, 2024 by Irina Buevska-Cowell | Interesting
By Gabriela Montero:
“I’m often asked by the public why I practice through pieces I’ve played over and over again as though they were new. This is my explanation:
Say you drive down the same road every day to work. You know the road by heart, but if you drive consciously observing every detail, you’ll notice something new on every trip. A tree you hadn’t noticed, a mailbox that was recently painted, a ball a child left outside their house. That’s what practicing or learning a piece is about. It’s all about details- the more you look, the more you find. It’s endless.
Never in a million years did I think I would ever work as much as I do now at the piano. I’ve become a different person. I tell my students that talent is not enough. In fact, talent is boring on its own. It’s a given. How you develop it and the journey involved in the honing of talent, is fascinating. It’s a journey of self-discovery as much as it is of musical discovery. So many hills and valleys along the way.
I write this and I think of the beginning of the road for me. I was so undisciplined when I was younger. I rarely sat at the piano and would always fly by the seat of my pants.
Now, my pants are sown onto the bench! 😂 Why? Talent never leaves you. That hasn’t changed. I’ve just become a musically curious person. I open my eyes wider and wider on every trip. There is never enough time to find solutions to that phrase, that color, that passage. It’s all about discovery and trying not to settle for the obvious, the simple - the easy way out.
How we change….”
Link to hear her improvising in concert:
https://youtu.be/SmO8UDmZdOI?si=-Y-LWLWN_YV5BYMT
