Can You Hear More Than What You’re Playing?

Its truly a wonderful feeling to create, to play, to do anything musically really. But is it enough for oyur brain to play? Can you feel what you’re playing? When you’re playing can you “hear” a concert orchestra behind you? If you can, you’re not crazy, or experiencing auditory hallucinations. If you can, than you’re like me.

Is it a mere possession of an active imagination? Does it denote how much you truly love music? Can it enhance the experience of music? Does it make you a lesser person to others? Do you even tell anyone that you do? There isn’t anything wrong with thinking that your music has more to it. If you like what you’re doing, and it makes you happy, and you can’t but help hearing a concert orchestra behind you then imagine away.

I guess it can be construed as crazy by others, but it’s only because they haven’t gotten a chance to know what it’s like to dream big, (and feel bigger.) There are so many judgemental people in this world who have far too much to say about following the rules, stick to what you’ve been taught, and “Thou shalt be taught, period.”  Being a dreamer by heart, that attitude has never flown well with me.

If you’ve never been able to imagine the sounds of  back-up from the New York Philharmonic then I can share with you a very brief look into a world of imtoxication.

A passionate, emotional first note, one that you know by heart and can find even on the foggiest brain days, you strike that first note and the sound that comes out of your piano isn’t the upright you’re sitting in front of, but you close your eyes and you know that it’s a concert grand all sleek and black. You can hear, no FEEL the resonance coming from the mammoth instrument almost as if there are no sounds but only silent waves that exit it. You strike the next key and from the blackness of your mind you can all of a sudden see the bright lights of the concert hall. You feel alone with the music, and swimming in it and there are so many more notes to be played, and do you have the guts to let yourself go and let your soul fly free?

As you start to work your way through the first few bars you can hear the warm accompaniment starting. Its soft at first, and they work with you and follow you and they can match your mood, your skill, style and tempo. If it’s what you can play the best, then they play Mary Had A Little Lamb with such a love for it, that Beethoven may as well have written it and not Mother Goose. If it’s your own work, then they got your music somehow and have it memorized, (how miraculous!!)

As you go through your piece, whatever it might be, you can hear the horns play, the woodwinds sweetly praising, the percussions stamping out any chance of not hearing the music, and the violins, cellos, and bass singing, NO!! They infuse each and every note with the lifeblood you have poured into it, especially if it’s your own work.

If you have written music with lyrics, or just want a vocal element then you can hear the ethereal sound of human emotion coming forth out of as many mouths as you can imagine, as though they were upon clouds and had wings. You feel them, and each and every vibration from their throats, and tears come into your eyes from how divine the sounds from your own private performance make you feel. Your heart swells from the love that each and every member of your  personal orchestra puts into your music, into accompanying you in the pieces that you love the most, and hold the most dear, and close to your heart.

It is so moving that you feel as though you can fly through the air among the notes themselves, and that as the music comes to a climax that you might not be able to stand it a moment longer.

As you hit that final note, you have chills running through you, and tears in your eyes. Then, you open your eyes to look at the marvellous musicians you played with, and it hits you all of a sudden, that you’re in the kitchen, alone, with only one small light on, and it’s 3am.

The sound of your own breath breaks the silence of the room, and you feel a sudden moment of sadness. It all felt so real, so vivid, so alive. But yet, as you feel that letdown, you also know that as soon as you want them to be real then they will be, and all you have to do it close your eyes and play again.

Is it that easy? Can anyone do it? (I’ve never spoken with anyone else who could, or would admit it at least.)  Do you think less of me because I can, or more of me?  Search inside your head, and see if you can find your own private orchestra to play with you. It can really enhance your playing, and is a great way to escape the pressures of the day. If you know that you can close the door to your dwelling and shed the constraints that society has placed upon you, and fly among the stars, (so to speak,) wouldn’t that help you hang on a little while longer? Music is a beautiful way to escape anyways, why not let yourself imagine your way to an even greater, and more intimate experience? No one is watching you, or preventing you but yourself. Shed convention, snub self judgement, and ignore the part of your brain that tells you that imagining is something children do.

Think of it this way, if it weren’t for imagining, there wouldn’t be any music at all now, would there?