How a metronome problem keeps music out of reach for students, listeners, and our entire culture

[@MyMusicGenesis]

What a vigorous comment section! A few things I've noticed: when one comments *already certain* that WBMP is a conspiracy theory, they will find elements of the idea impossible to reconcile. Funny that. I've been there. I learned better, so now I teach better. Changing one's mind after learning more is a strength. Some of the Deniers are complaining that no one would practice a piece in Triple with a metronome clicking in Duple. I don't know that the current way of metronome practice is how these great composers were using the metronome. I think the mark is there to indicate a tempo. Reference it, then turn it off. And it is EASY to get a Triple macrobeat with a metronome ticking in duple. Try it. It actually feels perfectly fine and musical. People saying single beat performance tempi exist: Maybe. For some pieces they're pretty common. For some they're rare. For others they're non-existent. But let's just use a common sense thought experiment here. Does it make sense that musical velocity in the last 200 years would: speed up, stay the same, or slow down. I think it must've sped up. Just like culture. As that music has become part of the culture. Deniers are claiming the fact that people have been playing fast since Chopin's time as a proof that Single Beat is correct. But it's a DISproof! Because NO ONE can play faster than Single Beat for many pieces! There can be no "fast playing" for Single Beat tempi! The idea that people were playing "fast" is proof that it's the WHOLE BEAT tempo that is the reference! Whole Beat Deniers are like: of course people can live on CO2. But like, where's the proof?? They might show little nuggets of someone existing on CO2 for a couple minutes. But people need Oxygen! People need MUSIC, not played on fast forward! For every bit of evidence that supports SB, there's the monolithic body of impossible SB pieces that points to WB. A little bit of common sense and understanding of culture and people, shows that in its time, the Whole Beat tempo made perfect sense! The outcome of FIGHTING for Single Beat like the WB Deniers do, is to promote the continued existence of damaged artists. To promote the completely unmusical, unnuanced performance of these masterworks. Like, have some taste! As tempo increases, artistry decreases. Deniers argue this music was MEANT for experts. That's just not true! Some of this music was meant for amateurs! But SB keeps it handily out of the realm of possibility. Even for the "expert" pieces...how many people do you think Chopin meant to be able to play it? 10% of players? 1%? .001%? Because one artist in 2024 (Cyprien Katsaris) can play in SB, is NOT proof that WB wasn't the intention. If SB was real, there would be countless SB performances on KZbin. Ultimately it's a music ed failure. We teach to performance now, rather than understanding. When people *understand* (audiate) music, they can enjoy spending time with it. Single Beat is in the same cultural space as 21st Century advertising. Overwhelming you so you're impressed with what's on offer, rather than content to reflect on and use in your own creation. I'm gonna pin this and I'm not taking responses to this comment. Thanks. Also, some of y'all Deniers are posting cruel, unhelpful stuff. This is my page, and I will absolutely delete a comment if I feel it's bad for people. And I'll have no qualms about it.

[@themetromonk]

This was how I was taught to play Bach in my Master's work. It captures harmonic and rhythmic nuances that fly past otherwise. On top of that, I am finding the problem compounded today in modern churches. When playing standard hymnody, the common practice is now to push traditional church hymns to faster and faster tempi, which loses the power of lyrics and harmonic flavor, in favor of "getting things done." I find myself echoing the complaints of 19th century critics, that people are playing much too fast. Be a musician, not a computer. This is the art of interpretation, which includes the interpreter.

[@Lucas-Kretzschmar]

I want to thank you for having the guts for publishing this video. Great job!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@Lucas-Kretzschmar My pleasure. Thank you!

[@pottedrodenttube]

Came here from Authentic Sound, you are synthesizing the concept in the right way. I'd love to see more videos on this subject.

[@ДмитрийЛи-ш9г]

Достойно лайка даже только за одно исполнение 1:55 ! Искренне рад, что есть ещё один человек, который может наслаждаться (как исполнитель) нюансами (!) классической музыки, которые абсолютно недоступны людям не знакомым с WBMP. Worthy of a like even for just one performance 1:55! I am sincerely glad that there is another person who can enjoy (as a performer) the nuances (!) of classical music that are absolutely inaccessible to people unfamiliar with WBMP.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@ДмитрийЛи-ш9г Спасибо!

[@Tylervrooman]

Authentic sound brought me here too.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@Tylervrooman Welcome! Glad you’re here.

[@bobpederson8392]

I am learning can you play more advanced music on the piano as an older adult now. I have never heard the revolutionary etude before, and that the whole beat speed I was savoring the musical and harmonic nuances, and thought, I can play this! At the single beat speed, the musicality was all but gone, and the nuance was completely gone. From now on, I will learn pieces at the whole beat speed, and play them at the speed that really speaks to me musically. Thank you so much for making this video!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

You're very welcome! And if you ever want to share I'd love to hear your music. I agree completely about savoring the nuance. To my mind, it doesn't make sense that Chopin would've written such complexity only for it to fly by too fast to be appreciated. So I think your decision to go with Whole Beat is a very good one.

[@ThatGenericDude]

As a classical guitarist, I've been doing this for Fernando Sor and the other 19th century greats and their arrangements for a year since learning about wbmp and with my own original music. It allows for the personality of the player and their musicality to shine through rather than the blitzing of notes just for aw and surprise

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@ThatGenericDude Yes, I agree! Thanks for your comment and for the work you are doing.

[@achaley4186]

I found you through the Authentic Sound channel. Thank you for your excellent message and artistry. Amen and Happy New Year 🙂🙏🏼❤⭐

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@achaley4186 Thank you so much, and welcome!

[@edwardyang8254]

Please please make more videos about how the scores indicate the proper speed of performance.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

Thanks for requesting this! I don't have a LOT more videos planned on this, but I do have one in the back of my head about performance issues specifically with the Revolutionary Étude. Thing is, all rep from this era will have many similar issues. My plan is to get back to some more overarching issues with modern piano/music education. My feeling is that this particular issue is solved! If the score indicates an impossible tempo, it's probably Whole Beat! But yes maybe I can make a quick version of that Revolutionary score video this week. Thanks again!

[@davcaslop]

Thank you for this video. I am in the last year of professional conservatory in my country (many of the people in this age are 18 max, except from some like me who are older) and I have introduced to many professors to this theory (although the true "theory" is single beat because it is just unplayeable) and it is the first time they think about actually look closely at the score in phrasing, staccato markings and specifical pedal use AND the metronome mark. I am a pianist and I am fed up hearing stu-p-id theorys of broken metronomes and all of that nonesense. People are waking up, and videos like this help a lot!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@davcaslop Thank you for your comment. I agree completely! It’s so odd to me how it’s so often completely taken for granted that impossible speed was the intention! So the music education system goes through the dance of teachers telling, students trusting, and the result is broken students with less musical performances. I’m glad we are a part of changing that. Thanks again!

[@the_wrong_note]

Now that's a tempo I can imagine Dreyshock listening to and attempting to play in octaves.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@the_wrong_note Right?!

[@TytusWoyciechowski-m4y]

But would he have needed to hide away practicing it slavishly for weeks, finally debuting his version to the astonishment of his colleagues, at this tempo?

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@TytusWoyciechowski-m4y I don’t know. You do it.

[@achaley4186]

What a cool idea! To play it in C major! I like it! 🙂🙏🏼❤⭐🎄

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@achaley4186 Thanks! It was fun!

[@SiteReader]

I was so glad to see this pop up on my KZbin feed today. I have been following Wim Winters for 5 or 6 years now, and I own most all of his recordings. His voice needs to be heard among musical performers and teachers (I am neither--only a grateful listener). It is thus very encouraging to witness the WBMP concept spreading. The corrupt world of elite professional performance will, unfortunately, probably be the last to accept it. But there is nothing to stop music lovers and performers like yourself from adopting it. Keep up the good work, my friend!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@SiteReader thank you so much. This was very encouraging to read. I appreciate it!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@geiryvindeskeland7208 Stop commenting here now, please. Nothing makes me want someone OUT of music ed space faster, than when they don't understand that everyone is a musician. If you're a teacher, it's your place to teach, not call people out. Winters is a good faith operator and I've seen no attempt on his part to dishonestly manipulate.

[@backtoschool1611]

Beautiful playing!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@backtoschool1611 Thank you so much!

[@backtoschool1611]

@MyMusicGenesis Since learning about WBMP, I have been practicing it and it really reduces practice anxiety, and tension in the arms, wrists and finger joints. As Wim says WBMP brings the "gods" down to earth and allows everyone to enjoy their mudic, not just a select few.

[@chicco26765]

Man, the level of hysteria and hatred of some comments is simply mind-blowing! Just keep up the good work!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@chicco26765 Isn’t it! It’s wild! Thank you for your comment.

[@NikhilHoganShow]

I thoroughly agree with what you are saying. There is a practical consequence to embracing "single beat" performance culture, students end up spending inordinate amounts of time dedicated to rote memorization and waste _so_ much time playing the same piece, when they could be working on their sightreading, improvisation, composition, ensemble playing. The ensuing single beat performance is brainless (rote memorized muscle memory), unintelligible, and injury-prone.

[@jorislejeune]

I have been using improvisation, partimento e tutti quanti in my teaching for decades. I have taken courses with some of the people that your interesting channel has featured. I even cooperated on a book in Dutch that promotes these approaches. Yet, I am and remain a convinced single-beater. These two are not mutually exclusive. Teaching students to understand the pieces they are playing does not imply that developing speed or memorisation is evil. That is simply a caricature, which has is partly rooted in the earliest HIP culture. However, thinking in these extremes is certainly bad for teaching, and for the spread of partimento. A lot of 'traditional' teachers are offended by the description you give of their dedicated work and won't look further at the possible benifits of enlarging their toolbox.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

Yes! And the conception is reinforced that music is something OUT there. In the score’s metronome marks and in better players. Years spent trying to reach single beat speeds absolutely crushes the idea that music is IN us. Luckily, it’s never too late to turn that around. Although it does require courage and a sense of adventure.

[@wirrbel]

@@MyMusicGenesisI have been looking more into baroque music lately due to picking up the recorder and that also lead to me reading a lot of autographs from IMSLP and scholarly articles. The more I learn the more convinced I am that the mental attitude towards baroque and classical music needs to be that of a craftsmen who makes the most out of the material given (melodies, instruments, personal skillset in the ensemble, rhythm). What a important is this hat the music has the emotional Affect, conveys the dance, etc.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@ I agree! I alluded to that in the video. People are applying a modern shredding aesthetic to the 18th and 19th century when it just wasn’t even in the ballpark for what those composers were thinking. And it’s pervasive. It’s even taken for granted in higher education. It’s hard to believe how much of a hold SPEED has over us. Speed, and an absolute aversion to reflection.

[@theclavierist]

It is just great to see someone else embracing the fact of WBMP which is nothing more than a demonstration of musical intelligence. Amazing! Fantastic!

[@andersvinnefors5891]

As for the C major interpretation. The slower tempo gave time to take part of the music. This is of course important when listening to something new.

[@peteacher52]

(Here via Wim Winters, with thanks.) Your dissertation hit the right spot with me. When 15 years old in 1962, I bought a 1955 recording of Cochereau playing Bach at N-D de Paris. His tempi would become described as funereal, yet Albert Schweitzer played all of his Bach recordings at that speed or slower. It took me much time to realise that these players likely had the right of it. Schweitzer would have been well aware of contemporary descriptions of JSB's organ skills, viz "His feet were flying over the pedals as fast as a regular organist would find bitter playing with his hands." That does not mean that Bach played the organ as fast as the greased lightning performances of some modern players who play fast just because they can. Schweitzer was a polymath (a master, not Jack, of many trades) whose example teaches much. The aging Widor is recorded at St Sulpice playing his own all-too-famous Toccata, at draught horse rather than the thorough-bred speed most modern organists romp through it in their 'speed is skill' display. But to the piano; Tatiana Nicolaeva, playing Bach IMO surpasses all of them regarding expressive phrasing with relaxed tempo. I have heard of only one instance where a composer specifically requests speed at a certain point; Alkan instructs player to 'pause, cross him or herself and proceed as fast as possible'! In the early 60s, I had, for a while, an elderly piano teacher who drilled me counting "One-an-Two-an-Three-an-Four", whole beat without actually calling it that. I thought she and her treasured Bechstein piano were old-fashioned! But Miss Pringle (RIP) also had the right of it.

[@oldensad5541]

Ok, ngl, i thought i will turn this video off, coz i thought it would be something simple, like "polymeters and polyrhythms are important", but desided to wait untill you finish playing and... yes, this is NOT WHAT I EXPECTET at all. If it's true, it's genuinely very-very-very important.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

Check out @AuthenticSound for the scholarly support. But I've been considering this for years now and I'm convinced. Chopin and Beethoven (and others) were writing *thoughtful* music. It can be hard to conceive of conceptually. Maybe that's why modern performers have transferred the difficulty into the physical realm. To avoid thinking about the harmonic and rhythmic implications. Avoiding the difficult issue of *interpretation* all together, because the solution is always "practice harder, play faster."

[@zartmedia-musicpublishing7731]

Dear sir, I agree with you 100% about one thing, namely the importance of expression! I have always said to my students, "Don't ever play a piece faster than still having full control of the expression. Speed can easily kill the music." But, I also say to them, "In determining the correct speed to play a piece, just sing the melody a capella with a feeling that reflects the expression of the piece, and you will find the right tempo (your tempo)." Therefore, taking the Etude above as an example, if one should sing the melody (or play it without the left hand), I imagine most would perform it in a tempo close to the "single beat" indication. Singing it at half that speed would certainly sound a bit tedious and hardly "fuoco". In fact, the expression of the etude lies in the right hand, while the left hand merely rages over the keys like fire (and that of course is technically difficult to play in a "casual" way). I have never had a student play this etude which in my humble opinion must be played at a fast tempo to keep the melody together. That said, I think everyone should look at the tempo markings - try them out in their own way - and choose a tempo that fullfills their expectations of the piece.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@zartmedia-musicpublishing7731 Absolutely no one would sing the Revolutionary Étude at the single beat tempo.

[@zartmedia-musicpublishing7731]

@@MyMusicGenesis I certainly would, but then again, I'm talking about the melody, not the rapid falls in the accompaniment.

[@Tylervrooman]

My only problem with this is 3/4 time and the Beethoven string quartets. They would be catastrophically slow.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@Tylervrooman 3/4 isn’t a problem. Musicians can easily hear the Triple macrobeat from the metronome’s Duple microbeats. It’s just not an issue. I think the modern idea of practicing along with the metronome is not what these metronome marks were for. They were to establish a reference tempo before playing. I’m not very familiar with the string quartets. But I bet they wouldn’t be catastrophically slow. And slow to your ears is less of a problem than impossibly fast.

[@JérémyPresle]

Actually some of the MM of the string quartets are so fast they unreachable in single beat.

[@Ezekiel_Pianist]

Great video! Its good to see other people talking about the WBMP positively. My word of advice to you is to ignore the trolls in the comments completely. They will eventually get tired of spreading their hate. Hopefully they will start thinking critically about the issue and have a change of heart.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@Ezekiel_Pianist thank you so much! The deniers can be exhausting, but I enjoy sparring with them occasionally because it helps me clarify my own arguments. The real problem is that it’s not just trolls. It’s respected authority figures in music education space. I think that ignorance out of habit really has to be fought.

[@Christian333x]

Wow. This makes so much sense as with the two Chopin waltzes I can play. They both have markings starting at 120 and they just seemed so fast for a waltz. I really enjoyed the video and perspective!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@Christian333x Thank you so much!

[@jimclark7249]

When Willem Talsma introduced the WBMP around 1980, I was a strong supporter of his vision. I was also an opponent of the much too fast tempi. But as I got older and started thinking more about the problem of metronome figures that were too fast, almost unattainable, I started to have more and more objections. 1. With slow tempi such as adagio, lento, largo and even andante I got the feeling that the music was standing still. That couldn't be the purpose of music! 2. There is also music from the 1st half of the 19th century with metronome figures that are not too fast. What are you going to do with that? 3. And how fast are you going to play the music without metronome numbers? There are much more such pieces than music with MMs. 4. When did the transition to the modern way of interpreting MMs take place? I don't think we should take the metronome numbers too literally. And if we do, we must realize that the piece in question always lasts longer than the MMs indicate, provided we play it musically. Put it to the test and play a simple etude by Burgmueller, first with a constantly ticking metronome and see how long this etude lasts. Then without a ticking metronome, but with the same metronome number as a basis. You will see that it takes longer the 2nd time. How come? Because musical playing always takes longer than mechanical playing like a machine. The difference can sometimes be as much as 25%. That is exactly the percentage that Wim Winters arrives at when he plays recordings by other pianists. If you want to know more about this, check out my KZbin channel.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@jimclark7249 They’re not almost unattainable. They’re unattainable.

[@jimclark7249]

@@MyMusicGenesis A lot of MM's are indeed unattainable, but not all. Wim Winters only speaks of the unattainable MM's. Do you know the etudes by Heller, Duvernoy and Burgmüller? Here all MM's are attainable even for young pupils who have got a few years of lessons and who practise sufficiently. I have given pianolessons for more than 40 years. The problem of students of today is that they don't spend enough time to their study. Around 1800 pupils got every day lessons of 2 hours a day. Besides that they had to practise at least a few hours a day.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@jimclark7249 Teachers always say the problem lies in the students when the teacher doesn’t know how to engage them.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@DismasZelenka Watch the video again. you’re not getting it. “Telling students they don’t have to bother?” You’re way off the mark. Too difficult for me? Tell me you don’t care what the composer wrote without telling me. Post again when you’ve got a quarter=160 Revolutionary. Til then, talk is cheap so keep it offa here.

[@edwardyang8254]

@@jimclark7249 Your argument is that the composer went temporarily insane to write MM that are unattainable, then came back briefly into sanity to write others which are "almost" attainable? That makes sense to you? 😂

[@Hjominbonrun]

Interesting sound of the opus 10#12 in C major.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@Hjominbonrun Yes I agree.

[@PianoJules]

I’m not an advanced pianist by any means and I’ve had trouble bringing the speed of the Burgmuller Opus 100 pieces up to 3/4 tempo which my teacher suggests. I actually love playing them at about half the assumed tempo. I favour expression and nuance over speed any day. Great video. ❤

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@PianoJules Thank you so much for your comment! It helps me to remember that your teacher isn’t talking about 3/4 tempo. They’re talking about 150% tempo! 6/4 tempo! Really interesting that that’s where people tend to land before they learn about Whole Beat; I even reference that in the video. Now you can enjoy 100% performance speed without breaking yourself, and with plenty of expression and nuance to enjoy. Thanks again!

[@PianoJules]

@ you’re so right, I hadn’t thought of it that way.

[@LadJessica]

Thanks for the video! You speak the things that bothers me in this piano world. Continue with the great work!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@LadJessica Thank you so much!

[@tarassu]

i was literally watching 2x when you mentioned that 😅

[@MyMusicGenesis]

I knew it! 😂

[@pauljensen3204]

This is your best work yet my friend. I will be sharing everywhere I can.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

Thank you so much, Paul! At this point I can't think of a single other thing to say! I think I've covered all the bases! I'm a little disappointed my other thumbnail, "The Plot Clickens," didn't take off. But "Click Bait" is pretty good, too. Good to see you!

[@memurphy1223]

Wow! This is an eye opener. I have struggled to like or enjoy listening to even the greatest classical pianists - mainly because it always sounded like a jumbled, non-sensical mess. I thought something was wrong with me - that I just wasn’t musically inclined. I gave up classical piano training after about 7 years because it had become so frustrating. I felt like a slave to the written score and rhetorical metronome. I was forced to robotically play what was on the page. When I tried to inject some kind of expression or musicality, I was reprimanded because I wasn’t playing it “exactly as it was written”. It never occurred to me that these pieces should be played at a slower tempo. But when you hear it that way, all of a sudden it no longer sounds like a jumbled mess. You can hear the melody and the harmonies and the expression and nuance. It becomes beautiful! Even if the composers did intend these pieces to be played at those ridiculous speeds - who cares? No one enjoys listening to that! And music is supposed to be listened to, isn’t it? If it is not enjoyable to listen to; then what is the point? I’d rather play it in a way that people actually want to listen to than to try to read the mind of a composer who has been dead for 200 years! Sadly, I was never allowed to actually listen to music when I was taking piano lessons.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

I agree with you completely. I've noticed a weird pretension in some music educators (looking at you Ben Laude, and he's got many multiples of subscribers compared to me) that students don't really pay that much attention to metronome marks, anyway. But I think this is patently untrue. Students DO pay attention to metronome marks. And/or, they trust their teachers and their teachers are paying attention to metronome marks. It just doesn't make any sense that composers from this era would take such care to write nuanced notes and performance instructions, and then add metronome marks that render it all inaudible. Thanks for your comment!

[@Christiane-yt3dr]

I learned about WBMP a few years ago and it was mindblowing for me as well. It is so obvious when you realise that classical music was never intended to be played like you lern or hear it today.

[@brandontylerburt]

Surely there are pieces composed to be *about* extreme velocity and/or the kinds of textures derived from that kind of playing, but these would have to be a 20th-century phenomenon: Since there are so few musicians, even today, who can play these up to tempo, most of such a composer's potential audience would be for recordings of virtuosic performances, which weren't readily available until the mid-20th century, and weren't available at all during Chopin's lifetime. So I think we have allowed the sensibilities of some Modern (20th-century) composers to color our perception of the way Classical and (at least some) Romantic composers conceived of tempo. Whole-beat theory explains a lot, and while not exactly obvious, it makes so much sense upon reflection that it seems odd that a controversy even exists. It's expected that there might be some resistance to this theory from performers who have spent years developing superhuman velocity, but the way it transforms our experience of these composers-from merciless, impossible-to-please taskmasters to creative geniuses who continue to share their gifts with the world-comes as such a profound relief it brings tears to my eyes. Thank you.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@brandontylerburt Thank you so much. Yes, these composers weren’t pretending to be Gods. They were people living lives in music. Yes, they had outsized music aptitudes, but that’s demonstrated in harmony and melody and rhythm. Not in telling performers to play faster. I think you’re exactly right. Nowadays sometimes extreme velocity IS the aesthetic. Not so much in the 18th/19th Centuries. Culture has sped up and continues to. Thank you.

[@DontRushtheClassics]

Fantastic video! I've subscribed to your channel. Keep up the amazing work. As a rock musician, I'm thrilled that gatekeeping hasn't destroyed rock and roll!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@DontRushtheClassics thank you so much. Glad you’re here.

[@DontRushtheClassics]

​@@MyMusicGenesis Thanks! I believe the concept of the single beat might stem from the guitar, where strumming can produce a note on both the upstroke and downstroke. This contrasts with the piano, where sound is primarily produced on the downstroke. ( If we had a 2 keyboards, one above our hand and one below, I think Single Beat would be doable...LOL! )

[@jaywilsonmusic]

Very well presented, Robert! It’s such an exciting idea, isn’t it?! I find it so liberating and, when I discovered Wim’s channel and started playing pieces using the whole beat practice, my wife would frequently hear me exclaiming “of course that’s the right speed!” as yet another piece of amazing music became suddenly accessible. I feel that this music is now “for me”, not just for elite performers. Here’s to the pleasures of music and to time travel ☺️👏🏻

[@MyMusicGenesis]

Music and time travel. Cheers! "Liberating" is exactly the word. It's really wonderful to be able to think of this music as MUSIC, and not competitive sport.

[@dansanger5340]

Even if Chopin did want it performed at the insanely fast tempo, it almost doesn't matter. It's just not aesthetically pleasing. Seems like your argument wins either way.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@dansanger5340 Agree completely.

[@gabrielr4329]

So true, the modern mechanistic mentality seems to have infested such incredible works of art. The thoughtful slower pace invites to reflect. Our culture has supplanted meaningful depth of art with shock value.

[@ExAnimoPortugal]

Came here after Wim Winters. Great stuff!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@ExAnimoPortugal Thank you!

[@giovannipepe5945]

Just came across your video. Thank you. I play piano & keyboard in a few local bands(rock,pop,blues,gospel) at a very modest level. But I am eternally wanting to play things slower. Not because I can't keep up technically, but because I find the music more interesting and expressive and emotionally stimulating at lower speeds, I find that much modern music is set at a tempo that leans towards wanting people to dance to excite them physically rather than making them want to listen as a cerebral pathway to emotionally excitement. Okay, that's it from me. Whatever people's opinion on thé speeds annotation of classical music, I think your video is excellent for opening the debate on how to 'enjoy' music. Love & peace to all 🙏

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@giovannipepe5945 Thank you so much! I’m all for moving bodies, but you have an excellent point in that exaggerated speed diminishes the expressive communication. What I would love to hear even more than debate, is more people playing this music. People who have been left out of it and injured by the predilection for ridiculous speed! And you hit the nail on the head: it’s not a matter of “keeping up technically,” it’s about appreciating and enjoying the complexity and depth of a composition. Not just the speed of it. That’s nothing. Thanks for your comment.

[@giovannipepe5945]

The main thing is that we're not alone 😂. I will definitely do my bit to just slow things down in this frenetic world ! All the best and I look forward to viewing more of your videos. 🙂

[@pottedrodenttube]

Great video!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@pottedrodenttube Thank you!

[@danielwaitzman2118]

Are you an honest but misguided individual, who really believes what you preach? If so, you will let this comment stand as a testimony to your integrity. Are you a scam artist, a mountebank, a Bernie Madoff, a David Koresh, a Charles Dawson, and a Wim Winters (from whom you have borrowed your nonsensical preachings), out to make a fast buck at the expense of well-intentioned but ignorant music-lovers? If so, you will delete this comment forthwith. In any case, your viewers should be aware that Music is far more difficult and “élitist” than you can imagine. Playing at half-tempo is a useful practice technique, not a legitimate way of performing music. “Whole-beat theory” has been repeatedly disproved on KZbin and elsewhere. It lacks any historical foundation: more important, it makes no musical sense at all. “Whole-beat performances are insufferably ugly-and boring-to anyone with a musical background and a decent share of musical sensibility. Moreover, the underlying thesis of this scam is based on a misconception of what true musical authenticity is all about. Caveat emptor! End of story.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@danielwaitzman2118 try harder. This is only the second most idiotic comment I’ve gotten. I think you can go for the gold!

[@monagood365]

Sorry I wasted time on this video, but worth it to discover this comment. Evidence that a real musician is not fooled by your paint-by-the-numbers conception of art.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@monagood365 Paint by numbers? Well it’s clear you didn’t waste much time on the video because you completely missed the point. Maybe you were watching at 2x speed.

[@onlyflatspiano]

😂

[@gregosterster]

great performance and commentary!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

Thank you!

[@Titan2492-nv6fo]

Great ... Now the music community has its own flerfs!

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@Titan2492-nv6fo I addressed that in the dang video, ya ninny

[@ili626]

I agree. Very well argued. Thank you. Subscribed

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@ili626 My pleasure. Thanks for watching.

[@Bachforever1704]

Just brillant!👍

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@Bachforever1704 Thank you so much!

[@dennisjardine5416]

Thank everything that is that I came into contact with WBMP. It opened up so much for me.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@dennisjardine5416 it really is a revelation

[@charlesbyrne5594]

I remember in College a girl playing the finale of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata at a really slow speed, or so I thought, note perfect and with beautiful phrasing. I played a Chopin etude at a blistering pace, but even still, well below the 172 bpm apparently written in the score. The next time I saw her she played her piece hurriedly and it was actually awful in comparison to the first time she played it. I remember feeling that I had somehow been a bad influence on her.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@charlesbyrne5594 I wonder where she is today?! 🤔 Oh well, we do the best we can with what we know.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I have been following Wim Winters for over a year, and his ideas make sense. And the music also makes more sense, even though it makes less cents. I still haven't given up my membership in the Flat Earth Society, since I live near the edge. I started putting velcro collars on my cats. A little bell helps make the constant meowing slightly less irritating.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@lawrencetaylor4101 okay then

[@jameslabs1]

I'm still deciding about buying your system, but it is interesting. Is you teaching method similar to, “The solfège method or The Nashville Numbering system”? Thanks

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@jameslabs1 Well, those are things, but they’re not methods. But Moveable Resting Tone is a central component of learning audiation. And Nashville Numbers are great for hearing chords in context. So these are both a part of how I teach.

[@patrickdaxboeck4056]

First, when I was a kid half a century ago, my then very old piano teacher told me already that current speeds are a results of speed increase by the professional pianists to distinguish them from the ordinary folks and that single beat is bullshit. Then my mother always complains that all current piano performances are way too fast and she does not like them. Slowing them down to double beat, made her like them again and she told me that this is a speed which she likes. Also take the Grand Valse Brillante from Chopin. There is a part where you have the „Vorschlag“-Notes which, when played slowly sound like dancing kids. But modern performances almost all destroy it because they play it way too fast. And that is the essence of almost any current performance. They sound ugly, rushed and inconsistent. Also one must consider that the piano mechanics from 200 years ago were still developing and have then not been capable of the speeds we see in modern mechanics. There were already some first fast actions, but not generally available. Also at those times nobody really felt the speed of a second, something we are used today. So actually the people used the metronome mark and noted that on paper. What then happened was that performers and pianos became faster and faster. And at the time people started to feel the seconds because of pocket and later wristwatches, the original authors were long dead and many started to believe that those ridiculous fast speeds were the original intentions of the authors. But then again, if you consider that many of those authors were piano teachers who wanted their noble and spoiled „customers“ to be able to play the pieces at the designated speeds, it must be clear that the metronome was used differently then than nowadays.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@patrickdaxboeck4056 That’s a pretty concise summation of the video. Neat that you were hearing some of these ideas fifty years ago.

[@jeffh8803]

There no historical evidence from the early 1800s and the period where the metronome came in to support this as a general theory, and plenty to support the conventional view. However there are always exceptions and double time could be used. Also metronomes do not go tick tock, they go tick tick, and their function is to click at each end of the swing x times a minute as marked on the scale. And you don’t really address the Italian tempo marking. I can’t see how your slow 80 bpm is an allegro. Those tempo terms might be open to interpretation but not that much.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

I absolutely address the Italian tempo marking. 80 is "slow" to YOU in the 21st Century, who have only ever heard this music in Single Beat. It ain't slow. As to tick tock...I know what metronomes sound like and I know what they do, thanks. Maybe watch the video again. Without a preconceived notion that WBMP is fake news. As for historical evidence, it doesn't make sense to require historical evidence for something that makes no sense. As far as I know, there's no historical evidence that certain families in Europe didn't gather on Thursday nights at the pub to watch Family Guy. Either Chopin was an idiot who wrote music he didn't want people to play or he only wanted people to play it badly. OR, he (and other composers from that era) was a genius. Who wrote nuanced instructions in the score for dynamics, phrasing, and articulation, and he actually intended players to follow those and listeners to hear them. This can only happen in Whole Beat. I'm gonna go with genius. Thanks for your comment.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@ I don’t have any context for your comment. I don’t know anything about composers giving bpm before metronomes existed. Are you assuming *they* were assuming Single Beat?

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@ you do nothing to explain the impossible, nor will you. You say nothing to address unsustainable practices in modern music education. I don’t know about what you’re talking about. But it doesn’t seem at all unlikely to me that you’re confusing their microbeats with what you want to be a macrobeat. And that’s as far as we’re going to get with this in a comment section. So leave it now, please.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@DismasZelenka ok

[@robertklein-oo9nm]

Great video, thanks.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@robertklein-oo9nm My pleasure. Thanks for your comment.

[@brianbernstein3826]

Fascinating! I generally prefer slower performances of classical literature, it gives more time for the nuances to be brought out. Music that is played quickly simply to show off the performer's abilities usually comes across as such - however, faster tempos can also achieve energy, drama, passion, or even instill fear. And while there may be less time for precision or nuance, I do believe that composers sometimes intend a degree of chaos when they specify higher tempi.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@brianbernstein3826 Maybe sometimes, but I now think usually not. I think that kind of out of control aesthetic is mostly something that grew during the 20th century.

[@brianbernstein3826]

@@MyMusicGenesis The marking "pretissimo" means "as fast as possible" and dates back to the early 1700s. Mozart and Beethoven both wrote it - are you saying they didn't mean it?

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@brianbernstein3826 I’m saying they didn’t mean what you think they meant.

[@brianbernstein3826]

@@MyMusicGenesis So the entire collective classical world's interpretation of the term "prestissimo" is incorrect?

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@brianbernstein3826 yes, for the first time in history, lots of people are wrong.

[@ClassicMusicVidsUSA]

My piano teacher (I first played just under 16 years ago as a 15 year old) would agree with you 97% if she were alive for me to tell her about this video. My one disagreement is that I think some composers, like Schumann, likely wrote for Single Beat Performance, but I can believe others like Chopin writing in Whole Beat Performance. My teacher was *not* a fan of forced memorization and felt performers should be able to perform using the music if that's what works best for them. Within two years of learning to play, I could play Chopin, and not being to play at the ridiculous, melody crushing speeds ruined things for me when even my college's faculty were begging me to play in their respective ensembles because they *loved* my interpretations. Instead, after one year on a music scholarship, I quit because I decided it was better to play for myself at what I presumed to be a slower (but as fast I could handle) and error-ridden tempo than to slow down and learn it at WBP. End of rant. This video makes me want to sit down and take the time to learn again. 🙂

[@MyMusicGenesis]

Aw that last sentence has me feeling like making this video was totally worth it!! Thank you.

[@robertdyson4216]

I really liked the C major version of the Chopin study, I must do it myself. For decades I have felt that most professional performances were too fast for my hearing, I came across Wim Winters a year ago and I am near convinced he is correct. How could Beethoven have played a fast Hammerklavier sonata on a piano that did not have a double escapement action?

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@robertdyson4216 Thank you! I’m in a similar boat as you. Although at this point I’m completely convinced. No way these composers intended such fast tempi, that render their genius incomprehensible. They’re not just too fast for your hearing. They’re too fast for anybody’s hearing! At least for hearing with understanding. But I kind of feel like lots of music education over the last 50 years is specifically about preventing understanding.

[@robertdyson4216]

@@MyMusicGenesis The thing lacking for me is some comment, sometime in the 19th century, from someone like Karol Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin who lived to near the end of century, saying 'pianists are playing Chopin too fast now'. Also Maelzel in his instruction for his metronome does seem to say that the tick is the timer. Of course just like now, maybe people did not read the manual and were used to the full swing of the pendulum, just as in a clock two ticks make a second. Maybe Wim will reveal that in the book we are waiting for. You are right about the speed up. I like many pieces by Moritz Moszkowski that are fast (and I play them slower but as an octogenarian I can be forgiven) but that I find are really ruined by some show offs playing 1.5 times the speed.

[@StatischBenutzer]

9:30 that is because these pieces weren't written for anyone and everyone to play, and especially not high schoolers. Chopin mainly wrote the etudes for himself to further develop his own technique. Also Chopin would flat out refuse to teach you if your playing wasn't up to his standard, which was very high. These pieces aren't for hobbyists or average people, they are for extremely talented individuals. Chopin isn't alone in this, there were very few people who could play most of Beethoven late piano works and it remained that way until a few years after his death. Nothing is wrong with a hobbyist or the average pianist trying to tackle these works. They are etudes after-all and their primary purpose is to develop technique. But just because you cannot get them up to the required tempo does not mean that the whole of metronome markings is wrong. 11:55 It's not taught in music schools and conservatories because it's not a thing. They teach everything in those schools, you have to take a history of music class and everything. They teach techniques that have fallen out of fashion, like dislocation which fell out of fashion by the 1920s. The reason it's not taught is not because "its a heresy" it just never was a thing. There are plenty of things they teach nowadays that aren't acceptable on the concert stage. 16:50 yeah that's kind of the point of the ending. Chopin has abrupt ending all the time that sound like cliff hangers, and in this case it fits the character of the piece if it's played correctly. Agitated, on the edge. 19:25 this is wildly misleading and a gross misrepresentation of what is actually being measured. You are failing to realize that what they are measuring are returns to a starting points. The reason they measure the crest of a frequency is just because it's the most clear and easily identifiable point of a wave, but what they are measuring is a return to the starting point. Each example you mentioned, you mentioned something that is measured by a return to the starting position. A metronomes starting point is the center, when the hand is vertical. Not when the hand is on either the right or the left. That is why they click when they reach the middle. You only set it in motion by moving the arm, but the official motion isn't started until the click is made. 21:36 Just blatantly false. Composers wrote music only they (or very few people) could play all the time. Alkan, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Beethoven and so on. Liszt famously had to simplify his Paganini etudes because the 1838 versions were too technically demanding for most people. 22:18 I don't really know what the point of mentioning that only the most technically proficient people would be able to record, that's pretty obvious. The thing is, they would just play shorter pieces rather than play much faster than they normally would if they were on a serious time constraint. Or, they would be able to afford to record longer works. Saint Saens recorded a Beethoven adagio on a piano roll that is around 8 minutes. So other pianists recording works at blinding tempos weren't speeding up because they were limited to time, it's just how they played it. Or, they did like what Saint Saens did with his second concerto, is just not record the whole thing. Back when recording was first starting to come about, it wasn't like what it was in the 50s vinyl or so where it was meant for selling. It was more like a photograph. You couldn't reproduce wax cylinders and most people couldn't afford a piano that could play piano rolls. You keep them as a memory. I am going to stop responding to points made in the video because I know it's going to be more nonsense. What your issue seems to be is that at the tempo people use today only the best of the best would be able to play them. My response to that would be, yes. That's been the case since these compositions were written. Chopin didn't write his etudes for your average 15 year old kids, or even slightly gifted 15 year old kids. He wrote them firstly for himself, and other extremely gifted pianists as well. He wrote them for people who play for a living, not people who work a regular job and only play a little bit every day. Lastly, these are also etudes. They are meant to be practiced and studied for months, because etudes are meant to develop techniques. It's the same reason Czerny's tempo markings are extreme, because you are meant to work on the piece until you can play it at that tempo with musicality.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@StatischBenutzer Whole Beat deniers doing everything but providing the Single Beat performances.

[@StatischBenutzer]

@@MyMusicGenesis You laid out a reason to not trust recordings in your own video because people would play faster than they normally would. How dishonest are you? But since you asked Here is Francis Plante, someone who met and heard Chopin play, playing Chopin etudes at tempo kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3Kwp5evjdCdjcU Here is Saint Saens playing Chopin at tempo kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5iyeoKBd5eebbs Here is Josef Lhevinne playing Czerny at tempo kzbin.info/www/bejne/jH6yc2uefpqLms0 Here is Scriabin playing at tempo kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJe8fnmEn7iApLc

[@StatischBenutzer]

@@MyMusicGenesis also, nice try at shifting focus. Nothing says you actually can support your claims when challenged more than deflection.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@ Least imaginative response possible. I believe you missed some pertinent points in the video.

[@StatischBenutzer]

@@MyMusicGenesis It's clear you only engage in bad faith otherwise you would point them out. But since you are a dishonest conman I am not surprised you didn't. I posted another reply with recordings, im guessing it didn't post

[@superblondeDotOrg]

Tempo is one aspect. But do you know how to play the Rule of the Octave?

[@MyMusicGenesis]

🤔Not familiar with it

[@superblondeDotOrg]

@@MyMusicGenesis then get familiar. It is not optional when learning historical pieces. Yet music acedemia has the most vast educational conspiracy known to mankind by teaching the false 'tonal harmony' and roman numeral analysis, rather than the way the music was actually composed, starting with the Rule of the Octave. Consider tempo controversial? Aint seen nothing yet, compared to the purposeful burial of figured bass, basso continuo, etc, the correct methodology, rather than the false root/chordal analysis of music. No joke, vast conspiracy worse than the forcing of serialism in the 1950's.

[@jozap7359]

Dear community, does he explain in the video how slow pieces should be played? I mean if somebody writes BPM = 60 should we then play instead BPM = 30 in 4/4?

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@jozap7359 Dear community, use your ears and common sense. If you think composers are using impossible tempi, that’s probably not what they meant.

[@vladislavstezhko1864]

I guess, to better understand what the whole-beat version might have sounded like, you should: 1) Play with the lighter-weight keys, as they were on the pianos in the times of Chopin 2) Play in the tuning of his time. As far as I'm aware, the tuning was not quite equal back then. I guess there are different examples of playing on these pianos on KZbin. By the way, to me, the whole-beat works for the piano, although I would sometimes prefer versions that are a bit faster, but it doesn't work for other instruments, including vocals. If slowed down 1.7x times (or how much the single-beat performances are usually slowed down to be at the whole-beat speed as it is indicated in the notation?), then the music becomes too slow for me. To me, Beethoven's symphonies would sound well in single-beat if they are played without the intention to make a 'powerful' or brillaint sound, which is something very characteristic to modern performance -- listen to the recordings of Herbert von Karajan, for example -- and if they are played by a smaller orchestra. Thank you for your work.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

I don’t think tunings are going to affect tempo choices much if at all. WBMP works fine for vocal. Old instruments were NOT easier to play faster (lacking double escapement).

[@tarassu]

though there are exceptions. Like Moonlight Sonata. That one is played very slow. And that started pretty much immediately after Beethoven played it 😅

[@MyMusicGenesis]

That's right. Occasionally Whole Beat will be accepted with a certain piece or a certain performer. But generally speaking it's still way outside the mainstream.

[@ajosefcomposer]

I think a lot of music is played too fast in todays age , especially in academia , I wonder if this is why?

[@MyMusicGenesis]

I think it’s a chicken and the egg thing. Performances were getting faster, so the faster metronome interpretation started to make more sense. Thus begetting faster performances. All of which plays right into the general increase in speed of cultural change.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@ 21st century ideas of too fast are faster than 18th century ideas of too fast. I explain it in the video.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@geiryvindeskeland7208 Do I understand the difference?!? I'm dying over here! 😂 No, but seriously, everything I needed to say is in the video. For example, a very compelling DISproof of historical single beat is the fact that it's UNFRIKKINGPLAYABLE. YOUR idea of what a "virtuoso playing tradition" is, is different from Chopin's. But I said it all in the video.

[@JHouse4]

I've always been a firm believer in choosing the performance tempo that sounds right to you, which can also depend drastically on the performance space and instrument. How you decide what sounds right, is up to wide interpretation. For instance, with the Revolutionary, I enjoy performances where the right hand material sounds musical, and for me that's only at the fastest tempi. The dotted rhythms sound so good when they are very snappy at a fast tempo, and the line shapes in general have a type of intensity which I just think just falls flat at slower tempi, perhaps because the piano is a percussion instrument with no true sustain to shape notes. Also the left hand material doesn't make too much sense to me when you can hear every note - it's not written very beautifully and is clearly textural in nature to my ear, which sounds a lot better at fast speeds in my opinion where the ear is drawn to the overall shapes and harmonies rather than the individual filler notes. But other pieces I prefer at tempi quite below today's norm as well, it just depends on the piece and what draws my ear. There's been so many pedantic arguments this way and that over what is a "correct" tempo for so many works, I rather just do whatever I want to experience as a listener rather than be married to a metronome mark, especially when the instruments we're playing today are so far removed in timbre from what the composers would have ever heard and just that one significant change drastically affects how we perceive tempi. We need more folks out there with your perspective and performing on historic instruments. Something I find quite lacking in the piano community relative to other instrumentalists. Understandably though, as both originals and reproductions are inaccessible to most folk.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

OK, thanks for that. I hear you’re talking about your preferences a lot, but that’s not really what this video is about. It’s about the complete aesthetic shift between reasonable and unreasonable. And it’s not about “correct” at all. There’s nothing about me telling other people how to play what they want to play. I do point out that NOBODY plays [many fast pieces] at single beat. Now why would composers use impossible tempi? That makes no sense. And yet countless hours are spent in the practice room *attempting* to reach those speeds. Hours that could be spent creatively and expressively, instead of crushing music OUT of students. It would makes sense to expect maybe +/- 10% speed variation from a tempo suggestion according to performance preference. And that’s exactly what we can do with Whole Beat. The [misinformed] Single Beat reading doesn’t allow for that. EVERYONE is under tempo. I hear you explaining the preferences of your 20th/21st Century ears. I don’t need that, as I have those ears, too! My argument is that there’s a lot of real intentional beauty in these pieces when we can hear them in the context in which they were composed. And the sound quality differences of modern and historical instruments doesn’t make THAT much difference in these two speed aesthetics. Thanks for your comment.

[@goncalocurto]

This is alex Jones level conspiracy theory. BPM is literally beats per minute, for the quarter note. Also this is an etude, it's supposed to aim at developing technique. The revolutionary is also not so fast. Others have markings on the half note. This is just nonsense.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@goncalocurto Did you watch the video? I don’t know when people decided it made sense for “étude” to mean “written for ppl to play badly,” because that’s exactly what it means to attempt to play these at single beat speeds. As far as revolutionary being slow, I would ask to hear your single beat quarter note 160 revolutionary. But upon reflection, there’s nothing I would rather hear less.

[@goncalocurto]

@MyMusicGenesis yes, I watched your short video, then I watched the whole thing. I played the revolutionary and the op. 10-4 some years ago. The other was more challenging. I like to feel it ca. 80 per half note. I don't think people play it badly, quite the opposite. In fact I think your interpretation was really stuck to the metronome, lacked rubato, and the LH was too loud. It surprised me that you think that fast tempi are overrated, but then didn't put a lot of emphasis on rubato and phrasing.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@ Watch it again. You missed some stuff.

[@goncalocurto]

@@MyMusicGenesis Sorry mate what stuff? It's a half an hour long video, I'm not gonna watch again.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@ Oh, well.

[@alanbarnett6993]

Wim Winters ideas have been thoroughly and convincingly debunked. I'm convinced he came up with it because he lacks the finger dexterity to play the repertoire in tempo.

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@alanbarnett6993 That’s idiotic and I explain why it’s idiotic in the video. It’s a terrible perspective for culture, music, and musicians, and it’s hateful.

[@StatischBenutzer]

I wouldn't even bother with this guy. He is a dishonest conman just trying to sell his shitty course to people desperate enough. When I responded in detail with shit he got wrong, timestamps with detailed explanations, his only response was "Whole Beat deniers doing everything but providing the Single Beat performances." He responded with that despite giving pretext in his video as to why recordings aren't reliable because people played faster in recordings than they normally would. He has no real arguments and deflects the second he gets push back. At least Wim has a spine

[@jorislejeune]

@@StatischBenutzer if performers never played (or practised) beyond double-beat, how could they play so much faster in the recording studio? Suddenly the producer said: 'Your Schumann Toccata is very nice, Mr. Levine. But please play twice as fast now.' And so he did. Without missing. Pure magic.

[@StatischBenutzer]

@@jorislejeune exaclty. Or recordings from people like Francis Plante, who heard Chopin play in person, just decided that Chopin would be okay with people playing his works twice as fast.

[@charlesvanderhoog7056]

There's also the matter of pitch. A4 is now at 440 Hz but it probably was 414 Hz 250 years ago. Due to a miscalculation in the design of the Rotterdam concert hall A4 must be set at 444 Hz. LOL

[@MyMusicGenesis]

@@charlesvanderhoog7056 Not to mention temperament.

[@emefcue]

Such a great video! I discovered you from the authentic sound channel. You really filled the video with great points and examples. The only thing i disagree with, is using eminem as an example. I think Busta Rhymes wouldve been accurate to the metaphor 😂 . I look forward to more of your videos! 🎉🫡💪

[@memurphy1223]

Wow! This is an eye opener. I have struggled to like or enjoy listening to even the greatest classical pianists - mainly because it always sounded like a jumbled, non-sensical mess. I thought something was wrong with me - that I just wasn’t musically inclined. I gave up classical piano training after about 7 years because it had become so frustrating. I felt like a slave to the written score and rhetorical metronome. I was forced to robotically play what was on the page. When I tried to inject some kind of expression or musicality, I was reprimanded because I wasn’t playing it “exactly as it was written”. It never occurred to me that these pieces should be played at a slower tempo. But when you hear it that way, all of a sudden it no longer sounds like a jumbled mess. You can hear the melody and the harmonies and the expression and nuance. It becomes beautiful! Even if the composers did intend these pieces to be played at those ridiculous speeds - who cares? No one enjoys listening to that! And music is supposed to be listened to, isn’t it? If it is not enjoyable to listen to; then what is the point? I’d rather play it in a way that people actually want to listen to than to try to read the mind of a composer who has been dead for 200 years! Sadly, I was never allowed to actually listen to music when I was taking piano lessons.