Playing simpler

I remember sitting with the lead engineer in the studio after the first day of recording Reflections on a Journey. I was feeling pretty good about how things sounded but the engineer said something to me that made me pause. He basically told me I needed to listen better and back off on playing so much. He told me that I had a tendency to fill in all the gaps with lots of notes rather than letting the music itself do its thing.

The engineer was Bob Clark, who has engineered projects for almost everybody in the business including my personal heroes. I was obviously interested in what he had to say, but did not understand it at that time.

I have never forgotten that and never will. Today, I know more about what he was saying. I have a tendency to play too much when it is not necessary. I catch myself doing it all the time. For example, I often instinctively throw a fancy run in between two phrases on a slow song.

I was in the studio this week recording tracks for a quartet. One track was supposed to be simple and I kept trying to make it complicated. The producer had to remind me that I needed to get simpler.

Why do pianists have this problem? In my case, I am afraid there is some pride involved. I want to show off a bit. Or I just get uncomfortable with music that seems extremely simple.

That being said, I have found that almost all church pianists have the same problem–forcing too many notes into what they play.

So that brings me to a New Year’s resolution for church pianists. This year, join me in choosing to play less notes and play the ones you do play better. Put away the fancy music that you have to struggle through and play simpler music that you can play extremely well.