So Hauptwerk, what have you done for me lately?!?
2015-02-02 - Playing and PiecesIsn't it true? How often do we ask, or at least think, "What have you done for me lately?!?"
We ask it of friends, cell phones, shampoos, diet foods, just about EVERYTHING! WHAT have YOU done for ME lately!
You probably have even asked that of Hauptwerk, haven't you? HAVEN'T YOU?!?
Nothing to be embarrassed about if you have. I have, and I'm not ashamed to admit it!
More often than not, we probably can't really answer this sort of nagging question. The real answer may be too small to even be noticed. Maybe that cell phone really didn't make you "cooler". Maybe you still have dandruff with that new shampoo. Maybe you gained weight with the dietetic food!
Life is not fair!
For me, I know EXACTLY what HW has done for me lately - and long-termed. Now, I'm not talking about new the friends that I've made or the new ideas that I've learned. I'm talking strictly musical things here!
HW has made me want to play more and more despite the fact that my pain level is quite high. There are days I feel like I'm not going to be able to move my legs for that fugue, or manage to get that low note, or whatever. However the joy of just being able to "play" a real and important organ is almost an unspeakable joy!
I've learned SO much about the really sweet and beautiful sounds of "early" instruments! Being a unashamed Anglican, I always thought that organs like Kampen or Stade were, OK for Bach, but not much else. I really thought that! How wrong I was!!! I don't know that I would have EVER learned this if HW didn't exist. Despite all the great recordings I had "listened" to, it just never really reached me - but it DOES now!
The steadiness of my rhythm has really improved. I had gotten to the point, after not performing for almost 10 years, that I couldn't hold it together. I'd get SO nervous, that I'd start out OK, but I'd get almost immediately start to get faster and faster, missing more and more notes, and then it would just fall apart... I guess you could say that HW has helped me "master my control issues" to a large degree.
Above all things, I think I've really built up my listening skills by the ability to record directly from HW and LISTEN to the playback at the push of a button. I had a teacher years ago, probably the only real teacher I've ever had. He said to me, "There really isn't much I can teach you about playing an organ (Must be the reason for my poor technique!) or for handling a big organ console, but lets talk about rhythm and let's talk about listening! Get yourself a cheap little tape recorder, and ALWAYS tape record when you practice. It's like hearing the sound of your own voice for the first time! You'll say, "I don't sound like that!", but you do! It'll be the same thing when you hear yourself play! That's YOU playing - like it or not!!!"
HOW RIGHT HE WAS!
Any long-term friends or followers of the Concert Hall will know that I've had some serious hearing issues. It got so bad for awhile that I actual did a recording or two with the sound turned off, hearing it only in my head. While my hearing has stabilized and gotten MUCH better, I'd have never had the chance to re-developed the skills that I had lost, or perhaps never had if I didn't have HW. I feel I get better each time I play. We ALL get better the more we do anything we love!
That's what Hauptwerk did for me - lately and hopefully for a long time to come. I think it has helped to make me a better musician. No, that's right. I KNOW it has!
So, what has Hauptwerk done for you lately?!?
With peace and practice,
Dave
Comments
Yes, learning to listen to yourself is quite difficult to learn. "I didn't play it like that" is quite often my own reaction to listening to a playback of my own playing.
Only you can hear when a piece sounds different from how you intended it or how you thought you played it.
I would definitely say that is one area where Hauptwerk has done something for me.
But possibly the single biggest thing Hauptwerk did for me was to make me seek out organ lessons!
For a long time learning to play the organ was not feasible for me due to lack of practice opportunity.
But once I hooked up two MIDI keyboards to my PC and gave it enough RAM I installed Hauptwerk Free Edition and toyed around with it for a while, started looking into midi hardware etc. And suddenly it dawned on me: I DO have a practice instrument right now. I CAN play and practice whenever I want, whenever I have free time.
And off to the local church I was to speak to the vicar, who happened to be a big hobby musician himself and instantly put me in touch with an organist friend of his who was more than happy to give me lessons on the church organ.
And suddenly I found myself playing the music and the instrument which I have so much loved for nearly 30 years. That is what Hauptwerk has done to me....what Hauptwerk is doing to me still everytime I power up that PC box.