John Powers
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It's something that brings people together around the piano. It's that thing that if you're at a party and you had a piano lesson once or twice in your life and you're having fun that night, you might go and play or somebody plays it and it's just so ubiquitous. It connects to something that is rare for us to have all of us in our collective memory, a song, a melody, a theme like that.
It's something that brings people together around the piano. It's that thing that if you're at a party and you had a piano lesson once or twice in your life and you're having fun that night, you might go and play or somebody plays it and it's just so ubiquitous. It connects to something that is rare for us to have all of us in our collective memory, a song, a melody, a theme like that.
I learned as a kid, you know, one of the first things that I learned, and then I had this habit, which as evidenced by this album, I still do, of being in conversation with the composer. And once I learned something, changing things, adding themes, adding chords, and really making it my own in that way.
I learned as a kid, you know, one of the first things that I learned, and then I had this habit, which as evidenced by this album, I still do, of being in conversation with the composer. And once I learned something, changing things, adding themes, adding chords, and really making it my own in that way.
I learned as a kid, you know, one of the first things that I learned, and then I had this habit, which as evidenced by this album, I still do, of being in conversation with the composer. And once I learned something, changing things, adding themes, adding chords, and really making it my own in that way.
I like to call it spontaneous composition, which is this difference between improvisation and spontaneous composition. You frame it in your mind first. You map it out and you create a form and then you allow for surprise. But you're really just executing on this thing that you compose before sitting at the piano. And it can be different every time.
I like to call it spontaneous composition, which is this difference between improvisation and spontaneous composition. You frame it in your mind first. You map it out and you create a form and then you allow for surprise. But you're really just executing on this thing that you compose before sitting at the piano. And it can be different every time.
I like to call it spontaneous composition, which is this difference between improvisation and spontaneous composition. You frame it in your mind first. You map it out and you create a form and then you allow for surprise. But you're really just executing on this thing that you compose before sitting at the piano. And it can be different every time.
So this has a bit of a structure that is on the album, but every time I play it, it's going to be different.
So this has a bit of a structure that is on the album, but every time I play it, it's going to be different.
So this has a bit of a structure that is on the album, but every time I play it, it's going to be different.
Well, when you think about the blues and Beethoven's music, his music was actually deeply African, you know, rhythmically. There was this thing that's happening in his music that I really love, where he's playing in two different times at once. He's composing, and it's in a two-meter, one, two, one, two, which is like a march. And waltzes.
Well, when you think about the blues and Beethoven's music, his music was actually deeply African, you know, rhythmically. There was this thing that's happening in his music that I really love, where he's playing in two different times at once. He's composing, and it's in a two-meter, one, two, one, two, which is like a march. And waltzes.
Well, when you think about the blues and Beethoven's music, his music was actually deeply African, you know, rhythmically. There was this thing that's happening in his music that I really love, where he's playing in two different times at once. He's composing, and it's in a two-meter, one, two, one, two, which is like a march. And waltzes.