Pianist Jeremy thinks about how to make practice perfect

“That’s a very good cheese, you know?” said Jeremy Denk. “You can make a more French cheese. But then, you know, sometimes you want a good old German cheese, you know?”

Why is this man talking on the piano? Cheese? Because the classical pianist tries to put his finger on the classical music, and knows that this means more than putting his finger on the keys.

Think, an award-winning pianist, is the author of “Every Good Boy Does Fine” (Random House), a performer’s love song about the craft of the thing piano students usually hate: practice.

Young Think’s first musical lesson took place not on the piano, but on the couch of his youth home in New Jersey: “One of my father’s favorite pieces was the Saint Saëns Symphony No. 3, the organ symphony. Quarter of the way through the piece where the orchestra is diminuendo, my dad called me to the couch and he was like, “Listen.”

“And we’re listening, you know? And then all of a sudden this organ comes with THE LOUDEST C-MAJOR CHORD EVER. And my dad looked at me and he said, ‘Holy shit!’

CBS News correspondent John Dickerson asked, “You said it was your first musical lesson; what did you learn?”

“The sheer joy of surprise in music,” Denk replied. “I think that was part of what we shared there on the couch.”

After feeling the connection between music and emotions, head and heart, thinking, 10 years old, had to learn to put his hands up. “We moved to New Mexico, and I had a new teacher who was at New Mexico State University, William Leland,” he said.

Together, they kept a notebook to mark his progress.

Dickerson asked, “Through the drawings in your book, he seems to have an aptitude for communicating with a ten-year-old.”

“But I was also a weird ten year old, you know? A little bit, like, you know, partly ten years and partly 50. And he was very determined to build me a technical foundation so that I could really realize some of the Things I try to do musically.

“He was playing with me – he thought my thumbs were weak, what they were! So, you have to think, ‘Keep your hand still and bring your thumb like a little crab under your hand, right?’ And so on. Then go a little, and then go on, right? ‘ He made me do this for, oh God, awful hours, you know? It’s even traumatized me now to think about playing it, “the thinker laughed.

“It seemed like the most miserable possible venture, you know? I mean, the whole point of piano lessons was to spoil all the joy of music, you know?”

Dickerson asked, “Why didn’t it take all the pleasure out of you?”

“It took moments,” Denk said. “But then, I would listen to a piece, and then you know, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what music is.’

“Do you feel a sense of belonging with Olympic athletes? They’ve done all sorts of practices that you write about and that you do, and then the moment comes. Is that similar at all?”

“It’s so similar that I can barely watch Olympic competition!” he replied.

WEB EXTRA: Pianist Jeremy thinks about his childhood compositions

Denk’s love for music has grown, despite hours of practice, leading to evangelical equality on the bus to school: “I was not a fan of popular music back then. I was an extremely elitist little brat. ‘You can say! And I thought, you know, people need to learn that there’s something better out there to listen to.’

So he stuffed a cassette player into his backpack, got on the bus and pushed the game. “The conversation, like, is going to slow down, and people are looking around, you know, with this awful, you know, like, ‘What’s that awful smell?'” He laughed.

Qualified in the classroom as well as on the piano, the thinking went away at the age of 16 at the prestigious Oberliner Conservatory of Music. There he found teachers who pushed him almost as much as he pushed himself.

Dickerson asked, “Is there anything intrinsic about teaching classical piano that requires hard teaching?”

“There’s a long tradition of middle, you know, abused teachers,” Denk said. “You know, even the teachers who hurt me the most, I still admit they did it, you know, because I needed it, yes, in a way. But sometimes they did not realize what a We are of anxiety and insecurity.I was, you know, under.

Think won the highly competitive Senior Concerto Competition in Oberlin, and was set to move on to his next teacher in California. But after hearing György Sebők, he moved to Indiana to study under him.

“I had never really liked Bach until that moment, in a way,” Denk said. “The way he played it, his hands moved so smoothly and beautifully, but even with that little smile, you felt that his smile, physical laughter, was also present in the notes, that the music had this beautiful quality, but also this game sense.And I do not think many of my teachers had even told me to play with game.

“I mean, I was so desperate for what Sebők was offering at the time, that I needed a sense of the broader purpose of playing the piano, and also this European perspective. What’s the emotional meaning? Like, the musical score is like a treasure map., you know, you say, you know, “Here’s how you created this piece, you know? Here’s how to bring it to life. Here’s how you do it. “And it’s not misery, it’s a beautiful guide.

The mix of technique and game has garnered critical acclaim, including a MacArthur “Genius” grant. He now tours the world, playing with major orchestras and sometimes classical music superstars such as Joshua Bell.

Practice, now, is a joy in itself.

Dickerson asked, “How long can you go without practice? What happens when it comes to the middle of the second day?”

“It’s like an itch,” Denk said. “Maybe it’s an addiction in some way, you know? Like, I feel my fingers start to do things, you know, and I can not sit still. It’s the act of translating through the body that I somehow need. , You know., To feel complete.

“I’m happy to play excellent. I’m very, you know, reassured when I think I’ve played well as a pianist. But I’m much happier when I think I get something of that quality when I practice to everyone in the room. transferred. ”

“Did you give them anything?”

“Yeah, that is, letting the audience in, but also allowing the music to speak and the time to feel generous.”

It’s the kind of generosity that thinking felt 46 years ago on that couch in New Jersey, and after countless lessons and hours of practice, he can now take a similar lesson just by sitting down to play.

READ A BOOK EXCERPT: “Every Good Boy Does Fine” by Jeremy Denk

For more information:

• “Every Good Boy Does Fine: A Love Story, in Music Lessons” by Jeremy Denk (Random House), in hardcover, eBook and audio formats, available via Amazon and Indiebound
• jeremydenk.com
• Bing Concert Hall, Stamford, California.
• Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington
• Indiana University Archives
• Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio
• Thanks to the family of photographer Louis Ouzer, at the Sibley Music Collection, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
• New Mexico State University Library Archives & Special Collections
• “At Home with Music” video footage courtesy of Joshua Bell, Inc., Park Avenue Artists, and Dramatic Forces

Story produced by Mary Lou Teel. Editor: Emanuele Secci.