As you were getting into metal and exploring these other styles of playing, was anyone dissuading you from going down this stylistic path?
Thankfully, our arts department in Arkansas was very well supported by the community. Being in the North Side Grizzly Band really meant something; it had the same weight as being a football or basketball player. I’ve always been surrounded by music and by people encouraging me to do music. There’s even conversations I’ve had with my dad four or five years ago where I was like, “Okay, I’m going to get into real estate.” He was like, “Well, what about piano?” My mom will be like, “Have you played piano in a while?” I’ve always resisted it a little bit. “What if I don’t play well, or what if I’m not good enough? What if I’m not a real pianist?” I was kind of the last one to give in to everything that’s been happening.
You said you “talk to piano.” Can you unpack that idea for me?
There are emotions that I haven’t found a way to say in words, but piano tells me about myself. I can’t lie to the piano. I learn about myself through piano when I listen back to what I play.
I always teach my students in my piano anatomy class that we always want to skip to novels as creatives. But what are novels? Novels are a collection of pages, paragraphs, sentences, words and spaces. If you ever find yourself experiencing friction with expressing yourself through piano, then you just take note of what your nervous system is doing. When we have good dreams, our nervous system is the most at rest. It’s pleased with us. It’s hydrated. When we’re dehydrated or if our posture isn’t right while we’re sitting or sleeping, then maybe we’ll have a bad dream where our nervous system is trying to wake us up. So if you settle your nervous system or find a way to make piano be the thing that settles your nervous system or regulates your nervous system, then you can start to dream a little bit on the instrument.
