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It was another wonderful experience with our guest Daniel Kelly, who was so kind and open to share his adventures, projects, lessons, and even growth as a musician. As a pianist myself, I also have been experimenting around with playing by ear and improvising. In fact, I literally had a struggle two weeks ago because for my final project, Leonidas and I plan to make a song to capture the mood of New York City, and I sat on my piano exploring different motifs and musical themes, hoping to capture an active and upbeat mood, and failing miserably. I wish Daniel had visited us earlier to provide some advice. But he mentioned an exercise that he would do when he was younger, which I think is a cool exercise that is helpful and I should definitely try, which is to put an image on the piano stand and just experiment different motifs to capture the mood of the image.
Another key take-away from Daniel’s visit was the importance of engaging the audience through music and portraying a musical conversation between the musicians. Daniel mentioned multiple times the value of telling a story through your music. My piano teacher also once told me to try to imagine a story while I was playing piano a piece because that way, it is easier for me to express the emotions and the mood of the song more naturally as if a story was occurring. Daniel said something pretty interesting, which is that the musician should be a storyteller that brings the audience and listener on a journey with them and take the listener on a trip. Definitely, if I were the listener, I would love to go on a virtual trip through music. Daniel also emphasized how his mindset as a musician has changed and how his main goal isn’t to pursue the compliments of audience who say “it’s amazing” or “he got lots of chop” but rather, he finds engaging the audience who are interested and captivated more important. Daniel learns that it’s not how complicated a piece or how difficult a piece or how much he can impress the audience that matters, but rather being able to help the audience join him in the musician journey that matters.
One last thing that really stood out to me was Daniel’s answer to my question. For a long time, I was just wondering how a blind person could ever be sure that the image he envisioned in his mind could ever be produced by the photographer. And how would the blind person ever know or even correct the photographer if he couldn’t see? But Daniel explained that despite the blind person not being able to see and despite maybe the final product not being exactly the same as what the blind person intended, it still allows the blind person to contribute something meaningful to the world. In fact, the visions of these blind people are put on exhibition at museums and galleries where visitors stand amazed and in awe of the final products.
I like your point about what Daniel’s motivation and goal is in terms of his music. (Sort of intrinsic vs extrinsic.) It seems that just like our class focuses on the connections between people and art, Daniel also works towards that with everything he does. I think even with how he conducted himself in our Zoom class, his goal wasn’t just to show off his work to young students. Rather, he wanted to engage with us in a back and forth conversation, where we could learn from him and he could learn from us. And that quality of engaging with others is seen in his work too. When he works with the visually-impaired, his goal is not to receive recognition as an artist alone, but to help these people share their stories in creative ways and build off of what comes from them. I think it’s a really commendable trait for someone to let go of vanity and really care about their work in the context of connections and other people.
@ Cory I think Daniel’s remarks helped many of us who are musically inclined. You seem to have a full plate for yourself in regards to the song you are making, but I think your enthusiasm to try and experiment with the improvisational technique to base music on an image is something that is to be commended. For anyone who isn’t art-focused at the moment, I think Daniel’s words are helpful in finding inspiration from the things that we may deem innocuous. Using these exercises to fuel our academic pursuits is another way we can benefit from our interactions with Daniel and you, Cory, seem to be a good model for that creativity. I wish you, and anyone else reading this, the best of luck with your small group project.
Corey, this was such an insightful analysis and I love your takeaways. During the presentation, I also loved Daniel’s exercise that he used to do when he was younger. I don’t play any instruments, but if I could, I’d love to sit around all day and try to capture the moods of some of my favorite images just to see what I could come up with. I think just as music can help explain an image, it can go the other way too. Also, I really loved how Daniel tries to incorporate communities and music together. It was really heartwarming to see his music help bring together so many groups of people from all over the country. I also loved his point on how he used to be worried that he wasn’t doing enough with his music, but now that he’s older, he realizes that bringing people together and simply putting a smile on children’s’ faces is enough for him. I hope I have this same view for my passions as an adult. You also had a very interesting question that I was thinking about, as well. I think Daniel’s answer was very well put-together in that even though blind people are not usually known for contributing to photography, this helped them be apart of something they usually would not have been.
Hey Cory, it’s nice to hear a musician’s take on the visitor’s advice. I’m not musically inclined, so much of my understanding from the visit was superficial. I’m glad that you and other artists within our class found Daniel Kelly’s insight beneficial and relatable. I think your motivation and comments are a testament to the experience of music, both for the audience and individual as a whole. I had the same question about the blind photographers, and I for one am not sure if I could fully trust others to help bring my artistic visions to the physical world. There has to be such a balance of communication and cohesion to produce such stunning images, and I truly hope they accurately portray what the blind photographers have described. It must be a surreal experience to be blind and know innumerable eyes are trained on your work of art; that has to be satisfying in a way I could never genuinely comprehend.
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