Sounds Good! (With SuperJim) Look Good; Sound GoodIt is time for the origin episode Ladies and Gents of the internet. Today I want to take a brake from running out of money to buy soundtracks and review them here and just talk about my performance philosophy. The thing that drove me to quite a few unique events in my musical career as well as quite a few outside. This may end up being shorter or longer than other Sounds Good! stuff or it may be longer, it depends on how long winded I am feeling.

The philosophy "Look Good. Sound Good" originated to me, as an extension of some one on one time I had with my soon to be private lessons instructor sometime before 2010. During the lesson he mentioned that I should play in front of a ...

Sounds Good! (With SuperJim) Look Good; Sound GoodIt is time for the origin episode Ladies and Gents of the internet. Today I want to take a brake from running out of money to buy soundtracks and review them here and just talk about my performance philosophy. The thing that drove me to quite a few unique events in my musical career as well as quite a few outside. This may end up being shorter or longer than other Sounds Good! stuff or it may be longer, it depends on how long winded I am feeling.

The philosophy "Look Good. Sound Good" originated to me, as an extension of some one on one time I had with my soon to be private lessons instructor sometime before 2010. During the lesson he mentioned that I should play in front of a mirror to make sure I can see my own technique when I played. This was to resolve the fact that I did not have very good mechanics, but still somehow managed to not suck. He mentioned a story of a blind snare drum instructor that could tell whether or not someone was playing with decent technique by the sound of the impact. I ended up taking the moral of the mirror and the story to heart: proper technique looks good and creates a better sound.

Soon after however, I took it to its logical extreme and extended the notion to be applicable backwards. Inspired by the Blue Man Group years prior I already understood that looking like something was awesome was going to make it seem like it actually was, regardless of quality. I was already marked as someone who was "Over Enthusiastic" when it came to performing, with conversations on the topic involved "Be more like Jimmy" and "Jimmy be more like them". I think it is the single greatest thing separating The Piano Guys and other great musical Youtubers. They sell the crap out of whatever they are playing and it makes it significantly easier to be immersed.

The two halves certainly ended up equaling something more than one whole when I returned a year later with the final, simple philosophy to performing: "Look Good. Sound Good." was redelivered to the professor that inspired it all. When I told him it was perhaps the only time I ever caught him off guard with musical insight and he continued to mention it in lessons, particularly when I failed to achieve one half or the other. During my final semester as a music major I was assigned a shit piece of music that was too hard, poorly written and all of its dynamics "implied" (in other words: missing) I eventually went to him and asked why I was assigned the piece and he responded with something along the lines of "Because it is a terrible piece and the only reason we are doing it is so we do not offend the composer and you are the only person I know that can make the audience not care about the quality". And then I did just that. After the performance a few of the students told me "You were awesome, the piece was rubbish, but you were great"

Hence the verification of the approach: "Look Good. Sound Good". Looking Good means that you are playing with proper technique and expressing the sounds and colors through your body and to the audience. Sounding Good means going beyond hitting all the right note, but also making them sing among each other with soul and love. Now when I listen to Soundtracks I cannot watch the orchestra play while I play a game or watch a movie. Hence the title being simply "Sounds Good" however, when I write I think about whether or not the music, regardless of whether or not I like it personally, fits in with the media it was made to reinforce.

I hope you guys enjoyed this little insight... Next one will happen when I have money.