Hal Galper's Master Class - The Illusion of An Instrument 

It's crazy how much of an eduction you can get just from watching youtube nowadays

This guys tells me mindblowing things

Very interesting discussion. Perhaps this will help: "Thought is the enemy of flow" Vinnie Colaiuta.

7:22 to 8:20, the starting points of the 2 licks for side-by-side

"you're not gonna hear the same in 10 years as you're hearing now." Very comforting!

"You all play exactly the way you hear." That's like dropping an anvil on 99% of musicians' heads.

Way way back, when I was studying classical rep with the prodigious Sanford Margolis one day at a lesson struggling with a passage, I said " if I had a direct wire from my mind to my hands I could play this". He replied: " No You Couldn't". He was saying the same thing Hal is in this vid. It would have been a partial smear of the notes I thought but not the complete meaning. Not just shouting the phrase but really hearing (and saying) it. After playing for over 60 yrs I am beginning to get it.

I felt like I got knocked out by a heavy weight boxer after watching this. It'll take years to get my shit together again. Thanks.

this is a treasure. I just started practicing this way and I can see now that the notes in my head are like specters or ghosts and I want them to be vivid. What a great abstract concept

its like anything really , it becomes as you visualise/create it in your head

This is a way of understanding life, not just movie. Metaphors to live by.

whoever the student is at around 8:20...nice lick!...I'm stealing that lick =)

This redirects how I practice. I love this guy. What a generous musician!

This proves the theory I came up with quite some time ago. When I told my students to focus more on actually hearing the melody the way they want it to sound, than just mechnically trying to play it again and again, most of them looked at me like I was high. Now I have the proof I needed and they will practice the proper way until they DIE ;).

@batfly Hal is talking about internal hearing, an ability to hear music "in your head" before it actually sounds. Like being able to look at a complicated symphonic score and hear in your head in slightest detail. Beethoven had extraordinary internal hearing, by all accounts.

some of the most concisely presented concepts on the net.. great

This is how William Adam taught - completely changed my life.

"You are the instrument." Of everything you perceive. I'm reminded of Krishnamurti's, "There is no thinker, only thought." Getting to the elemental intuitive perception over intellectualizing.

This video was recommended to me by guitarist Steve Lasner after we discussed how eventually the music you play comes straight out of your brain just like when you sing or speak, that you don’t think about the theory and technique or grammar anymore; it’s just straight mind to music, and so he recommended this video. I’ve only been playing guitar a little over two years. I’m originally a sax player and Berklee alumni, born again musician on guitar. It’s a great experience, but more importantly I feel like I ‘get it’ more now, and I think that’s more about how I’ve changed as a person since then, than simply finding a better medium-and like Steve, Hal Galper, and I said, it’s really not about the instrument at all. I’ll never forget what Miles Davis said, “It’s not about the notes you play; it’s the attitude of the mother f”ker.”

Love rewatching after years

@batfly It doesn't matter if you would like to use other methods. But for me, I find that "you play exactly the way you hear" is really telling the fact. I try to hear the phrases that I cannot play probably. Then I find that I really cannot "hear" it clearly. Besides, I record my practice and discover that the recorder just records the things happening in my head when I am playing! In the recordings, I can actually tell when I was thinking and when I was "hearing"!

Fantastic lesson - all the stuff you practice anyway is just as much a way of teaching yourself how to hear certain concepts, groups of notes, harmonies, rhythms and so on, as it is a means of improving your coordination. So I agree with Hal - if you can't hear it you can't play it. I'm now going to work a lot harder on using my practicing to increase the amount of vocabulary my ear can recognise clearly so that I am "compelled" to play what I hear. Many thanks for posting these super lessons!!

it's really interesting to think about yourself being the instrument, because then, theoretically no matter what instrument you play, it will sound like you

That he put this into words is incredible

Hal is a great player, musician, and teacher. I took a few lessons with him way back when. This lesson conveys a deep understanding of what playing music is really about.

This was a great lesson! That young lady was nice on piano too!

Thank you for posting these videos! Professor Galper's approach to teaching is incredible. It transcends music!

Wise thoughts, I use to practice on those pianos at Cal State Hayward in the 80s and once saw Hal walking down the hall. He probably heard me struggle and smiled as he passed by.

I actually realised this myself a while back when learning some Bach. I noticed that I tend to not hear some of the less obvious inner voices so I realised all I need to do is first read the score and be aware of them and then I will hear them whilst playing.

RE: Synesthesia. I don't have but it is very similar. Color hearing is something that happens to your ears after many years of playing. I was not aware of color hearing existing until it happened to me. There were clues to this around (Elvin calling his cymbals blue or green) but it's like a religious experience in that you won't know about until you experience it. Most musicians will achieve this level as It is a normal progression from decades of ear training.

Mr. Galper I'm jealous of your students. What excellent teaching - what excellent concepts. Just loving it

This was one of the most informative videos I have ever seen on youtube and was explained in a way that was very easy to understand. I wont forget what I found out from this video.

game changer.

OMG I saw that Andre Watts episode! He played Chopin Revolutionary Etude. It was awesome!!

Very interesting and resonates with my own experience.

Just wonderful! BRAVO!

For me though I am working on being able to play back a small amount of notes as quickly as possible without thinking much. So I started with my brother/teacher telling me the key and then playing less than 10 notes quickly twice and then I have to immediately try and play it back without thinking. This has help the most and you can increase to more notes once you get good at 10. It took me a while to start seeing a difference though but it has helped a lot.

Hal!

YES! YES! YES!

Thanks!

Makes complete and utter sense.

Every time this lesson pops up on RU-vid I watch and learn. Still learning to let go, but getting easier every day. Thanks Hal for sharing.

man..i have been trying to explain this to students for years and years and years. Very few get this until they have been playing for at least 30 yrs...damn..great post! you can ONLY play what u year...and if u hear it..you can play it. Its simple.

The dissolving piano. Glenn Gould told that he once was practicing and someone came into the room and started to vacuumclean. The tones he played became 'wrapped up' in the noise the vacuumcleaner made. The higher up the keys he played the less he could hear the tones he played. First he had the impression he could still feel the tones vibrating through the keys in his vingers, but the highest tones he cold not. He had 'lost' the instrument and those tones were by far the most beautiful he said. The filter between his inner ear and (....?) had disappeared. What would you suggest to fill in on the dots??? Practice with very good earprotection? ;-)

Thanks Hal.

this is the coolest thing ive ever heard.

Thank you very very very much...!!!!

love this.

Man, I wish would've had this guy as my music teacher in high school. My teacher sucked major balls.He never had more than a few seniors in his class. Almost all students quit in the 9th and 10th grades. He was absolutely hated universally.

This is a yoga lesson an experiential understanding or insight in to the nature of mind

Thank you for posting this.

@DaveVelo1 This is how I thought all through my playing. It's a great approach. I think he follows on that as well. He just takes that step to help young musicians get the music loud in their head, which is such a hard thing to do.

This is only true of things that you're INTENTIONALLY trying to play. You can also approach playing and improvising from a mechanical perspective, just sort of randomly picking various finger combinations or whatever and just hammering them out, which have nothing at all to do with the noise you're hearing in your head

That's so oooo good

jaw dropping...I was just reborn!

@bijouxmusic Cool. When I was there, I got a nice feeling about the program.

man, this gotta be the best series of music lessons ever. thanks so much for posting. this guy is amazing!

From what I can gather, the book Hal is discussing is called, "The Art of Piano Playing: A Scientific Approach" by George Kochevitsky

excellent lesson...truth and simplicity is alwasy beautiful

finaly i heat this subject adressed/ i am getting back into playing and this is the best thinbg i ever needed to hear again. Hearing is the most important foundation - thanks for the exercise!

It means you need to practice your ear training. It takes a ton of practice to be able to do that. For me I started with just being able to find the key and chord progressions in songs until I could do it quickly. Now I am working on melody and with each song I get quicker and quicker. Have you ever practiced having someone play notes and being able to tell them it was for example a major 3rd or a perfect 5th? You need to be able to hear the distance between notes and their direction.

No, the Thinker is simply a by-product of higher cognitive functions, it's not doing anything wrong, nor is the Critic or the Ego, not only will attempting to turn the Thinker off not work, it will increase the Thinkers presence and dominance in your consciousness state, an example of this futility is: "Don't think of a White Bear." The key is to realize that you are not that which you are perceiving, you are that which perceives, therefore you do not need to be influenced by the Thinker.

Excellent lesson Hal. I was like you. Then one day it came to me. It is always has been about your ears and playing like you mean it. Dom

this is so true. if you hear it, you can play it. not the other way round.

What a great clip!

beautiful

WOW! What a revelation! So simple, yet powerful. Thanks for sharing.

Fantastic and real. Thanks

Awesome energy. A message so simple, yet so real.

I love this lessons! I watch it every week again to remind me of things I should realise in my own playing, when I have the time I'll take a private lesson with him. Thanks for the vids jazzvideoguy!

Very Enlighting...makes a difference !

@jazz12726 What a concept.

A gem! Thanks for the upload.

@batfly That's not the case. You're being childish. What he says is that there's no limits. Everything you can hear in your head, every little sound, can be translated by a musical instrument.

@SDRockman That's great. Check out some of his other videos for more.

Wow! So inspiring!!

his lessons are great, always enjoy it.

Thank you!

man, heavy class....

Great lessons. Thanks for sharing.

That was friggin awesome

Fantastic!!! Very inspiring, Thank you very much..

@domminasi Dom has seen the light!

Alright, fine -I'll say what everyone's thinking (w/r/t ''la belle dame'' @ 7:10): ''She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.''

JazzVideoGuy, you rule!

incredibly valuable video again thank you !

This really is a great lecture...

Wow. Inspiring.

I don't think this is quite right, but is close(even though it worked in the demonstration). Today I was grooving to 6/8 to fast swing inner space tune from Chick's record that we all know. But I had it real low so all I could hear was the hits for the changes in feel and the chords as I was sing lines to it. As I sang but as usual I couldn't hear soloing(although I know them all by heart), I was hitting all the changes on time even though I could barely here the chords or the solos, I could here two things, I started to notice the drums(Joe Chambers) and the bass(Steve Swallow), especially the bass to keep me in the groove as I let my aural imagination go wild. Why? Because the Bass waves where stronger than the other instruments and as long there were some roots, fifths and thirds, I knew where I was even though my "voice" was blocking the piano and horns. The drum hits helped but I definitely noticed the bass line helping to keep me honest and I could Definitely hear them as I sang lines. Now what ever level my technique on whatever instrument I'm playing pales in comparison to being able to Discern between my self and the shared reality of the actual performance. It's not amplification, that's to simplistic. It would be great to speak about this some how, but there it is for now.

Well, this is what I thought, and I've practiced these things you talk about a lot. However he seems to say that the problem is not CONSCIOUSLY recognising the notes, but to have a "loud" aural image and let the unconscious do the work. This seems to say that I need to focus more on making this aural image as intense as possible (screaming the melody in your head he sais) and letting the unconscious free to do what it knows already how to do...

incredible

Ahhhh it's so on point

Thanks Jazz John Goodman 😎

Very interesting!

Great work Hal (once again).

You're the man, JazzVideoGuy. Just found your videos today, you have a new subscriber and admirer.

this is amazing

Awesome!!

@batfly Of course sometimes it's hard to hear first and then play. Specially if you are playing with others. You MUST listen to others while you play. However, you can't play anything that it's not in your head first. Somewhere in you brain must be that idea. :)

@batfly That's exactly what I've said! We all have fun, that's what matters in the end of the day! Keep your sipirit bro! João