Let’s face it. You are going to have days where you don’t practice or even touch your piano. The reasons for this may range from being ill, too busy, or you just don’t feel like practicing!

Now as long as not practicing is only a temporary scenario, there is something very productive that you can do in the interim that will help you to keep your musicianship moving forward, even though you may have taken a temporary retreat for whatever reason.

What is this you ask?

Listen to some music! That’s it!

While you’re listening to music, you are actually involved in an activity that is expanding your musical vocabulary because the music is influencing you in a kind of osmosis. All of the music that you listen to is imprinted somewhere in your brain and your musical mind can later recall and retrieve these musical data and bring them to bear on any compositional or improvisational endeavors in which you may be later involved.   

Now today you and I can use any of the currently available technological devices that  play music. But many moons ago, I listened to music on wire recorders, victrolas, cassette tapes, and various types of turntables, some of which look like the one in the picture just below.

To use this interactive turntable:
1) Select an album track and drag it to the turntable
2) Click the Power button
3) Click “Start”
4) Click the yellow needle cover cap.

You can use this interactive turntable or click here to use a larger version to listen to some music and I’ll see you soon in my next blog post.