Author: Peter Wentworth

Practicing And Performing Music

There is a perception that performing and practicing music are two very different activities. I think that the relationship between performing and practicing is deeply intertwined and at a certain level the distinction between the two virtually disappears.

At some point in a musical career, performing itself becomes the greater learning experience. Greatly significant aspect of performing is the tremendous energy that is experienced during a live performance in front of a receptive audience.

The true purpose of developing mechanical and musical ability becomes evident and the focus of practice sessions is changed. At that point, ironically enough, performing itself becomes the true learning experience because a tremendous energy is experienced during a live performance in front of a receptive audience. The energy of the audience, as perceived or felt by the performer, pushes him to new heights of artistic achievement and practicing becomes preparation to concentrate and enhance that experience; this marks the beginning of the transition from musician to artist.

The artist will find new ways of practicing to bring live performances closer to the pure ecstasy of musical expression in all ways. Bringing diverse disciplines such as psychology and other artistic disciplines such as theater and dance will enable the artist-musician to achieve greater control of the instrument and maximize the overall performance itself.

This is the true transformation from musician to artist, by developing personal, unique and creative ways of expression. As these progresses, the artist will realize great improvement in concentration, ease of performance and greater synchronicity of body, mind and what professional musicians like to call “soul”.

As practice is transformed into a more fulfilling and rewarding experience is reached an important step towards scaling the heights of artistic achievement. As music is something that the artist enjoys, practice is, in effect, playing music and should always be enjoyed for its own sake.

Question by ANDREW: I’ve heard that the Singing Saw is a heard instrument to self teach – True or False? I’m very interested in the Singing Saw, and just want to know what I need to play it, and where to get it, is it hard to learn? and is there online lessons? Thanks

Best answer:

Answer by Musical Saw– The fundamentals are very easy. Within minutes you should be makings sounds – maybe not music quite yet, but the music will come quickly.  After a few days of making sounds you should work on trying to play simple songs. After that, how beautiful the music is depends upon your ear.  If you are tone deaf, this is probably a lost cause.  But if you can whistle or hum in tune then you are well on your way. The better your ear, the better your music. There are ample tutorials on the internet or YouTube. Do a search for “Musical Saw Tutorial” or Musical Saw Lessons” and you’ll find many.

Give your answer to this question below!

I was looking on YouTube for instructions on how to disassemble and repair my scanner and came across this video… Enjoy the Music!

Marlene with Paul Laval & his Band. July 16.1944 Aloha Oe Music By Queen Liliuokalani.
In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus Music by Wiga-Gabriel and Lyrics by Klaus S. Richter.
Instrumental only.
Musical Saw (Singende Säge) played by Miss Marlene Dietrich,she learned to play the Musical Saw 1927 in Vienna,Austria by Igo Sym-1896-1941.

Thanks to “George Simpson Buck” for posting this to FaceBook (Musical Saw group)

Take a look at this homemade Musical Saw Case!

Click the picture to visit the facebook page detailing how it was built. Thanks Edgar Guerreiro!

Here is Natalia (Saw Lady) playing Musical Saw in the subway in New York. Great accoustics. The first time I heard a Musical Saw was a guy playing under a bridge so same effect.

Natalia sponsors the Musical Saw festival in NYC every year – more details at SawLady.com

Can you imagine trying to play one of these saws?
– I do have different sizes of Musical Saws in my catalog, but nothing near this big!

Early man as a means of interaction, to express his inner thoughts and a means to recording events, discovered arts. The ancient caves; monuments and scripts preserved in the museums bear witness to that fact. As we evolved, so did art. Art has reached such height that now it can be classified into various categories that further have subcategories. Different regions and civilizations have different forms, which have a deep influence of the culture. Vaguely arts can be distinguished as one depicted by expressing it on a medium like paintings, sculptures, architecture, and crafts and the other having human body involvement like acting, gestures, dialogues and singing. On this basis broad classifications of arts that can be made are visual arts, culinary arts, performing arts and language art.

Ancient Greeks played a major role in the persuasion of art associating with human form, which comes under the category of performing arts. Here the human figure is used as a medium of expressing art rather than materials like stone, metal, clay or paint. But to support the human form of art, clay or metal model more vividly known as props are used to enhance the performance which come under the category of plastic arts. Some of the subcategories of performing arts are theater, dance, music, magic, opera, juggling, film, comedy, acrobatics, martial arts, and marching arts such as brass bands. Accordingly the human performers depicting these sub classes of performing arts are known as actors, dances, musicians, magician, singers, jugglers, comedians and acrobats.

The word theater also originated from the Greek word “Theatron” which means “Place of Seeing”. Plays were held on special events having religious importance, so the main idea revolved around ancient roman gods with the role of male gods being enacted with musculature, elegance and poise where as the female gods being enacted with beauty, grace and anatomically correct magnitude. Singing was also used as a means of enacting other than dialogue delivery. Along with the costumes masks were also a part of the actors’ attire. The stage was set in a realistic landscape backdrop.

During the middle ages storylines of the plays were mostly based on biblical incidences with an influence of the Byzantine and Gothic art. The Eastern art was mostly influenced by the Western medieval art. Not much concentration was paid to the realistic illustration. The costumes too were surface patterning, which means the basic color of the robe was emphasized upon rather than enhancing it by playing with light.

The nineteenth and the twentieth century saw a revolution being effected by the discoveries made during that era by Aristotle, Einstein and Newton. Light was used to modulate the color and to bring about a realistic feeling by creating an environment to absorb the audience into it. As inventions were made, traveling became very easy. This led to the influence of one culture over the other, which also globalized the western taste in theaters around the world.

As time progressed there have been diverse changes in theater arts that depicted different culture and moral values. The themes have revolved around fairytales, fables, religion, folktales, comedy, fiction, tragedy, romance, legend, history, epic, biography, adventure and material truths. The different forms of theater arts are mime, opera, kabuki, ballet, classical Indian dance, Chinese opera, pantomime and mummersÂ’ play. Today Theater Arts are as important form of art as any other arts and attracts all art lovers towards it.