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What silly or funny comments you heard from non-musicians on your piano playing or music in general?

I know some of the comments can make you angry though.

Im in a band with some kids at school, and I always use classical terms when Im trying to get them to play a certain way for a thing I write. It gets them lost every single time! Like I might say start piano and then crescendo to a forte, then have Tom harmonize with the sixth below, and then go down chromatically. Then one of them will say, wait, how are we supposed to play like a piano??? or something like that. It makes me laugh but gets frustrating.

Reviews from amazon.com:

re: Kissin's recording of the Chopin Concertos


Kissin's phat
I ain't never heard beats like this. Evgeny Kissin ain't afraid to tell da 'hole world how it be. If you don't already have this phat disc in yo' collection you betta get to steppin' cause these beats are representin'.



Re: Complete Josef Hofmann, Vol. 6


Yo yo foo's! Hofmann be the bomb KABLAMM!
Rachmaninov considered Hofmann to be the greatest pianist he had ever seen, and these recordings are to show. Reviewing Rachmaninov's recordings of Chopin, as far as precision and skill, Hofmann kills Sergei. Every note exploads with this individual sensation of sound that only Hofmann can emit. The musical ideas are genuine. Give a listen to his original performance of Chopin's minute waltz. It's unlike anything you've ever heard. For this pianist's small fingers, he sure does have the advantage over the other greats in pounding out immaculate works from his customized Steinway & Sons.



Blew up tha Spot
What up to all my dogs out there! I gotta agree with my homie Superkike from tha desert in Tucson, A.Z., baby. Josef Hofmann gots mad skills yo. If any of y'all playas think my man Josef ain't got no skills, then take it upon yo self to try and play any piece of his. You won't be able to cuz you ain't got no game that be tight like Josef's. Josef be tha tightest playa eva. What? What's that? What eva foo! Quit doggin' my man Josef. You know he be the illest. If you don't think Josef could be as tight as other greats like Beethoven and Mozart, then I sugest you pick this album up yo. It's got mad flava. It's gots the ups and downs of every day life. Know what I mean? He be playin quick like Maurice Greene and Marion Jones. He be chillin like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. Ya Heard?. Dis be your homeboy Thug 4Life, boning out, and hopes you join him in tha next Episode.




Even when hes dead hes still the tightest pianist out there!
Yo this Cd was off the hook this show why Hofmann was and still is the realest.This album puts dmx and jay-z's new cd to shame. Tight beat and rhythm! U wont be disapointed.

well something that makes me angry is when I'm practicing some incredibly difficult piece at school, and then some kid comes up to me and says, "can you play heart and soul?"

"hey is this bad for the piano??" as he holds down the dampers as i play....why yes it is just a little bit, YOU F***ING MORON!!!!!!

I usually tell them, "No," because I can't. :p

Once in December, the phone rang, and a neighbor was on the line. "What are you doing", she asked. I told her I was in the middle of a difficult cadenza. "Oh", she said, "You have such energy. I have completely given up baking cakes for Christmas".
I haven't stopped laughing since.

When I was in music school, guys in the dorm who were business majors or accounting, etc, and thought my degree was just fluff: "I wish all I had to do is sit over there and play piano all day" (generally accompanied with twinkling "air piano" fingers, to capture the essence of what my life was about).

Oh, and when talking about tastes in music, and I bring up classical, people will offer "oh, i like classical, i put it on to go to sleep." :rolleyes:

(btw, I've been in a few bands, and NEVER would I even think to use terminology like "piano crescendo forte" with band members. It doesnt belong there.)

Ah, but it is true of some of us business-ers. I wish all I had to do was sit and play the piano all day. That would certainly make life more enjoyable than some of the other *clears throat* @#($*&#& things I have to do. :p

And as for "music to fall asleep to," I cannot do it. Classical music sets off so many stories in my head that I would swoon and never fall asleep...or worse, fall asleep and forget the story. I generally set my alarm clock to a classical station to wake up to, though.

(Of course, this has inadvertently produced interesting effects.)

Once, I had to get up to catch a train. The radio alarm-clock turned the radio on on-time. It happened to be the Rach 2 that was playing. I had a dream that I was playing the Rach 2 with the group I played it with back in June. At the end of the piece, the radio continued with its "concerto morning" with Tchaikovsky. Again, in the dream, we started playing the piece. A couple minutes into the first movement, I remember thinking to myself--how can I play this when I don't know the notes?

And that's when I remember hearing the radio host's voice. I woke up...40 minutes late.

(Ever since then, I stopped listening to classical on days I have to wake up at a particular time. :p )

But the point is, that being a piano major is not about "sitting over there playing piano all day". Of course, playing and practicing are two entirely different things. And practicing 8 hours a day is grueling hard work, at a level of effort and dedication that I dare say is not involved in achieving a business degree (although I could be wrong).

the implication of the remark was that being a piano major is easy and trivial. Of course, way off!! In fact, I cant think of one day where I sat around playing piano all day.

Oh, and music dreams?!?! there's a whole nother thread!!

Sounds like it might have been Yogi Berra but who said: Classical music is better than it sounds...or something like that...

I think it was Mark Twain who said: Wagner's music is not as bad as it sounds.

"So what do you do?"

"I'm a classical pianist"

"Oooooohhhh, so are you as good as Richard Clayderman?"

I have gotten some comment about Clayderman too many times to ennumerate... :rolleyes:

Elena

"Piano is different than klavier, isn't it?"

- asked my friend in school.

LOL. Ouch!! when I was in high school, and people heard of my plans, they'd ask "so you want to be the next Liberace?"

ugh!

Interesting you say you're a 'classical pianist'. Whereas people will often refer to me as a 'concert pianist' which is ludicrous of course. I dont play concerts. But YOU do.

I used to say "professional pianist" or "concert pianist" but people outside the classical music realm would then always ask "so what kind of music do you play". I don't blame them. They are right not to assume I play classical. I could be a Jazz pianist for all they know. "Classical pianist" says it all.

Elena

On some sites I frequent I have a photograph of me sitting at my piano. I often hear, therefore : "Oh, do you play the piano?"

I feel like replying: "No, it's just a $XX,XXX.xx piece of furniture, nitwit!"

Cheers!

Oh, Oh! And then there was the time when I told my High School guidance counselor that I was going to go to New England Conservatory to make the piano my career. She gave me the kindest, most pityful look you can imagine and said: "Oh honey, but you're so SMART..." I wanted to slap her.

Elena

My high school basketball coach saw me play piano at a school assembly and asked me later if I ever worried about hurting my fingers while playing basketball. I was young, and in a moment of honesty and stupidity, told him, yes, I do think about it from time to time. Before he told me that I'd ride the bench the rest of my life, he flapped his lifeless gnarled mitts, that he called hands, at me and stated that he could play piano better than I could if he wished and that he'd never given a second thought to his fingers. This was in about 1977. I'm pleased to note that he retired last year after providing generations of students the benefit of his wit and wisdom. I only hope they took him as seriously as I did.