Playing By Ear

My two favourite activities are writing and playing jazz piano. I lack formal training in both of them. Yet there are so many connections. I learnt early on that the more you do either of them, the better you become. Piano playing gifted me the joys of improvisation in writing. Writing lent me the power of imagination in playing. I play piano by ear which taught me that good writing comes from active listening. I write from the heart which taught me how to play with emotion rather than technical correctness alone. For me, both activities are transgressive; they upset the purist because you refuse to be restrained. Yet both activities are meaningless unless you draw in your audience and get their attention by allowing them to hear or read something in ways they had not encountered before.