The Freedom of Discipline (July 14, 2025)
From left to right: Sviatoslav Ricther playing Chopin, Étude in C major, Op. 10 No. 1. Can you imagine playing this without first spending hours practicing arpeggios?; Valentina Lisitsa, Chopin, Étude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2. Playing this with such freedom means she first practiced chromatics by themselves.; Claudio Arrau, Liszt, Rigoletto Paraphrase. Octaves, anyone?; Daniel Barenboim, Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op.2, No.3, Allegro assai. Triple trills!
Following my concert earlier this month at MIMOCA, I wanted to write a note of thanks to one of the people attending who had been especially gracious. My mother, who teaches Japanese, advised me that the letter should be both personal and friendly, while also adhering to the standard protocol of writing letters, and including all of the appropriate honorifics.
As I finished the letter I found myself thinking that music is a lot like writing a letter. There are rules, guidelines, and standards associated with the practice of music, but ultimately, in observing those rules one also has the freedom to express thoughts and feeling that convey the message of one’s emotions. In other words, one must understand the elements of the head and heart before transferring them to the hand.
We often think of rules and discipline as being restrictive, not allowing us to be our fullest and best selves, when in fact the opposite is quite true. By learning to operate within an established set of rules, while mastering the techniques associated with them, one becomes better at performing a task. Learning to hit a tennis ball so that it falls on in certain places on the other side of the court, one is able to win by keeping the ball away from one’s opponent in ways that make it difficult to return it, thus helping to win the game.
When a painter is making a picture, the end result is only as good as the painter’s ability to make each brush stroke an accurate expression of intention.
Every game has rules, every procedure has an established set of regulations, just as every instrument has techniques that allow one to produce the best sound. Perfecting all of the elements that go into making that most beautiful sound is a lifelong practice of understanding all the elements that create it, and then practicing as much as one can to achieve it.
Becoming a skilled pianist is a function of treating each element associated with the instrument as a tool, and learning to perfect the use of those tools as much as possible. Whether it is scales, trills, or octaves, one has to master playing them, through great discipline, in order to be the best artist possible. In so doing, one then has the freedom to express all of the emotion written into the music, as well as the message of the composer the pianist wants to share with the audience.
Discipline is not restriction. It is power. The power by which one learns to master everything that is needed in order to communicate as fully and without limitation as possible, the beauty the music was designed to convey.
