{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6049ce165e66895efa7f67fd/6049ce1f440b3614ff5a4f9c?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Noah Fechtor-Pradines on piano and violin – musical improv and composition","description":"<p>20-minute episode now available on: </p><ul> <li><a href=\"https://shows.acast.com/walk-the-talk/episodes/noah-fechtor-pradines-on-piano-and-learning-violin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Acast</a> </li> <li><a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/4emtCs5Kwv0ptixIz8XYGy?si=j9BMm49pQMWQ7PLtl--PeQ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify</a> </li></ul><p>Music in this episode:</p><ul> <li>(0:00) \"<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKeHgnoadyQ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Improv in NYC - 1</a>\" by Noah Fechtor-Pradines</li> <li>(15:30) \"My Song 37 Longer\" by Noah Fechtor-Pradines</li></ul><p>Noah Fechtor-Pradines is a quantitative researcher living in New York City who composes music and plays the piano in his free time. Most recently he has also picked up the violin and started taking socially-distanced lessons! We talk about his creative process, music theory as the \"grammar\" of music, and improvisation as the \"immersion\" of becoming fluent in the universal language that is music.</p><p><img data-media-id=\"89377625\"></p><blockquote><em>An improvisation 'jam' session in Eliot House, 2019.</em></blockquote><p><img data-media-id=\"89377011\"></p><blockquote><em>Podcast zoom call, 2020.</em></blockquote><p>Abbreviated transcript follows:</p><ul> <li>I was 11 years old I think.</li></ul><p>(0:30) That’s when Noah first started playing the piano.</p><ul> <li>Sometimes I hated lessons and practicing but I loved the piano.</li> <li>I think it was something my parents suggested as something I should consider, and I was like <em>sure</em>! But then I loved it and continued.</li></ul><p>(0:50) His first exposure to improvisation was at the end of high school, at school assemblies, when people would come in and out of the auditorium for the national anthems.</p><ul> <li>I went to a British school so we'd sing the British and United States national anthems.</li> <li>And afterwards, I’d stick around, just playing things easy on the ears, not like elevator music but pleasant things.</li></ul><p>(1:30) When he’s alone with the piano it’s a very intimate process of creativity.</p><ul> <li>I just turn off all the lights, and play by feel. It’s very much a mood thing.</li></ul><p>(2:30) I asked if he was then comfortable making such improvisations public on YouTube.</p><ul> <li>I get full control over what I put up there, and I’m comfortable playing in public.</li> <li>And I’m getting more comfortable with making mistakes in a recording and still posting it.</li></ul><p>(2:55) I was also curious whether putting his improvisations up on YouTube changed what he played in any way.</p><ul> <li>Well there’s meter and dissonance … joke about band tripping over missed beat.</li> <li>But even the set up is a barrier.</li> <li>[You need a real piano, I say, and laughter].</li> <li>I do need a real piano. I really do.</li> <li>Actually one of the things I miss is trying out pianos at the Steinway Store.</li> <li>I think they’re willing to bet that in 20 years, there’s a high chance I’ll have such positive associations with them that I’ll buy a Steinway over another brand.</li></ul><p>(6:00) We talked about some of the other things he misses during COVID lockdown, like live concerts and jam sessions with fellow musicians.</p><ul> <li>It’s been like over a year.</li> <li>[Netherlands street musicians]</li> <li>So jealous… I live for that stuff!</li> <li>I was at a salsa dance gathering in Boston and there was one of those  \"Play Me I'm Yours\" pianos. I started playing and some guy joined me - it was great!</li> <li>There’s a spot in Union Square where people often play music, and I'll be going to work or coming back from work, and there'll be a saxophone screaming down the subway. Those are the moments that make life exciting. I miss it so much.</li></ul><p>(8:10) Being around people in person, and hearing live music (or YouTube productions of novel scores) function at the core of his improvisational inspiration.</p><ul> <li>Sometimes It’s hard to be creative when there’s nothing to draw inspiration from.</li> <li>When I hear something I don’t understand, the process of understanding it is one of the most creative moments for me.</li> <li>A big part of my process is just figuring out what I liked about what I heard, and playing it in as many different possible ways as I can think of, and that happens over the course of maybe 5 hours.</li></ul><p>(9:04) Those are the kernels of inspiration. And I love that he calls them kernels because it's such a mathematical expression.</p><ul> <li>It's 100% a mood thing, you just have to be in the mood in the moment.</li> <li>[I remember you were very inspired after a movie and composed \"my song longer 37\"]</li> <li>I have a whole bunch of unfinished thoughts that I just abandoned… don’t really know where they are now… [oh no!]</li></ul><p>(10:40) You know Neil Gaiman, the writer? There’s his idea of compost pile that all of our previous writings or experiences go into this compost pile of our imagination and then out come the flowers of the next composition, the next thing.</p><ul> <li>So poetic! Yeah, it sort of needs to sit there for a while, before the flowers bloom.</li> <li>[and sometimes methane comes out]</li> <li>Right, we don’t record those… [laughter]</li> <li>[Or we do and delete them... so they never see the light of day]</li></ul><p>(12:09) What have you been doing musically creatively? he asked me.</p><ul> <li>[Actually I've started improvising on violin. I was inspired by you, and the way you can create sweeping phrases and beautiful sounding chords… but I don’t know much music theory.]</li> <li>I actually have an opinion about music theory…</li> <li>First of all, everyone’s biased toward the way they learned things, but I think I knew a lot more music theory from just improvising.</li> <li>So taking music theory class was just learning what those things were called.</li></ul><p>(13:54) It’s like grammar for language… music theory for music.</p><ul> <li>Yeah, like who do I consider more fluent: someone who knows all the grammatical rules for Spanish or someone who lived in Spain for three years and speaks it fluently?</li></ul><p>(14:08) So improvisation is the immersion of the musical world of communication and creation.</p><ul> <li>I think one of the things that’s bolstered my violin the fastest is I have this practice regimen... but then I explore what’s possible, and what the patterns are.</li></ul><p>(15:50) And he’s almost done with book 1 of Suzuki after 2 months. Suzuki is popular among teachers of beginner violinists.</p><ul> <li>My teacher makes my progress sound impressive but then he’s comparing me with 7 year olds [laughter]</li> <li>[Once you learn one instrument, easier to learn the next]</li></ul><p>(16:17) But he’s got a unique goal that sets him apart from students, possibly of any age.</p><ul> <li>I just want to be familiar enough that I can understand it and play creatively and write stuff that involves it.</li> <li>[Cool because composers need to know how to play the other instruments they write for…]</li> <li>It’s so different! The attack is different.</li> <li>When I see a whole note over two measures, piano brain sees that and thinks nothing’s happening.</li> <li>[So it’s going to change what you write for violin]</li> <li>Yeah, yeah it’s going to change.</li> <li>But I’m already having a ball just squeaking out notes.</li></ul><p>(18:06) There is a violin store that’s open, and Noah’s been trying out violins.</p><ul> <li>The guy Lukas Wronski was like, <em>here you try this one, I'll be back in an hour.</em></li> <li><em>This violin better, try. </em>There were 8 violins to try. <em>You play, you play, you play.</em></li></ul><p>(18:59) He ended up finding out the violin-maker’s story at the violin shop while he was trying out violins… so we’ll close with this anecdote.</p><ul> <li>When he was 14 he went to get his violin fixed, and the maker ended up teaching him how to fix it himself. Eventually he started making his own violins!</li> <li>There’s so much craft that goes into these things... damn.</li></ul><p>(19:40) Thank you Noah for joining me for this final highlight of the year! </p><p><img data-media-id=\"89155656\"></p><p>Keep on creating, y'all.</p><p>Aldís</p><p>P.S. You can check out more of Noah's music <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/NoahFechtorPradines\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here</a> on YouTube.</p><p><img data-media-id=\"89161993\"></p>","author_name":"Podcast"}