You are listening to the PianoPod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry
about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.
Last time we spoke to pianist Josh Massico about the current state of classical music
and how music education should be modernized.
And now, the conclusion.
I don't think the world needs another professional musician.
I think we already have a lot of those, right?
I'm interested in making a... and this sounds so stupid and idealistic, but like, I think
being a musical person and being a musician, we've compartmentalized it in a way that's
really unhealthy in our society, the way we've compartmentalized so many other things, right?
No one knows how to cook a meal without a recipe.
No one knows how to fix a broken pipe.
We just call someone to do that, right?
So I don't have to learn how to make music.
Making music is something we have done fundamentally before we had the ability to speak, right?
And in our first moments on this earth, it's something that connects us to other human
beings.
And oftentimes in our last moments on earth, it's something that connects us.
It's deeply elemental to who we are as people.
And again, I know that seems so highfalutin, but it's not, right?
So in the context of that understanding, I don't really give a shit if they're serious
classical pianists, you know what I mean?
If they are, and I have students who are as middle school students and high school students,
I'm like, great, I know how to do that.
And I'm really into developing that skill.
And if they want to play good music and they have two hours a week to devote to practicing,
I have weeks where that's what I have to devote to practicing.
And I'm like a crazy practicer.
If you leave me alone, I will just do that all the time.
But I can't always because life, right?
And so again, I'm interested in cultivating my students' ability to not just to consume,
but to communicate as musicians.
And I take that word really seriously.
I think it's a word that we throw around, right?
Like I'm a musician.
I'm like, what does it mean to be a musician?
And that kind of gets to the conversation that we were having also about academic.
What does it mean to have musical training, to get a degree as a musician, to get credential
as a musician?
And yeah, I would argue that I don't have the answers, but I look at models, right?
So there are classical musicians and jazz musicians and pop musicians and blues musicians
that I have emulated when I was a kid and that I aspire to sound like.
I mean, that's what you do, right?
You listen to Glenn Gould and you go, how the hell is he doing that?
Right?
What is he making a sound that is so completely him and doesn't sound like anyone else?
Right?
What are his tricks?
What's happening in his brain?
You know, it's not genius.
He's making decisions.
You know, I hate that word genius or talent.
Those are words that just like, oh God, you know, like, like every time we have a meeting
people or have a concert and people are like, oh, our music faculty is so talented.
I'm like, no, we're not.
We're work hard at this.
You know, we don't talk about your talented, you know, biology professors.
It's a completely ridiculous word.
So yeah, I remember listening to, you know, I had Preludes and Fugues, Glenn Gould and
one of the records or two of the records that my family had.
I remember listening to that.
And you know, I learned, I don't know, probably half of them as a kid by just listening to
Glenn Gould, you know, and like what an amazing model of musicianship to listen to.
So the long winded point I was going to make is when I look at those people, I look at
the composers, you know, like, like I just adore Chopin, you know, I completely adore
Poulenc and Ravel.
And these are all musicians that prioritized the same set of skills that B.B.
King prioritizes, the same set of skills that Bill Evans prioritizes, right?
They prioritizing creating a truly unique and individualized sound, right?
As an instrumentalist, as a singer, as a composer, they work hard to do that.
And they learn how to do that by emulating the sounds of others.
So those are things that all of those people did.
And I feel like we've gotten really far away from that.
You know, we've, we've, my one of my jazz colleagues calls it bigger, louder, faster,
right?
Like at some point, classical musicians decided that bigger, louder, faster is the way they
want it to go.
Right.
I can play this piece bigger, louder and faster than you.
But you know, like, do you actually have something really unique and new to say about it?
You know, why are you playing a cadenza that's 200 years old?
You know, like there are all of these things that are happening.
And we're like, no one's sort of fundamentally asking the question of like, well, why, why
have we gotten so far away from that?
You know, I mean, that's why I always call myself a classical music hack.
Not because like I can't hang technically with, with my peers, but that like, well,
yeah.
But when I improvise a cadenza, it sounds like, so like I have to work at it, right?
Like I've done that before I've written out a cadenza and like, you know, but I have to
sit there and like do my homework and work at it and emulate it and develop it.
And like, I have people I went to school with who do that for a living, right?
Like they go on a forte piano and with the symphony and they play a Mozart concerti and
they stand up in all the two D's and they conduct it.
And then they sit down and improvise the cadenza and they do that like every night in a different
city.
I'm like, that's a musician, man.
Like that's someone I want to sound like.
That's someone I want to be around.
And that drive, I think to gravitate towards that excellence, no matter what your genre,
no matter what your passion.
And also to see like, like how do you not listen to Bill Evans at town hall and be like,
just moved to complete tears about what he's doing at an instrument to hear the simplest
idea.
I mean, if you've ever tried to sit down with your left hand and play Bill Evans voicings,
like you'll just, you'll stop.
It's ridiculous.
It's a complete tonal language.
That's all his own.
That is completely a lineage from Debussy and Ravel to Bill Evans.
And why aren't classical musicians learning Bill Evans transcriptions?
Makes you objectively a better pianist.
So there are these things where I think that's kind of where the fire needs to go.
And I have faith that if that's what we're chasing, right?
Like if we're chasing, here are people who are just, sorry, here are people who are great
at what they do.
They are undeniable communicators and they have a mastery and an ownership and they have
something to say.
And what can we learn from them?
And if everything radiates from that as a musician, then I think that takes you to places
where you have endless possibility, right?
But if you shut all that out and say, if only I can get my fingers to move faster, or if
only I can play this at a certain BPM, or if only I can execute this passage flawlessly
every time instead of 96% of the time, or if only I can play this concerti that I've
been learning for eight months.
I think that's kind of like the warrior athlete thing.
It's piano gymnastics, it's not being a musician.
And it's impressive, it undeniably produces a product that does impress a certain kind
of person and does create an experience.
But I think that experience is devoid of often of human connection, of sort of the basic
elements of what it means to communicate, not only as a musician, but just as like a
person living in the world.
Sorry, I'm getting like really deep.
But you know, honestly, we all are aware of that in a certain level as musicians, as classical
musicians, even as listeners.
But somehow we are in denial too, we totally ignore the part, and then still have this
traditional approach to music, education, music lessons.
And so, yeah, it's very interesting to hear.
So you're also a very devoted teacher, and I'm sure your students feel fortunate to have
you as a teacher.
No, always.
Okay.
But so what do you have any advice to young generations of musicians and music students?
Yeah, well, I mean, you were right on saying the thing that I was going to say, which is
like when conversations are great, right?
They're like improvised banter.
But yeah, and that's like, what an opportunity.
I think one of the things that terrifies classical musicians or musicians that have had the rigors
of training is like, well, where do I start?
If I want to learn by ear, if I want to learn how to improvise, or I want to learn music,
what do I do?
And teaching is such a great toolbox, right?
It's such a great way to try that out, right?
Okay, so I'm not going to play the Faber duet in book one for the 79th time, right?
What if I play something else?
What's the worst that's going to happen?
There's a seven-year-old kid, they're worried about, is their hand in the right place?
Am I counting my half notes as long as I should?
They do not care what you're playing.
So that's an opportunity that you can just experiment, right?
Or okay, I mean, I know there are certain types of more traditional teachers who get
upset when their students pick up other instruments or get upset when their students play in jazz
band, right?
Like, oh, cool, okay.
Maybe you don't really know about improvising, but okay, here's this fifth grader who just
started their first year in jazz band, and their teacher gave them a chart that has tenths
in it.
Like, what do we do?
You know, like, how do we make that work?
Or there are four bars where there are just slashes on it and the student doesn't know
what to do.
I don't know, like, let's maybe look at the rhythms that are happening in the trumpet
part and copy them on the chord shape that they already know, you know?
So those are like just, those are great, simple ways to do that, and they're very low stress.
But I, you know, I think the other sort of answer to that too, is, you know, I, again,
like, I always am striving to be a better musician.
It's not something that like, I want to happen.
It's something I will to happen, you know?
So yeah, I work on new classical music and literature and expanding my horizons there.
Like, I work on improvising, you know?
Most of my playing at home sucks.
It sounds bad, right?
Like I'm intentionally taking the solo to a place that I know is going to end in a freaking
train wreck.
But like, I have to go there, right?
I have to see what happens and sometimes cool things happen on your way to the morgue, right?
Like you kind of find something that's interesting and then you can kind of go back and develop
that.
And that's a process that's completely analogous to being a classical musician, right?
Like you're working on a passage and we've all had that thing where like you play the
passage 27 times and it still sounds like trash and you don't know why.
You get frustrated at it.
And what do you do?
Like, okay, you start in a different place and you're like, oh, I can play it from here
just fine.
Okay, well, why is that happening?
Like, oh, like if I rotate my hand just a little bit, then like suddenly I can reach
that different angle and then it makes my returning angle like way more effective.
Oh, wait, oh, cool.
Now I can magically play that, right?
And so the teacher in you goes, oh, okay, that's something I need to think about next
time I have a student struggling with the passage like that, you know?
So teaching is this great thing where there, I think when it's working best, there's this
constant like exchange of ideas and experimentation.
I think it's why I like it so much, right?
Because like that's the place I feel really comfortable as a musician, right?
I really like the process.
I really like sucking until I don't suck as much, right?
Like that's what's really, it's like, like the concert that actually happens is like,
oh, cool, that will happen.
You know what I mean?
Like that's, that's the thing.
But like, I love the experience of connecting with people, but the actual like performing
of the product I've worked so hard towards is like, that's, that's, I don't know, 10%
of it.
You know what I mean?
It's, that's not the stuff that I love.
So I think that's why teaching is so interesting and why, you know, it can be also, I think,
so challenging if you're used to being fairly like prescriptive and sort of being told what
to do and how to manipulate things.
And then you get a human being in front of you.
And you try to have the same prescription except like, it's not working.
What do we do?
You know?
So I think there's an incredible opportunity for musicians to sort of use teaching as a
toolbox.
Like it's like, you know, there's this thing I think I remember when I started teaching
like, oh my God, if I say or do the wrong thing, I'm going to ruin this child in front
of me.
Like kids are resilient.
They're great.
They're going to figure it out.
You know, like you can't ruin a kid.
Like it's like a ridiculous thing that we think of.
So just try and be, be humble and like, okay, let me try.
And then the other part of that is I think classical musicians kind of need to get over
that hump that we have that like being good at something doesn't entitle you to be good
at everything.
And so yeah, go improvise on a two chord song and sound bad because everyone who you hear
that sounds good at it spent hours sounding bad on a two chord song.
You know, like you're not special because you went to school.
You don't get to like pass that step automatically.
And I think so if you take some humility with it, like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to
play an awful, terrible solo and I'm going to do that, but I'm going to do it like every
day for 20 minutes.
Like if, if everyone did that in six weeks, they would blow themselves away at what they
had to say at an instrument.
And it like sometimes really like frankly pisses me off that classical musicians don't
do that because I'm like, well, the second you start like channeling your brain that
way, like then you get to go like, Oh, Hey, Hey, look, you already have all this amazing
facility.
Now you can say anything you want to say.
Like, like as a kid who, who like heard these things and had to teach themselves, like I
had to teach myself technique to be able to play the things I wanted to play.
And now many classical musicians are in the place where like, well, here's all the technique.
Like you can play anything you want to play.
All you have to do is be interested in developing something to say.
And then like, there you go.
Right.
So that's like, that's a, again, it's like having that humility of just, okay, I'm not
good at this, right?
Like I'm not good at transposing.
Let me work at it.
You know, I did this silly thing where like, I took a, I took 81A and I was like, this
like five or six years ago, I was like, I'm going to learn how to play the first movement
in every single key.
You know, like I should be able to do that, you know, and like you learn a lot doing that,
you know, you learn that like, I am really not as good at G sharp as I thought I was,
right?
I'm just not as good at it.
And then you also learn some amazing things about the timbre of your instrument, like
what you know, you know why Chopin's writing this nocturne in C minor and not in C sharp
minor, you know, but like you kind of take it for granted and you start playing things
and you're like, oh, that B section sounds frigging awful in this key, right?
It's like teeny and it doesn't connect and like, oh, okay.
So like key really matters.
And then your brain goes, oh, so like when they modulate, they're really thinking not
just about like, you know, I hate that about theory.
They're like, well, everyone got bored about moving to the five chord and now we're going
to move to the three chord, right?
Like, no, they're thinking about it as creatives.
Like I want to make this feeling, you know, I want this harmony to cut and hit in a way
that just like interrupts you or catches you off guard.
And this is the key it has to happen in not like, and then they work backwards.
Okay.
How the heck do I get to this key?
Okay, cool.
I'm going to take this thing even like turned upside down and then we'll do a sequence and
then we're going boom, we're there, you know, but it's not like, well, I went to the five
chord in the last four movements and now like, that's not no, because again, like, you know,
I have a, I have a colleague that I won't name whose joke was like, you know, theory
is not music.
It's music that exists only in theory.
Right.
It's like, but I mean, I love theory.
I love having a language that I can label something that I know.
Right.
But I think there's real danger in labeling things that we don't know that we don't experience
first that we don't have emotional connections to.
And I find in my own collegiate teaching, like my students will get really overwhelmed
with the amount of labeling that is imposed upon them.
Right.
Like all of the labels that they have to know and all of the ideas that they have to know.
And then they get in front of the instrument and they're like, well, I don't, there are
too many labels here.
And I mean, that's like, that's what's great about this thing.
Like we forget this thing instantly, you can make a beautiful sound on, you can also make
a polyphonic sound on, right?
It's an incredible, incredible thing to say, okay, wait, hold on.
So like, if I just take a D to D scale, like I can play a chord, like, wait, and then I
can just move that shape anywhere on the keyboard.
And it sounds cool.
Wait, I can play a different bass note and play the same chords anywhere.
Wait, I can do that endlessly and it sounds really neat.
Right.
And I can develop ideas and themes and you don't have to be a pianist to be able to do
that.
Like what a gift, you know, I need to know one shape.
That's it.
And I just need to move that shape around.
It's I'm getting, you know, horribly off topic, which my students always say I do.
But that's where all the interesting stuff is anyway, right?
So I mean, those are amazing opportunities that you have, like every day you wake up,
you know, so it's like every day I wake up and I'm practicing Bach because practicing
Bach makes me a better person and musician, right?
And every day I wake up, like I'm practicing improvising, right?
And every day I wake up, I practice songwriting, right?
And like what comes out is often crap, right?
It's like what is this thing, you know?
But every now and then something really cool happens, you know, I find like I try to go
to my instrument early in the morning and late at night because I find that's when I'm
less judgmental of myself, you know, like there are certain things I'll sit down and
play or certain things I'll sit down and sing that just feel right and feel comfortable.
And so I find like, oh, I'm you know, if I do that at two, then I have that voice inside
my head that's like, why did you do that?
That's awful, you know, and as an improviser, you learn really quickly, like that voice
is really helpful when I'm like 90% there, that voice is destructive at any time before
that.
So you kind of learn to like shut that that part of your brain up.
But I think we're still like we're in a very uncertain, judgmental place in the world right
now.
So you know, a lot of what I practice with my students, we did this thing where like
I had my students in my class last semester, like, okay, you know what, five minutes of
every class and, you know, like, I work really hard to create cultures where where students
feel like they can experiment and mess up and fail and that we embrace that.
Because I do that all the time with them.
And I think it's really important that they feel comfortable doing that.
Because you know, this as a teacher, you know, clinicians know this as music therapists, like,
the second you start teaching the second you put a human being in front of you, it is no
longer about your musicianship or your pianism or your skill.
It's about the person in front of you.
Who cares if you're playing wrong notes, you need to just shut that part.
Who cares if like that voicing wasn't good, or you played at the wrong dynamic or your
timing was off?
Like, no, it's not about you.
It's about the person in front of you.
So I work really hard to make that culture and develop that culture.
But you know what we did, because my students were so hurting for community and culture.
And so we just did a thing like the first five minutes of, you know, every zoom session
was like, hey, all right.
I want you I would give them like very simple stipulations.
And I want you to develop an idea over the course of this next week.
And then we're just going to all listen to you and completely interrupted.
You have five minutes.
You can play for 30 seconds.
You can play for four minutes and 50 seconds.
It doesn't matter.
But like, I want you to present an idea musically based on these little stipulations that I
give them, you know, and that was really meaningful to them.
Yeah.
And I'm sure they're having so much fun just doing these exercise, right?
Not just, you know, you're not just a piano teacher says, go back home and practice, you
know, this five minutes, that two hours.
Right.
So it becomes like a real opportunity for them to to experience musicianship.
I know we're running out of time, Josh.
And this is such a good conversation.
But I do have a burning question that I've been wanting to ask.
And so with all this that you've been sharing with us, what is what are some good artists
or artists or groups that you personally respect or admire that, you know, you would recommend
to your students?
Because, you know, there are some of them out there.
But sometimes, you know, what the students were, I think for me, even, you know, because
of the culture I grew up with, like I, I realized I had to relearn who I should respect or,
you know, having critical judgment on why, you know.
So what's your take?
Yeah, I'm going to go really high level on you.
And I'm really sorry.
So like one of my educational heroes is John Dewey, you know, and and experience in education.
And so, you know, a really revolutionary idea of John Dewey's at the turn of the century
was that, you know, before before John Dewey was writing, you know, we sort of saw students
as like sponges, right, like memorize a lot of facts and practice memorizing that and
then regurgitate that information.
And that's what learning is.
Right.
And so John Dewey was was really revolutionary in saying that, like, what's our job as educators
to meet students where they already are on their journey as as formed people, right,
as people with opinions and values and beliefs and loves and interests and to learn who those
people are.
And then like that juncture is where we start the process.
Right.
And what I always say is there's great music being made everywhere, all the time, every
day in every genre.
Right.
And you're all great musicians.
Right.
So listen to your students and listen to what they listen to and start there.
You know, I love that there's like my musical world is ever expanding because of my students,
you know, because they're bringing in things constantly for me to listen to.
But I also am able to like, hey, here's the stuff like, oh, you like this, you know, like
you should listen to this.
I mean, like it blows my mind that that I can teach an 18 year old who's never heard
Sarah Vaughn sing, you know, like that blows my mind.
But what a gift that I'm the person at that moment is like, oh, if you listen to April
in Paris, listen to how Sarah Vaughn phrases that melody, you know, and I have students
that just literally in front of class just break down crying the first time they've heard
someone sing like that because they've never heard someone make a sound out of their mouth
hole that sounds like that.
Right.
And I remember that feeling, you know.
And so, yeah, I mean, I think that that's where I would start.
I would start from from a place where your students, I mean, like, like, like the joke
I always make with my students is like, you know what I would I would I would probably
commit all kinds of illegal acts to have access to the technology that my students have.
Right.
Like when I was a kid and I heard a song like I had to go back and like move the needle
and listen to it again or I had to go to the library like you can go on YouTube and listen
to like this same artist perform their song eight different ways and then listen to 30
covers of it.
Right.
Like there's a plug in on Chrome that will connect to Spotify or to YouTube that will
transpose any recording so that you can play along to it in a different key.
And it will also like you can set up a loop like, OK, here's the 15 seconds I want to
hear and I want to hear it up a whole step and I want to hear it endlessly.
Like I would be a ridiculously better musician if I had access to that kind of technology.
So I always tell my students, I'm like, just just go down the YouTube rabbit hole.
Like just just do that, you know, because like that will change your life.
I mean, it really, really will.
So I know that's not like giving specific artists, but I just like like right next to
you is six stacks or six long wooden boxes of LPs.
And they're loosely sorted by genre.
But like I listen to everything, you know.
So my my musical taste, like chances are my students always like make fun of me because
they'll like mention some song and I'll just start playing it.
And they're like, oh, Massico, you know, the songs.
Well, no, it's just like something happens in your brain when you've learned and sang
thousands of songs where like you hear another song, you hear a new song and you're like
your brain just kind of subconsciously goes, oh, it's like that other song I know.
And then like you just start making those kind of assumptions, which makes music really
cool because then like you'll get halfway through the course and you're like, oh, oh,
cool.
They go to like flat seven here.
That's weird.
You know, like you just kind of you start to hear those little things or you start to
hear like my wife's like a beautiful singer and she grew up listening to Joan Baez and
Emily Harris.
Right.
So if you listen to how Emily Harris sings a harmony part and like you can kind of follow
along and then like seven notes into it, you're like she's singing a major second with the
melody like who would choose that note?
And it's like transcendent.
It sounds amazing.
And it makes her harmony part sound different than anyone else's harmony part.
You know.
So you just hear these little things and your ear kind of goes, oh, cool.
You know, like I grew up listening to Randy Newman, you know, like go listen to a Randy
Newman strings chart on like one of his records from like the 70s or 80s.
Like I defy you to hear like there's a reason he writes Disney music now.
Right.
Like no one can score a string chart better than Randy Newman.
Like no class.
Like I haven't heard a modern classical composer like score something with that level of intent
and artistry.
Like it's it's exceptional if you really sit down there and listen to it.
You're like, oh, this is this is a perfect chart.
It's there's you couldn't do this better or like Nelson Riddle.
Right.
Listen to those Sinatra arrangements and like listen to Nelson Riddle scoring.
Like, oh, this is perfect.
Like no, I can't do any better than this.
Like, you know, so that's that's I know, like I'm like a really long long answer to question,
but that's kind of where I start.
I have music personally that I that I love and that has been the soundtrack of my life.
Like I'm doing this Jackson Brown show and, you know, I I remember hearing late for this
guy when I was seven years old and like the first time, you know, that piano that comes
in.
There's a harmony part.
It's a Hammond organ that goes on.
Right.
You have this whole thing that is like there's a song that just transports you.
Ken Bruschett, who is my publisher for my book, has this great, elegant thing.
And I'm going to butcher it completely where he says that that songs are the the the soundtracks
to our lives, you know, and as we age, that that soundtrack changes and it takes on different
meaning.
And the the whole point of what he was saying, and I take this as a performer, but also as
a teacher really seriously that, you know, like at any point, a song that you're performing
or that you're working on could be the song or the piece that is the most meaningful piece
of music for another human being.
And like, what an awesome, intimate, deeply meaningful responsibility to be in this position
as a musician where like I can be part of the moment that transports someone 40 years
ago.
Right.
It's like the first concert they ever went to as a 19 year old or the first kiss they
had in the back of their parents' car.
Like music can do that to us in a way that like poetry and literature can't quite, you
know.
And that's why I'm a musician.
That's why I made really stupid life decisions to do this thing.
So that's almost like a perfect answer, really.
Yeah.
You're in good company.
We all did the same thing.
That's right.
I try to take that seriously, is the, you know, is that sort of like, the thing that
I think about all the time.
Well, in the end, we're responsible of building their curiosity, right, as a teacher.
And that, you know, they can be as good as a machine really, but if there's no curiosity,
it's just never going to flourish.
So rapid fire.
You ready for rapid fire questions?
All right, key is short, one word answers whenever possible.
I know that's your forte.
So, first question, number one, what is your comfort food?
Red beans and rice.
Nice.
Number two, cats or dogs?
Cats.
What is your word or words to live by?
Be humble and always be curious.
Excellent.
And what is the most important quality you look for in other people?
Humility and curiosity?
No, I mean, I'm an empath, you know, like I think I really want to relate to people.
And so when people are kind, as corny as that sounds, are empathetic, like those are the
people that I gravitate towards as musicians, as human beings.
Like that's kind of those are the people I want to surround my life with.
Yeah, totally.
All right.
And what is the worst quality in people you want to avoid?
Arrogance?
Great.
All right.
All right, my turn.
Name three people who inspire you, living or dead?
Musically or otherwise?
Anyone.
Okay.
Your choice.
Geez, that's such a hard question to answer.
I know I have to keep it short.
My grandfather, who passed away when I was 13, was a really big influence in my life
as a human being and as a fellow creative.
And musically, geez, I don't know.
It changes all the time.
So I'm going to totally cop out and not mention musicians and mention my wife.
She's number two.
Though she is a musician.
She is the reason I'm not adrift at sea most of the time.
And I don't know, a third person.
The very, very first recording I can ever remember hearing was the opening of Paul McCartney's
singing Never Give Me Your Money.
It's like, Paul McCartney's voice has always been in my head as long as I can remember.
So I don't know.
He's another person that comes to mind right now.
All right, great.
All right, next question.
Which historical figure or composer do you want to learn or take lessons from if she
or he were alive?
Oh, man.
I mean, there's so many.
I would love to sit down with so many of them, but yeah, just to be on a fly on the wall
of like as a keyboard player, like be a fly on the wall of listening to like what Chopin
played in his parlor at night when he wasn't writing anything down.
I would just give anything to just be sitting in that chair next to him.
Right.
Which historical figure or composer do you wish to hang out with at the bar if she or
he were alive?
Definitely Pulon.
Great answer.
Very interesting guy.
Yes, I totally agree.
My turn and we're going back to the question earlier.
Name one piece in your current playlist.
One piece, classical or?
Doesn't matter.
Anything.
Geez, I'm just trying to think of like what, because like the weird thing about running
this concert venue is that I'm listening to like all the music of these people on my way
to the venue.
So my playlists are really weird right now.
But geez, I was just listening to collected solo recordings of Thelonious Monk.
And I've always loved Monk's playing.
It's like, again, we talked about, sorry, Glenn Gould having the ability to like make
a sound that's unique on an instrument.
And like it took all these years to get to Monk being like, well, I want to play the
note between E and E flat on the piano, but I can't.
So I'm just going to play both of them.
And that's a new note.
Right.
So like, great.
All right.
Yeah.
Got it.
All right.
That's great.
So what's the book title you're currently reading?
I'm reading Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel, Clare and the Sun.
And it's, his writing is beautiful.
It's a really beautiful book.
Drop it down.
And you get only one song or piece to listen to for the rest of your life.
What is it?
I cannot answer that question.
Finally, an honest answer.
Thank you.
Everybody hates that one.
That's right.
Oh my goodness.
No answer is the answer.
Yeah, no, I think, I think I would probably prefer silence to hearing the same song for
the rest of my life.
I couldn't do it.
It's like that story about the Russian cosmonaut who there was like a ticking, like a ticking
and he had to hear the music and it already loses his mind.
You know, like, so yeah, I don't think I can do that.
Well, I gave you an easy one to end our questions.
Nerys, music is blank.
Music is blank.
What is your work?
Fill in the blank.
Music is human.
Wow.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Ding, ding, ding.
You win.
You won.
Nope, no gift, but you won.
All right, Josh.
Well, I'm afraid that's going to have to conclude this episode of the piano pod.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I completely derailed your, your, your very well lined up and pitched conversation about
inherent challenges in conservatory training and completely.
Well, that's okay.
We'll just have you back to do that one again.
But I think we hit on a lot of the issues.
Anyway, as always with you, it's been a humbling and inspiring experience.
This has been so much fun.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely.
And thank you as always to our audience for tuning in.
For anyone who is interested, you can find Josh's textbook on functional piano at BarcelonaPublishers.com
and his band Stella Hill is on Bandcamp and all other online streaming platforms.
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Bye everyone and thank you, Josh.
Thank you so much.