What you’re going to learn about in this interview.

• Ways to integrate musical material into your playing
• Intelligent ways to restrict yourself as a composer and producer
• The benefits of writing in various mediums such as paper, piano, and computer
• Why playing with other people early in your music education is valuable
• Chris's background and music education story
• The importance of practical experience when learning
• The undervalued aspect of rhythmic studies and rhythmic independence
• Techniques to develop musical intuition and incorporate material into your playing
• How to create exercises that enhance your improvisation skills
• An introduction to species counterpoint writing
• Considering the unique characteristics of each key on your instrument
• Achieving a state of flow while using computers
• The benefits of play when starting with a blank page

Quotes

‘There seemed to be the certain respect for the person who could sit at your desk and write it by hand... there's a little bit of charm about thinking… I've got my ink and, and a candle and I'm gonna write it this way. That's kind of cool. But, you know, I've been using computers all my life. I've been playing video games all my life. I can achieve so much better flow at the computer because the computer is also my instrument.’

‘I think what makes a good composer... isn't that they can play the piano, but they just know how to manipulate form.’

‘Nobody's really talking about hand independence. The number one question for a jazz piano player or jazz student is, what the hell do I do with my left hand?'

‘One way I've been trying to get my students to create their own exercises is if you look at [a] pattern and try to reduce it to a sequence... [for example, a sequence] of steps and skips and what you [then] do is you create your own sequence, create your own pattern. It's like an algorithm that you're going to feed into a computer and out of that is going to come this melodic pattern that you then have to repeat many, many times to get it under your hands.’

Links & Names Mentioned

• http://www.chrisdonnellymusic.com
• ‍http://www.chrisdonnellymusic.com/videos/
• Orf Method
• Kodaly
• Brad Mehldau
• Sasha Rapoport at the University Toronto
• Russell Hardenberger
• Hand independence posts
• Dave Holland