Pianodao Wellbeing – Page 2

Spring Awakening

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

The Chinese New Year heralds the fifteen day Spring Festival, and culminates in the Lantern Festival.

It perhaps seems odd to celebrate the arrival of Spring as early as February, several weeks before the equinox, but the stirrings of new life and fresh shoots are surely well under way, and the blossom appearing on the trees in our neighbourhood suggest that the Chinese have it right!

The Year of the Dragon

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

Since ancient times, the Chinese have followed the lunar calendar, New Year coinciding with the first hint of Spring in the northern hemisphere, and this year falling on Saturday 10th February 2024. This date marks the beginning of the celebration of the Spring Festival, which culminates in the Festival of Lanterns on February 24th.

As ever, the year is named after one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. These are multiplied by the Wuxing ‘Five Element’ concept of traditional Daoist culture to create a 60 year cycle, and within this we are about to enter the Year of the Wood Dragon.

“Oh great!” you may be thinking, “just what we all need: another year of drama, turbulence, disruption, and fire-breathing egos.” But happily, the Year of the Dragon is traditionally an auspicious one in Chinese lore, heralding a time of positive transformation and renewal.

Wisdom and Expertise

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

How do you feel when so-called “experts” say things that just don’t match your experience? Is their academic learning superior to your practical experience? Does their input leave you feeling more, or less confident than before?

Practical experience and academic learning ideally go hand in hand, the one neither replacing nor outbalancing the other. But it’s helpful to consider how the right balance between the two is best achieved.

Wisdom for the Winter

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

As Autumn turns to winter, dead leaves wither on our pathways, migrating birds have headed off in search of warmer climes, insects are crawling into holes, and many animals are settling down to hibernate until the spring thaw.

In Chinese medicine and Qigong practice, the human metabolism also slows down in the Winter, and our energy can become dormant. And yet we seem to largely ignore the challenges of the season. Instead, we work and play even more frenetically than usual as we head towards the Christmas season at breakneck speed.

There is a real danger that our over-exertion in the early winter leaves us physically depleted, mentally and emotionally exhausted, and more susceptible to infection, illness and a general sense of feeling “run down”. We need to take stock…

Avoiding Excess, Cultivating Balance

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

In this short post, I want to address our need for a balanced approach to our piano practice and playing. But first, let’s take a step back and consider some more universal principles.

It seems to be our Western way of thinking to categorise and put everything in separate boxes. We are not always so adept at making connections. We explain our world using artificial constructs that polarise, and that fixate on opposites. We speak of good and evil, black and white, hard and soft, male and female, hot and cold, fortissimo and pianissimo, night and day.

We may think that these opposites are mutually exclusive, but our experience of the world around us teaches a different lesson. Just as positive and negative ions charge the air we breathe, so too energy, movement and a living narrative are all impossible without the interaction of opposing forces.

The Supreme Good

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

What are we to say, and how are we to live, in times of trauma, escalating suffering and conflict? On this site I often quietly apply the wisdom of Daoism to our piano playing journey, but what of its broader relevance? Faced with misery on multiple fronts, can Daoism offer any hope?

The great Daoist sage Lao Tzu lived in tumultuous times, too. The details of his life may have been obscured by the mists of time, but the conflicts of that era are well known, and they were brutal. Reading his classic Tao Te Ching, no wonder his deeply-considered response to the world as he found it continues to resonate with so many to this day.

An Empty Vessel

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

The image of an empty vessel is a common one found in many cultural and spiritual traditions. It is a concept which is marvellously introduced in these words from the Tao Te Ching, written by the Daoist sage Lao Tzu:

“Clay is folded into a vessel,
Yet it is the hollowness that makes the vessel useful;
Windows and doors are cut out,
Yet it is their empty space that makes the room useable.”

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (chapter 11, excerpt)
translation, Edward Brennan and Tao Huang

Here’s a wonderfully pithy rendition of the first part, this time as translated by that great author Ursula K. Le Guin:

“Hollowed out, clay makes a pot.
Where the pot’s not is where it’s useful.“

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (chapter 11, excerpt)
translation: Ursula K. Le Guin

In her ever-thoughtful commentary, she notes,

“One of the things I love about Lao Tzu is he is so funny. He’s explaining a profound and difficult truth here, one of those counterintuitive truths that, when the mind can accept them, suddenly double the size of the universe. He goes about it with this deadpan simplicity, talking about pots.”

The Pianist’s Silence

Pianodao Wellbeing
Article written by Andrew Eales

These days perhaps more than ever, the world is a pretty rowdy place. And by definition, as pianists we add to that noise (albeit of course, very positively!). Lest we lose our way, let’s consider how we might bring a little bit more peace and quiet into our lives.

Okay, so the practicalities of making space for silence in our lives probably require little explanation: surely all we need to do is switch off the gadgets, stop the music, find a spot where we won’t be interrupted, and spend a few minutes quietly minding our own business.

We can (and of course I will…) expand on that. But first we should perhaps consider an important question: why does it matter?

To help answer that, I will offer a few observations about environmental noise, mental chatter, and suggest a few really simple ways to introduce a few moments of respite into our busy daily routines.