6 Books for Pianists on the Creative Life
Articles, books, lectures, videos, podcasts—whatever the format, the music industry is awash in guides offering advice on every aspect of being a pianist. I’m responsible for a number of these articles as there are numerous posts on No Dead Guys on how to do one thing or another in music. Advice is invaluable when we’re looking for the best way to accomplish something, but all of it offers little when we’re contemplating how to live from the heart of our creativity.
I’m one of the many people who embraced Julia Cameron’s well-known book, The Artist’s Way early in my career. I loved the exercises and Cameron’s assurances that I had permission to follow my artistic dreams, but I failed to produce anything more than notebooks of “Morning Pages” journal entries. That experience taught me that I can’t address my creativity in such a purposeful manner and that my “aha” moments never occur when I’m searching for a solution. Instead, they seem to show up, proverbially speaking, in my peripheral vision. Learning to recognize those glimmers and to trust myself to act on them has been a continuing life journey that runs straight through knowing and learning to trust myself.
Creative inspiration can be found everywhere, but we need to be able to perceive it. This is why only one of the books listed below deals directly with the creative act. The rest provide a more tangential approach to what can be a mysterious process for many of us. And so, here are six books that challenge me, make me question, and widen my world. Hopefully you will find one or more helpful as well.
The Creative Act: a way of being by Rick Rubin
About:
The legendary music producer Rick Rubin has spent his career helping some of the world’s most famous rock and pop musicians connect with their creative selves. In choosing to share his ideas in this book, Rubin writes, “I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.”
Whether it be concrete tips on how to write a rock song or deep observations on life, this book is a practical and honest look at how to live creatively—whether working in the arts or crafting a rich life.
Why I like it:
As musicians it can be deadly easy to get caught up in trying to force creativity through specific channels. Rubin reminds me that all of life offers avenues to create and that by letting go, that artistry has a chance to present itself to me in the form of its choosing, not my own.
Favorite Quote:
“When you see what’s present around you as if for the first time, you start to realize how astonishing it all is. As artists, we aim to live in a way in which we see the extraordinary hidden in the seemingly mundane Then challenge ourselves to share what we see in a way that allows others a glimpse of this remarkable beauty.”
How to Live: or, a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell.
About:
French Renaissance philosopher Michel Eyquem de Montaigne lived his life in a country engulfed by religious civil war. Plague stalked the land. Violence was usually the first resort, not the last. Yet he created a rich life of the mind in the midst of this strife, and through his beloved Essays introduced a new literary form and shaped generations of thinkers since his book was first published. This excellent book by historian Sarah Bakewell is a journey through Montaigne’s life, and an exploration of his answers to a single, timeless question: how to live.
Why I like it:
Few things sap my creativity faster than getting caught up in the drama of news, outrage, and perpetual conflict. Rather than looking at the beauty of the world which offers itself to me every day through the extraordinary ordinary things of life, I find myself seething about something I’ve read on my phone. This book encourages me to look beyond current unrest, see the everyday magic that surrounds me, and to live thoughtfully. It’s a hopeful reminder that creativity can flourish even in dark times.
Favorite Quote:
“…ordinary people’s lives are sacrificed to the obsessions of fanatics, so the question for any person of integrity becomes not so much ‘How do I survive?’ As ‘How do I remain fully human?’ The question comes in many variants: how do I preserve my true self? How do I ensure that I go no further in my speech or actions than I think is right? How do I avoid losing my soul? Above all: How do I remain free?”
Please Understand Me II by David Kiersey
About:
No psychological test is 100% accurate, but I’m one who has found The Keirsey Temperament Sorter very enlightening. In Please Understand Me II psychologist and author David Kiersey offers a short questionnaire that establishes one’s temperament, and then he explains the characteristics of each one. Contrary to the popular myth that we can all make ourselves into whatever we want to be, Kiersey encourages us to work within who we are to be the best versions of ourselves.
Why I like it:
I first read this book shortly after graduating from university and promptly set about trying to change my basic temperament to one that I considered better. When I reread this book last year (and took the test again) I could see the truth of the words I highlight here in my favorite quote. Knowing the truth about myself didn’t change me in my 20s, but accepting this truth in my 50s has set me free to accept myself as I am.
Favorite Quote:
“Ask people to change their character, and you ask the impossible. Just as an acorn cannot grow into a pine tree, or a fox change into an owl, so we cannot trade our character for someone else’s. Of course we can be pressured by others, but such pressure only binds and twists us.”
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton
About:
May Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (1912-1995), an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. To quote Eugenie Thornton, Cleveland Plain Dealer, “This journal is not only rich in the love of nature and the love of solitude. It is an honorable confession of the writer’s faults, fears, sadnesses, and disappointments…This is a beautiful book, wise and warm within its solitude.”
Why I like it:
I’m fond of books that show the joys and challenges of working artists. Sarton’s struggle to balance solitude and company, as well as manage the more extreme elements in her own nature resonates with some of my experiences as a pianist and a writer. Her love of the beauty of simple things encourages me to see and love the details of my own life with equal devotion.
Favorite Quote:
“Begin here. It is raining. I look out on the maple, where a few leaves have turned yellow, and listen to Punch, the parrot, talking to himself and to the rain ticking gently against the windows. I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take up my “real life” at last.”
Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren
About:
Wabi-sabi is “the quintessential Japanese aesthetic. It is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional.” In this brief book, Koren (who trained as an architect) explores the history of wabi-sabi, along with its metaphysical, spiritual, and moral precepts. Rather than offering a formulaic guide to wabi-sabi, this book teases the mind with examples and opens it to finding beauty everywhere.
Why I like it:
As someone who struggles with the soul-killing aspects of perfectionism, the philosophy of wabi-sabi encourages me to find or create beauty in those things I consider to be flaws.
Favorite Quote:
“The simplicity of wabi-wabi is probably best described as the state of grace arrived at by a sober, modest, heartfelt intelligence. The main strategy of this intelligence is economy of means. Pare down the essence, but don’t remove the poetry.”
The Art of the Piano by John Diebboll
About:
The Art of the Piano is a collection of artwork by architect and artist John Diebboll which he created of art-case pianos. The designs are “witting and original—some are inspired by buildings, others by music and musicians, and some are simply follies.” Many of the beautiful art-case pianos featured in this book are in private and museum collections. This book is a fascinating glimpse at some of Diebboll’s best designs.
Why I like it:
This is a visual book, one best savored a few designs at a time. When I’m creatively dry, one of the most effective things I can do is to step away from words for a while. This book reminds me of the beauty and the possible whimsy of the piano.
Favorite Quote:
Etude No. 37 Sail
“In a children’s story, centered on a musical prodigy named Nathalie who dreams of adventures of undiscovered places, a piano is transformed into a sailboat and becomes her sole means of transportation.”