just because of those videos you can't give up that easily.

I may sound nuts, but I don't get affected by all these videos, in fact I end up working alot harder then usual. It does'nt make me feel deppressed.

Oh geez ... that little girl is sick! so much expression .. insane

And next to all the expression, a totally mature and immaculate performance. Amazing how sonorous a sound she produces. Yundi Li had better watch his back. Such staggering talent makes me wonder why us plodding amateurs are even bothering....

her facial expressions remind me of Lang Lang....how sad there must be a common training method for all the Asian pianists--"silly facial expressions sell!"

And there's a video of her performing as a 3-year old... She can barely reach halfway the pedals. Not sure if this a miracle of a freak of nature

Yeah really astonishing those kids, but I don't want to have their childhood.......but I've to admit that I enjoy to watch how they put every week new videos on youtube and how their technique develops. Enzo and JE Kim are my favorite of those young pianists....I always wonder how on earth they can record almost each week a new technical difficult work......

I don't think that you realise that those are natural facial expressions, it's her own way of expressing the music.

In general, all asians, how can you say we are trained to do that. We are not, those expressions are natural, even with me.

Fortunately, 99.999% of pianists would probably have shared the sentiment.

Pete

Indeed, the facial expressions of (I don't mean to sound in any way racist) of Asians are especially intense. I'm curious, are there cultural inspirations to these stereotypically intense emotive facial mannerisms? I rather like Lang Lang's convulsions; it's as though he were a child filled with wonderment, discovering each sound anew.

I hope someone could elucidate.

Pete

for me, nothing, no one, affects the expression on my face. It just comes naturally when i am 100% focused on the music. Actually I never knew till I saw a few photos people took of me when I was playing the piano and my piano teacher told me that.

My teacher said there is nothing wrong, in fact she enjoys my playing more when I drift off even if I make weird facial expressions.

The same for me, nothing consciously enters my mind to affect my mannerisms (or lack thereof). It could be our mirror neurons talking. We imitate our peers whether we like it or not.

Of course, facial expressions or other quirks should never be a source of self-consciousness or stress, as they are quite helpful in focusing a pianist's energy. Somehow, a grimace can contain what would otherwise be an extraneous motion of the playing mechanism. Indeed, the sound is what matters.

Pete

P.S. What's your name again?

Amelia!

yes??

hehe...see? Her name is Amelia. I had a great-great-aunt named Amelia. We called her Aunt Melo...

Amelia, if you want your quote tags to work properly, you have to disable HTML, either in your profile or in the check boxes at the bottom of each post.

haha...alright thanks!
yeah, every so often when i go for an exam or go to a music shop, people will ask what my name is. When I tell them, they always go aww...that's such a sweet name. My aunt/ grandaunt etc. has the same name.