Q&A with David Chang: It’s All in the Mind
Living in this pandemic is making me increasingly homesick for New York City, so I was delighted to FaceTime-visit my friend David Chang’s beautiful piano studio in Brooklyn for this week’s Q&A. When I think about creative process in music, David is the first person who comes to mind.
A Steinway Educational Partner and one of the most in-demand piano teachers in the country, David has created unique methodologies that detail how to efficiently learn and memorize music. He earned his music education and piano performance degrees from New York University and Manhattan School of Music, and he’s performed at Steinway Hall and Lincoln Center in addition to venues in the U.K., China, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, and Spain. He was also the featured performer at the 2019 Manhattan International Film Festival. These days, David is focused on his research of music learning and mental practice.
In our conversation about David’s plethora of methodologies for learning music, I was struck by how flexibility and fun are very much part of his creative process—in everything from avoiding a rigid schedule to watching Netflix while memorizing pieces. “I’m not going to want extraneous sound for deep listening,” he clarified, “but distractions are not always negative.”
In the world of novel-writing, a “plotter” plans and a “pantser” figures it out as they go (“flying by the seat of their pants”). At the AWP Conference last week, I heard author Margarita Montimore describe her pantser process as a “magical journey—like walking through a dark hallway, lighting one candle at a time.” But thriller writer Heather Chavez said her extensive planning period makes the process more fun: “I don’t have to think when I write because I already know what’s going to happen.”
I identify as a pantser (in writing and in no other area of my life!) but David’s process inspires me to experiment with more planning in my creative practice. If planning can build a framework for more fun, it’s worth a try.
Q&A with David Chang, pianist & piano instructor
Q: What is your creative process for learning a piece of music?
A: First, I write in all the fingering (as well as articulation and ornamentation as necessary). Step 2 is writing in the “complete plan.” I’ll write in shaping, pedaling, balance and voicing through the piece. And sometimes I’ll write things I want, like a “warm loud” or a “brilliant loud.” All of that can be considered the planning phase, outside the framework of formalized practice. Step 3 is when my “actual” practicing begins—when I use my logical, physical, and other methodologies to construct the piece. In my logical methodology, spaced repetition and interleaving are crucial components. I think it’s possible to play a piece at a really high level within a few days or a week if you’re methodical about this from the beginning.
Q: Can you elaborate on spaced repetition and interleaving?
Spaced repetition is forgetting and re-remembering something multiple times so that it enters your long-term memory. Interleaving is going back and forth between two or more things so that you forget one while you practice the other (thus encouraging spaced repetition for everything you’re practicing). Part of the art of interleaving is knowing your own personality and tendencies as well as monitoring fluctuations from day to day and moment to moment. If I’m practicing seven different études, for instance, which one should I go to? If I feel bored, is it more efficient to go to something else? What’s going to be the most fun for me? What’s going to engage me the most?
Q: What’s your favorite part of your creative process?
A: The physical act of playing is really thrilling in and of itself. Playing through my repertoire feels like I’m going through this intense regimen to better myself as a pianist—and hopefully as a person—and there’s something really physically satisfying about that. I feel like I’m doing something that’s meaningful. Of course, I love having a finished product and being able to share it. But I wouldn’t say that I love recitals. Even just sharing music on social media and having people watch the process itself—that’s one of the most joyous parts. The work you're doing to get to where you want to be and then sharing that work—I love both of those components.
Q: What materials do you use?
A: I have a Boston baby grand and an upright. One of the most important things to me is the quality of the una corda pedal. That’s a distinctive element of my playing: I constantly talk about coming from and going to nothingness. Both pianos are excellent with that. I also use my Kawai keyboard each day. I don’t think a keyboard is necessarily a negative thing as long as the work transfers. I use a stopwatch, the Pro Metronome app on my phone and iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil. I use pencils constantly. Also, I think it’s important to read self-improvement or piano-related books, as well as online resources like videos and interviews.
Q: You do a lot of mental practicing. What is this process?
A: Pure mental practice is imagination of the sight and sound and touch. One way to do this if you’re not so good at mental practice yet is to play the right-hand part, then play it in your head, then play the left hand, play it in your head—so it’s this alternation between the physical and mental. I call that “mixed practice.” If I’m practicing at the piano, I’ll do mixed practice for a while, and then I might want to go outside, take a walk. I can go to a coffee shop or enjoy the sun, keep working, and usually I’m itching to go back. Unless you have a technical issue, you can do everything you would do at the instrument away from the instrument. When I’m preparing for recitals, I’ll play the entire program from beginning to end every morning mentally, while I’m running. A lot of the time, my mental practice is during my morning cardio.
Q: Do you have any pre-practice rituals?
A: I like to run in the morning and do my mental practice then. I’ve never listened to music while running. I’m always practicing pieces mentally. For me, it’s not necessarily like “at nine o’clock I’m going to do this” or “at twelve o’clock I’m going to do this.” I purposefully schedule my teaching hours at different times so that I’ll have a six- or seven-hour break in the middle of the day, or sometimes I’ll do the opposite and teach for eight hours straight. I like to mix up the order of each day and fit the work in at interesting times.
Q: What about pre-performance rituals?
A: I really think about what words I want to go through my head right before I start a piece. For my performance of [Chopin Étude] Op. 10, No. 4, the words I said to myself were something like, “it’s possible you’re going to mess up the beginning, or there’s a part that’s messy, or the worst possible scenario is this, and that’s okay if that happens because you’re human and you need to forgive yourself and stay positive.” I think these words to take off the pressure. And then I think something inspiring like, “play this with everything you have, like your life depends on it, like your soul is on the line” to summon up intensity. I condense these into the smallest amount of words I can. And every day leading up to the performance, I say those words to myself and think those exact thoughts before I start the piece, so even that becomes habitual.
Listen to David’s playing on Instagram or—if you’re getting serious about your own piano studies—learn more about his teaching on Thumbtack.
If you’re interested in learning and memorization, David recommends Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.
Hey, writers, don’t know if you’re a plotter or a pantser? Good news: they’re both okay!
Read more Wild Minds posts here.