Do Musicians Slow With Age?

Welcome to virtualsheetmusic.com and livingpianos.com, I'm Robert Estrin. Today's question is a very interesting one. It's, "Do performers play slower as they age?" And the answer to this question is surprising. Well, let's talk about this. Now we can talk about pianists, violinists, and other instrumentalists. You might think that as performers age, they would naturally get slower. After all, particularly the technique that some young players have, you'd think they couldn't maintain it as they get into their 60s, 70s. Some performers, even in their 80s and 90s. But there's really more to it. You will find that very young performers...for example, prodigies...oftentimes play very, very quickly. And as they get into their 20s and 30s, as they mature, oftentimes they start taking more time with the music. Is this because their technique has diminished since they were children? Absolutely not. Sometimes you can actually say more by taking more time with it. It's very important to realize that to cherish and nurture and caress each note, it can be akin to making love. It does not have to be rushed. And if you love your music, you want to craft it. Just like when talking with people. You don't want to talk so fast that it's hard to even digest what someone is saying.

Now here's the key. The technical aspect is one thing, but the other aspect is very important to realize. If you have a piece of music you've practiced, you may have played it through tens of thousands of times and, as a result, to you, it might seem slow because you can think it through so quickly. But somebody who has never heard that piece before, it could just go right over their head. So you want to take enough time for people to be able to digest the music. And this is something that's learned, the maturity of playing longer. Now there are no hard and fast rules. There are some older players who play very fast and younger players who take their time. I've heard dramatically different tempos from usual out of older and younger players. But generally speaking, the difference oftentimes between very talented student performers and professionals is the tempos they take.

Now on the flip side, many less seasoned artists tend to play slow movements too slowly and they can get bogged down because they're thinking the faster note value as the beat, instead of the longer note value. Thinking each measure or each half measure, instead of thinking every beat, can give a much more relaxed feel to the music and create a different type of tempo at the same time. So there are no hard and fast rules. But I would say, generally, older players indeed tend to get slower. Not because of technical restrictions most of the time, but because of a musical maturity. Thanks for the great questions. Again, robert@livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com. See you next time.

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