The performance of music is the momentary sonic architectural definition of time. In the ongoing nature of performance, learn to create the illusion of past and future as well as the manipulation or stopping of time in the present. Performance is the control of time.

Time is everything and timing is in everything. There are foreground and background timings. There are rising and falling timings. There is timing in the music, in your career and in your life. There are timings in the life of every personal relationship and business deal. Know all the simultaneous levels of timing, for there is never just one timing. To
master timing is to anticipate, create and then seize your own opportunities both musically and personally.

Meter is the equal but unemphasized division of time. Rhythm is even, but has stress. All rhythm is metric, but meter does not have rhythm. Rhythm is "arsis" and "thesis"; tension and release; up and down; in and out; unity through opposites.

Notation is the visual representation of rhythm--the timing of the placement of the
surface of the music. Rhythm is rational, mathematically proportional, definable, combinative, and immediately identifiable, yet static.

Inner rhythm--the correct organizational grouping of notated rhythm--is what
provides the evenness of the rhythm of the surface with an underlying flow. For inner
rhythm is the performance of the awareness that the first note of any grouping of
notes is a point of arrival--not a point of departure. It is the second note in any
group that actually begins the movement that leads to the arrival of and on the next beat. Thus a phrase of sixteenth notes should actually be musically arranged
1432 1432, rather than what most musicians mistakenly organize as 1234 1234. The same method of organization--of counting down to the next beat--is true for any note
grouping, no matter how many notes are in the group.

Learn to balance odd numbered groupings on the center tone.

In large groupings of notes, learn to divide up the passage into artful inner rhythmic groupings. For example, to slow down a descending scale under the same pulse in a cadenza, the notes could be organized as follows: 15432 1432 132 132 12 12 1. The reverse process can be applied to ascending passages in tempo or "accelerando" to move them forward.

To play only rhythmically will cause the music to spurt forward from beat to beat as if pushed from behind. To play with inner rhythm will cause the music to lead onward smoothly as if pulled from ahead. Inner rhythm has rhythm, but the reverse is not true.

You must learn that notated rhythm is only a visual guide for the performance production of the inner rhythm to point out the pulse of the phrase rhythm. Phrase rhythm is the performance of the tonal stresses of the harmonic rhythm and the agogic stresses in the melodic rhythm placed within the natural stresses of the time signature of the measure. Study this deeply for it is also the essence of syncopation and "rubato."

Notation, no matter how careful or exact, can ultimately only be a guideline to the performer. First, you must study all of the implications in the score in exact and minute detail to glean what the composer is trying to communicate to you. Composers expect you to respect what they have tried to tell you through their art and science of notation. They expect you to understand form, harmony, melody, and phrasing. They
also expect you to know that there are things that are truly impossible to notate, or will sound wrong if played exactly as notated. For composers expect the utmost of sensitivity and understanding from performers so that in turn you may communicate musically to the audience. For it is only the performance of the music that reveals the feeling and spirit locked inside the ink and paper.

Neither the composition of music nor the study of music nor the practice of music is music itself. It is only the balance and interaction of the composer, performer and listener that is truly music.

It is the awareness and understanding of all the elements of the music that allows
you present the "melos"--the spirit of whatever is controlling or moving the music at each given moment--in performance.

Meter is beat, rhythm is stress, inner rhythm is flow, phrase rhythm is pulse, "melos" is spirit. This is the essence of interpretation.

You must learn the difference between your own psychological and physiological state
and temporal reality. Your mind may be racing many times faster than verbal expression, your lungs may ache and your heart may seem to be bursting through your ribs, but for the audience, time is ticking away at the usual pace. Artistry follows learning to take your time, to wait and to slow down. This is the essence of pacing yourself, the music and the performance.

An artist always makes or takes the time to express the music--no matter how fast. You
must learn to conquer speed, haste, recklessness or busyness.

Learn to expand the pulse--without breaking the flow--for the graceful insertion, completion or heightening of any musical gesture. This is the essence of phrasing and
ornamentation.

Learn to take your time and never hurry, but never be late.

When playing a fast or elaborate passage, you must learn to slow down, soak in and expand time. If you do this you will never become entangled.

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