Today, I would like to talk about “ confidence “ and
“genius”.
When talking about this topic, Franz Liszt is a good
example to bring up because he was like the epitome of confidence, and he was a
genius as well.
Franz Liszt's confidence was
quite impressive besides his out of this world level of piano playing and his compositions, and his stormy, yet sweet
and very generous, personality.
Amazingly enough, it seems
that the only time Liszt really got nervous in his life was when he was a
child, when his piano teacher took him to Beethoven to show his piano playing.
Prior to this event, when
Liszt was even a younger child, when he was asked what he wanted to be in the
future, he pointed his finger to a large
painting of Beethoven and said,
“ I want to be that one !”
Beethoven was Liszt’s hero
when he was a child, and his desire was really clear since such a young age.
In general , Beethoven was
not interested in seeing children playing piano and he always rejected whenever
any piano teachers and other musicians asked him to see any talented kids who
could play well.
But this time, Liszt’s piano teacher didn’t give up, he really
wanted Beethoven to see Liszt because he thought Liszt’s piano playing was incredible.
Beethoven finally accepted
it, but he wasn’t really wishing to listen to it and seemed to have like a
frown face, that is until the child Liszt started playing.
When Liszt finished playing, Beethoven walked up to Liszt and kissed him
on the forehead and said to him ,
“ You will make many people
happy in the future. “
And I suppose this
amazing experience with Beethoven made
him even more confident.
Liszt’s parents were very
supportive for his talent of piano playing.
And this is very important for parents to support and show appreciation
for any talent or gift that their children may have, so that the children can
get more self-confidence and this will influence their lives forever.
Liszt was lucky to have great supportive
parents.
In general, I’ve heard that most
stage professionals, actors, musicians ( including professional pianists ), and artists who need
to perform on stage , very often get stage fright.
I thought this is normal.
But in this sense, Franz Liszt was not
normal.
From reading Alan Walker’s definitive biography, Liszt’s confidence on stage was legendary.
Chopin once said to Liszt ,
“
If you cannot win the audience, you have
something with which you can strike it dead ! “
Chopin who is such an amazing
genius for his incredible compositions and piano playing, had, at
times, experienced stage fright.
Personality may also
influence for it, but I feel it’s mostly coming from how one
grew up.
Actually, Liszt was the first
pianist who started solo pianist stage recital .
It happened when an orchestra
had an issue and could not be on the stage on time, and Liszt was the only
performer left available for this concert and he accepted to perform solo for the
audience.
Until then there were no solo
piano performers.
Piano players had
always performed with orchestra, or at least with a group of other musicians.
It’s funny, Liszt might have contributed
to making other pianists nervous because until he started as a solo piano
performer, no one had to deal with the huge nerves issue of playing by
themselves for a large audience.
So, going back to my earlier
point, having a hero in childhood is one of the greatest motivations to make
strong ambition and get success for what one wants in life.
Because when you imagine your
hero with passion and admiration, you will also put yourself in her/his position,
and feel like you are already experiencing it.
Besides Beethoven as his
childhood hero, and after he had achieved to be Europe’s top pianist, Liszt was later inspired by the legendary
violinist Paganini’s magical and unique stage performance and he added to his goal to be a pianist version
of Paganini, a magical piano virtuoso
and he also achieved this goal to be an incredible and unique pianist.
Liszt’s goals always sounded very
clear, and once he found his target goal, he just focused to get there.
I feel he always achieved his goal because
his strong confidence helped him.
Having confidence influences our
life hugely and it mostly comes from how
we grew up, our environment, and what kind of support we received.
One can get confidence by
someone’s compliment words, when someone values you even though there may be
millions of other people criticizing you, and even if only one person can see
the value of your effort, talent, or gift, you can take that compliment or that
support and build on it to become the confident person you deserve to be.
Also, it’s important to
remember that even if no one compliments you or values you, you can be your own
supporter , and compliment yourself, and the universe will support you.
Depending on the country,
there are cultural differences.
And I did
notice that there are similarities between Japan and some European countries,
especially German parents and Japanese parents are similar in some ways.
In these
countries, many parents are usually strict to their kids and it’s because they wish
their kids to be perfect, and they tend to always find what is lacking rather
than complimenting their kids, and they were taught to be humble but not to be arrogant.
We don’t need to announce
about it loudly to others, but complimenting oneself personally when one is alone,
like talking and complimenting yourself, can help to boost one’s confidence and even
make one feel more love towards oneself.
In one of the self-improvement
methods, there is instruction to make a
special journal which is only for complimenting yourself.
Everyday, anything
you felt you are amazing, even small things, write it down. This does
not only make you feel good, but it brings great fortune as well.
Because when your feeling improves, your life
improves.
For Japanese and any people
who are not used to complimenting themselves, it may be hard to compliment
themselves in the beginning, but it was tested by many people and their life
changed.
I found there are so many
people who are having dark depression all over the world nowadays, and one of the
causes of it is coming from a lack of confidence, which anyone can have and
deserves to have.