Pianists use all of our senses.

I love cooking because I use all of my senses. This apple cinnamon recipe is an example; it involves slightly overripe apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a touch of fresh ginger.

If you love to cook, you just smelled that entire sentence. 

You know exactly how the apples should feel, you can feel the near-creamy texture of the brown sugar, and cinnamon and ginger have experiences all their own.

Most people don't really think about how pianists use all of their senses as well, but we do.

Playing the piano is a full body sensory event.

We literally feel the vibrations that we are generating--from both the piano and from ourselves. 

We don't just hear the piano's response to us; we can sometimes tune into slight echoes in the concert hall and use them in our music. Sometimes audience reaction spurs us on into comical divergences, both intentional and unintentional.

The outfits we wear, the shoes on our feet (if we even wear shoes!), our perfume/cologne/soap/aroma and that of the collective audience, the titters of appreciation, the clicking of heels on the wood grain of the stage, the whir of the conductor's baton--all of it is perceived on some level.

And it is glorious.

I love playing the piano.