Piano and Music Videos

Can't find what you're looking for?

Welcome to Living Pianos. I’m Robert Estrin. In this article, we will be discussing the single greatest
challenge in playing the piano. There are many aspects to playing the piano, such as playing with both
hands, playing multiple parts, playing fast, and playing scales, arpeggios and repeated notes. However,
there is one aspect that is the Achilles heel of piano playing, and that is the envelope of the sound
produced by the piano.

The Piano’s Sonic Characteristics

If you listen to just one note played on the piano, what do you hear? You hear a sharp attack, a quick
decay and a slow, quiet sustain that gradually decreases in volume. This presents a major challenge for
playing the piano since it is difficult to play melodies which imitate the human voice. After all, the human
voice is the original musical instrument of all time! Wind instruments have the benefit of using breath to
create musical lines. Violins and many other string instruments have bows to sustain notes. But on the
piano, in order to overcome this limitation, you must master the art of illusion!
How to Create the Illusion of a Continuous Line on the Piano
One of the techniques for creating a singing line, or sustained line, is to use the weight of your arm. The
arm has weight and, by using it as an analog to the breath, you can create a smooth line. You can
transfer the weight of the arm smoothly from note to note, rising and falling like the breath, with more arm
weight in the middle of the phrase, and less arm weight in the beginning and end of a phrase. This
technique can be enhanced with the use of the pedal. But before we discuss this, let’s talk about
something I refer to as, “The Phantom Pedal.”

The Phantom Pedal

The Phantom Pedal refers to the use of finger technique to hold down notes with your fingers instead of
relying upon the pedal. This allows you to sustain notes with your left hand while adding emphasis to the
melody notes in your right hand with the pedal. This creates a much more sustained melody, without the
risk of creating clashing harmonies or muddy sound.

Bonus Tip

As a bonus tip, we will discuss the use of the una corda, or soft pedal on a grand piano which is the
pedal on the left. Una corda means, “one string” because in early pianos, there were 2 strings on each
note. Depressing the pedal shifted the hammers so that the hammers only struck one string on each
note. Modern pianos have 3 strings on each note in most registers. The hammers still hit all the strings,
but not directly. This results in a softer initial attack. Yet the sustain is just as rich because of sympathetic
vibrations. By combining this pedal technique with the use of the arm, as well as the other techniques I
described earlier, you can overcome the inherent limitation of the piano’s sonic characteristics.
In conclusion, the single greatest challenge in piano playing is the envelope of the sound produced by
the piano. However, by mastering the art of illusion, and combining techniques such as using the weight
of the arm and using your fingers to hold notes (phantom pedal), you can overcome this limitation and
create a beautiful, sustained sound. This is the secret of artistry in piano playing.
I hope this has been helpful for you! Leave your comments here at LivingPianos.com and on YouTube!
Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin here at
LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon
channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons or want more information about pianos. I have many
resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

The Single Greatest Challenge of Piano Playing

Welcome to Living Pianos. I’m Robert Estrin. In this article, we will be discussing the single greatest challenge in playing the piano. There are many aspects to playing the piano, such as playing with both hands, playing multiple parts, playing fa

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to share with you the magic formula for key signatures. Many of you know your key signatures. But maybe you don’t quite understand them or you’re not fluent with them. Do you need to memorize all that stuff? Surprisingly the answer is no. Why not? There are formulas you can use to figure them out!

You never have to memorize your key signatures.

Believe it or not, I have never memorized my key signatures, but I can name them. F, C, G, D, A, E, B. How did I do that so fast? I’m actually thinking through the intervals that fast. I’m going to show you how to do exactly the same thing so that you don’t have to memorize them. You can understand them and figure them out. You might not be able to figure them out as quickly as I just did, but you will be able to figure them out. You will get faster with it over time.

The interval of a fifth is critical in key signatures.

What is a fifth? The fifth, simply put, is the fifth note of a scale. So in C major, G is the fifth note of the scale. This interval is what’s called a perfect fifth. It’s a perfect fifth because G is the fifth note of the C major scale. You can invert this and put the C on top. It’s still a perfect interval, but now it becomes a fourth. So fourths and fifths are essentially the same. That’s one of the reasons they’re perfect intervals. Inverted, they remain perfect. Incidentally, octaves are also perfect intervals, as well as primes or unisons. If two people are playing the same note on different instruments, that’s called a prime. Once you understand fifths and fourths, the rest is easy!

If you have a key signature with sharps, the first sharp is always F-sharp.

You have to memorize that F-sharp is the first sharp. Once you memorize that and a couple other small details, the rest is seamless. So you have F-sharp. From there it goes up by fifths. You can either count with your fingers or you can do it on the piano. Count out five notes, F, G, A, B, C. C is the second sharp. From here you count out the next one, C, D, E, F, G. G is the next sharp. You can keep counting this way. D is the next sharp, then A, then E, and the last sharp is B. So these are all the sharps, F, C, G, D, A, E, B. You don’t have to memorize them. You just have to be able to figure them out.

How do you know what key you’re in?

If you go up a half step from the last sharp to the right, that’s the major key. So if you have one sharp, an F-sharp, go up a half step to see you’re in the key of G major. If you have two sharps, F-sharp and C-sharp, you’re in the key of D major. If you have three sharps, F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, you’re in the key of A major. If you have four sharps, F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp, you’re in E major. If you have five sharps, F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, D-sharp, A-sharp, you’re in B major. With six sharps you end on E-sharp, which means you’re in the key of F-sharp major. And finally, all seven sharps mean you’re in the key of C-sharp major.

That’s just half the story, because now we go to flats!

The first flat, if you only have one, is going to be B-flat. From here it goes down by fifths. I mentioned earlier that fifths and fourths are the same thing reversed. So you might as well go up by fourths because it’s easier to count up than down. So B-flat, E flat, A-flat, D-flat, G-flat, C-flat, F-flat. That’s the order of the flats. This is exactly backwards from the order of the sharps. The patterns are unbelievable!

Finding what key you’re in is even easier with flats.

There is one that you must memorize. The key with one flat is F major. It has the B-flat in it. You just have to know that. From there, the second to last flat is the key you are in. Because all flat scales, with the exception of F major, begin on a flat. So if you have two flats, B-flat and E-flat, you’re in the key of B-flat major. If you have three flats, B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, you’re in the key of E-flat major. If you have four flats, B-flat, E-flat, A-flat, D-flat, you’re in the key of A-flat major. And it goes on and on that way.

So all you have to look for is the last sharp on the right and go up a half step to find your major key. Or look for the second to last flat to the right to find the major key. I hope you enjoy these theory primers! Let me know in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and on YouTube. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin
Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

The Magic Formula for Key Signatures

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to share with you the magic formula for key signatures. Many of you know your key signatures. But maybe you don’t quite understand them or you’re not fluent with

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin, and this is Piano Test-Drive! I have a gorgeous instrument to present to you! The first thing I did on this piano is the first thing I do on almost every piano I encounter, which is to improvise. I let the sounds take me where they will. Truth be known, I did record the Chopin G minor Ballade on this instrument. You can find that performance here. But what’s really fascinating is sitting down on an instrument with no preconceived notions and just letting the sound take you.

An instrument like this Steinway Concert Grand from 1952, which has been masterfully rebuilt, is almost like driving a sports car.

Any maneuver you want to undertake, the instrument can handle it. You can go anywhere you like, and it can take you there at lightning speed! For example, the opening chords of the improvisation you’re about to hear, which I recorded last night. They’re massive chords. They blend from one to the next and it’s a glorious big sound. Yet in the middle, I come down and play with delicacy, just like if you’re in that sports car and you decide to take a scenic drive by the ocean to enjoy a little bit of the scenery. There are repeated notes, there’s everything I could throw at this piano! I’m wondering how you’ll like this. Listen for the end, because you’ll hear the massively strong, lowest B-flat octave on the piano at the end of this improvisation. I hope you like it!

The Steinway model D is the Concert Grand you see on stages throughout the world!

If you go to the symphony to see a concerto, 97% of the time it’s a Steinway model D Concert Grand on stage. It’s the de facto standard. To have a glorious instrument like this is such a treat. I just want to record as much as I can on this piano for the time I have it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this! I would love to hear your impressions of this instrument in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and YouTube. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin here LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Piano Test-Drive: Steinway Concert Grand

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin, and this is Piano Test-Drive! I have a gorgeous instrument to present to you! The first thing I did on this piano is the first thing I do on almost every piano I encounter, which is to improvise.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. A few weeks ago, I put out a video on the top 5 piano lesson fails. I thought it was only fair to do the other side of the equation. So today, I’m sharing the top 10 piano teacher fails! Incidentally, these aren’t just about piano teachers. Most of these apply to all teachers. So I think you’ll be very interested in this!

1. Your teacher doesn’t show you how to practice.

You go to your lesson. Your teacher makes corrections and they assign new material. When you get all done, they tell you to practice. You leave the lesson and go through those corrections. You have your new piece. But how do you practice? You realize you have no idea even how to approach the practicing! That’s because they didn’t show you how to practice. When you leave a lesson, you should know exactly what it is you have to do and how to do it. Just telling a student to practice isn’t enough.

2. Your teacher doesn’t show you how to memorize.

You learn a piece and you’ve played it for a long time. Finally, at the end of the lesson, your teacher says, “For next week, I want you to have this memorized.” You get home and you start from the beginning. You see if you know any of it. You remember just the first couple of bars. Your fingers kind of just go to the right keys because you’ve played it so many times. Then you wonder, “Well, now what do I do?” You can’t figure out how to memorize because your teacher didn’t show you how to memorize! They just expected you to know how to memorize.

This is really bad for a number of reasons. First of all, it makes you feel like something’s wrong with you! The teacher expects you to be able to memorize and you can’t do it. You feel like maybe you just aren’t smart enough to know how to memorize. Well, nobody can just instantly memorize! I guess there are some amazing geniuses out there who can just play music and it’s memorized immediately. Of course, if music is simple enough, maybe just sheer repetition will work. But if you have just one week to get something memorized, and you don’t have a method or a process, you’re in trouble. So, if your teacher tells you to memorize, ask them how to memorize. If you don’t get a clear, concise answer, then you might consider getting another teacher if memorization is important to you.

3. Your teacher gives you music that is too hard for you.

This is something that is so blatantly wrong and common! Teachers give music that’s too hard. Now, why would they do that? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First of all, you might be begging your teacher to give you a certain Chopin etude. So part of it can be inspired by the student asking to play something that is really not appropriate for their level. Another thing is that teachers often like to brag to other teachers and pianists. “I have students playing Liszt etudes and late Beethoven sonatas.”, or whatever it may be, because it makes them feel like they’re really good teachers. Or maybe they’re tired of the easy pieces they teach all the time. If a student asks for something that’s too hard, they just say, “Go ahead and do it.” They figure, at least they’ll be listening to something that they like. Occasionally, studying a piece far more advanced than you have played before, can help you reach new levels in your playing if you are willing to put in the hours of practice necessary to master it. But all too often, you can end up wasting valuable practice time on something you can’t end up playing on a decent level.

4. Your teacher talks over your head.

This is something true of almost all subjects. Some teachers will talk over your head. They’re talking as if you understand them, and you sort of do, but not quite. You don’t even know what question to ask. You feel like it would make you seem stupid if you ask a question after your teacher talks to you like you understand. This is particularly true with music theory. Maybe they expect you to understand some complex harmonic progression and they think, “Well, this is the C diminished, which obviously is going to be in the key of D flat.” And you go, “Mm-hmm”. Before you can even formulate the question, they’re going on to the next thing. “So this is the diatonic chord in this key. And you can see, well of course the key signature…” You’re nodding along hoping you will eventually catch on, but you never really understand anything they’re talking about! You sort of get it. And once again, you think there’s something wrong with you because you think you should understand what they’re talking about! They seem so brilliant. And if they think you understand it, you should. Well, sometimes teachers don’t appreciate the foundation you need in order to follow the whole chain of a conversation. You could be lost at the beginning and kind of nodding along, thinking, “Oh, I’ll get this eventually by the end of this talk.” But then before you know it, you’re onto the next topic, and you never even get to it. So this is a really big problem.

5. Your teacher never reviews what you’ve learned previously.

Your teacher introduces something new. Great! “Today, we’re going to do harmonic analysis.” So you spend a little bit of time with it. But that’s the last time it ever comes up. Next time they bring up something else, like how to play scales in contrary motion. They do it once, then you never hear about that again. You never quite got it. Before you know it, you’re going on to two, three, or four other things. There’s no follow through. So you end up with all these little tidbits of knowledge that go by the wayside. You never really understand any of them because your teacher is not consistent in the instruction.

6. Your teacher’s instructions are too vague.

Have you ever gotten some abstract instructions? You’re playing a piece and your teacher says, “Over here, make it sound like butterflies flying through the wind in the flowers.” You’re thinking, “Wow, that sounds great.” You’re just so impressed with the imagery. But you think, “What do I do to make it sound like butterflies?” You love the whole concept of it so much that you don’t want to ask about it. Abstract comments can sometimes give you some vague idea of what you’re after. But if it’s not followed through with specific instructions about how to achieve that sound, it can be meaningless. It might sound good, but you need more than that.

7. Your teacher makes you feel bad about yourself.

Now we’re getting to some of the heavy things. There are some really destructive things that teachers can do. A teacher might say something passive aggressive like, “That’s good if you think you like it that way.” They make you feel small. They’re saying things to you and making you feel terrible. Why is this so destructive? Well, first of all, it’s hurtful! Also, it might make you just give up on the whole idea of piano. If you’re constantly demeaned at lessons, then you lose the joy. What’s the point of studying piano if you can’t enjoy it, right?

8. Your teacher yells.

Teachers who yell, there’s really no excuse for this. It really is verbal abuse. “Why don’t you know your scales? You should know this by now!” Or, “You didn’t memorize this piece? I told you to memorize it!” Any kind of yelling, there’s no place for that in a piano lesson. There is one tiny exception. I notice that with online lessons, occasionally the technology doesn’t cooperate. A student is playing a sonata and I need to stop them. I’m going, “Hey! Hey!” Trying to get somebody’s attention online. But that’s a different story. I’m talking about yelling at a student because they’re doing something wrong. The teacher thinks they need to yell to make their point. No. That’s not an appropriate way to make a point. End of story.

9. Your teacher physically harms you.

I’ve heard so many stories about teachers who hit their students. Hitting is absolutely wrong in any circumstance during a lesson! There’s an old story, you’ve probably heard of teachers who used rulers to make students’ corrections. Every time there was a wrong finger, whack! The teacher thought, “If they know they’re going to get hit, they’re going to play with the right fingers.” Well, aside from the potential for damage, pain is not a good way of getting people to be open to concepts of instruction. Hitting is just absolutely wrong.

Early on in my teaching career, I had a student who hit me! It was a child, but a child who was old enough to know better. And Janine, if you’re listening now, I forgive you. She was actually joyful to work with and it really didn’t hurt. But it was kind of weird to be hit by a student! But hitting from a teacher, or a student for that matter, is absolutely inappropriate, obviously.

10. Your teacher doesn’t allow you to play through anything.

This can be so frustrating! You start your piano lesson and begin playing. You make a mistake early on and your teacher stops you. “That was wrong.” So then you try to continue, but you’re kind of put off by this. So you go on and make a mistake again, just because you’re not in your groove anymore. Before you know it, you’re so afraid of being stopped, that you’re not even concentrating on the music anymore! This is so counterproductive. A teacher has to let you play through your music so they know how to guide the lesson. That’s how they can see the points that need to be covered during the course of the lesson. They must listen through. Even if there are several things they think they absolutely must discuss with you, if they don’t hear everything, how do they know the priorities of the lesson? They don’t. Worse yet, it doesn’t give you an opportunity to show them the hard work you did during the course of the week. You want to show them your achievements and feel good about them before getting to work. So, if you have a teacher who doesn’t let you play through things during the course of a lesson, that’s not going to work. It’s not going to be a very useful or valuable lesson for you.

Those are the top 10 teacher fails!

I wonder if any of you have other teacher fails to share. Let me know in the comments here at LivingPianos.com or YouTube! Thanks so much for joining me. Thanks for subscribing, and telling people about Living Pianos. There are more piano videos coming your way on LivingPianos.comYour Online Piano Resource!

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Supplemental Content:
Top 5 Piano Lesson Fails

Top 10 Piano Teacher Fails

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. A few weeks ago, I put out a video on the top 5 piano lesson fails. I thought it was only fair to do the other side of the equation. So today, I’m sharing the top 10 piano teacher fails! Inc

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to share an important tip with you. More motion equals more volume and less motion equals less volume and more speed. It’s as simple as that. This applies not just to finger work, but to wrist technique as well. I’m going to illustrate both for you today!

The answer is, it really depends upon the context.

Sometimes you want to be able to play delicately and quietly. For example, in the B flat minor Nocturne of Chopin. If you play it with a lot of finger motion, not staying close to the keys, with raised fingers, you will hear a great deal of sound generated from the sheer motion. But if you want to achieve a real pianissimo, you’ll use less motion and stay close to the keys. You don’t even need to use the una corda pedal, the soft pedal! You can get so much control when you’re close to the keys! You get a really soft sound. Now the converse of that, if you want more volume in your playing, simply use more finger motion. Raise your fingers higher. It’s very simple physics really. If you want to bang a nail into the wall, you’re not going to strike from right next to it. You’re going to give some momentum and strike from above. Well the same thing is true with chord technique on the piano.

How does this apply to wrist work?

Let’s say you want to be able to play light and fast chords in the Military Polonaise of Chopin. If you try to use a lot of motion, it’s going to be very loud, but it’s going to be difficult to play fast. You get a lot of volume, but you can’t achieve much speed. Speed is related to how much motion you use in your playing. Staying closer to the keys, using less wrist motion, you have more control, more speed, with less volume.

The amount of motion affects the volume and speed of your playing.

This applies to the wrists as well as finger technique. So remember: when you want to play a true beautiful pianissimo, stay close to the keys. The same is true of anything with staccatos. If you want light action from the wrist, staying close to the keys is going to give you a crisp light sound, whereas more motion is going to give you more power. For fast playing, stay close to the keys and use a minimum of motion in fingerwork or wrist action.

So now you know how to get power and how to get lightness and speed. Staying closer to the keys enables quieter playing and quicker response. To achieve greater power, use more motion. That’s the tip for today! Try it out in your piano playing! Let me know how it works for you in the comments below here on YouTube and LivingPianos.com. Thanks so much for joining me. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

How to Achieve Power & Speed in Your Playing: More Motion = Power – Less Motion = Speed

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to share an important tip with you. More motion equals more volume and less motion equals less volume and more speed. It’s as simple as that. This applies not just to f

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how you can develop brilliant octaves in your piano playing. It’s exciting when you go to a concert and there are big octave sections, like in the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor Piano Concerto. Or, in Liszt or Chopin octave sections where both hands are playing octaves in unison. There’s a power to it that is so exciting! It almost seems impossible if you’ve never done it before. But there are techniques that I’m going to share with you.

I’ve been working on the Liszt B minor Sonata for a recording session that I’m doing later this year. In relearning this piece, I’ve had an epiphany that I’m going to share with you. But first, I want to show you the essentials that I’ve covered before in previous videos.

What are the essential techniques for brilliant octaves?

Just playing octaves doesn’t seem very difficult. So what’s the technique? Playing octaves with the arms won’t work at speed because the arms are just too big to move fast enough. There’s a limitation to how fast the arms can go. So it comes down to the wrists. I’ve talked a great deal about the importance of the wrists in piano technique. It’s important to use your wrists not just for octaves and fast chords, but also for articulating staccatos. Even in Baroque and Classical period music, the wrists are so important for clarity of your phrasing. Even for something like a Bach minuet. If you were to play a Bach minuet without using your wrists for staccatos, it just would be lacking in definition. By using the wrists on the staccatos, instead of the arm, it has far greater clarity. Even for music that was written when the piano was in its infancy, the wrists delineate phrasing in a way that the arms can never achieve. But when you’re doing fast octave or chord technique, the wrists have to be independent from the arms. But there’s more to it than that.

The most important thing for achieving fast octaves is maintaining an arch position of your hands.

One secret of octaves is having your hands in exactly the right place. In order to accomplish this, you use a technique I refer to as, the arches. Your hand must form an arch. The arch is an amazingly strong structure. The Roman aqueducts used arches. A tent that you go camping in has supports that form an arch, and they’re very strong to withstand winds. Your hand must have an arch for strength as well. You do this to mitigate the difference in strength between the thumb and the pinky. Forming an arch equalizes the force that you have on either side of your hands. Even with an arch, the other fingers are in the way, aren’t they? So the other fingers need to go up and out of the way. This forms another arch! There are two sets of arches, essentially. The arch for support, and the arch to get the fingers out of the way. That way, positioning your hands less than an inch over the keys, any effort goes directly to playing the keys. You want to always keep your hands just a fraction of an inch above the keys, never touching the keys. You don’t want a big motion because there’s no time for that. If you place your hands precisely over the keys, less than an inch, with a nice arch, you can get tremendous power and speed with a minimal amount of effort.

How do you practice the arch technique?

There’s a great little exercise I’d like to show you. You must not use the arm for the up and down motion of octaves, only for going from key to key, moving towards the fallboard for black keys, and closer to the edge of the keys for white keys. Set the metronome to 60 and just play a slow C major scale in octaves. When you play this, your wrists should be moving up and down, but your arms should just be making a fluid motion over the keys. The arms provide absolutely no up and down motion at all. Maintain the arch position between your thumb and pinky, and keep your other fingers up and out of the way. That doesn’t seem hard. To play it correctly, however, is very important. It’s how you play this exercise that will develop your strength. If you just play with your arms, it might work at a slow tempo. With your metronome set at 60, you could play almost any way at all, and it’s going to come out! But to get greater speed, the motion must all come from your wrists. The wrists can go very fast! Once you’re secure and you’re not using any up and down arm motion, just your wrists, go to two notes to the beat, then three notes to the beat. Go as fast as you possibly can, adding a note each time.

Playing fast octaves with the arms feels horrendous.

Playing with the arms, and not the wrists, is painful. And you can’t get control or speed. The secret of the arch is equalizing the force of the pinky with the thumb so you get a sound that is equal in both notes of the octave. As you go faster, stay closer to the keys and play lighter. That’s the secret of fast octaves! Develop the independence of the wrist and unlock the secret power of the arch! Work slowly and identify the wrists separate from your arms as you practice octaves. For some people, this comes very quickly. Other people struggle for a long time because it’s not something you’re accustomed to doing, isolating wrist motion from your arms. Sometimes, I liken it to waving bye-bye, just moving your wrists up and down keeping them separate from your arms.

The arms only place the hands over the right keys, the wrists provide the up and down motion.

Using the arms will just slow you down and make everything much heavier. Get used to waving bye-bye first. Then, eventually get into the arch position. You’ll be able to get clear, fast octaves! So that’s what brilliant octave technique is all about! You can work on your octaves with the exercise I’ve shown you. Learn to get into the arch position. Start off just waving bye-bye a bit, and then go to the piano and try it out. Then get into the arch position and work on the octave exercise. And you can develop brilliant octaves. I promise you! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Supplemental Content:

How to Play Piano PT 2 – It’s All in the Wrists

The Best Piano Exercises (Part 4) – Octaves

A Secret Octave Technique for Piano

How to Develop Brilliant Octaves in Your Piano Playing

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how you can develop brilliant octaves in your piano playing. It’s exciting when you go to a concert and there are big octave sections, like in the Tchaikovsky B-fl