Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how dynamics are like orchestration in your music. The piano is an amazing instrument because you have all the parts of a whole orchestra right under your fingertips! You want to think of your playing as orchestrating the sound and getting the quality of different sections of an orchestra—the strings, the brass, the percussion, all of it.
Thinking of your playing as different sections of an orchestra will help you play more expressively.
It can be richly rewarding for your audience to hear these kinds of dramatic changes in dynamics and tonal colors. I’m going to demonstrate this by using the beginning of Mozart’s Sonata in C Minor, K 457. This is a really good example because of the stark changes in dynamics. You can imagine the opening statement as a full orchestra with big, booming strings and brass. The next part is much quieter, so maybe you just have woodwinds. Then again, a full orchestra, followed again by delicate winds. Think of your music as orchestrating each section. Get a different tonal color and a different balance in your playing.
Whenever you’re playing, think of orchestrating.
This goes for every composition you play! Some can be more subtle than others. Not all music is going to change this often from one texture, sound, or dynamic to another. However, this also holds true when you’re playing a texture. This isn’t changing orchestrations for each bar or measure, but having a different sound for each strata of music. The treble might be a clarinet; the lower notes could be cellos; and in the middle, it could be violas. So you try to get different sounds on all the different lines you’re playing.
There are two kinds of orchestration.
There’s orchestrating different sections dynamically, and there’s orchestrating which lines of music you’re bringing out. Think of your piano music as being orchestrated, because after all, that’s exactly what the piano offers! That’s what’s so great about the piano—you can play compositions that would take a whole orchestra. Take advantage of that and discover the sounds and sonorities you can achieve in your playing! I hope this is helpful for you! 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
2 thoughts on “How to Orchestrate Your Playing”
Hi, Robert,
Thank you. Fine observations. Incidentally, you no doubt already know this, but in his B-flat piano sonata, the K.333, Mozart unmistakably pits the solo piano against a simulated orchestra when he provides a cadenza–recognizable even in the shake-&-trill re-entrance of the “orchestra”– at least the way Schnabel played it.
As for Beethoven: do you know Dudley Moore’s Beethoven sonata parody? Marvelous–he gets all the salient features of Beethoven’s style, from the very start. I highly recommend it, it’s hilariously brilliant–especially the black-&-white clip.
All the best,
Nicholas
I do remember seeing that Dudley Moore take-off which had the unmistakable never ending Beethoven ending!