All posts by Robert Estrin

What is Classical Music?

What is meant by the term Classical Music? This is not as simple a question as you might imagine. Some basic notions of Classical music are going to the symphony or recitals, but there are actually two distinct meanings of the term Classical music.

The first is the period style of Classical music – which was from the middle of the 18th century to the early 19th century. Composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn are examples of Classical era composers. So Classical music can refer to this particular period of music as well as the art, architecture and literature created during this era.

The term Classical music is also used generally to denote Western concert music. There are lots of different types of music – ones created for dancing, singing along, incidental music for theatre and more. But music that is actually created to listen to as a pure artform can be classified as Classical music. Sometimes it gets the distinction of being “serious” music and this is not necessarily true. Music of Beethoven, Debussy and other great composers features a wide range of emotions including humor! The bottom line is that it is designed to be an enduring work of art which elicits emotions.

But does all Classical music have to be similar in structure and sound? Absolutely not! Music that you might not think of as “Classical” can actually be classified as such. For example, if jazz music is written down with little or no improvised elements it can be classified as Classical music. A great example of this is George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” which is certainly built on jazz elements, but is a masterwork which is one of the treasures of Western music.

So the basic definition of Classical music is generally music that is written down (with some notable exceptions) that is intended to be appreciated in a concert setting. There is also the period style of Classical music which is a strict definition of the term.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Should You Start Teaching Music?

I get many questions from music teachers and people looking into becoming a private teachers about where to begin or how to improve their business. No matter if you’ve been teaching for years or just considering getting into it, here are some great tips and advice I can impart from spending a large portion of my life teaching private lessons.

The best thing you can do is find your niche. This isn’t just the type of instrument or music you can teach, it’s knowing your strengths and weaknesses beyond your own repertoire. For example, I know a couple of teachers who specifically advertise their ability to work with young children. This can be a very valuable asset because not all teachers are good with young children and advertising this specifically can be of great benefit to you.

The best thing you can do – for almost any occupation in this world – is find a way to set yourself apart from the competition. Whether it’s working with children, specializing in jazz or rock, or something that sets yourself apart from the label of just “music teacher”, finding your niche in this world can be an extremely valuable asset. You just must remember to play to your strengths – don’t advertise you can do something you can’t; stick with what you know.

There are also a number of private organizations you can join to help you get started or expand your business. In California we have the Music Teacher Association of California (MTAC) which is an incredibly valuable resource for many private teachers in California. They hold conventions and special events to help teachers meet and share ideas with one-another. There are others all around the country – there may be some in your area.

If you are currently taking lessons from a teacher and are considering offering lessons, you should consult them and ask for help. Many times they will be very helpful and in some cases could even refer clients to you if they don’t have the time to take on any more students.

The most important thing when it comes to teaching is the relationship you have between the student and the relationship you have with their parents. If you are comfortable relating to people and talking to them it can be an invaluable skill in growing your teaching career. The majority of the work a student puts in from a music lesson is actually the time they spend practicing at home. The hour or so you have every week is just a small amount of time and if they hope to improve they will need to practice on a regular basis. Getting a student to become interested in learning and progress on their own is the mark of a successful teacher.

The learning process for anything never really stops; it’s a constant process and the same goes for teaching. Talking to other teachers, relatives, friends, family, anyone you can spread the word of your career with is a great way to get your name out there and also attain some valuable information. You might be surprised how much you learn just from interacting with other music teachers.

Thanks again for joining me Robert@Livingpianos.com

How to Play Extreme Rubato

We’ve covered the basics of rubato before. But to summarize: Rubato is a give and take of the tempo; a speeding up and a slowing down without ever gaining or losing time. This is a technique used mostly in Romantic period music – like Schumann, Liszt, Chopin and others – which adds emotion and character to music. It’s only appropriate for some music and many compositions written in the Romantic era can benefit from the expressive use of rubato.

The idea of practicing with extreme rubato is to see how far you can push your music before it becomes grotesque. It’s hard to tell if you’re doing too much unless you can create a distinction between too much and just right. We recently discussed the benefits of practicing your music too fast to gain insights that you wouldn’t necessarily discover otherwise. This method of extreme rubato is very similar in helping you uncover expressive possibilities in your performance.

With many Romantic period pieces, rubato can add a great amount of emotion to your playing. Much like going up and down hills quickly in a car can create feelings of excitement as you crest over the peak and relief while descending, rubato can provide similar emotions in your music.

I encourage you to take rubato to its limits and beyond to discover how far you can go. Once you get a good idea of where the peaks and valleys are in the music, you can scale back the rubato to a tasteful level. If you never experiment, you may have trouble even discovering where rubato is possible!

One essential element of rubato is keeping the beat of the music. Listeners should be able to tap along never losing the pulse of the music.

It’s also important that you never gain or lose time when utilizing rubato. No matter how far off you go, you must maintain time. My father would demonstrate this technique by playing with the metronome using rubato. Sometimes he would get ahead of the metronome – sometimes behind – but he would always end with the correct number of beats.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Where are Pianos Most Popular?

Despite the declining industry in the United States, the piano is one of the most popular instruments in the world and nowhere is it more popular than in China. I was fortunate to attend the recent Music China convention in Shanghai and it was an eye-opening experience on just how vast the piano industry is there.

Many of you have seen Chinese manufactured pianos in local piano stores, but this is such a small portion of the industry and what is currently going on there. Consider these facts:

There are more companies making pianos in China than there are piano stores in the USA!

The largest piano manufacturer in China (Pearl River) has three factories in China, any one of which produces more pianos than all the new pianos sold in the USA each year. The difference in the size of the industry is staggering and the innovations are remarkable.

Pianos with touch screens on the fallboards, pianos with butterfly lids that open in both directions, pianos that are made out of plexiglass and even pianos with two keyboards, one on each end for a dueling piano!

 

 

 

 

 

The Chinese have taken to the piano like people did in this country over a hundred years ago. It’s an exploding market and it’s incredibly popular with younger generations. The Chinese purchase ten times the number of new pianos than Americans and that’s why the export market is only a small fraction of their output. Most of the pianos produced and sold are uprights like in the rest of the world because of smaller homes than in the United States. However, they produce plenty of grands and even concert grand pianos.

To put things into perspective, the biggest show in North America (The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show in Anaheim, California) has only one main room upstairs full of pianos easily covered in about 20 minutes. The Music China show has over three huge field houses full of pianos; I didn’t even have enough time to see all the instruments in the course of several days at the show!

So why is the piano so popular in China? Western culture wasn’t widely available to the Chinese until after the cultural revolution in the 1970’s. Today, the emerging consumer class in China are enriching children with piano lessons by parents who never had the opportunity to learn themselves. Every time I would sit down at a piano at the show, dozens of people crowded around me taking videos because it was a spectacle to see someone my age performing the piano!

I will be returning to China for performances, master classes as well as being an industry advisor. I hope to share the enthusiasm they have for the piano there to people in the U.S. and around the world.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

How to Get into a Music School (Conservatory)

If you’re a teacher you’ve undoubtedly been asked by students about how to get into a music conservatory. As we all know, there is no easy answer to this process and we all wish it could be something much simpler than it is. If you plan on attending a music school you really need to plan far ahead and be ready to dedicate years of hard work and study just to get into a good program.

For those students who dream big at a later age and decide they want to pursue music there is still plenty of hope. Your chances of getting into a top school might not be as good as those around you who have studied longer but there are options. Many community colleges have music programs and some of them don’t even require an audition – this is a great way to further your education even if you haven’t been accepted into a conservatory program.

Getting into a good music conservatory is still an incredible challenge and it really does require a tremendous amount of work. As a pianist you will need to have mastered at least one Prelude and Fugue from book one or two of Johann Sebastian Bach – excluding some of the easier preludes and fugues. You will need to have mastered a classical era sonata from either Mozart, Haydn or Beethoven – again some of the easier sonatas are not accepted. You will also need one or two contrasting works from the 19th or 20th century. You will also need to know all your major and minor scales and arpeggios.

As you can see, this is not something you can simply learn overnight! This is a lot of preparation that takes an incredibly long time to learn and prepare for. You could never prepare for an audition into a top school with only a year or two of studying.

When choosing the school, it’s most important to find a specific person for your specialty. For example, if you are a singer you will want to make sure the school you’re interested in has a singing instructor or professor you respect. The private teacher really is the most important aspect of any school you go to – even beyond the name of the institution or any of the orchestras associated with it. Better schools will also offer opportunities to perform in groups with more advanced players which can be extremely valuable as well.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@livingpianos.com

Do You Need 88 Keys on a Piano?

There are pianos out there – not just keyboards – that have less than the standard 88 keys. You might wonder whether or not a piano from an era with 85 keys would be a good choice for you or if you should avoid pianos with less than 88 keys. I know some people are hesitant to even contemplate getting a piano with less than 88 keys. Are they right?

If you look into the history of the piano you will quickly realize that the instrument didn’t always have 88 keys. In fact, for most of the piano’s history, it had far fewer than 88 keys. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that 88 keys became the standard on pianos. For most of the 1800s the standard for pianos was 85 keys or less. This is why the vast majority of Classical repertoire on the piano only requires between 61-85 keys.

When you get to 20th century composers like Debussy or Ravel and beyond, are the full 88 keys called upon. For the vast majority of piano music, 85 keys will actually be fine. For music of Mozart and Haydn, pianos had only around 61 keys! During Beethoven’s lifetime, the piano underwent substantial development including accommodating more keys. So, early compositions of Beethoven require far less keys than late Beethoven’s piano music.

Some people might shy away from a piano without those three extra keys but they really could be losing out on a great instrument. Sometimes you might find a piano that is an absolute gem and it might only have 85 keys. Should you just discount this instrument and find another? That depends.

If you find yourself playing a great deal of 20th century music, then you will probably be better off with a piano that has 88 keys. If you play mostly Classical and Baroque period music, 85 keys will not be a limitation at all. Should you worry about losing out on those few remaining keys? It depends on how much you love the piano you are looking at and if it’s worth forgoing in favor of three extra notes.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the last three notes on the piano do not register a substantial sound. They are extremely short-lived and not having them will not really affect the mood of the piece very much. For the vast majority of pianists 85 keys will not present a serious limitation. I personally would not have a issues playing on or owning an 85 key piano – I simply don’t use those extra three keys that much and can play pieces utilizing those keys without compromising the piece substantially.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any comments or questions about this topic or any others please contact us directly: info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729