All posts by Robert Estrin

Piano Technique Questions: Raised Finger Technique

This topic comes from a YouTube viewer of mine who was responding to a video I made about a Brilliant Piano Technique.

My piano teacher today told me that lifting those middle 3 fingers up and out of the way causes enormous tension all the way through your arms and that while playing octaves, you need to rest your middle three fingers on the keys in a relaxing position, directly contradicting your video. Please help me!

– Youtube Viewer

Your teacher is absolutely correct in directing you to keep your hands as relaxed as possible. The fact is, playing octaves requires strength. Without that strength, it is impossible to play rapid octave passages. If the fingers are not out of the way, they will hit notes between the octave. So, it is necessary to have a hand position that allows for clean octave work. You can see a demonstration of how this can work in a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodie.

When I was young and developing my technique, it was exhausting practicing this piece. I have extremely small hands that are naturally very weak. However, with progressive, intelligent practice, it is possible to develop strength and speed by utilizing proper hand position in the most relaxed manner possible.

Does a Humidistat Help with Tuning Stability?

Robert,
I enjoy your website and your videos. Thanks so much. My piano is a Baldwin acoustic upright and I have it tuned regularly. But now I have a new piano technician and he is suggesting I add a humidistat to the inside of the piano to regulate humidity at all times. He says this will cause me to not need regular tunings anymore. Does this make sense? I’ve never heard you speak of such a thing.

Sincerely,
Laura

Your tuner gave you some good pointers. In fact, stabilizing the soundboard will help with tuning stability particularly in environments with wide swings of humidity. Although I live in Southern California with a semi-arid climate, I have a Dampp-Chaser System on my concert grand which helps keep the tuning stable. However, all pianos will still require tuning on a regular basis, particularly if they are played a lot. The Dampp-Chaser System just prolongs the life of your tunings.

Does the Music Rack Affect the Sound of a Piano?

This might seem like a silly question. How would something as small as the music rack affect the sound of the piano? The truth is, for the audience it doesn’t. However, for the performer, it can have a big effect on what they hear while playing.

I remember during one of my father’s recording sessions he needed to reference the score for one small section – so he placed the music in front of him. This was completely out of the ordinary for him as he memorized all his music for all his performances and recordings. However, he was concerned that it might affect the sound of the recording. When he asked the engineer he said it wouldn’t be a problem; sure enough, it didn’t make a difference.

So you might be wondering what the point of this video is! Well, the music rack might not have an effect on the sound of the piano for the audience but it does have a tremendous effect on the sound for the player.

I would actually go so far as to say that the position of the music rack affects the sound you hear when playing the piano as much or more so than if you have the lid of the piano opened or closed. If you have never played a piano without the music rack down you really should, the sound you will hear is much fuller and is more open; this is yet another great reason to memorize your music!

You might notice on some pianos the music rack has an artistic design with carvings and holes through the wood. If you have a music rack like this, you won’t need to put down the music rack; the sound will travel through just fine.

music rack for a steinway art-case piano

If you have a piano with a solid music rack, try and play the same piece with the music rack up – then place it down. You will be rewarded with a dramatically improved sound!

Piano Questions: A Great Digital Piano – The Kurzweil K250


Hi Robert,

I played the Kurzweil 250 in the late 80’s for a temple job and loved it! The digitized sounds actually Felt like I was playing harps, guitars, strings, etc. and the organs were marvelous. Even the piano was amazing, considering I’m a classically trained pianist/organist and am used to the “Real Thing”, including huge pipe organs. Later on, when Kurzweil sold out to Young Chang I thought the quality went way down, but it’s possible they couldn’t afford the big instrument. But that 250 was a real treasure. Do they sell anything like them now? I’m also interested in this recording feature since recording for students has gotten so weird over the last 10 years or so!

Carolyn

There are actually a number of amazing 88 note weighted keyboards with phenomenal sounds and capabilities. But I am not aware of a similar instrument with real wooden keys like the Kurzweil K250. In its day it was a premier instrument. If you are interested in some of the state-of-the-art keyboards available today with similar features, there are great keyboards from Yamaha, Korg, Roland, Kurzweil, and others. Many of the workstation keyboards have extensive recording capabilities. More than that, any keyboard with a standard MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) output can interface with a personal computer for multi-track recording and score printing with appropriate software.

Where to Put an Upright Piano in a Room

Placing a piano in an optimal spot in a room is vital for the overall sound of the instrument in your home. With the right placement, you can make a smaller piano sound much richer and fuller.

When it comes to upright pianos, the obvious selection would be to put it against the wall; after all, the back is flat – and it’s not very attractive to look at. If you were to put an upright piano in the middle of a room it might look odd.

Even though the placement of an upright piano might seem limited, there are some things you can try to make the sound much better. The best thing to do is place the piano a few inches away from the wall – don’t place it directly on the wall. This will allow the sound of the piano to reverberate off the wall and fill the room with music. If the upright is flush against the wall, a lot of the sound will be muffled. This is because most of the sound from an upright piano comes out the back because that is where the soundboard is.

Another thing you can do to improve the sound is to place the upright in a position where it would divide the room – so it would not be against the wall, but essentially in the middle of the room. To get away from having the back of the piano exposed, you can install attractive fabric on the back of the piano to match the decor of your room.

Generally, you will have an upright piano against a wall, but it is worth experimenting to see what sounds best. The sound of your piano is dependent not only on the condition of the piano but the room it’s in.

What are In-Home Concerts? The History of Concert Performances

Years ago I had the pleasure of performing in a concert series for Inessa Khurgel’s Classical Music Encounters in Orange County. In Southern California, it is a great opportunity for musicians and audiences alike to experience some great classical music from some extraordinary artists. This really was an inspiration for me to start Art District Concerts.

My father, Morton Estrin, was my teacher when I was growing up on Long Island, NY – he in fact still teaches there. He had a large addition built on our house many years ago which contains his studio. The studio is used for practice, teaching, and even concert performances right in our home! Growing up with this was a great experience for me.

But why is this significant? Well, there is historical significance to the idea of in-home concerts. Believe it or not, a concert hall is actually a relatively recent development – they first appeared in the mid-19th century.

Back in Mozart’s time, a piano was not loud enough to fill the area of an entire concert hall; Symphony Orchestras were less than half the size of late 19th century orchestras and the instruments everyone played were much quieter. For example, flutes were made of wood; which doesn’t project nearly as much sound as metal. French horns had no valves so for almost half the notes the player would have to shove their hands into the bell to play the notes which muted the sound. Eventually, musical instrument design evolved and became much louder.

So concerts were generally presented in salons or churches. In more intimate settings, you can actually feel the energy of the instruments and the music. I will never forget the experience of listening to my father up close and personal playing concert level performances. When you hear a performance in a concert hall it simply doesn’t have the energy; you actually have to sit very quietly to hear the performance fully. You don’t have this problem sitting next to the instrument; the energy is almost overwhelming!

You might be surprised to find similar types of performances in your area. There are many vibrant communities of classical musicians and performers around the world that perform and host in-home concerts. If you love classical music and you’ve never have had the pleasure of going to one, you should really check them out. It is a completely different experience than listening in a concert hall.

But how does this benefit the artists? There are several reasons: One is that it’s a great way to grow an audience and gain new fans; more importantly it’s because it allows an artist to perform in an informal setting and interact with the audience, break in new repertoire, and essentially practice performing! It is important to get comfortable with the pacing of energy as well as refining programming. This really helps to prepare artists for formal public concerts.

If you are an artist you really should get involved with either a group providing in-home concerts or simply start your own. As a rule of thumb, I always arrange smaller performances before a major concert. I also provide opportunities for my students to do the same.