Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The question today is: Is playing practicing? Many of you who have watched my videos know that I have drawn a red line that should not be crossed. You have to know whether you are playing or practicing. And yet here I have this question: Is playing practicing? There’s actually a nuanced answer to this question. While it is absolutely essential that you know whether you’re playing through your music or practicing your music, there are times when you want to practice performing, whether it’s a public performance that you’re preparing for or you just want to run through things for friends to see how they go. But what we’re going to talk about today is something entirely different.

Playing can be practicing!

For example, when you play a performance, whether it’s a formal recital or just playing for friends, particularly if you record the event, going back and listening to what you did while taking note of what went well, what things maybe you need to work on, and insights you may have gained during the performance that you’d like to explore further, can be an invaluable experience. In that case, playing is practicing.

What is practicing?

Aside from the physiological aspect of strengthening your hands and learning how to negotiate passages, finger work, and chords, practicing is really a mental activity. Anything that involves a thought process about playing is practicing. So that’s an example where playing is practicing. How could you use this to your advantage? There are actually many ways. I talked about practicing performing. How do you do this? In your practice, there are two complete extremes. During a performance, no matter what, the show must go on. You have to keep going! Nobody wants to hear you stop and correct something when you’re playing for them. In a live performance, this could be a disaster. But even when you’re playing informally for family or friends, it ruins the whole experience for them. But in practice, you want to stop whenever there is an error to correct it and solidify it.

When is playing practicing? How do you achieve this?

It’s just as I described before. You do a practice run-through of a piece, and you don’t stop. Make it like a performance. You can even record it. It doesn’t need to be a great recording. You just want to have something you can listen back to with the score. Maybe circle trouble spots in the score. Take notes as you listen. This can be an incredible experience for strengthening your performance. And indeed, this is an aspect where playing can be practicing. But normally, remember that red line. Practicing is on one side, and playing is on the other. And they are diametrically opposed. In playing, you want to keep going no matter what to maintain the continuity of the performance. In practice, you generally want to stop to make corrections and solidify. Double check the score, work through the passage, connecting it with the previous passage, getting that secure, then going back to the beginning and seeing if you can pass all of the trouble spots. So that’s the lesson for today! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to answer a question from a viewer: What is the most common note in music? In the English language, E is the most prevalent letter. Is there a note that is the most common note in music?

There are two things to consider.

First, we need to ask: what kind of note? It could be the pitch of the note or the type of note rhythmically. The first one I’m going to cover is the type of note because it’s so simple. There’s whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, 8th notes, 16th notes, 32nd notes, 64th notes, and it goes all the way up to 128th notes. Each of these can be triplets as well. This is so easy because the most popular time signature is 4/4 time. It’s so common that it’s referred to as common time! What does it mean? It means there are four beats in a measure, and the quarter note gets one beat. So yes, the quarter note is the most popular and most common note in music.

Pitch is a little bit more complicated.

Let’s consider a few aspects. First of all, of course, A is not only the first letter of the alphabet, it’s also the note that an orchestra tunes to. So there’s a great significance to that note, naturally. And then we can talk about different groups of instruments and what notes are really intrinsic to them. On stringed instruments, E is a very popular note. Think about the guitar. I don’t play guitar, but there are two chords I can play on a guitar: E major and E minor. In fact, the highest and lowest strings on a guitar are both E’s, so E is really common. The lowest note on a bass is also an E. All string instruments have E’s on them, as well as A’s. So there’s a case to be made for E.

For wind instruments, flat keys are really common.

For example, the trumpet is pitched in B-flat. So is clarinet, generally. Of course, there is earlier period music where the pitches of the instruments were not set yet. Saxophones are usually E-flat or B-flat, and trombones are B-flat. So flat keys are very common as well. So where does that leave us with all of this?

There’s one note that, as a pianist, you look at all the time.

That note is C. Middle C is right in the middle of your keyboard. It’s all over the place! C is the highest note and one of the lowest notes on the piano. And when you play all white keys, you’re playing a C-major scale. So C is really common. But there’s more to it than that.

I mentioned all these transposing instruments. That is, when a trumpet plays C, a B-flat comes out. So even though the instrument is pitched to B-flat, their score, written in C, comes out in B-flat. So it presupposes C as the standard, from which all the other transpositions are derived. It’s the same with a clarinet in B-flat. It plays in C, but it comes out in B-flat. For the French horn, all the repertoire before the horn had valves was written in C. The horns themselves would be tuned with a series of extra pipes called crooks. That is what would change the pitch of the instrument. The modern French horn is pitched in F, yet the parts may be written in many different keys like, E-flat, D, or others, but the part’s are always written in C. So C is the standard pitch. When a conductor looks at a score, all the transposing instruments are in C for the conductor, and they must figure out the absolute pitch relative to the transposition of the various instruments.

I’ve got to say that C is the most common note in music!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to answer a really interesting question from a viewer: Does it take longer to become a concert pianist or a doctor? Both of these fields obviously require many years of study. So I’m going to break it down for you and give you an idea of what each of these career paths entails.

You have to spend many years in school to become a doctor.

To become a doctor, you will first need an undergraduate degree in some field, hopefully related to the medical field, perhaps biology or something. That’s followed by four years of medical school. So there is a big chunk right there. But is that it? Far from it! After that, there’s a residency, which can be anywhere from 3 to 7 years. Now, unless you’re becoming a general practitioner, there’s also a specialization with a fellowship that usually adds another 1 to 3 years. So you have anywhere between 11 and 14 years of studying before becoming a doctor.

What about pianists?

Pianists typically start at a younger age than doctors. In fact, most concert pianists on the scene today started as children between the ages of 4 and 7. There are some outliers outside of that range, but the vast majority are going to be somewhere in there. From the time they’re very young children, they’ve been practicing every day for at least an hour or two a day. As they get older, they’re probably practicing 3 to 5 hours a day. Most of them will go to a conservatory or a university program specializing in piano performance in order to study with the best teachers. If they’re expanding their repertoire, it’s likely that they’re practicing for at least 3 to 5 hours, more likely 6 to 8 hours if they’re entering competitions and things of that nature, because the repertoire requirements are so immense. So altogether, they’re probably going to spend easily 15 to 20 years of private instruction; that’s even more than the 11 to 14 years typical for doctors. It’s a long haul!

What about the continuing studies in each of these fields?

Doctors are always learning from experience. They need to keep abreast of the latest technologies and procedures by reading journals and possibly attending conventions. Pianists, on the other hand, are constantly learning new repertoire. They can’t keep playing the same solo recitals again and again. They have to have new music so people keep wanting to hear their performances. If they’re collaborating with other musicians in chamber music or accompanying, they have to learn the music that people want to collaborate with them on.

Concert pianists are constantly learning new music.

If they have the opportunity to perform concertos, they have to learn new concertos. A lot of pianists will also have original contemporary works commissioned for them, which they have to learn. For example, concert pianist Jeffrey Biegel, who was one of my father, Morton Estrin’s students. He’s carved out a whole career getting works commissioned for him, and he collaborates with orchestras all around the world. He has been doing it for years. This entails a tremendous amount of work, and you don’t even have the benefit of listening to recordings to hear what the pieces that you’re going to be performing sound like first! My sister, Coren Estrin Mino, performs a lot of new works here in the Cleveland area, helping out composers so they can have their works performed.

There are many avenues for both doctors and concert pianists, but concert pianists have a longer haul, starting younger and working longer in order to carve out a career.

Even going through everything I outlined for becoming a concert pianist is no guarantee that you’ll be a touring artist. There are just so many people who are highly skilled at the instrument, and a very limited number of people ever get to do it. Whereas for a doctor, if they go through all those different courses, degrees, and residencies, then chances are they’re going to find some place where they can practice. However, no matter how nerve-wracking performing the piano is, nobody dies. So we have a deep respect for doctors as well as pianists for the rigorous training that’s necessary in both of these fields. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I am giving a tutorial on how to play Burgmüller’s The Limpid Stream. I have a bunch of Burgmüller tutorials for you. This is another beautiful piece. What’s great about these pieces of Burgmüller is that they’re accessible even if you don’t have a virtuoso technique. They are wonderful pieces of music, each with its own unique voice, and this is no exception. What I’m going to do for you first is play the piece. Then I will go through it thoroughly, showing you how to practice all sections of it and how to get the most out of this wonderful piece of music.

First of all, let’s talk about the name The Limpid Stream.

It sounds kind of odd. It’s actually from the French Le Courant Limpide. If you translated that directly, it would be The Clear Current. That still doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. But you could hear that it sounds like a babbling brook, which I think would be a better name for this translation! The Limpid Stream sounds kind of odd in English, doesn’t it? But getting back to the music, essentially this entire piece is broken chords of one sort or another, so naturally, learning it in chords first is critical for being able to understand the harmonies and to develop good fingering. So I’m going to show you how to do the two different sections in chords. It’s in A-B-A form. You have the first section, the second section, then a da capo back to the beginning section.

What I recommend doing is learning it in very small chunks.

If I were learning this, believe it or not, I would just take one measure at a time! That doesn’t sound like much. It’s basically three different chords. You start and end on the G-major chord in the first inversion. The left hand is even simpler. Then you play the hands together in chords. I don’t play the second chord because it’s the same as the first chord. Instead, I just hold it for two beats. After you play it in chords, then you play it as written.

Notice the double-stemmed notes in the right hand.

What is this all about? It’s basically as if you have two different instruments playing. Imagine for a minute that the top triplets are played on a guitar strumming, and the bottom part is played with a viola or something else. On the piano, of course, you can play more than two parts at a time. Even with one hand, there are two parts. So you must hold down that quarter note longer than the value of the eighth so they overlap. Naturally, you have to lift it up so it can replay again. Once you add the pedal, it’s much easier because the pedal can catch these notes. But it’s essential that you practice holding those notes long enough so that the pedal has an opportunity to grab those notes. Because if you just played it as eighths and tried to grab it with the pedal, you might not be able to get the pedal in time. But by holding it long enough, there’s plenty of time to catch those notes with the pedal. You want to pedal half measures. For the second measure, since it’s all just a broken G-major chord, you can just hold the pedal for the whole measure if you want. But doing half-measure pedaling throughout the entire first section works just beautifully.

It’s important to take note of the dynamics.

It’s easy to remember. As the notes get higher, they tend to get louder. As the notes get lower, they tend to get softer. Until the end of the entire section, which ends gently as it’s going up the G-major arpeggio. So the middle section can also be practiced in chords. This is really a great way to learn this section. You will develop good fingering and an understanding of the harmonic underpinnings of the music by practicing in chords first. Once again, I recommend taking very small sections at a time and to play slowly. Even if you’re learning two measures at a time, you may find it helpful to break it down to one measure. Just do that first measure until you get it memorized, then do the second measure until you have it memorized. Then put the two measures together, once again, practicing in chords first.

The right hand is all a series of two-note slurs.

You don’t want it to sound mechanical. The two-note slurs are accomplished with a wrist motion going down on the slur and up on the second note, essentially making the second note of the slur staccato. Why is this? Slurs mean to connect, and staccatos mean to detach. Because the slur ends on the second note, it is de facto detached, which is staccato. To make matters even clearer, Burgmüller puts in eighth rests, so you absolutely must release the second eighth of each group. What better way than with the wrist? I’ve talked about how the wrist plays staccatos with a down-up motion, so it delineates the phrasing. It also helps you avoid accenting the thumb. The thumb is the strongest finger, but here it’s playing on the weakest part of the beat. You can practice this very slowly using a down-up motion with the wrist. The arm doesn’t move up and down, only the wrist. Strike from above to make the slurred note stronger than the staccato note at the end of the slur. Then, finally, when you have the right hand worked out that way, you put the hands together.

The left hand also has slurs. You must delineate the slurs by not connecting what is not slurred.

That is the way to learn this second section. First, learn it in chords. Just learn the right hand, the two-note groups, and get that memorized. Even if it’s one measure, take the smallest amount you need in order to learn it in a reasonable amount of time. If it takes you more than five minutes to learn something, then take a smaller section because you want to be able to digest things quickly and easily. The smaller the section, the easier it is to master it. If you’re learning it from the music, same thing. Take small sections. Even if you aren’t memorizing the music, the small sections give you an opportunity to really study the score and make sure you’re learning accurately right from the get-go. And that is basically the secret to this section.

At the very end, you may need to practice that scale passage slowly with the metronome ticking to quarter notes.

Take a tempo slow enough that you can play it, and be sure to practice that with a decrescendo back to the original theme. It’s not written, but it’s logical. Descending lines tend to get softer, just like when you’re singing, you naturally get louder with the higher notes and softer as you descend in pitch. You want to get that same sound out of the piano, so it gives it an organic quality, like singing, or a wind instrument, or a bowed instrument. You want to achieve a flowing line. Once you can play it at that tempo, then raise it a notch. Keep raising the tempo by one notch every time you not only get it perfectly, but it feels comfortable. It may take you a little while. But if you spend just five minutes, you will get the scale passage up to a faster speed. Keep going to the point of diminishing returns. You might not be able to get it up to performance tempo in one sitting. Don’t worry about it. There’s always tomorrow! Always take your practice to the point of diminishing returns. Don’t beat your head on something that you’re not making any progress with. Always consider taking smaller amounts and playing hands separately.

Try to break things down into smaller elements that you can absorb so that every minute of your practice is productive.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s question is: What is Living Pianos? In a nutshell, it’s my life! And it’s your life too, if you have a passion for the piano the way I do. It’s actually a double entendre. There are two meanings to Living Pianos.

I have a video called What are Living Pianos?

That video tells about the restored American and European pianos that are so rare today, which we sell all over the world and have been doing so since 2006! But it’s much more than that. It’s really about living the piano. As a matter of fact, if you type “living the piano” in your browser, Living Pianos comes up!

I was lucky enough to grow up in a musical household.

My entire family is made up of musicians of one sort or another. Pianos have always been central. My father, Morton Estrin, was a concert pianist. He was my teacher and my sister’s teacher. He taught countless people, from Billy Joel to conductors, composers, and pianists the world over. My sister, Coren Estrin Mino, is also a pianist and a teacher. My uncle was a professional musician. The list goes on and on. My life is centered around teaching, performing, and media. This is what makes me want to get up in the morning!

My mission is to keep the piano alive in the 21st century, in the United States and around the world.

This is no easy task when you consider that the piano has been on a slow decline for over a hundred years. That’s why connecting with people like you who care about the piano is enriching. It makes me feel like there is value to my life. So I thank you all for joining me and encourage you to subscribe to LivingPianos.com and YouTube! You’ll find a treasure trove of content I’ve been putting together for many years! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s question is: What Are Living Pianos? It sounds like a science fiction story, doesn’t it? Artificial intelligence enables sentient instruments to compose, perform, and even teach music autonomously. Or maybe it’s pianos that are bioengineered to grow and evolve along with the player! There are all kinds of possibilities. But it’s actually something much more terrifying than that. That’s why Living Pianos is committed to bringing new life to old pianos!

Did you know that many pianos end up in landfills?

In Minnesota alone, hundreds of pianos end up in landfills every year. As you’re watching this video, pianos are being thrown in landfills all over the country. It’s a horrifying thing to contemplate. You might wonder why this happens. Well, there’s a huge price gap between hand-built American pianos, which are mostly the ones that end up in landfills here, and Asian production pianos. So when pianos wear out, people will replace them with far cheaper Asian production pianos or even digital pianos.

That’s why Living Pianos specializes in the sale of restored, hand-built pianos, which are so rare today.

There are other companies that do this, but most of them specialize in Steinway because Steinway commands more money in the used market. But we’re not prejudiced against other brands. There used to be hundreds of American piano companies, and there were several dozen that made absolutely stupendous pianos! Of course, Mason & Hamlin pianos are still built outside of Boston. Baldwin was the last casualty of the American piano industry. There are now Asian production pianos with the Baldwin name on the front. But the Artist-Series Baldwins that graced concert halls all around the world are a thing of the past.

We not only restore Steinway, Baldwin, and Mason & Hamlin pianos but also other great American pianos like Knabe, Chickering, Sohmer, and others. You can end up with a piano that has tremendous value instead of having them end up in a landfill. European pianos like Bechstein and Blüthner are also great candidates for restoration. Of course, they’re quite rare in this country.

Knowing which pianos to restore and which ones to stay away from is critical.

You can’t always get good results out of older pianos. One of the really difficult things is restoring pianos that have had some restoration along the way. If you have everything original, even if everything is worn out and in bad condition, at least you know the original specifications. It’s a huge challenge to match the original specs of pianos that have had work done, particularly if the work was subpar. Even with Steinway, you might think you could just order Steinway parts. But it’s not so simple. Steinway has changed their specifications over the years. You have to know exactly what the specification is for each of the almost 10,000 parts of a piano to restore them properly!