Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

Keeping a piano in tune is a constant challenge. As I’ve stated in another video, there is actually no such thing as a perfectly tuned piano, it’s a fruitless pursuit. So does moving it really affect the tuning in a negative way?

The first thing you have to take into account is whether you are moving a piano across a room or to an entirely new location and environment. If you’re moving a piano across the room by pushing it you probably won’t need to tune it right away. We move pianos around our store every day and it doesn’t make them go out of tune. But what about if you are moving a piano with professional movers?

If you’ve never witnessed a professional piano move it’s quite a complicated process. It often requires 3 people or more, putting a piano on end on a grand board, loading it onto a truck, wrapping in blankets and securing it to the wall of the vehicle. If you have to move a piano from one location to another there is really no way of getting around it; you’ll need a professional piano mover. Risking injury to yourself or the piano is not worth saving the cost of a piano move.

But what about when the piano arrives at its new location? Will it automatically be out of tune? – not right away. The move is not what will make a piano go out of tune; it’s the new environment which will affect the instrument’s tuning. Today many piano trucks are climate controlled to help keep the stability of the instruments inside. Pianos used to be moved by horse and buggy and even this wouldn’t necessarily knock the piano out of tune. A long-term change in temperature or humidity is what will gradually make a piano go out of tune. Sometimes the piano can drop or raise in pitch and you might not even realize it. The most important thing for a piano is stability and if it drops in pitch it may take several tunings before it can become stable again.

So yes, if you are moving a piano from one location to another – no matter if it’s right down the street or across the country, it will eventually need to be tuned. However, you may not have to call your tuner right away. If there are no issues, you may let the piano sit and acclimate to its new environment for a few weeks before you get your first tuning. Tuning the piano sooner won’t harm it, but you will probably have to tune it again once the piano settles into its new location.

If you have any more questions about pianos or moving pianos please feel free to contact me. Thanks again for joining us, I’m Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Welcome back to our ongoing series on How to Play Bach’s Fifth French Suite. In our first part we covered the Allemande section, Last time we covered the Courante, Today we will be exploring the lyrical Sarabande Movement.

Even though this movement is very different from the first two that precede it, the same principles apply; which is to delineate the melodies from one-another with phrasing.

There are some differences between the first two movements that I would like to point out. In those movements, I employed a clipped staccato accentuating the detachment between notes. This achieves clear delineation of the musical lines. In this movement, you will want to approach the staccatos a bit differently.

It’s a common misconception that staccato means short. It actually means “detached” and there are different techniques you can employ depending on the piece. For more information on playing staccato please check out our previous video on the subject.

In fast movements, you will want to play staccato notes short, but in a more lyrical and slow movement, you can play them detached but with more length so the notes don’t have a clipped sound which can diminish the lyricism. By performing the eighth notes detached but not short you can produce a subtle delineation of voices without the harsh tone that short staccato notes produce.

There isn’t a right or wrong way to approach the phrasing of this movement. However, I like to give the eighth notes a clean and nuanced detachment rather than the sudden shortness that works so well in the faster first two movements. However, you will want to avoid having the musical lines blend with each other which would be more appropriate in late 19th-century Romantic period music. One of the defining aspects of the Baroque era of music is the delineation of counterpoint – hearing the distinctness of each musical line.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Welcome to our ongoing series covering Bach’s French Suites. Last time we covered the Allemande section of the 5th French Suite in G major. Today we will be covering the 2nd movement, the Courante, which is a very difficult movement.

The biggest thing I recommend is playing the eighth notes staccato and the sixteenth notes legato. Not only does this add more energy to the piece but it actually allows you to play the notes a bit slower – when you play the staccato short it gives the impression of a faster tempo than what you are actually playing!

This is actually a trick I learned from listening to Vladimir Horowitz many years ago. He would play notes so cleanly and detached that it sounded faster than everyone else. If you put a metronome to his music though you would realize that this wasn’t always the case.

So why is this technique so effective. One of the reasons is because it brings out the difference between the lines. With the sixteenth notes being legato they are distinctly different from the staccato eighth notes.

The biggest thing to mastering this piece – like any other – is effective practice. When it comes to this piece in particular you will want to practice it very slowly. During your slow practice you will want to exaggerate the difference between legato and staccato; so when you speed up the piece the difference will still be there.

You should really go through the whole piece like this and have the patience to practice it with the metronome. You should gradually bring the piece up to speed but only after you can absolutely master it at a certain speed before increasing it. It’s important to play it cleanly and relaxed. Do not make the mistake of increasing the speed before you are ready.

When it comes to ornamentation I like to use it to enhance certain sections of the piece. In the fourth measure, there is an f sharp and I like to add a trill to it. You will notice if you listen that I always measure the trill; your trill must always be measured. While it might seem like free expression, you will always want it to fit properly within the music and the tempo and it must be measured.

In this series we are going to cover the 5th French Suite in its entirety. Today we will be dealing with the first movement, Allemande. I want you to notice that I don’t use the sustain pedal – I’m playing everything with only the fingers. Why is this? There is a good case for this since Bach played mostly on the clavichord, harpsichord, and organ and had very limited experience with early pianos which had no sustain pedals anyway. As a result, it’s not necessary to utilize the sustain pedal while playing Bach’s music.

Pay special attention to the counterpoint (VIDEO: What is Counterpoint?) and how the lines intertwine with one another. Also intrinsic to the style is the ornamentation which is indicated with various markings in the score. (VIDEO: How to Play Ornamentation).

You may notice that in all the French Suites the music is in A – A, B – B form. Meaning that you have a section that repeats and then a second section that also repeats. All the movements in the French Suites have a similar structure. The second section tends to be a bit longer than the first section but sometimes they are about the same length.

There is no phrasing or dynamics written into the music. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t include any dynamics or phrasing, it means that it’s up to you how to approach the music. You must decide how to delineate the notes deciding how the notes are attached or detached and how to bring out the separate lines of music dynamically.

For example, in this particular piece, I play the 8th notes staccato, which allows for delineating the lines. Without doing this it’s hard to tell which line is which – they all blend together! You should also embellish the music with the free use of ornamentation. For example, in the beginning of the piece I include some trills to liven up the music; without it, the lines sound a little dull. Everything about the Baroque era has ornamentation. It’s a product of the time and is evident in the music, art, architecture and even the clothing style.

Thanks again for joining me and make sure to be on the lookout for the other parts in this series on Bach’s 5th French Suite.

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It is important to note that Bach did not write any phrasing or dynamics into these pieces, so nearly every copy you will come across will be slightly different. For this lesson, I will be using Bach’s Musette from Virtual Sheet Music.

Personally, I like to emulate the sound of a Harpsichord (which is one instrument Bach would possibly have played the piece on) by emphasizing the fortes and the pianos going from louder sounds to quieter sounds abruptly. The harpsichord could not go from loud to soft with touch alone, so you would have to alternate the keyboards or adjust stops like on an organ in order to adjust volume. Interestingly, you can reverse the dynamics and discover other satisfying performance possibilities!

There really are countless ways you can approach this music and that’s why they are such great pieces for students. It allows them to see dynamics and experiment on their own to produce a great performance. You have a lot of creative license on what you can do with this piece.

Before you can experiment with phrasing however you really should be able to play this piece cleanly and precisely. The very beginning features two completely different techniques in each hand: the left hand has staccatos which should be played with the wrist and the right hand has legato notes which are played with a steady hand. It is vital that the hands are played precisely together which can be challenging with the sixteenth notes. I recommend breaking down these sixteenth notes and getting your hand and fingers over exactly the right keys in advance of playing them. You can start and stop methodically in your practice making sure the hands play exactly together. It should sound very clean and precise. Without precision, the music can end up sounding sloppy and lose the sparkle of the sound.

It can be very challenging to jump from one section to another. So practicing getting over the exact positions will help you achieve a satisfying performance. Practice playing the first section and then placing your hands over the next section without playing it. Instead, just place your hands in the next position and get ready to play the notes. When your hands are in the exact position, play the next small section. Take your time and keep going back and forth shortening the break you take between sections. Keep going until you can play in a fluid manner. It’s good to imagine a break between sections even when there is no rhythmically perceptible space allowing you to prepare for each section in advance of playing them. Even if they are incredibly small pauses, they allow you to mentally and physically prepare yourself for each section.

Thanks again for joining me and if you have any questions about this piece or any others please contact me directly: Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Utilizing the weight of the arms and the position of your fingers right above the keys is the way to play this section with fluidity. For this specific piece, there are a lot of broken chords in the left hand and I have a suggestion for you on how to practice this effectively. Start with the first two notes of the section and play them together. They are written separately but for now, play them together. You want to achieve the same level of volume with your pinky and your thumb. This is a great challenge because the thumb is so much stronger than your pinky, but you must achieve a balance in the sound between the two notes. Once you have them equal in volume go ahead and break those notes ever so slightly like playing the bottom note as a grace note. Once you feel comfortable with this, add another note and continue adding notes in this manner.

Every time you start a new group of notes you should approach it as a separate passage. Prepare yourself mentally for each section and practice each section individually. Don’t consider this one long passage of notes. Instead, break it down into digestible chunks you can play in a relaxed manner. Then work on connecting these groups of notes.

This lesson really boils down to keeping your body and arms at the proper position to achieve power with the correct hand positions and finger patterns. These are all lessons I’ve taught in the past that are relevant to so many pieces of music.

If you have any more questions please contact me directly: Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729