Living Pianos

This question is very important because it’s something we all consider from time to time – using shortcuts to gain traction in our development as musicians. The thought of using a device outside of playing music to improve as a musician might sound attractive, but is it really effective? And more importantly, is it safe?

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of this question is Robert Schumann. Schumann went through painstaking efforts to try and strengthen his fingers (his fourth finger specifically) using different devices he created. He ended up with disastrous results; he destroyed his hands and was unable to perform ever again. Schumann was a little unorthodox with his techniques in strengthening his fingers but it’s a cautionary tale for all of us.

Are there any devices you can use today that will safely enable you to strengthen your fingers? Yes but they won’t be the ultimate solution to your problem. When I’m on vacation sometimes I will bring some stress balls – those spongy balls you can squeeze in your hand to alleviate stress – that will allow me to keep my hands in shape when I’m away from the piano for an extended period of time. However, these won’t necessarily increase your hand strength to the point of making you a better pianist. However, it can help you to maintain muscle tone when you are away from your instrument. Make sure you find something that will create some resistance for your hands but not something that will involve a lot of stress or pressure on the muscles in your hands, wrists or arms.

There is no substitute though for simply practicing and playing your instrument. Sitting at your desk and squeezing a stress ball will not make you a better pianist. If you practice your music consistently you won’t need to strengthen your hands as it is something that will occur naturally over time.

It is a good idea though to have something in place when you leave your instrument for an extended period of time. Be careful not to jump right into virtuoso music as soon as you get back on the piano – you could end up seriously injuring yourself! This is where something like the stress balls can help keep up your strength even while you’re away from the piano.

I’m interested in everyone’s suggestions for keeping your hands in shape. If you have a special routine or maybe even a device that you use we would love to hear about it. Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Can You Strengthen Your Hands With Mechanical Devices?

I have been asked how to become a virtuoso musician many times and plan on doing a series on the subject. This is an introduction to the topic for you.

You probably assume that to become a virtuoso it will take hours and hours of practice of scales, arpeggios, repertoire, playing with other musicians, sight reading, and everything else that is involved in becoming an expert in your field; but there is more.

When it comes to the mechanics of playing an instrument and really mastering it, there is one similarity that all virtuoso musicians share. And this doesn’t just apply to musicians – it applies to any field from athletics to architecture, the absolute experts in their fields all share this similar quality.

At one point in their lives they immersed themselves so completely in their craft for an extended period of time that they developed a mastery that put them on a new level.

What does this entail for musicians? It means taking the time and effort to immerse themselves in their craft and even if they don’t always practice intensely every day for the rest of their lives, they have gone through a sustained period of time in their lives when they practiced nearly every available waking hour developing an extremely high degree of mastery of their instrument.

One parallel concept is what it takes to launch a craft into space. You need to travel a certain speed in order to break through the atmosphere and escape earth’s gravitational pull. If you continue to travel at a constant speed, you could travel forever but you would never escape earth’s atmosphere. You must hit a certain speed to break through that plane and get yourself out of the earth’s orbit. The same principle applies to become a virtuoso; at some point, you have to dedicate a significant amount of time in your life perfecting your craft and by the end of it you will have emerged as a different caliber of player.

It isn’t just a matter of how many years you practice, there also has to be an extended time in your life dedicated to absolute mastery of your field. I have spoken with countless virtuoso musicians, artists, and people in many different fields who have a great accomplishment, and they all have this exact same thing in common. If you have any similar stories I would love to share them.

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

Becoming a Virtuoso Musician Part 1 – Introduction

I have been asked how to become a virtuoso musician many times and plan on doing a series on the subject. This is an introduction to the topic for you. You probably assume that to become a virtuoso it will take hours and hours of practice of scales,

Welcome to our first in a multiple part series on how to approach the Chopin G Minor Ballade. This is an amazing piece of music that exemplifies the manic emotions of Frédéric Chopin swinging from points of incredibly low despair to the heights of ecstasy. Today we are going to discuss some of the middle section because there are a number of techniques that come one after another very quickly.

You are probably familiar with the big heroic middle section that restates the theme and ends with a flurry of octaves.

Let’s start on the descending diminished chord:

The best way to practice this section is to play it slowly and practice getting your fingers in the right place instantly. So, I suggest playing just a few notes at a time and stopping when the hand changes position. For example here:

Play the first few notes and practice getting your hand in the right position above the chord, but don’t play it. Keep playing the passage over and over and stopping until you can get your hand in the right position over the chord in a relaxed manner. You will want to continue doing this for each subsequent group.

If you practice this way you learn to play this passage with much more fluidity and you’ll be ready for each subsequent hand position before you need to play. You need to be able to play each section with ease and this technique is a great way to achieve this.

The next section we are going to discuss will provide a great example of how to be over note groups, in this case, 2 note groups following the bottom notes going up the scale.

You can also practice these 2 notes groups in different rhythms. By practicing in two-note groups, it will force you to come up with a fingering that will accommodate the passage enabling a smooth execution of the passage. After playing this section in two-note groups and getting 100% comfortable with it, breaking it up as it’s written will be almost effortless.

In the next section you can use another technique:

This section is difficult because you have two completely different techniques in each hand. In the right hand, you will want to play fast and light and in the left hand, you will want to delineate the phrasing clearly.

In the right hand, it’s best to practice with the metronome and gradually get your playing up to speed. Start at a slower tempo and continue to play the section until you are absolutely comfortable. When you feel confident in your playing, put the metronome up one notch and practice it again until you are absolutely comfortable. Keep doing this until you are able to play the passage up to speed without issues. As you get faster, concentrate on lightening up your fingers and keep them very close to the keys.

For the left hand, you will want to use a similar technique that we discussed in the first section of this lesson and that is getting your hands over the next set of notes instantly. Keep practicing and stopping before the next group of notes. Practice getting your hands and fingers in the correct position before you play the notes. Keep practicing over and over until your hands and fingers go to the correct notes almost instantly and effortlessly.

Combine the hands once you feel confident with each individually. Remember to keep your right-hand fingers very close to the keys. This section is very tricky because you have two different techniques in each hand. That is why practicing hands separately first is so effective in solving the technical issues.

Stay tuned because next time we will cover the next section of this piece and discuss a new set of techniques. Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

How to Play Chopin’s G minor Ballade – Part 1

You may find the accompanying video helpful. My wife Florence Estrin demonstrates how to play a slur on the flute as it’s much more complicated to demonstrate on the piano. If you are only able to read the text, I will give you good information about what a slur is.

Slurs are curved lines connecting 2 or more notes:

Note: A curved line that connects 2 notes that are the same is not a slur but a tie which makes the 2 notes into one long note.

Slurs indicate to a wind player when to use the tongue to delineate the beginning of notes and when to connect the notes on the breath. To put this simply, the tonguing will be on the first note and everything else that follows will be on the breath. Florence provides a great example of this in the video above. She also provides some examples of what it sounds like to play the musical line without slurs – tonguing the beginning of each note as well as providing examples of different phrasing.

When it comes to the piano, the difference between a slur and a non-slurred note is much harder to determine. A true slur as in singing is actually a quick glide between notes. Since this isn’t possible on the piano, overlapping notes slightly is the closest approximation of a slur possible. This is technically not a slur but it’s impossible to play a true slur on the piano; like many things when it comes to this instrument, it’s an illusion. If a phrase is not slurred, you can delineate notes by putting a slight space between each of the notes.

There are many different types of phrasing and shadings within slurs and non-slurs we can explore in future videos. I hope this information is useful to you. If you have any more questions please contact me:

Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

What is a Musical Slur? Music Lessons with Robert Estrin

So much has transpired in the piano industry in the nearly 6 years since producing my, “Best Piano Brands” video, I thought it was due time to offer a fresh perspective on the industry.

In the first video I explained how countries of origin affect the quality of pianos. This is a simple truth – the longer period of time piano building is pursued in a country, the more mature the manufacturing and quality tends to be. But we are now living in a truly global marketplace. How has that affected the piano industry?

If you carry an iPhone in your pocket, you are enjoying a great product sold by the American company Apple. But the manufacturing is done in China. In fact, many of the components are sourced from other countries like Korea, Mongolia and even parts of Europe! This is not an outlier product – this is the way of the world in manufacturing today.

While there are some small, independent companies producing pianos in the old world tradition mostly in Europe, these tend to be manufacturers with very low output catering to a niche market. Most piano companies are not independent. Japanese piano maker Yamaha owns the Austrian piano company Bösendorfer. The Korean piano giant Samick owns Bechstein, Seiler and a sizeable chunk of Steinway!

Making matters even more complex, large piano companies often have operations in different countries. For example, a Yamaha and Kawai (both Japanese companies) have pianos manufactured in Indonesia.

Another factor is the plethora of “stencil pianos”. These are pianos marketed with familiar names of out of business companies or fictitious names stenciled on the fallboard. Many of these piano companies source the instruments from more than one manufacture. So, often times it’s all but impossible to figure out what company made the piano.

So, in today’s world, the vast number of pianos being produced are made in Asia. Last year there were only about 1400 pianos made in the United States mostly from Steinway. If money is no object, there are many fine piano companies out there from Fazioli in Italy to Mason & Hamlin outside of Boston. But for the vast majority of piano buyers, the short list of major piano companies includes 4 companies which include the two Japanese giants:

Yamaha
Kawai

Korean companies have been around since the mid 20th century. They come with different scale designs and price points just like Yamaha and Kawai and have very mature design and manufacturing:

Young Chang
Samick

The elephant in the room is the emergence of the Chinese piano industry. The largest Chinese piano manufacturer is Pearl River. But there are hundreds of companies now producing pianos in China.

The good news is that there are very few bad pianos sold in the United States. The secret is matching the right instrument for your needs. Ikea isn’t a bad furniture maker so long as your expectations are in alignment with what you are getting. Their products could serve the perfect purpose for you. So it is with pianos. Not everyone needs a piano that can play on a concert level to keep for generations.

Below is a list of hand-made pianos. All of these companies make a limited number of high end pianos. There is a range of quality to some of these manufacturers. However, the specific instrument as well as personal preference will determine which one is best for you:

Blüthner
Grotrian
Sauter
Steingraeber & Söhne
August Förster
Bechstein
Mason & Hamlin
Haessler
Schimmel
Steinway
Albert Weber
Shigeru Kawai
Fazioli
Petrof
Rönisch
S Series Yamaha
Schulze Pollmann
Wilh. Steinberg
Charles Walter
Stuart & Sons
Ravenscroft
Weinbach

What are the Best Piano Brands? 2015 Update

So much has transpired in the piano industry in the nearly 6 years since producing my, “Best Piano Brands” video, I thought it was due time to offer a fresh perspective on the industry. In the first video I explained how countries of origin affec

This week we are presenting Part 2 in our series on Atonality. In Part 1, we gave a Brief Overview of Atonality. Today we are going to go into a bit more depth. The question of whether or not atonality goes against nature is a difficult one which may elicit a strong response in many viewers – both negative and positive. I would love all of your input on this subject and really appreciate any comments or suggestions you have.

Western music is built upon the Overtone Series – which is a fact of nature: all vibrating objects contain color tones. So when you hear a fundamental pitch it actually contains other notes above it. Any vibrating object that produces a pitched sound elicits these overtones – so a string instrument will produce the same series of notes as blowing through a French horn or even a garden hose! It is all the same series of tones. Here is the overtone series:

The intervals start out very large and then get smaller. These intervals are based upon simple relationships. For example, an octave (the first overtone) is just a 2 to 1 relationship. All sound is based upon vibrations so if you play A above middle C on a piano it has 440 vibrations per second. (This is why people speak of tuning to A 440.). Technically your eardrum is vibrating back and forth 440 times per second and it produces the sound of the note A. If you play A an octave higher you produce 880 vibrations per second, exactly twice the number of vibrations per second. That’s why it sounds like the same note. A perfect 5th (the second overtone) forms a 3 to 2 relationship.

A minor second is a very dissonant interval with a 16 to 15 relationship. The more distant the mathematical relationship of notes, the more dissonant they sound. Why is this? Because the human brain has trouble making mathematical sense out of more distant relationships of tones. So this is why some intervals of notes are harder to figure out than others. Clashing notes are referred to as sounding dissonant. Here is a chart of the mathematical relationship of musical intervals:

Unison (2 of the same note) 1/1

Octave 2/1

Perfect 5th 3/2

Perfect 4th 4/3

Major 3rd 5/4

Major 6th 5/3

Major 7th 15/8

Minor 7th 9/5

Major 2nd 9/8

Minor 2nd 16/15

Tri-tone 135/128

So, to some extent atonality going against nature and and is hard for the brain to digest. If you consider that the universe is constructed in an orderly manner – that there are inherent relationships between everything living and nonliving that can be organized down to a molecular level – than atonality goes against nature as it does not have tight formal relationships the way tonal music does. On the other hand, if you believe that the universe is chaotic and that many things are related only by random chance encounters which we seek to find order in, then atonality is simply an expression of the universe.

So the question of whether or not atonality goes against nature is related to how you see the universe itself. Is the universe ordered or chaotic? This is something that man has been grappling with since we first appeared on this earth and no definitive answer is possible. Ultimately we must find order out of chaos to survive in this world and that’s why tonality is so refreshing and easy to digest. Atonality is something that is hard to digest and challenging, yet some people find order within the chaos. The challenge of finding structure amidst the randomness that surrounds our everyday lives is what keeps us engaged in both art and life itself.

So the appreciation of atonal music ultimately comes down to your intellectual capacity of making order out of chaos. Some people prefer things to be more coherent while others enjoy the challenge of dealing with more randomness. What type of person you are will determine whether or not you enjoy or abhor atonal music. It also comes down to the level of sophistication of the listener because music is a language that must be learned.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com. I would love to hear from all of you and get your thoughts on this subject.

Does Atonality Go Against Nature? The Overtone Series – Atonality Part 2

You have undoubtedly heard atonality in spooky movies and other places where notes clash and you hear strange dissonances. Unlike most melodic music which you can sing along, atonal music can be much more challenging to comprehend.

Western music is based upon major and minor scales that form tonal music which is relatively easy to comprehend. Atonal music is based upon tone rows, where all twelve chromatic notes available are arranged in a random pattern, and the entire piece is built upon that.

If you explore this, you will discover all sorts of unusual sounds and clashing harmonies. We will go into more depth on atonality in future videos and I certainly welcome your comments and suggestions on this subject.

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

What is Atonality? Atonality Part 1

This is an incredibly important topic and one that definitely will make an impact on your life. Ultimately it will always be a personal choice which instrument you choose to play but it’s worth examining the pros and cons of particular instruments.

If you have a child who is just starting out in music you might think the best choices would be either violin or piano. This has become conventional wisdom today and I know many people who insist upon either of these two instruments. This is not unfounded because the musical foundation that is laid at a young age with either of these two instruments is very beneficial and they both require a long development period that benefits from starting earlier in life. If you then decide to switch instruments a bit later in life it will be an easier transition – for example if you switch to guitar or a wind instrument the learning period will be much shorter having a solid foundation on piano or violin.

I am definitely biased towards learning piano at a young age. It’s not only because I am a pianist, but it’s arguably the best instrument for understanding music theory because there is such an easy visual representation of everything and the fact that you can play many notes at the same time so easily.

What’s most important though is what engages you and your child musically. If you force someone to study an instrument they have no interest in playing then you are setting them up for failure. It will be hard to get them to practice and eventually there will be a sense of resentment that builds towards that instrument. If you want to play accordion, play it! If your child is adamant about playing a tuba, get them a tuba! If you have a love and passion for something you should go with it.

It takes a long time to develop on any instrument and there is no right or wrong choice. You are better off picking something you have a real connection to rather than something that seems like a safe choice.

If you and your child have no preference and you just want your child to start learning music, I would definitely recommend the piano. With the keyboard in front of them they will be able to visualize their music better and they will develop a better foundation that will allow them to switch instruments more easily if they choose to.

I started learning piano when I was 7. In the fourth grade I began studying the French horn. After the first lesson I immediately took to the instrument and loved it. By the second lesson I came back knowing the whole book! My teacher couldn’t believe it but my first book was so much simpler than the piano music I was learning that I was able to learn incredibly fast. I was leaps and bounds ahead of my classmates because I could already read music and the complexity of piano far outweighed the music for the French horn.

I would love to hear from everyone and get your opinions on this subject. It’s very important to get your children started on the right musical path at a young age even if they don’t plan on a musical career. Many studies have shown that learning music will help your child become a better student and unleash their creativity. Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com

Choosing the Right Musical Instrument to Study

I have received many questions about whether or not playing other instruments or different styles of music can negatively affect your piano playing. Many people have asked whether playing jazz will hurt your Classical music skills. Many people want to know how playing the guitar impacts your piano playing. So here are some points worth considering.

It is my personal feeling that the more you assimilate musically, the richer musical experience you will have to offer. I majored in both piano and French horn in a music conservatory. I always felt that the breakthroughs I had with one instrument always seemed to translate to epiphanies for the other instrument!

Guitar and piano are very different instruments. They do share the ability (that few instruments have) to play many notes at the same time (playing polyphonically). The piano offers a very easy way to understand the basics of music theory because of the half-step arrangement of the keys. Guitar has frets which are half-steps apart, but the strings are tuned at different intervals from one another which isn’t as intuitive as the piano. So, the piano can be beneficial to understanding music theory which can help your guitar playing. Does this work the other way around though? Can playing the guitar help the development of your piano playing?

One aspect you can draw on immediately is the ability of the guitar to alter the tone of held notes while the piano has limited ability in this regard (with the exception of the pedals). For example, you can bend notes on the guitar and create different tones and expressiveness very easily. On the piano, without the use of the pedals, the notes you play will always produce the same basic tone. The thing you can impart to your piano playing is the ability to think about creating expression and tonal differences like you can with the guitar even with a more limited toolset. With practice and proper techniques, you can begin to create new and interesting sounds in your music much like you can working with the strings on the guitar.

You will also find that certain chord voicings are more easily accomplished on one instrument or another, opening avenues of creativity when exploring the same music on both instruments.

But does playing guitar hurt your piano playing in any way? Absolutely not! Play what you want and expand your horizons however you can. Learning new music and instruments will only enrich your musical experience. I would love to hear your opinions on this subject. Please feel free to email me directly with your comments or questions, Robert@LivingPianos.com

Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons