Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

Welcome the first in the two part series of how to play the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata. This lesson will cover how to control voicing in the famous 1st movement.

Learning to balance the hands is one of the most challenging aspects of learning to play the piano. It gets even harder when playing the Moonlight Sonata because you have two different parts in one hand and you want to play one part louder than the other – using only one hand. This is truly a challenge and will definitely take some practice to master.

I’m going to provide some techniques to help you practice this part of the Moonlight Sonata but this is intrinsic information when it comes to piano playing; you can use these techniques for all your music!

(If you are not familiar with the first movement of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata, you should be able to get the score on line.)

In this particular part you have two parts with the right hand – triplets on the bottom and a slow melody on top. The difficulty is compounded because the longer melody notes fade out while the accompaniment triplets keep repeating and are therefore naturally louder; so how do you balance the two?

If you try and play some notes louder than others you might not be able to achieve this at first. You might wonder how you would ever be able to practice something like that. There is a great technique to remedy this!

Instead of just practicing louder and softer with the right hand, practice with two completely different articulations. Play the melody legato and play the accompaniment part staccato (from the fingers); this will give you control.

By practicing in this extreme manner it will help to identify the feel of the melody compared to the accompaniment. Practice playing the accompaniment very lightly and play with just a touch of the fingers, not the wrist.

When you do play the piece as written – with the legato triplets on the bottom – feel that you are reaching for the melody notes on top and you will be able to control the sound from the fingers.

It is very important in your initial practice to not use the pedal; so you can accomplish the independence of your fingers from one-another and hear the voices clearly. The pedal is literally the last thing you add.

This is a technique you can use in all your music to bring out melodies. I’m very interested to hear any input or advice you might have regarding this technique. Thanks again for watching.

You might have heard these terms used in describing used pianos. But exactly what is the difference between rebuilding a piano and simply reconditioning one? Is there a real distinction between the two? There definitely is.

Whether or not you will be looking at a rebuild or a reconditioning really depends upon the condition the piano is in. Generally, the distinction of rebuilding is when the cast iron plate of the piano is removed. Removing the plate is a very big deal – it requires an engine hoist; as the plate weighs more than the rest of the piano combined. When removing the plate, the strings, pins, and bolts are removed first. Then the plate is lifted out.

Rebuilding is necessary when the soundboard or pinblock are compromised. The reason for removing a plate is so important is that it allows the technician to get to the belly of the piano. The soundboard can be refinished; it can be shimmed if necessary, and when the plate is put back in it can be placed precisely for ideal down bearing – the tension the strings exert on the bridge. You also have the option to rebuild the plate to make it look like new. Really, removing the plate allows you to rework the inside of the piano giving new life to a piano with problems.

Another good reason to rebuild a piano is if the pinblock needs to be replaced. If the piano has been restrung a number of times it is important to replace the pinblock because larger pins are used every time you restring a piano and you reach a practical limit in pin size. Also, the pinblock can sometimes develop cracks which effects tuning stability.

If the soundboard and pinblock are in good shape, there is no benefit in rebuilding the piano. In fact, you can restring the piano, rework the bridges, and even rebuild the action, refinish the cabinet and re-bush the pedals all without technically rebuilding the piano. However, such a piano might be just as solid and potentially long-lasting as a rebuilt piano. It all depends upon what each instrument needs in order to play at a high level for years to come.

You may have heard this term before, but you might not know what it means. It is a very important thing to understand when you are looking at pianos.

Perhaps you have visited a piano store and seen lots of American names on pianos but few – if any – are what they appear to be. Many of them are undoubtedly stencil pianos.

The business of stencil pianos goes way back. In fact, many of the leading piano companies used to have second lines of pianos called OEM pianos (Original Equipment Manufacturer) that they sold to piano stores. The stores would then put their own brand names on the pianos.

Today, stencil pianos have become a huge part of the piano industry. With only 2 major piano manufacturers left in the United States (Steinway and Mason & Hamlin) and 1 smaller company (Charles Walther), there are only about 2,000 pianos manufactured in the United States every year.

However, if you walk into a store you will probably see dozens of American piano manufacturer names on the pianos. These are almost all stencil pianos and they are mostly produced in China and Indonesia (and some in Korea). The pianos are bought from the manufacturer and a familiar name is put on the piano in order to make customers more comfortable.

For example, You might see the Baldwin name on a new piano in a store. However, when Gibson bought the Baldwin piano company a few years ago, they shut down the American piano plant. They then bought the Dongbei Piano factory in China. Ever since they have been importing these pianos from China and putting the Baldwin name on the front of them. So for about 1/5 of the cost of an actual American made Baldwin piano you can own a new Chinese “Baldwin” which looks pretty much the same.

However, even though the pianos might look the same, they are far from the same piano. These pianos manufactured in China and Indonesia are good choices if the piano is mostly for furniture or for the casual player. But they won’t hold up well with rigorous use and would rarely get passed down from generation to generation.

Many piano dealers will use certain techniques to market these stencil pianos and make them seem like there is something special about them. For example, Steinway has done an excellent job of marketing their stencil piano brands – Essex and Boston. Essex is a Chinese piano made by Pearl River and Boston is an OEM piano sold to Steinway but produced by Kawai. The Steinway piano name is so popular and well respected that people will pay thousands of dollars more to buy something with the Steinway name somewhere inside it as opposed to just buying the piano directly from the original manufacturer.

Keep in mind, many experts recommend buying an original manufacturer piano as opposed to a stencil or OEM piano. There are two main reasons for this: one, no manufacturer would ever sell a better product to a competitor than they sell themselves; two, when it comes to stencil pianos there is always a middleman, so you will be paying more than simply purchasing the piano from the original manufacturer.

Why are scales and arpeggios so important? Since the vast majority of Western music is based upon major/minor tonality, having a mastery of scales and arpeggios is like knowing your addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables in order to do the math. Also, it provides an opportunity to focus purely on finger technique. It is an extraction of just that element of playing without the complexity of harmony, rhythm, phrasing, and expression. Scales and arpeggios also provide an excellent warm-up for your practice.

What are scales and arpeggios? Scales are a series of 8 whole steps and half steps (and augmented seconds found in harmonic minor scales) in which the first and last notes are the same. Arpeggios are broken chords. Generally, scales and arpeggios are practiced throughout a wide range of an instrument repeating the pattern from octave to octave both ascending and descending.

We are currently looking for a piano for our church service use. We don’t have very high budget so we are currently looking at used pianos. We have come across the following model and it would be great if Bob could provide expert advice on which one is the better one:

– Yamaha MC10A
– Weinbach serial number 149862

Thank you Bob

Both Yamaha and Weinbach make good quality instruments. From the serial number, you can determine that the Weinbach was manufactured in the Czech Republic before it was acquired by Petrof. Since you don’t have the model number of the Weinbach, I will assume these are both similar style upright pianos. In that case, the better piano is the one that is in better condition. There are many factors that come into play.

You can determine how much use the pianos have had by looking at the grooves on the hammers. Deeper grooves mean the piano has had more use. The hammers also may have been filed. Look at how much felt is left particularly on the highest notes of the piano. Also, you can wiggle the keys back and forth. If there is a lot of play or worse yet clicking sounds, this indicates that the piano has been played substantially.

Another important factor is the environment the piano has been subjected to. An extremely dry or humid environment can damage a piano. Definitely look on the back of the piano at the soundboard for detached ribs, warping, or open cracks. (Tight, hairline cracks are not a concern.) Look for rust or corrosion on the strings. Yellowing of felt parts (hammers and dampers) also indicates parts that are more weather-worn.

It is a mistake buying a piano you think will be fundamentally different after it has been serviced. Unless you have vast experience with pianos, you would be taking a tremendous risk. Ultimately, how the piano sounds and feels is paramount since this is probably what is most important to you.

When a piano is in tune such as the glorious instrument in the accompanying video, you hear the beautiful tone, and you may wonder when to get your piano tuned. How do you know when it’s time to get your piano tuned. It’s not as easy a thing as you might think. So I’m going to liken it to a couple of different things. If any of you play guitar, you know that every time you take it out, you tune it up. In a perfect world, you would do the same thing with your piano! Since there are over 200 strings to tune, it’s not practical.

So there are certain guidelines much like with your car when you get the oil changed, you have an odometer reading, but there’s also a date. So even if you don’t drive your car, it’s still recommended you change the oil periodically. The same thing is true for your piano. Your piano might sound fine to you, but maybe it’s been a year or two since it’s been tuned. It’s very important to get it tuned because the whole piano could shift up or down and might sound good within itself but the instrument will not be able to hold the tuning without several more tunings to get the pitch stable again.

The Piano Technicians’ Guild recommends a piano ideally should be tuned about four times a year, a minimum of twice. Why is that? It’s very simple: the change of seasons affects the tuning of your piano. Even if you don’t play your piano, it’s got to be tuned a minimum of a couple of times a year and in most climates four times a year is close to ideal. If you play the piano a great deal, every time you play, it goes out a little bit – especially if you’re a strong player and practice a great deal. You might even consider monthly tunings of your piano. You might think this gets very expensive. But in the long run, like changing the oil in your car, the more you tune your piano, the better you preserve the instrument and the more stable the tuning becomes.

Christina asks, how do you prepare for a concert? Do you play through your music on the day of the concert?

This question raises many issues of concern to all performers. Performing music requires many different types of preparation including:

– Physical

– Mental

– Emotional

The most important aspect of preparing to perform a concert is the work that is done weeks and months before the performance. This is essential to accomplish all 3 aspects listed above. Obviously, a thorough knowledge of the score as well as technical fluency is required for a good performance. But equally important is the psychological preparation. If the first time you think about being out there in front of an audience is the moment of the performance, you will be ill-prepared for the surge of adrenalin that surely would result. Take time days in advance of the performance to imagine the moment in great detail while being in a relaxed state so you can trigger that feeling when the actual performance comes.

Trying out your music the day of the program is a good idea particularly if the piano is one that you aren’t intimately familiar with. A good addition is to play some of your pieces slowly with the music with no pedal to reinforce the memory. Some people like to have special routines on the day of a performance like taking a nap or a walk, avoiding caffeine, even eating bananas or taking beta blockers to help ease nerves. Other people like to go about their routines as normal. You should do what makes you feel good. The bottom line is to enjoy the performance. If you are engaged with the music, the audience will share the emotions of the performance!

When I was growing up, I would listen to some of the great pianists such as Horowitz and Rubinstein. I would also listen to some of the pianists from the early 20th century such as Hoffman, Rachmaninoff, and Joseph Levine. I was always so impressed with the pristine finger work. It almost would sound like a string of jewels because of the evenness of the notes, and I always wondered how to achieve that sound. So today’s show is about how to achieve brilliant finger work.

I’m going to regress a little bit more. When I first started studying the piano with my father Morton Estrin, he showed me how to practice scales with raised fingers and often times my students ask me, “Why do I have to raise my fingers?” Let me show you what I’m talking about. With slow scale practice, it’s important for strength to raise the fingers. You may wonder why you would ever want to play that way because obviously when you play quickly, you don’t have time to raise your fingers. The secret to getting the evenness in your scale work and fast finger passages is the release of notes.

For example, if you were to put your hand on a flat surface and just try to lift one finger, some of them are pretty hard to lift. Lift your fourth finger with your hands on a flat surface, and it’s very hard. It’s actually the release of notes that takes more strength than the pushing down of notes! So to strengthen and then to release is the reason for practicing slowly with raised fingers so you’ll practice the release of each note and that will lead to the pristine beauty you can get in fast finger work.