Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about the five things piano and ping-pong have in common. There are so many things they have in common! One thing, and this isn’t one of the five, is that they are both things that I particularly love and have been doing almost my whole life! I remember getting a ping-pong table when I was a kid. There’s a crazy story about that. It was during the holidays, and I went with my good friend Marty to Sears, which was over a mile away. I thought I would surprise my family with a ping-pong table. We bought it, and then we tried to carry it home. I had to call my dad to pick us up, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. But we grew up with a ping-pong table. And of course, we had lots of pianos in the house. These are two things that have been very close to me. To this day, I still play ping-pong on a very regular basis. And of course, piano is my life! So let’s come up with the five things that these two activities have in common.

1. They both involve motor skills.

With piano, you have the finger coordination, the arms, and you have to coordinate with the sounds and the visuals of the keys, as well as the sheet music. There are so many aspects of motor skills involved in piano playing. With ping-pong, you have to judge the trajectory of the ball and be in exactly the right place to hit it. There’s obviously a tremendous amount of motor skill involved in both of these activities. What else is there?

2. They both involve aerobic exercise.

Obviously, ping-pong provides aerobic exercise. In professional ping-pong matches, the players are ten feet from the table, and they’re running all around. It’s mildly aerobic, even if you’re playing casually. But it’s not so exhausting that you can’t play for an extended amount of time. That’s what’s great about ping-pong. Now, what about the piano? Is piano aerobic? Well, there are some things on piano that are certainly aerobic, like, for example, the coda of the Chopin G minor Ballade. Whenever you have leaps like that, it’s mildly aerobic. It’s definitely more exercise than sitting and reading a book! So they both provide some level of aerobic exercise. What else?

3. They both keep your brain sharp.

There was a study years ago in a New York Times Magazine article years ago. It was an in-depth article about the human brain. In that article, they cited piano playing as being the single most complex activity of the human brain. Think about all the things involved in piano playing: I mentioned earlier the coordination of your fingers, but the sound, the sights, short-term memory, and long-term memory—it’s an incredibly complex activity for the brain! But in ping-pong, you also have to make split-second calculations from moment to moment. There’s strategy involved: trying to get your opponent off kilter by where you place the ball, spinning the ball to try to throw them off, hitting corners so you have the greatest distance, trajectories, the arc of the ball, and where you’re standing. These are all great activities for the brain. As a matter of fact, both of these activities can help prevent cognitive decline because you’re exercising your brain, which is terrific!

4. They both provide stress relief.

When you play the piano, your mind can completely let go of everything and just focus on the beauty of the music. Your brain is occupied 100% with something other than your relationships, work, chores, or whatever is causing you stress. It’s much the same thing with ping-pong. When you’re playing ping-pong, you let go of everything and get into a state of flow. You’re just enjoying the game, and you let go of all your worries. These activities allow you to disengage from the worries and stress in your life.

5. Piano and ping-pong are both immensely popular in China.

In China, there are about 50 million piano students! 100 years ago, in the United States, there were hundreds of piano companies. That’s what China has today. There are hundreds of piano manufacturers in China that you don’t even know about because they only serve the domestic market. Only a handful of companies export because there’s such a huge market there. During our trip to China, we saw all kinds of piano brands with some of the oddest names you could ever imagine. These are companies that probably wouldn’t be able to export their products because they’re not up to international standards. They produce low-priced pianos for the massive number of people who play piano in China.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about why you must peak later in your phrases. What am I talking about? In most lyrical music, that is, music with melody, you have a line that has a rise and a fall. You may have noticed that oftentimes, when you are trying to make those decrescendos to have beautiful phrase endings, it’s difficult to control.

Find musical solutions to your technical problems.

Taking the crescendo of the phrase almost to the end and then tapering off sounds much more musical than peaking in the middle of the phrase. And it’s technically so much easier to execute! I often talk about musical solutions to technical problems, and that’s exactly what this is. The music and the technical execution are in perfect alignment. This is what you must look for, not only in this aspect, which is fundamental to melodic music, but in all your technical challenges in music.

By having the peak of the phrase later in the phrase, you’ll get a more intense expression.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how to solidify rhythms. I did a video a while back called What Is the Most Important Aspect of Music? I identified rhythm as the most important part. Of course, it’s hard to say one aspect of music is the most important, but rhythm is an intrinsic part of music. What can you do to solidify rhythms in your music? There are many things you can do! I’m going to outline them for you today to help solidify your music.

The essential way to figure out and solidify any written score is to count the rhythms.

Count them out loud. First, you can simply clap the rhythms before you even play them, so you can solidify the rhythm without being encumbered by fingering, phrasing, expression, and notes. The important thing about counting is to count consistently. In other words, if you’re counting a piece in 4/4 time that has eighth notes, you want to count with the “ands” even if you don’t have eighth notes on those “ands.” So you want to count, “one – and – two – and – three – and – four – and.” Count all the beats and just fit in the notes where they land, even when you aren’t playing eighth notes. If you don’t count all the “ands,” the rhythm can go haywire.

Your counting must have the same divisions throughout.

This is also true if you have a piece that just has occasional 16th notes. It can be really cumbersome to count, “one – uh – and – uh – two – uh – and – uh – three – uh – and – uh – four – uh – and – uh.” It’s hard to get up to speed counting that way. Initially, you might want to do that, but then soon you might just want to count with the “ands.” But again, you want to be consistent. Keep your counting style consistent throughout a piece, or at least a section of the piece, for it to really have value for you. What else is there other than counting?

The metronome is invaluable for solidifying rhythms.

You can use the metronome to solidify rhythms as well as tempo. You might have the rhythm solidified, but then your tempo fluctuates in different sections of the piece. For example, a piece that has mostly slow notes in one section and then faster notes in another section. How can you possibly have the same pulse unless you use the metronome? For example, in Farewell by Burgmüller, you have eighth notes at the beginning, then it goes to triplets. You even have a ritard thrown in there in the transition. Take out the trusty metronome so you know how to justify the beat when you’re going from two divisions of the beat to three divisions of the beat. This is a great way to solidify your tempo and rhythm. The metronome is an invaluable tool, as I’ve talked about before. Is there anything else you can do?

Believe it or not, there’s something you can do away from the piano!

You have a piece of music, and you’re having trouble really feeling the pulse of the beat. The metronome isn’t working for you, so what do you do instead? You can go marching! Take a walk and play in your mind, or sing the part that is giving you trouble to the beat of your stride. That’s something you can do to literally feel the beat.

Dancing is a tremendous way to feel the beat.

Just feel the music and make motions to it. There’s a whole field of study about this called Eurythmics. It enables people to get a sense of rhythm by clapping, moving, and improvising, all of which utilize the body as part of the process of learning and becoming comfortable with rhythms. Move parts of your body, particularly when you’re away from the piano. You don’t want to get into the habit of moving around when you’re playing the piano because it’s distracting to the audience and can become a habit. If you need to tap your foot, a little trick you can use is to tap your left heel. If you tap the toe, it can make noise. You can even tap your heel while you’re using the soft pedal, and it won’t really get in the way of the music or the audience.

So those are some tips for you! Once again, counting out loud is important; using the metronome is a vital part of any serious classical player’s practice; you can master music while singing or thinking it in your head; and you can dance to your music. These are all ways you can solidify your rhythm on the piano or other instruments! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today we are going to discuss whether or not you should follow metronome markings in your scores. I’ve had students say to me, “I’m really trying to get this piece up to speed, and the tempo marked in the score is 160. I just can’t get anywhere close to that!” They’re beating themselves up, wondering how they can get it up to that speed. There’s a lot to this subject. I’m going to enlighten you about these metronome markings in scores. But first, I want to show you something that will shed some light on this whole subject.

How fast is Allegro?

I have my metronome here, and there’s a whole range of tempos marked “Allegro”. The very slowest Allegro is 126. That seems fine, but there’s a whole range of Allegro. 126 is the lowest setting that’s marked as Allegro on the metronome. 144 is right in the middle of what that’s marked as Allegro. At this speed, I think some pieces lose their elegance. But here’s what’s really crazy: according to this metronome, 168 is at the top range of Allegro. That is a much faster tempo than what you would generally consider to be Allegro. So that’s not much help, is it?

Are metronome markings in the score written by the composer?

You have a piece of music with a tempo marking. Did the composer put that in there? No. Composers almost never put metronome indications in scores. These are the editor’s suggestions that are put in the score. If you look at different editions, there can be drastically different metronome markings in the scores. So you really can’t go by metronome markings. I say ignore them! They are not of any value. They may or may not have anything to do with musical sensibilities.

If you really want to get a sense of what tempo is appropriate for a piece of music, listen to recordings.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. In today’s video, I have a really interesting listening test for you! Can you hear the difference between Mozart and Beethoven? Many of you might think you can easily tell the difference between Mozart and Beethoven. Well, can you? Well, if you are already familiar with the works that I’ve chosen, you’ll understand the significance of this question and the interesting listening test that I’m presenting for you.

To make the test fair, I’m going to play two excerpts from sonata movements that are both in the key of C minor.

I’m going to play these excerpts for you in a moment. I will give you a chance to decide which one is Mozart and which one is Beethoven before I reveal the answer. And in the comments below, if you are not familiar with either of these pieces, I’d like for you all to comment and see if you chose correctly or not. This will be a very interesting test! So leave your comments here at LivingPianos.com as well as on YouTube.

Watch the video to take the test!

They’re both very dramatic pieces of music, aren’t they? I hope all of you have decided which one you think is Mozart and which one you think is Beethoven. If you haven’t decided yet, stop reading now so you can make the decision before I reveal it. Be honest in the comments about which one you chose. I’m very interested in this. First of all, I’m going to tell you why I chose these two works. They are both in the minor key. Mozart in the minor key has a lot of fire, which is typical of what you might think of as Beethoven. If I had chosen one of Mozart’s sonatas in the major key, it might have been easier to tell the difference, for example, his C major K 330. That would not be mistaken for Beethoven! Of course, Beethoven wrote many sonatas that are very dramatic and would not be confused with Mozart. So many of them are so famous, though, like the Appassionata or the Pathetique. Those are very robust emotional works.

Now I will reveal the answer!

The Mozart sonata I played is K. 457 in C minor. And by the way, it has a companion fantasy that is really a gorgeous piece. It’s very experimental with its harmonies and such. That is a companion to this sonata in the same opus. The Beethoven sonata I played is Op. 10 no. 1 in C minor. I chose these excerpts to try to trick you as much as I possibly could!

The first excerpt was Mozart, and the second was Beethoven!

Welcome to Living Pianos, Robert Estrin here providing ways you can make money playing the piano. Can you make a living playing the piano? Did you know that there are tens of millions of piano students in China alone? And there are countless pianists in the entire world. However:

There are only around 200 pianists performing internationally in the great concert halls around the world.

There are close to 1,800 higher education schools granting music degrees in the United States alone. And each of these has piano majors graduating, hoping to become concert pianists. You might be discouraged by the whole idea of making a living as a pianist, but hang on a minute, because:

There are many ways to make a living playing the piano.

You’ll find that most people today who are making a living with the piano are people who are highly creative, not just in their art of playing the instrument but in their whole approach to how they bring the piano to people. After all, the piano has been around for centuries. It took hundreds of years for the piano to develop, but it’s been in its modern form since the latter part of the 1800s. Naturally, in that time period, there were some phenomenal pianists, from Liszt to Chopin and so many more.

In the early 20th century, the piano was the de facto home entertainment system in the United States!

The piano was tremendous, but it’s been on the decline, particularly in the United States, for over 100 years now. In China, the piano is really huge. There are hundreds of companies making pianos. And, as I said, there are about 40 or 50 million piano students in China! So at least in one part of the world, piano has risen in popularity. But let’s get back to how you can make money with the piano. There are many different ways. Obviously, playing solo piano concerts is tough. If you’re creative and you can figure out local series and what they’re looking for, you might just be able to find some possibilities for performing solo piano concerts. That is great because you are able to hone your craft and exploit what you’ve been trained for and spent your whole life lovingly working on.

Accompanying other musicians and collaborative playing in general can be richly rewarding.

There is some phenomenal chamber music repertoire for piano quartet or quintet. I was able to perform the Schumann Piano Quintet a couple of years ago. It’s a great piece. There are also great works by Brahms and Dvořák. There’s just spectacular music, and it’s quite an art form! It almost sounds like an orchestra because you have the string quartet plus a piano. It is one of the greatest ensembles, if you haven’t explored it. And there are many other opportunities for collaboration.

Almost all violin and cello solo music has piano parts that are fundamental to the works.

There is some great solo music for strings, by Bach in particular. Paganini and other composers did write solo music for violin and cello. But the vast majority of solo music for strings has integral piano parts that can be as demanding or even more demanding and intrinsic than the string parts. It can be a richly rewarding experience to accompany a soloist. But it’s not just string players. Virtually every orchestral instrument that has solo music, the vast majority of it is collaboration with the piano. Because of this, people are always looking for pianists. It can be a daunting task to think of all the music you have to learn. You might consider specializing. Maybe you’ll just learn a lot of vocal accompaniments. Maybe you’ll specialize in opera accompaniments or art songs. Maybe you played clarinet and are familiar with the literature, so you could specialize in learning accompaniments to clarinet music. You will find that virtually all instruments are looking for pianists to play their music with. So this is a great possibility!

What other possibilities are there in regards to performing?

There are other opportunities, whether it’s a musical theater production looking for somebody to play keyboard parts or rock bands, folk, country, or what have you. There are dance companies and schools that need pianists for rehearsals and performances. There are many different performing opportunities if you are versatile. Expanding the styles that you are comfortable with makes you much more marketable. This can provide you with more opportunities to play the piano.

Playing at church or in other places of worship can offer rich opportunities for musical collaboration.

There is a vibrant in-home concert scene in many communities in which people with good pianos in large enough homes host concerts and offer refreshments. Audience members all pay a fee to the artist. This provides important performing opportunities for musicians while enriching the lives of the people in the community. If you are creative, you may be able to work out musical programs in nursing homes or private schools offering a valuable experience for people of all ages.
Composers are always looking for opportunities to have their music performed.

Teaching is a tremendous way to share your craft.

You don’t necessarily have to get an advanced degree to teach piano. If you want to teach at the university or college level, a master’s degree is a prerequisite these days. A doctorate degree is very helpful because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of piano performance majors graduating each year in the United States and abroad, and they are all looking for these positions. So you have to do something to set yourself apart. I recommend not just getting advanced degrees, but trying to do something original so you can be noticed among the hundreds or thousands of applicants that schools receive for these positions. Something that is unique to you, some voice that you have, a vision about the piano in society today, or a specialty of repertoire. Maybe you love contemporary music and just want to help composers. That’s another great way to get performance opportunities.

Composers are always looking for opportunities to have their music performed.

If you love contemporary music and are willing to put in the work, you can find people who will pay you to play their music because they need performances. Otherwise, the music just sits somewhere, and nobody gets to hear it except maybe a machine playing it. What fun is that?

To teach privately, you don’t even need a degree!

You just have to have training to be able to know how to teach. There are people like myself who teach piano pedagogy, so you can get instruction in that. You don’t have to be a concert-level player to be a good teacher. In fact, there are many concert pianists who are not necessarily great teachers. Maybe they were child prodigies, and they have no idea how they do what they do. Someone who started later in life may not have a virtuosic technique, but may still understand how to convey what it takes to learn a piece of music. That knowledge could be passed on to piano students. It can be a tremendous experience to help people develop their piano playing.

There are many ways in which you can share your music on the piano.

Mozart was known to improvise music at gatherings. This was a common practice at the time. Sometimes there would be events with several keyboardists dueling it out trying to outdo each other! Naturally, Mozart astounded audiences with these displays of instant composition.

Mozart Fantasies offer a glimpse as to what his improvisations were like.

Mozart composed very few fantasies. He also composed only a few pieces in minor keys, although most of them are among his finest compositions. Unlike most of Mozart’s works which have very well defined Classical form, in his fantasies, he explores flights of fancy that drift seamlessly from one idea to another. The D Minor Fantasy is captivating from beginning to end keeping you wondering what is coming next!

This is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com. Today we have a musical test for you! You can test your musical ear with the accompanying video. You have an opportunity to see if you can hear the difference between different types of triads.

What is a Triad?

Triads can also be inverted. So the bottom note can be on the top, or the top note can be on the bottom:

The major triad has a happier sound compared to the minor chord which has a sad quality for most people. The diminished triad has a diminished 5th. So you can listen for a smaller outer interval. Whereas the augmented triad has an augmented 5th, so the outer interval is larger. The augmented triad is also every other note of a whole tone scale, a scale of all whole steps.

So now that you have an intellectual background of triads, try the listening test and see how you do! You can leave your impressions or results here at LivingPianos.com or YouTube!