Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

The term perfect pitch sounds like a great thing doesn’t it? It even has the name perfect in it! However, there are a few drawbacks to having perfect pitch that some people might not be aware of, despite the name, it does have some challenging aspects.

Perfect pitch is actually a misnomer. It has nothing to do with intonation – being in tune – it is simply pitch memory. Someone with perfect pitch can hear any sound and without even thinking about it know exactly what note it is just like most people can recognize colors without effort.

The adjunct to perfect pitch is Relative Pitch. The vast majority of people – including professional musicians – are able to comprehend pitch by hearing one note relating it to all others. This is a skill that can be honed to the point where you might think that someone with a well developed sense of relative pitch has perfect pitch because they can nearly instantaneously recognize notes just from hearing them. The secret is that they must first identify one note. From there they can relate all other pitches from that reference note.

A person with perfect pitch does not need a reference note. They can simply identify notes on their own.

The benefits of this skill are great. For transcribing music – listening to music and writing it out – it is incredibly simple for someone with perfect pitch. There are some instances however where perfect pitch can actually be a detriment. How can this be?

Imagine this: you are singing in a choir and you have sheet music in front of you. The choir director decides that C major is a bit high for the choir so she wants to lower it down a whole-step to B-flat major. For the people in the choir with relative pitch this would make pretty much no difference – their relative pitch can easily adapt to the changes. For those in the choir with perfect pitch, they will have to calculate every single note to the lower pitch because their sense of pitch is absolute! If a C is written on the page they only see and hear C and not the B-flat the director wants.

What about if you have perfect pitch and you’re in an orchestra? Perhaps you are used to A- 440 which is how your piano is tuned at home. But what if the orchestra tunes higher to A-442 or A-444? This could be a challenge because the reference is so ingrained that a small change can be maddening – to have to play “out of tune”. The temptation is to play the “correct” pitch which is not going to work in this setting.

Let’s go back to the choir scenario. Imagine if during the performance the choir shifts up or down in pitch – which can definitely happen when the choir is not accompanied by any other instruments. People with relative pitch may not even sense the wandering of the pitch. But the person with perfect pitch will hear the error and have a hard time adjusting as the choir drifts up or down in pitch. This is a very real scenario.

Perfect pitch is not something that’s a deal breaker for musicians. In fact it can be extremely beneficial but it’s not without its challenges. It’s important for all musicians regardless of whether they have perfect pitch or not to understand the underlying structure of music. Perfect pitch is a tremendous thing to have in certain situations but it’s not a substitute for getting intimately involved in how music is constructed.

If you don’t have perfect pitch it’s not a big deal – most of us have to depend upon relative pitch. If you have perfect pitch you should enjoy your inherent skill but still focus on learning the fundamentals of music and the relationship of tones just as someone with relative pitch would have to do.

This is a very tough subject. Many times I have seen parents get down on their kids for not wanting to practice even though they are paying for music lessons. In a perfect world, everyone would take music lessons and know from experience how difficult it can be to practice. It’s a tough task to keep adults engaged in learning music – so you can imagine how difficult it is for children. This article will offer some tips to keep kids engaged in their lessons and excited to learn and motivated to practice.

While playing a musical instrument is fun, it takes a lot of work to learn how to play well. It takes a tremendous amount of mental and tactical skill in order to be successful. With children, you will be walking a fine line of keeping them engaged and interested and becoming disenchanted and wanting to quit. How can you avoid having them simply give up?

One of the most important things is making sure that they aren’t playing on inferior instruments. It might sound silly to have your child learn something they might not stick with on a nice instrument, but it can be pointless to have them practice and learn on an inferior product. Many times music teachers will recommend certain instruments and parents will simply go for the cheapest alternative – setting their child up for failure. If you have them performing on an instrument where the sound produced is bad and the keys stick, they probably won’t want to keep playing it. One of the best ways to discourage someone from playing an instrument is handing them a bad instrument.

Another thing that is critical is getting the best possible teacher right from the beginning. It’s a huge mistake to think that going with an inferior teacher is O.K. when starting a musical instrument. If an experienced player learns from someone great and then moves on to someone not so great, they will immediately be able to tell they aren’t getting what they need from them. This is not possible when you start lessons – there is no frame of reference. Not only will their development be much quicker with a better teacher, chances are they will be more motivated to learn if they are experiencing a tremendous amount of progress. Bad teaching risks not only a potentially worthless experience, but they could potentially develop bad habits causing injury.

Now if you have a child who is working hard and practicing every day, you need to find ways to encourage them. A good idea is having them play in informal and nurturing settings for friends and family. Encourage them to perform but make sure you don’t pressure them too much or put them in an awkward situation. Having them play for people will help to build self-esteem as well as get more encouragement to know that all their hard work is building to something.

Another thing to do is play music for them. Take them to concerts. Show a general interest in what they are doing. If they see your interest and enjoyment in their musical achievements, it will only help to build their confidence and interest in continuing to learn and play. If the children are very young, maybe it’s a better idea to take them to outdoor concerts where they can be in a more informal setting. I’ve seen many times where parents will take very young children to formal concerts only to have them be ridiculed by other members of the audience for not sitting completely still or being quiet. This can be a horrible experience for any young child and can turn them off to music. It’s not a great idea to bring a four-year-old to a sophisticated classical concert – they can’t comprehend the level of complexity involved in the music and most likely won’t enjoy it as you intend them to.

It’s a lot like getting your kids to do anything that you need them to do – doing homework, brushing their teeth, cleaning their room, etc. Practicing their instrument should be a part of their daily routine. While you don’t want to beat them up over not practicing, you should encourage them to continue playing and to do it every day. A huge problem with children learning instruments is never practicing outside their lesson – this is only going to set them up for failure.

A big thing that many parents and even teachers do is not let kids play what they want. Children should be allowed to play any music they want, whether it’s classical or popular music. Forcing them to only play a certain type of music – specifically one they aren’t interested in may cause them to become disinterested much quicker. Encouraging them to play all sorts of music can enhance the experience of learning an instrument.

This has been a common question for me; many students have asked me what I would recommend helping them prepare for upcoming piano exams. I remember my days in music conservatory preparing for piano exams in preparation for recitals. In case you aren’t familiar, piano exams consist of sitting in front of a jury who generally spot check the music. This can be a daunting process!

The tests consist mostly of being asked to play certain selections from your current recital program. You may be stopped abruptly in the middle of your playing. This can happen throughout the exam and become very disconcerting if you don’t know what to expect. You might feel that they think you are playing badly but this is just part of the procedure and there is nothing to worry about.

But how do you prepare for this? The best thing to do is to practice like you would for a recital. While you might only be playing certain selections from your music, you should be prepared to play the entire program since it’s impossible to predict what they will ask for, just like any audition.

An essential practice technique is practicing without the pedal – this can be incredibly beneficial because you will hear more detail so your hands and fingers zero in on corrections quickly. You should also practice with the metronome and also combine these two techniques. These are essential piano practice techniques that will solidify your playing.

More than any physical technique, you will want to live with the music inside you. Play the music mentally away from the piano. Making yourself play the music away from the piano will better prepare you when you actually play on the piano. In order to play the piece in your head without even moving your fingers or looking at the keyboard, you have to be incredibly familiar with the score. It can be very reassuring to get the music mastered on this level. No matter who you are or how well you are prepared, mishaps can happen to the best concert pianists. In the event of a mistake, you must recover quickly and keep the music flowing. Knowing your scores enables you to keep the flow of the music going no matter what happens.

You may learn your scores so well that you literally play them in your sleep! When you sit at the piano you will want the music to come out of you with minimal effort. However, you will not want to play your music on autopilot. You should constantly stay focused on what you are doing and where you are in the piece instead of relying on tactile memory.

When preparing for an exam or a recital, performing a practice run through in front of family or friends is absolutely essential. If the first time you perform your music it is in a high-pressure situation, you will be at a distinct disadvantage. Try working with your colleagues testing each other through mock piano juries! Have them stop and start you abruptly – have them even critique you in a stone-faced manner. These techniques will benefit you when the time comes for your actual exam.

Remember that auditions are not necessarily satisfying musical experiences. The judges may have listened to dozens of students before you even show up. They may be tired and hungry. They are simply getting a job done. Their demeanor doesn’t necessarily reflect upon you. Remember that they are not there for the same reasons you are – they are simply there to test.

I get this question all the time. It’s a hard thing to put yourself out there as a musician, for every success there is an equal or greater amount of criticism and potential failure to deal with; it’s enough to make anyone second guess themselves. So in the face of criticism and potential failure, how do you keep yourself motivated as a musician?

Music is a subjective experience and not all music is for everyone. I’ve had times where audiences are very sophisticated and engaged in the performance and other times when the audience might be talking and aren’t fully engaged in the performance. Do I take it personally when an audience isn’t paying attention? While it can be frustrating, I remind myself of the reality of the situation.

It’s taken me a long time and lots of performances to get an understanding of how people react to and appreciate what you are providing; it’s not all about you. People have other things on their minds and different frames of reference and your performance is not the only thing going on in their lives at that moment.

When it comes to auditions it can be equally frustrating. Maybe you keep winning and winning and then all of a sudden hit a big losing streak. Or maybe you haven’t won anything yet. How do you remain motivated at times like this? I know it’s much easier said than done, but if music is your passion, you shouldn’t give up and you must keep your focus on the big picture. If you look deep down in yourself you might find that it’s not about your performance but more about the random elements of auditioning and performing.

You are not the only one who has faced adversity. It’s sometimes comforting to read stories about hugely successful musicians and see that they experienced the same amount of struggle and conflict in building their careers. Lady Gaga was told time and time again that she would never succeed and that she was not good looking or talented enough to be successful – do you think anyone tells her that now?

If music is your passion then you shouldn’t give up. Obviously you have to find a way to make a living doing something, but you should always keep your passion alive and find ways to embrace your creative side. If you keep at it, will you become the next superstar musician? Probably not. However if playing music is what makes you happy, then sharing your art should be something that fulfills you; you must be creative finding ways of monetizing your art.

Failure is an essential learning experience. It should not define you and it should not deter you from reaching your goals.

If you are familiar with one of the great American piano companies Mason & Hamlin you have may have heard about the Tension Resonator System, sometimes referred to as “The Spider” or “Crown Retention System”. This technology is unique to Mason & Hamlin pianos. What is this all about?

Welcome to my ongoing series of music theory lessons. Today we will be covering Pentatonic scales.

“Penta” means five, and as such these scales all have 5 notes in them. Major and minor scales contain 8 notes and chromatic scales contain 12; so 5 notes is quite a difference from other scales. As far as the intervals for pentatonic scales go, you can form one in any key by using the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th note of that major scale.

It’s actually great that we are using a piano keyboard as an example because the black keys on the piano actually form a pentatonic scale all on their own starting on G-flat. You might have noticed that if you play just the black keys on a piano, they tend to sound good together. That’s because it’s literally impossible to play a wrong note using just the black keys!

What’s really great about pentatonic scales is that all the notes sound really good together. I’m not kidding when I say you can play the black keys and make nearly anything sound good. Even someone who has never played the piano before can play just the black keys and create something that sounds pretty nice. If you’ve never improvised before this is a great place to start learning; just start playing the black keys and make something up. If you have a friend, try playing together just using the black keys; you will be pleasantly surprised at how good it can sound!

That’s really about all there is to know about pentatonic scales. I hope you enjoyed this exploration and look forward to next week’s video when we cover more music theory topics.

While you might not be familiar with the term glissando, you have no doubt heard it countless times before. It’s when the player slides their hands across the keys – it’s heard all the time in blues and rock. Believe it or not, it’s not as easy to pull off as it might look. You can actually injure yourself playing this incorrectly – which I have actually done as a child.

Glissando basically means a slide over all the keys. String players can perform this very smoothly by just moving their finger down the string; it’s not this easy on the piano. There is a simple secret however for playing this correctly.

The wrong way to play a glissando is to put your fingers down on the keys and simply slide them with the back of your hand. You can end up tearing off the skin on the back of fingers and causing tremendous pain!

The right way to perform a glissando is to place your hand at almost a right angle to the keys – so that mostly the nails hit the keys instead of skin. The video above provides an excellent demonstration of this. Believe it or not, that is it!

Now there are many different types of glissandos that can be performed in a few different ways. For example, you might want to play a descending glissando that would be played with the thumb on the right hand. The same principle applies; keep the angle straight up (at nearly a right angle) and slide the nail across the keys. If you stick to this technique you can even perform black key glissandos. Be careful though as this requires the angle to be precise in order to avoid injury.

Anyone who is familiar with historical keyboards is aware that at one point the black and white keys were reversed from what we have today. What many people don’t know (including myself until recently) is the reason why they were changed.

On earlier instruments like harpsichords and fortepianos, the naturals are represented by black keys (often times rosewood or ebony) and the sharps were actually white keys (traditionally with a little bit of ivory). So, why did they eventually switch?

The reason is a lot simpler than you probably imagine. When you look at a picture of the keys on an earlier period instrument that has black keys you might notice that seeing between the keys is very difficult because the black space is camouflaged by the black keys.

They blend together. On the other hand those white keys sure stick out!

Now let’s look at modern keyboard:

You can easily see the dark lines between each of the keys giving excellent visual clarity.

Believe it or not, this is the reason that the key colors were switched. It’s easier to see the distance between the keys and separate them from one another. So if this was a problem, why were the natural keys ever black in the first place? The reason is most likely that ivory has always been more scarce than wood. So this solves this timeless mystery!

This is something many of you might not be familiar with, it’s truly a topic for Steinway aficionados or those curious enough to look underneath their pianos. So what is the Steinway bell and what does it do?

If you have ever looked below a large Steinway grand piano, you would have noticed a strange piece of metal that is attached to the bottom of the piano. It looks like this:

As you can see, it has the shape of a bell – which is where it gets its name – but does it actually serve a purpose? The short answer is yes.