Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

Today’s question is something you might or might not have heard of. You’ve undoubtedly heard a prepared piano on film scores but you might not even realize what you were hearing. Today we’re going to discuss what it is as well as how you can experiment with these sounds yourself.

The piano has been around and advancements have been made over hundreds of years. Despite where the instruments are today, some composers still want to get even more out of the instrument. Composers like John Cage and others have experimented with altering the piano by adding different tools and other objects to the inside of the piano.

The video included with this article gives you an example of how a prepared piano can look and sound, although there are endless possibilities. We used just a few household objects placed on top of and between the strings. You are certainly not limited to just these types of enhancements; sometimes players will pluck strings or make changes to the keys as well – the only limit is your imagination and the capabilities of your piano.

If you feel brave enough to try and prepare your piano and experiment with different sounds, go for it!

This is a musical instrument after all and anything you want to do to illicit new sounds is fair game – there are no strict rules for what you can and can’t do. Just be careful not to harm the piano and certainly be wary of doing anything that involves pulling the action of the piano – this is something only a technician should be doing for you.

The ability to record professional-level music has really grown substantially in the past decade. What you can achieve today with just a simple computer in your home exceeds what you could achieve in a top of the line recording studio just a few decades ago.

As a child I grew up around studio equipment – tape recorders and other seemingly archaic recording technology were all around my home and in my father’s studio. As a young adult, I owned my own commercial recording studio and it was both a formidable investment and came with great compromises. Today, this is no longer an issue – anyone can set up a home studio with a few hundred dollars and a bit of knowledge.

Now before you go out and set up your studio, it’s a good idea to get a grasp on exactly what you will be using it for. Is it just audio recording? Maybe you want to incorporate video – what if you are a composer and you want to print out music you compose? These are all things you should be aware of before making your initial purchases. Planning and budgeting will lead to much better results when everything is in place.

You should also be aware of what operating system and software you intend on using. If you’re going with a Mac you can use Apple Logic or Mark of the Unicorn’s Digital Performer; on PC you have programs like Sonar/Cakewalk, Cubase, Reason and many others. When it comes down to picking the platform and the software, you should investigate what specialty the programs might offer. Most of them do nearly everything, but some of the programs specialize in certain areas better than others. It’s a very good idea to research the available programs thoroughly before making a purchase since some programs can be expensive and the learning curve can be steep.

Music recording in the home has become so advanced that you can literally plug in a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) enabled keyboard, play something, and have your program instantly record and transcribe the notes of what you just played! It might not be perfectly accurate transcription – it will assuredly need a little human editing – but it’s a great leap in the ability to transcribe music.

The one aspect of recording that hasn’t changed as much over the years is the recording hardware itself. Microphones, amplifiers, speakers, and room acoustics haven’t changed as much and still remain an important – and potentially expensive area of recording music. Surprisingly, some of the best equipment out there today is older technology. Tube amplifiers, ribbon microphones, and other older technology can still produce amazing – and in a lot of cases better results than newer digital equipment.

The bottom line is, you will need the following equipment to get even a minimal setup going:

microphone(s):
Look for quality here; it makes a huge difference.

Speakers:
You don’t necessarily need anything top-of-the-line here. But since this is your reference they should be relatively neutral rather than flatter any particular frequencies.

Computer:
You can get away with a mid-level PC or Mac.

Recording Interface:
You can use anything you can connect a microphone (or several mics) to a computer with. Make sure it’s compatible with your operating system and computer hardware and that it fits your needs.

Recording Software:
It is very important to research this thoroughly since you will be spending a lot of time familiarizing yourself with this.

MIDI enabled keyboard and printer
Choose a keyboard that suits your playing style. You only need a printer if you want to have score printing capabilities.

This is a very extensive topic and could be covered in-depth for hours upon hours – in fact, they have entire college courses dedicated to this subject. The good news is that anyone looking to set up a studio to record music in their home is able to achieve it with minimal investment in both time and money. You can forgo the audio interface and use the onboard capabilities of your computer if you want. Even Apple’s Garage Band on the iPad has substantial capabilities!

We are living in a wonderful age of technological advancements that enable everyday people to achieve tremendous results with only a minimal amount of investment.

The short answer is, yes! While we will definitely dive deeper into this subject in this article, reading and writing music is not necessarily a requirement to be a musician – although the type of music and what you’re looking to get out of your musical experience are important factors.

There are many styles of music in which people don’t read music at all and they can still be very successful. A lot of folk music and rock music is composed and played without the need to write or read music in a traditional way and it doesn’t hurt the overall experience.

With the advent of technology there are tools that have been developed for composers who don’t necessarily write things down. For example, when someone is scoring music for film or TV it might not require writing any music down. A musician could use a keyboard connected to a computer to simply improvise music and play any instrument sounds imaginable with certain programs. They might even use sound design elements that are incorporated into their music that aren’t even musical instruments at all – which would make it impossible to write down “notes” for something like that.

Sequencing programs on computers allow you to plug a keyboard in and they will record everything you play. Whether you are playing with a piano sound or different instruments, everything is recorded in a raw format that allows you to revisit it later and change the sound, instruments, or even the notes however you want. You can achieve all this without knowing how to read music. It can definitely be helpful in the editing process to use notation, however, there are other ways of dealing with notes such as piano roll representations which can be manipulated on the computer screen.

There are some limitations to composing without knowing how to read a score for certain types of production. For example, if you want to add acoustic instrument tracks to your score, being able to flesh out a part, put it on staff paper and having a professional musician come in and record that part would be much more time consuming without the ability to work with musical notation. However, there are workarounds even for this, such as recording the part on a keyboard and having someone learn it from the recording – or having someone transcribe the part to written form for you.

Another possibility is using shortcut notation – such as lead sheets. In Jazz and other improvised styles of music, lead sheets are how musicians generally communicate with each other.

The further your progress in your music, the more important learning how to read and write music may become. It’s not a necessity to get started but it can open up possibilities for your musical creations and collaborations.

If you’ve played music for any length of time you may be familiar with etudes. What they are exactly is a two part answer, because there are fundamentally two different types of etudes. Even though they are both called etudes, these two different types are radically different from one-another. So let’s explore this topic and explain the differences in etudes and how they relate to your music.

Etude comes from the French word meaning, “study”. Etudes generally focus on overcoming specific technical challenges. One type of etude is strictly an exercise. There are famous Czerny and Hanon etudes that are famous exercises, but they aren’t pieces people generally perform. Their main purpose is to develop technique on an instrument.

Most Hanon etudes are simply a series of repeated note patterns. They are valuable for younger students to develop strength. Hanon Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises also contains the standard fingering for all major and minor scales and arpeggios, a staple for serious pianists. Brahms and Czerny also have etudes that are used for developing technique as opposed to necessarily providing great musical compositions. However, some Czerny etudes are quite enjoyable to listen to.

The other type of etudes are musical etudes. Chopin, Liszt, and others have created masterful pieces of music called etudes. These etudes explore different technical issues such as double thirds, sixths, octaves and other unique challenges. Yet, they are masterful works of music.

Musical etudes from Chopin, Liszt, Moszkowski, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and others are sometimes extremely complex and can be daunting for intermediate students to attempt to play. But the good news is there are some musical etudes from composers such as Burgmüller that are very nice pieces of music which help develop technique, yet provide intermediate level students with richly rewarding music to play! There are musical etudes that range from student level to virtuoso. Mastering a musical etude can greatly benefit your development as a pianist and give you music to perform as well.

One of the most common questions I get is how to build strength on the piano. This is a tough topic because practicing the wrong way can potentially lead to injury, so you must always be aware of how you feel. The fact is, there is no simple method to instantly gain more strength in your piano playing – but this exercise will definitely help.

This is a very tough exercise that will take some practice to master. However, with persistence and patience you will find that this can be a very beneficial exercise to use and it’s something that you’ll only have to do once every practice session.

If this exercise is too challenging, try this exercise first:

This is a common question when it comes to dealing with your piano. Many aspiring pianists play their pianos a great deal. But the volume can be an issue (and there is no volume control on your piano!) Yet, you have to be considerate of the people you live with as well as your neighbors. Are there any ways you can quiet the sound of your piano? There are a number of things you can do to lessen the volume of your piano!

Closing the Lid

The most obvious solution to making your piano quieter if you have a baby grand or grand piano is to close the lid. There are two options for this – you can close the lid and keep the fly lid open:

Or you can remove the music rack and close the lid completely to make the piano even quieter:

This will do a lot to quiet the sound of your piano without compromising your ability to play it. If you like, you can pull the music rack out of the piano and place it on top of the piano. (You will want to protect the finish with a towel or other cloth first.)

Getting a Rug

Another technique is to place a thick rug underneath your piano. About half the volume of the piano comes from the bottom. So, placing a rug underneath it will absorb a lot of the sound. This can be a good solution if you have neighbors that live below you that are complaining about the sound of your piano. You can even get more creative and add foam or other insulation-type materials to the bottom of the piano to further dampen the sound.

A String Cover

Adding a felt string cover in the piano can lessen the sound somewhat as well. It’s not going to do that much to cover the sound but it will help.

Ask Your Piano Tuner

While covers, lids and rugs can dampen the sound of your piano, your tuner/technician can help as well. You can actually voice down the volume of your piano by having your tuner needle the hammers to make them softer.

Over time the felt on the hammers harden and make the piano sound very bright – this is especially true on many Asian production pianos because Japanese felt is harder than German felt. By having your tuner voice the piano down it will make the piano sound more mellow and lower in volume. You may appreciate the warmer tone as well!

Mute Rails on Upright Pianos

This feature is very common and available on many upright pianos. The middle pedal on some upright pianos functions as a “practice pedal” which lowers a piece of felt in front of the hammers and makes the piano extremely quiet.

This works surprisingly well and is the easiest solution for people with upright pianos.

Mute Rails on Grand Pianos

They aren’t as common but there are muffler systems that can be installed on grand pianos that function in a similar way to practice pedals on upright pianos.

Placing an Upright Piano Near a Wall

Most of the sound of an upright piano comes from the back – where the soundboard is located:

Depending on where you place the piano in your room you can dampen the sound of the instrument. Placing an upright piano right next to a wall will make it quieter because a lot of the volume of the piano will be absorbed by the wall. Better yet, put dampening material behind the piano. This will also lessen the amount of sound that travels through the wall to neighbors.

Silent Systems

There is new technology available that can completely turn off the volume of your piano! A felt covered bar is placed in front of the hammer shanks so the hammers don’t hit the strings at all. Optical sensors read the performance of each key and transmit it through MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to a sampled or other virtual piano sound played through speakers at any volume, or even through headphones for totally silent playing!

The only downside is that you’ll be hearing a simulation of a piano and not your actual instrument. However, you can hear the sound of a 9-foot concert grand even if you are playing an upright! The other good thing is that it is possible for you to enjoy the feel of a real piano.

Treating the Room

The sound of a piano relies heavily on the room around it. You can add pieces of furniture or heavy curtains to absorb some of the sound if you feel the piano is a little too loud for the room.

We made a whole video about the best size piano for your home and how to treat the room in case it’s a little too loud for it’s surroundings:

I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions about this topic or any other, please email me Robert@LivingPianos.com for more information.

Maybe you’ve heard this term before; maybe you haven’t; maybe a salesperson once told you, “You definitely need duplex scaling”. whatever your familiarity with duplex scaling, you will learn something about this technology today.

So what is duplex scaling? Simply put, it’s a tone enhancement system that is used in some pianos to increase tone life. That sounds great, but how does it work?

Every piano has something referred to as the “speaking length” of the string. This is the part of the string that is free to vibrate. In the image below the speaking length is highlighted in yellow:

Typically the area above and below the speaking length of the string is muted out with felt. You can see this area highlighted in yellow in the image below:

Why would this area be muted out with felt? Typically this area of the strings is not capable of adding pleasing harmonics to the sound. Duplex scaling utilizes a technology that tunes the non-speaking length of the strings to enable them to vibrate at musically pleasing frequencies.

Aliquots are used in duplex scaling to precisely terminate the strings at lengths that produce pitches that are complementary to the pitch that is being played. So instead of felt that is used to terminate the string, you have something that looks like this:

On a piano with Duplex scaling you will get the same pitch as all three strings, typically an octave or an octave and a fifth above the notes – which are overtones already contained within the fundamental pitch. The purpose of this system is to enhance the tone by creating more sound from each note.

Most pianos that contain duplex scaling typically feature it on the rear portion of the string. Certain pianos (like the one we are demonstrating in this article) has two sets of duplex scaling in both the rear and the front portion of the strings.

Most pianos use part of the plate above the treble section of the piano (capo d’astro bar) to terminate the strings. On this particular piano, there is a front set of aliquots which allows for the front section of strings to add useful harmonics due to sympathetic vibration, just as depressing the damper pedal adds richness to the tone.

So you’re probably wondering whether or not duplex scaling is something you must have on your piano. While duplex scaling is a useful technology that can enhance the tone of the piano, there are myriad scale design technologies that allow for different tonal results that can be equal in beauty of tone. Duplex scaling is just one way to enhance piano tone.

Whether you are worried about buying an old piano or only want to buy a vintage piano, there is a lot of information floating out there online when it comes to older instruments and a lot of it can be hard to sort through. Today we are going to talk about the good and the bad when it comes to buying older pianos.

Unlike people, pianos don’t age unless acted upon by an outside force. In the case of pianos, it’s their environment or the amount they are played that will age them. Upkeep is the most important part of maintaining your piano and giving it a long lifespan. Occasionally, there are pianos 50-100 years old with almost no wear or tear because they were barely played, kept in a very stable environment and kept in tune. It’s like opening a time capsule – the pianos are almost like new off the showroom floor yet from a different era!

On the flipside, there are pianos that aren’t even ten years old that are in need of major repairs because of the way they were cared for. Pianos which have been subjected to constant use in schools and hotels, pianos that are never tuned, and instruments subjected to desert or ocean environments are some examples. Sometimes pianos have hot air ducts below or behind them destroying soundboards. Even having direct sunlight stream on the piano all day can do substantial damage in a short amount of time.

The age of a piano has little to do with the condition of the instrument.

It’s all about the environment and how it has been cared for.

Knowing that, you will need to do a little detective work when it comes to the used piano market. Why would you want to go that route?

The biggest reason most people look to used pianos is to get higher line instruments for far less money. You can get much more value for your dollar when buying used pianos versus new ones – especially when it comes to higher line pianos such as Steinway and European instruments. You may be able to afford a top-tier used piano in good condition for the same price as a new Chinese piano!

Pianos all have distinct personalities and even new pianos can differ greatly from one-another. Buying an older instrument that has been restored – assuming the work has been done by expert technicians and rebuilders – doesn’t necessarily propose different risks from buying a new piano. In fact, new pianos often carry larger risks than time-tested instruments because if there is going to be a major problem with manufacturing or materials you’ll usually discover this within the first year or two of owning a piano. Is this a big risk? No, but it’s something to be aware of.

Another significant reason people look to used pianos instead of new instruments is because there is a scarcity of American and European pianos being built today. Consider 100 years ago there were over 1,800 companies making pianos in the United States. Last year there were only 1,400 pianos built in North America! While Asian production pianos have proliferated the market at a fraction of the cost of the hand-made pianos, they don’t provide the same level of performance or longevity of the top-tier instrument from years past.

The history of an older piano is the most important tool you have in determining if it’s worth your time. You don’t need a rich and detailed report on every aspect of the instrument, but doing a little detective work can tell you a lot about the history of a piano with simple observation if you know what to look for. If you are unsure about the piano, you could have a piano technician or piano expert take a look at it for you. A little information and a concerning eye could save you thousands of dollars in potential repairs.

So while you shouldn’t be afraid of older pianos, you should be aware of the inherent risks involved with buying any piano. It’s important that you understand what you are getting and know the history of the piano you’re interested in. If you’re not experienced in what to look for when determining the value or condition of a piano than it might be a good idea to bring a technician along with you or buy from a reputable dealer instead of taking a risk with a piano from a private party.

When you think about all instruments being in different keys it can be confusing. You have the clarinet in B-flat, saxophone in E-flat, and French horn in F: why are they pitched in different keys? It seems it would be better to just write everything in concert pitch, wouldn’t it? Believe it or not, it makes a lot more sense to have some instruments in different keys.

When you look at the family of saxophones you may realize that all the different types of saxophones are pitched differently – yet they all have roughly the same fingerings. This enables a saxophone player to move from instrument to instrument seamlessly. The saxophone is also a transposing instrument. This means that a saxophone pitched in E- flat playing a C will sound an E-flat on the piano which is in concert pitch. Many instruments are transposing instruments which do not play in concert pitch.

This is where it can become confusing because a conductor will have to transpose many parts of the score because an orchestral score is not written in concert pitch. He or she must know what key the instruments are in and be able to transpose the notes instantly to ensure they are correct.

For instrumentalists, it’s much easier. They only have to play the notes as written and everything will sound correct. However, there are some instrumentalists that do have to transpose. For example, I am also a French hornist and often there are pieces written in different keys from one another. Even though the horn is an F instrument, you will find parts that are written in D or C or E-flat or other keys, and they are forced to transpose. This happens because the horn traditionally did not have valves so the composers wrote the parts in different keys to accommodate the music. The horn player would have to add additional pipes (or crooks) to pitch the horn differently for different pieces or different movements within the same piece. These parts were written so long ago that they must be transposed today with the modern valved French horn which is pitched in F (and B-flat with a double-horn, but that’s a story for another time!)