Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

In past videos we have covered the different sizes of Upright Pianos and Grand Pianos. Today we will be covering something a little different; the biggest piano in the world!

The largest production piano in the world is the Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand which is nine and a half feet long. Is that the world’s largest piano? Not by a long shot.

The biggest piano that I’ve actually played is a twelve foot piano that was made by David Rubenstein. He has built two pianos – an eight foot piano and a twelve foot piano. Both of these are remarkably good pianos – especially considering these are the only pianos he has ever built. Both instruments were custom built – he did not use any parts from existing manufacturers. However, even the twelve foot piano is not the largest piano in the world.

An architect from Poland named Daniel Czapiewski created a piano that is 6 meters long – almost 20 feet – and weighs over two tons. Now is a piano this big going to be any better than a piano of only 9 feet long? Not necessarily. There is a lot of physics involved in creating sound with the piano and there is only so much energy your fingers can impart to a hammer. You could easily pass a point of diminishing returns and create something that is more of a novelty than an actual instrument. Now I have not had the opportunity to play this piano so I will have to reserve judgment for now but I am very interested to try it out one day.

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

In the past we’ve discussed how to memorize music and you may reference that video for tips on that topic.

So, let’s say you have a piece you’ve memorized and you want to make sure you keep it on a high performance level. It might be a piece you played sometime ago, and while you remember most of it, there are certain parts that aren’t secure. Are there any tricks to keeping this information stored in your mind?

The first thing is to play with the score. Now you might be wondering, if you play with the score, doesn’t it negate the idea of memorizing the music? Afterall, it’s the exact opposite! Once you’ve memorized the music, that’s when the real work begins. Playing with the score will help solidify your knowledge of the music. You aren’t going to just play it through though, you study the score playing very slowly with no pedal. Take in all the notes, rhythm, fingering, phrasing and expression. Listen to what is going on in the piece and study it intently. This will greatly enhance your knowledge of the music and reinforce your memory like you never thought possible.

Another important practice tool to reinforce your memory of a piece is to play with the metronome. Make sure that you keep with the metronome and play the music exactly as written. Go through it several times while reading the music and playing with the metronome to make sure the rhythm is solid.

So the three basic ways to reinforce your musical memory:

1. Play slowly with the score
2. Keep your foot off the pedal
3. Play with the metronome

An advanced technique is to play your music away from the piano. Now this might sound strange (after all, how do you play music without the piano?) but it’s a great practicing technique. If you really think you’ve memorized your music, try playing it from memory – you can start by moving your fingers in your lap at first to make it easier. Imagine playing every note and nuance and see how much you really know playing mentally. It can be incredibly challenging but it’s extremely beneficial. Eventually you can play your music in your head by thinking it through. This will allow you to create the exact performance you have in mind without any physical constraints or problems with the instrument. This is a great way to strengthen your memory.

Listening to other performances of your music can also help. But there is nothing better than pulling out the score and referring to it again and again. In order to truly understand a piece and retain it in your mind you need to learn the score and reinforce the memory constantly.

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.

I hope this has been helpful for you and I would love to hear your comments about this subject. Thanks again for joining us at Living Pianos Info@LivingPianos.com

Welcome back to our multi-part series on Bach’s two part Inventions. In Part 1 of our lesson we talked about how to understand these pieces as well as the importance of understanding counterpoint when approaching the inventions. In Part 2 of our lesson we discussed some techniques for Invention #8 – The F major invention.

Today we are going to discuss Invention #4 – the D minor invention. Again, we are going to discuss the importance of delineating the subject and countersubject in these pieces. I will take the subject and countersubject at the beginning of the piece to demonstrate how phrasing can help bring out the most in this work:

Here is the subject

And here is the countersubject

By delineating the phrasing in this section you will be able to make the structure of this piece clear. How do you achieve this? You will want to play the 16th note subject legato and the 8th note countersubject staccato. By doing this you will be able to hear every note clearly, yet they combine beautifully together.

As you continue to advance through the inventions you will be able to experiment with your own phrasing. The key to getting these pieces to make musical sense is to delineate the lines to create clear counterpoint. You will bring out the individual lines and allow them to bounce off one another creating a wonderful sound!

I recommend these pieces if you are starting out with playing Baroque music or want to expose yourself to brilliant counterpoint. After you learn these pieces and go on to learn more pieces of Bach or other Baroque composers, you will encounter four or even five voice fugues. Learning to delineate two voices will bring you a long way towards learning how to handle even more complex scores.

Thanks again for joining us at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this subject or any other subjects please contact us directly: info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Welcome back to our second part in our series on how to approach the Bach Two Part Inventions. In Part 1 of our lesson we talked about how to understand these pieces as well as the importance of understanding counterpoint when approaching the inventions.

Today we are going to explore Invention #8 – The F major invention. Again, this piece really relies on subject and countersubject for its structure so if you missed the last lesson or you aren’t familiar with the concept of Counterpoint you might want to catch up before you proceed with this lesson.

Let’s start with the first phrase in the piece and separate the subject from the countersubject.

Here is the subject:

And here is the countersubject:

Right away you will be able to spot a difference between the two. You will want to accentuate these differences with the phrasing. To accomplish this I recommend playing the subject staccato and the countersubject legato. This is a great way to delineate the subject from the countersubject and allow them to stand on their own so they don’t meld together.

You should always understand the context in which the piece you are playing was written. In this piece Bach was not writing for the piano. The keyboard instruments during his time didn’t contain sensitivities for dynamics. So, phrasing the parts differently from one-another was an essential component of the performance.

You should play this way through the entire piece and you will separate both the lines clearly and let them stand on their own. When performed correctly it’s truly amazing what type of sound this achieves and it’s even more amazing to think that Bach was developing this effect without the aid of the modern piano. If you were to play everything with the same phrasing the piece would sound fine but it would sound flat and lacking the life that Bach intended.

As you play further into the piece you can utilize dynamics (such as playing piano or forte in different sections). But the phrasing is what’s going to separate the two lines and bring life to the piece and highlight the brilliant counterpoint within.

What makes these pieces great is that you are free to develop phrasing and dynamics on your own and bring unique expression to these pieces. Bach didn’t write dynamic or phrasing markings and it’s not because he didn’t want them. It’s because it’s up to the performer to bring their own unique voice to these works. Have fun with these inventions and experiment; don’t be afraid to try something new!

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Let’s start by breaking down exactly what is meant by “two part invention”. This phrase simply means it is a type of 2-voice counterpoint (for more information on this subject please watch our video on What is Counterpoint?) To put this simply, there are two different lines of music and at no point are there more than two different notes playing at the same time in just about the whole piece. Even with these limitations this is an amazing composition that’s built with a subject and a countersubject. Being able to delineate these two phrases is what makes counterpoint so special.

A great way to separate the subject from the countersubject is to phrase them differently from one-another.

For example, in the first phrase you have this as your subject:

And this as your countersubject:

In this particular piece the subject and countersubject are incredibly similar. So how should you make each one stand out? Well you might notice that a few bars into the piece the countersubject has elongated eighth notes.

A great way to delineate these notes is to play them legato and in groups; with the last note being short. This is a great way to separate the countersubject from the subject.

The beauty of Bach is that there is really no right or wrong. A lot of his music is open for interpretation so if you wanted to play the phrasing completely differently it can work just as well. Why is this? Because Bach rarely wrote phrasing into his music. It is up to you come up with the phrasing.

Unlike later music that has melody and harmony and obvious distinctions between the two, these Bach Inventions have intertwining melodies instead. So for now have fun and experiment with these pieces. When we return we will have more videos for you on these inventions that show even more extreme examples of delineation between subject and countersubject.

Thanks so much for joining me here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us directly: info@livingpianos.com (949) 244-3729.

The short answer is constantly. Pianos go out of tune as soon as you start playing them and if you are practicing every day it will require regular maintenance. I touch up my concert grand nearly every day and I carry around my tuning tools no matter where I go. My father Morton Estrin always insists upon having a piano tuner at his recording sessions touching up the piano between takes! There really is no end to how much you can tune your piano – pianos benefit from regular maintenance.

But let’s be realistic, most people are not going to be able to tune their pianos every day. While you can buy a tuning hammer and a couple wedges to touch up the piano, tuning is something you generally will want to leave to the professionals. The good news is most people won’t have to tune their piano every day – or even every week.

There is an old saying among piano tuners, “You can’t tune an out of tune piano,” and as strange as it sounds, there is some truth to it! If a piano hasn’t been tuned in a very long time it can be much harder to get it back in tune. For example, if the piano has dropped in pitch, as you tune different sections of the piano, previously tuned sections go out. So the general rule is that you should keep your piano in tune as much as you can. If you tune your piano often enough you can get ahead of the curve and the instrument tuning becomes very stable. So you never save by putting off a tuning.

How much should you tune your piano really depends on how much you play it. If you play occasionally you should think about tuning your piano at least twice a year because of seasonal weather changes (heat to air conditioning and air condition back to heat). If you play a bit more you might want to get at least 4 piano tunings a year. If you practice a great deal you will want to get your piano tuned at least every month. If the piano is used for performance or recording, it should be tuned for each performance or recording session.

Keep in mind, tuning a piano is not like tuning other instruments – like a guitar for example. Sure, everyone has the ability to do it themselves but it is truly a job better left to professionals. I have been around pianos my entire life and while I do perform touch up work on my pianos constantly, a great tuner will get a piano to hold longer and knows how to refine the tone and touch which takes years to master. Tuning a piano is really a highly developed skill and the better technician you hire the better your instrument will sound.

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

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