Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

There is a lot of conflicting information about this topic floating around online. When it comes to rebuilding a piano or buying a rebuilt Steinway piano, you will encounter a lot of different opinions from various sources.

There are some people who believe that if you rebuild a Steinway with different parts (other than those provided by Steinway directly) the piano shouldn’t even be considered a Steinway anymore. This might sound a little extreme but there is some truth to this claim. If you replace the soundboard on a piano, it is a fundamentally different instrument. The soundboard is responsible to a great extent for the tone of the piano. Replacing it changes something intrinsic to the instrument. Much like removing the top of a Stradivarius violin means it’s not a Stradivarius anymore. The same rule applies to pianos – if you remove the soundboard it’s no longer the same as the original piano.

However, there are a lot of other parts on the piano besides the soundboard. What about strings, hammers, felts or one of the dozens of other parts on a piano? There is a lot of misinformation out there about this subject and I will do my best to clear this up.

There are two reasons you will hear people dissuade you from purchasing a rebuilt piano or rebuilding one of your own. On one side you have people who are generally trying to help customers avoid making mistakes. There are some rebuilders out there who will use substandard parts or not deliver the quality of instrument they really should. This is not a common practice but it is something to be aware of and why you should really have a technician check out any rebuilt instruments if you’re buying from an unknown source.

On the other side, the largest competitor to new Steinway & Sons pianos are used Steinway pianos! The market for used Steinway pianos is very strong because there is a large market for Steinway pianos in general. New Steinway pianos often cost a significant amount more than used Steinways and many people have their minds made up that they will only purchase a Steinway piano. Instead of breaking the bank, a lot of people will purchase high quality used pianos. It is in Steinway’s interest to sell as many new pianos as they can and dissuade buyers from purchasing used Steinway pianos.

So when it comes to the original question, do you need to rebuild a Steinway with Steinway parts? Yes, if they are the right match. There is a big caveat to rebuilding with only Steinway parts; they are not actually a parts manufacturer. The only parts they have on hand are for pianos they are currently building. So let’s say you had a 1932 Steinway Model M and a novice rebuilder wants to replace many of the action parts. They might call up Steinway and ask for parts for a Model M. After the rebuilder finishes and installs the parts, he might find out that the specifications are not correct for that particular piano. Some of the new parts won’t match what they had made in the past: the action weight could be off, the geometry might be wrong, there is a whole host of possible issues.

In some cases, Steinway parts are not the appropriate parts to use. For example, you could purchase Abel hammers or parts from Renner that could match the original specifications much closer. In fact, Renner provides all the action parts for Steinway pianos made in Hamburg, Germany. So no, it’s not wrong to use other parts from high quality manufacturers many of which will provide parts that match particular vintages of pianos better than what Steinway may have available at that time.

The biggest factor in rebuilding a piano is to use high quality parts that are the right match for that particular piano. It takes a knowledgeable rebuilder who has worked with Steinway pianos a great deal to make the right choices.

This is a topic that many people might not be familiar with but it’s actually very important to be aware of. When it comes to buying a new piano, do you need to break it in? Much like getting yourself a new baseball glove, you may wonder if you need to spend time with your new piano to get it to loosened up so it’s easier to play.

The answer is a little more complex than a simple yes or no. There is definitely some truth to the claim that you will have to “break in” a new piano. I actually know some technicians who don’t like to perform voicing on new pianos until they are broken in because the sound will change anyway. However, in the hands of a great technician a new piano can be brought to an extraordinarily high level even if it hasn’t been played much.

The biggest factor when it comes to new pianos is getting them to become stable and that requires tuning them many times. Tuning a new piano multiple times will help it settle into the correct tuning and become stable. So not only does the piano need to be “broken in” but it also needs to be adjusted so that it will continue to hold a stable tuning.

The action of a piano has almost 100 parts for each note. Wherever there is friction, there are felt bushings. These loosen up as you play your piano. So, the action becomes somewhat easier over time.

When you press a key down on a piano the hammer will strike the strings. As it hits the string continually the hammer will start to develop grooves in which you can see the indentation of the strings on the hammer. These grooves are compacted felt and over time the harder felt will produce a brighter tone. This is something that happens naturally over time but a skilled technician can treat the felt on the hammers to produce the same type of tone right away, even with new hammers. If you just play the piano casually it could take months or even years to finally achieve a brighter sound.

So yes, over time the sound of your piano will change a bit as you break it in. In a perfect world you would work closely with your technician to achieve the sound you are looking for with your piano. As you continue to play the piano the instrument will become more stable and voicing and tunings will last longer than they did when you first bought your piano.

On the other side, as your piano gets older (and this is an issue especially with Asian pianos that tend to have harder felt to begin with) you might find that your piano is getting too bright. A technician can try and remedy this by treating the hammers, needling them or shaving some of the older felt off to try and get a more mellow sound but in some cases you might need to replace the hammers altogether if there isn’t enough felt to work with. This is something that can happen on any piano with age and it’s always a good idea to speak with your technician and see if this is a concern because replacing hammers can be an expensive job.

After a couple of years your piano should be at optimal performance with proper maintenance. Everything will have been broken in nicely and with regular tunings your piano should be stable. With regular maintenance and care you should be able to keep your piano at a very high level for years to come. The only occasion where a piano would wear out quickly and need repairs within a few years is if it is abused or played for many hours every day (like a practice room piano in conservatories).

This is the time to celebrate the life of my father, Morton Estrin who was a world renowned concert pianist, recording artist, and master teacher. His uplifting spirit will be missed.

My father knew early in life that he had found his passion, and would devote his life to the piano. His influence in the world of music has been far-reaching from producing a musical dynasty within his own family, to the legacy he passed on to his countless private students as well as being distinguished professor of music for over 50 years at Hofstra University. A good number of his students have achieved prominence and fame in their own right including John Mauceri, Deborah Gibson, Jeffrey Biegel and Billy Joel.

My father was known for his mastery of some of the most demanding music in the piano literature. He performed the complete Preludes of Rachmaninoff at Lincoln Center. His historic first ever recording of the Scriabin Etudes opus 8 earned “Record of the Year”. He continued learning and performing music including the massive Mussorgsky, “Pictures at an Exhibition” when he was in his eighties.

My father enriched me with a foundation in music encompassing all aspects of artistry from mastering the piano, to developing my musicianship with his clear, concise teaching which I have shared and continue sharing to people personally and through media. We all owe a debt of gratitude for the giving nature of one of the great pianists of the Romantic tradition which lives on in his recordings as well as the thousands of students who continue sharing the great insights and passion for music my father offered.

Scriabin Etude opus 8 No. 12 in D-sharp minor

This is the last of the 12 etudes opus 8 of the great Russian composer, Alexander Scriabin. My father was the first to record the complete set of the opus 8 etudes which garnered rave revues as well as record of the year. The Russian tradition of his heritage and musical lineage is evident in the performance of these magnificent works.

Rachmaninoff Prelude Opus 32 No. 5 in G-major

My father had massive hands and could reach spectacular heights with his tremendous strength reaching the last row of the largest concert halls. But he also had the utmost delicacy in his playing which is evident here in this gem of a work, the Prelude in G-major from the Opus 32 Preludes. You can listen to the complete set which is available on YouTube.

Brahms Rhapsody in G minor, Opus 79 No. 2

While my father had a great affinity for Russian composers, his interpretations of Beethoven and Brahms had epic architecture so rarely heard. This is the famous G-minor Rhapsody. His Brahms album used to be a favorite of radio stations around the country and throughout the world. My sister and I would delight in going to record stores and finding the bin with all of my father’s records!

Schumann Symphonic Etudes

One of the trademarks of my father’s performances was his command for extremely large works. While the Symphonic Etudes are essentially a set of theme and variations, in his hands the music has an architecture which makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts – not just a bunch of technical achievements (although it is that!), but a cohesive performance that has great meaning and emotion far beyond just playing the notes. This was a single take from a recording session of this piece that never got released. All I had was an audio cassette of the session. So, there is absolutely no editing in this performance.

If you have played piano for any length of time you may have come across this situation. Sometimes your music will have the same note written for both hands and they are meant to be played at the same time. You might wonder how to approach this and why a composer would do this. We are going to cover both of these questions today.

This is a really good question and one that comes up quite often. You might think when you first start out that writing the letters of the notes above your music will help you because you won’t have to count through all the lines and spaces so you can easily identify what notes to play. What harm could possibly come from making your music a little bit easier to read?

You are shortchanging yourself if you do this. If you write the names of the notes in your music, you’ll never have to figure them out – and so you won’t learn to read them! You will be creating a crutch that will hinder your music reading development. Think how difficult sightreading would be if you depended upon having the names of the notes written in your music.

Sometimes you might have some notes that go far above the staff into ledger lines and you might be tempted to write the names of the notes in these circumstances. This creates the same problem. If you take the time to make yourself figure them out every single time you encounter them, you will eventually learn to recognize the notes and you will become fluent at reading them. If you depend upon writing the names of the notes in your score, you will come to rely on that as your solution and will not become a facile reader.

Now there might be occasions when you are missing notes – in this case it’s fine to circle them. Sometimes you might want to write lines in the music to know where the beats in the rhythm are as well. Making notes to help you understand your music is fine. But writing the notes in your music will hinder your progress. So, figure them out whenever you read and your facility with reading music will continue growing.

This topic will certainly have varying degrees of opinions. Some teachers will tell you that you should never look at your hands and others will say you must always look at your hands. I think there is an ideal situation for looking at your hands or not looking at your hands depending upon what type of music you are performing.

There are two distinctly different types of piano playing when it comes to classical music. There is solo music and chamber music. When it comes to solo music, generally you play from memory. With chamber music you will typically be reading a score since there are other musical parts of the other musicians you must be aware of.

When it comes to solo music, there can be leaps that will require you to memorize your scores so you can watch your hands as they make those leaps around the keyboard. It’s extremely difficult to do this without looking at your hands. There are also page turns to deal with which can be a real pain!

Chamber music is a little different because it involves more instruments then just the piano. The piano score actually contains the parts of the other instruments so when you’re playing it’s very important to see what is going on. If you are playing chamber music with other musicians you really should never have to take your eyes off the score except for quick glances – you should be following along the whole time. There might be sections you want to memorize because they have large leaps but typically you don’t want to take your focus off of the score in front of you.

With enough training you can learn how to play piano without having to look at your hands. It might seem impossible but it can be done and there are many fine blind pianists out there who prove it’s possible. You can learn to negotiate large leaps in your music through your peripheral vision as well.

When it comes to solo music, if you have your music memorized I don’t really see any reason why you wouldn’t want to look at your hands. It gives you the opportunity to keep your eyes on the keyboard and make sure that you are hitting the correct notes and have your hands in the right positions.