Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

Today’s question is an interesting one: is it possible to learn a piece of music so well that you will never forget it?

I’ve been playing piano for many decades and have learned and played hundreds of pieces throughout my career. Sometimes when I sit down at the piano and start playing people wonder how I can retain all that information and if I have some kind of super memory. Not at all. I have my father to thank for showing me how to memorize at my first piano lesson.

There are a few pieces that I have played for so long that I can play them at any time and in any state of mind without issue; it’s almost as if these pieces are burned into my permanent memory. On the other hand, I can learn a piece very well, perform it, and then if I don’t play it again for a few months or years I probably would not be able to get through it from memory. If I were to restudy it one day it would definitely be much quicker and easier to get it securely memorized again than it was the first time around.

So how do you learn a piece you simply can’t forget?

I find that the pieces that stick with you are the ones that you have performed on many different occasions over a long period of time. When you have to learn and then relearn pieces a number of times they eventually get burned into your permanent memory. The music simply becomes a part of you.

Imagine forgetting the song “Happy Birthday”. If you’ve sung this song many times over the years, forgetting the melody is inconceivable. As a child you hear this song over and over again to the point where eventually you can’t possibly forget it; it becomes part of your permanent memory. This is true for any piece on any instrument. If you keep playing the same piece and have to relearn it again and again, eventually you will never forget it.

Even though you might remember a piece very well you must go back and check the score periodically. No matter how many times you play a piece or relearn it you should always go back and confirm that what you’re playing is correct. Your memory can trick you sometimes and bad habits can develop in your recollection of the music; always double check your score and make sure you perform the piece as written; not just from your memory.

A great method for learning and retaining your music is to perform it for family and friends whenever you get the opportunity. When you perform you put yourself in a heightened state of awareness that is far above what you can achieve in a practice setting. Your concentration will be much higher and playing your music in this state of mind will help you retain it.

I know this sounds like a very basic topic (and it is) but there are some things that every musician should remind themselves of every now and then. In the hectic pace of many of our lives we tend to lose track of the things that are important to us. This article features some things all musicians should remind themselves throughout their lives.

Be True to Yourself

This is a very important topic no matter what field you’re in but especially when it comes to music. Many times you will be tempted to play a certain way that you think people might like. As a composer you might be tempted to write music that may be popular with a large audience. The truth is, no artist can really be creating anything of value if they are just imitating instead of creating.

It’s important to be honest in your expression and show people what you have burning inside you. Anything that’s less than sincere is very noticeable to an audience – even if they don’t know you. As tempting as it might be to impress people it’s not the sign of a true artist if you are compromising who you are and what you believe in.

Versatility

When it comes to being a musician there is nothing more marketable than having a wide range of capabilities and specialties. In school it’s incredibly difficult to double major in instruments and study two different styles of music – for example, studying both classical and jazz. While you shouldn’t stretch yourself too thin, it’s not a bad thing to experiment and play in different styles and periods of music that are outside your field of study. You might be a classical violinist but you might be able to find some work playing bluegrass! It’s OK to try something new and out of your comfort zone – you might be surprised.

This skill can extend far beyond actually performing music. For example, maybe you are talented and knowledgeable about recording technology and mixing. When it comes to this world, the more things you can do, the more opportunities there are. Having extra skillsets can really help foster a career and help you achieve your goals.

It’s Just Music… Nobody Gets Hurt

This is something that all performers have to deal with. While getting up in front of an audience – no matter what size – can feel scary and intimidating; nobody is going to die! You are not a brain surgeon or a pilot, you are there to bring enjoyment to people; it’s a harmless endeavor.

Things that might seem important to you might not even be noticed by the audience. In fact, most of the time your audience wouldn’t know the difference between a good performance and a bad one; they are there with the expectation of being entertained. If you ruin the entertainment factor by visibly displaying your displeasure, you are ruining the performance for everyone watching and listening. There is nothing worse than acting disappointed after a performance when you are greeted by someone from the audience. If they enjoyed it, let them!

It’s OK to give yourself a break. Not every performance will be perfect – we are only human. Sometimes a mistake can lead you into unchartered territory and you might learn something new.

This is a very important subject and it applies to all instruments and musicians. Creating and maintaining a meaningful and interesting body of work as a musician is something we all aspire to. This article will provide some tips so that you can build a repertoire that is both unique and personally fulfilling.

When students begin studying music and get a new book they are so excited. As time goes on and you present more books to them they are surprised when you begin to skip over pieces in the book. Students would often ask me why they simply wouldn’t learn all the lessons or pieces in order.

The truth is, once you progress to a certain level you need to be concerned with adding variety to your music; helping you showcase your skills better and develop a diverse set up musical skills. Covering a wide range of styles – even at earlier stages in your musical development will help you become a better and more well-rounded musician.

Once you get to a certain level in your development you must begin to focus on different styles of music or else you won’t advance as a well rounded musician. That’s why selecting pieces from the Baroque, Romantic, Classical and other musical eras will allow you to learn different techniques as well as diversify your music. Each one of these eras is distinguished by unique styles and sounds and learning the differences will help you progress further as a musician while making your studies more enjoyable.

It’s also important to build your repertoire based on the time it’s going to take you to learn different works. For example, you might be able to learn a Chopin Nocturne in just a week or two. But it could take you months to learn and master a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody or other extended work. Each one of these will not only expand your repertoire, but they will challenge you in unique ways. If you only focus on pieces that will take you a short amount of time to learn, you may not progress as quickly. By challenging yourself with harder pieces that may take months to learn, you can gain valuable skills and techniques which will raise the overall level of your playing even if these pieces don’t become a part of your active repertoire immediately. So, if you were learning a Bach fugue, this can be extremely difficult to memorize. A piece like this could exhaust you mentally if you only focused on this and nothing else for your practice time. Instead, you could be learning a Mozart Sonata or a Chopin Mazurka concurrently and you could expand your repertoire and work more effectively by giving yourself a mental break.

Over time you will begin to learn where your strengths and weaknesses are. You will discover where you need to focus your attention developing your strengths and mitigating your weaknesses.

So here are key points to remember in developing your repertoire:

– Choose pieces that offer a variety of stylistic periods.
– Study pieces with a variety of length.
– Study pieces with different levels of difficulty.

You may have heard this term before and might be familiar with the concept of an upright grand. At first it might sound like an oxymoron, but the term actually makes a lot of sense once you learn exactly what it means.

So what is an upright grand? Is it an upright piano or a grand piano?

The short answer is that it’s an upright piano. However, it’s not just any upright piano. At the turn of the 20th century, countless American piano companies manufactured very tall upright pianos. These instruments offered the sound of a grand piano because of the long strings and large soundboard area. They coined the term upright grand to describe these type of instruments.

This is a very common question around here at the store. Everyone who has a piano is going to experience this problem eventually. Our hands pick up a tremendous amount of dirt and grime throughout the day and eventually it’s going to get on your piano keys as you continue to play it. Cleaning keys is an easy process but it’s one that you want to make sure you do correctly because you can actually damage your keys by using incorrect methods.

The easiest solution for cleaning your key tops is the following:

A Damp – not wet.

– paper towel
– cloth
– cotton swab

If this doesn’t get all the dirt and gunk off the keys then you can try a high solution of alcohol (90% rubbing alcohol) but just damp and not wet. It’s important not to use too much alcohol on the keys as it can damage them.

If you’re afraid to use rubbing alcohol or you don’t have any then you can use white vinegar as a replacement. Again, make sure that you don’t use too much and that you just dampen the cloth or towel that you are using.

When it comes to Ivory Keys there is a little bit more of a challenge.

Ivory is a porous material which means that it’s going to be a bit more difficult to get them clean. Dirt will fall into the small holes in the keys and it could be very difficult to get it out in some circumstances.

I recommend the same steps as above for Ivory Keys but you need to be aware of a few differences.

First of all, Ivory keys will yellow over time. This is something you can’t control and is just a natural occurrence over time. A piano technician can remove the key tops for you and apply a solution of bleach to them in order to try and whiten the keys again. Most of the time this works pretty well but you will want to make sure you have a technician do this for you unless you are experienced in replacing key tops.

If you’ve played music for a while you’ve probably run across this term before and you might wonder what it means. Some people might dismiss it as being a term only applying to music which actually utilizes your breath but that is not the case.

The voice is the first musical instrument and to some extent all music derives from singing. Naturally with wind instruments this directly relates to using your breath but all instruments mimic the same concept. String instruments like violinists, cellists, and others utilize a technique that simulates the up and down of breathing with the bow. This technique should also apply to the piano – where phrases should rise and fall just like a breath does. When starting a new phrase it’s like starting a new breath.

Everything in life revolves around cycles and breathing is one of them. Unless you’re consciously aware of it you’d never notice your breaths but this same type of structure seeps into all aspects of our lives. Every day the sun rises and sets, ever since we were born we’ve been used to the simple nature of breathing in and out, and things like sitting at the beach and listening to the waves crash in and out are soothing things that remind of the cyclical nature of our existence. Music is no different.

But how does this translate to an instrument like the piano? You should really play every line you have like you are singing it. I encourage you to try this, you might be surprised at how much inherent expression it brings out in your music; it will give it character and life.

Memory can be one of the great challenges for musicians. You take the time to learn a piece, practice it again and again, and master it. Then you may forget something! Today we are going to discuss how to retain the music you’ve learned.

In this video Robert Estrin provides some tips to get a great tone out of your piano.