Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

Robert and Mike are joined by Bijan Taghavi a jazz pianist who is currently studying under scholarship as a sophomore at the Manhattan School of Music and also one of Robert’s past students. On this episode they discuss Jazz and the differences and similarities between Classical music, relationships with music teachers and questions from listeners.

You’ve probably seen a lot of repeat signs in your music:

There is a mentality a lot of musicians have that these are optional – but are they really?

As a teacher, I would commonly be asked by students why repeat signs are used. The simple answer is to save paper! It really is that simple. Often it’s easier to utilize repeat signs then to write all the notes again. There are times when repeat signs are used in a piece in one edition, and in another edition, the notes are written out. You would probably never consider leaving out the written notes in this case. So why leave out the repeat in the other instance?

You should never go into a piece expecting repeat signs to be optional; they should be respected just as if the notes were written down in their entirety. There are times when I’ve heard musicians take extremely slow tempos in pieces and inevitably leave out the repeats. If repeats don’t seem to work, maybe your tempo is too slow.

So to answer the question, are repeat signs really important? Yes! Try playing the repeats in your music whenever there isn’t time constraints in your performance and you will be rewarded with the musical form as the composer intended.

Today we are going to talk about a tough subject, not getting accepted to a music conservatory. This is a very real fear for any music student but it’s not the end of the road for your potential career. Today we are going to talk about the options in front of you if you don’t get accepted into the school of your choice.

I know a number of students who worked very hard to get into the schools of their dreams and they ended up getting denied by all of them. This is not necessarily because they are bad students or musicians, it may have more to do with the admissions process for schools than anything else.

Getting into a music conservatory is largely a random process. Picking qualified students is based upon so many random factors that are simply out of your control. How many students are applying that semester? What are students applying? How many openings are there? What is the temperament of the teacher selecting the students? There are dozens of factors that can impact your ability to get into a school every semester – it’s too random a process to guarantee results.

Don’t get discouraged. I have had illustrious students have gotten substantial scholarships to top conservatories yet other schools wouldn’t even let them audition! These are very accomplished students but for whatever reason, some schools didn’t think they fit their program and didn’t even invite them in.

There are options. Other than simply re-applying another semester (which you can definitely do), there are options if you didn’t get into any of the schools you applied to. Whether you are a performance, conducting, or composition major, the most important thing is your private teacher. If you can get a great teacher for your instrument you can progress (arguably) just as fast as you would at a music school. This is a very important investment that should not be overlooked.

Reach out to other musicians in your area. Getting experience playing with other musicians in community orchestras, quartets or small groups is a great way to practice performing with other musicians as well as develop great contacts and more experience and exposure. You can get a lot of music education by utilizing these resources without ever having to set foot in a classroom.

Community College is a great option. If you want to pursue a degree in music and you haven’t been accepted right out of high school I encourage you to attend your local community college. Many of them offer amazing music programs with very accomplished teachers and musicians. Right here in Southern California, there are a number of community colleges that offer great music programs and the instructors are top-notch.

Not only can you gain musical experience at a community college, you can get a lot of your academic classes out of the way (at much lower cost) before you transfer to a university. I know a number of students who have taken this route and gone on to great success.

It’s not the end of the road. Don’t get down on yourself, there are many factors beyond your control that go into the selection process for a music conservatory. If this is your passion then you should never give up; time, work and persistence really do pay off and you can achieve your goals if you keep working towards them.

You’ve no doubt heard diminished 7th chords before. Anytime you hear spooky chords in an old horror movie or a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody, works of Richard Wagner, as well as many other pieces of music, they are pervasive. They serve very important functions. But what are diminished 7th chords?

The piano is a unique instrument. I recall my third grade general music class. On occasion my teacher would let me play the piano for for everyone at the end of class and it was something I looked forward to. On one particular day when we were learning about the families of musical instruments, string, brass, woodwind and percussion, I asked if I could play at the end of class. But my teacher had a stipulation because of limited time. If I could tell her the classification of the piano she would let me play. I knew by the look on her face that it couldn’t have been something obvious which would be the string family, so guessed that the piano was a percussion instrument (the only other group of instruments I deemed possible). She was shocked that I had guessed correctly and she had to let me play!

So yes, the piano is a percussion instrument.

When the hammers strike the strings the notes sound and immediately begin fading away.

All music emulates the human voice to one degree or another. On wind instruments the connection is obvious – they utilize the breath. Even bowed string instruments produce continuity of sound not unlike the breath of the voice. So how do you emulate this quality on the piano, an instrument where the notes immediately begin to fade away as soon as you play them?

This is what we are going to discuss in detail today using the Chopin F# Nocturne (in the video example). I am going to provide a collection of techniques to help you achieve the tone you desire on the piano. Ultimately you are the judge of the sound you produce and you’ll use your ears to achieve the sound you want. These are guidelines to help you explore different tonal possibilities.

The first way to produce a singing line on the piano is to get louder towards the middle of the phrase and softer towards the end of the phrase. This is achieved not by calculating note to note but by using the weight of your arms to produce the desired tone. Here is an article and video which describes this technique in some detail:

The second way to produce a singing tone on the piano is to play louder as you play higher notes and softer when playing descending musical lines. The reason why this works so well is that when you’re singing or playing most wind instruments it’s natural for the higher notes to be louder than lower notes. This technique will create a different sense of phrasing from the method described above, yet the outcome is very lyrical.

The last method I’m going to share is something intrinsic to the piano. This is something that a master pianist Vladimir Horowitz utilized a great deal. Obviously you can’t completely replicate his style or methods which encompass many aspects, but you can attempt to create a similar tone production in your music. The method he utilized was to play longer notes with more energy than shorter notes.

Why does this technique make sense? It comes back to the physics of piano sound and the fact that as a percussion instrument notes are always fading away. For notes to last longer you must play them with more energy so they last long enough to create a musical line. If you try this on the piano it creates a singing quality in your music.