Living Pianos

Welcome back to our continuing series of piano exercises. Today we will be focusing on developing your octave technique.

I remember growing up as a kid and watching my father Morton Estrin mortonestrin.com and being enthralled by the way he played octaves – I wanted to develop my technique to play like him and my other inspiration, Vladimir Horowitz. At the time my hands were simply too small to achieve the results I wanted but I kept practicing.

My hands even as a full grown adult never became very large. I’ve struggled my whole life developing strength in order to play octaves and large chords well. Today I’m going to share a few tips for how to improve your strength and octave technique.

If you can’t reach an octave I’m afraid this lesson wont be much help to you. You might grow into it over time. The good news is that if you can reach an octave at all, this lesson will help you develop stronger, faster octaves!

The secret to this technique, and octaves in general, is the hand position. The key is to develop an arch between your pinky and thumb equalizing the strength of your weaker pinky to your stronger thumb. Your other fingers should be up and out of the way. If you have time to watch the video included with this article it shows an excellent visual representation of this technique. The goal of this position is to generate an equal amount of force between the thumb and pinky finger – which will help greatly in developing strength to play octaves.

For octave technique you will want to rely on the arms to place the hands over the keys, not for any up-down motion. All up-down motion should come from the wrist. I have explained this technique a number of times before and it’s explained in detail in the video included with this article.

To perform the exercise, set your metronome to 60 and then play a C major scale at one note to the beat in octaves and play the notes only from your wrist using the arms to guide your hands over the correct keys. This might seem like an easy exercise but it must be done correctly in order to be effective.

As you progress through the exercise and feel more confident you can play two times on each note for each beat. As you become comfortable, add one extra note each to each beat until you reach your limit. As you play faster, be sure to keep your hands closer to the keys and lighten up to help increase your speed.

Play through this exercise every day and you will develop brilliant octaves!

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

The Best Piano Exercises (Part 4) – Octaves

Welcome back to our continuing series of piano exercises. Today we will be focusing on developing your octave technique. I remember growing up as a kid and watching my father Morton Estrin mortonestrin.com and being enthralled by the way he played oc

Welcome back to our ongoing series of piano exercises. These are meant to be quick techniques you can practice with just a few minutes each day to help develop your strength. The first part in the series dealt with a Broken Triad Exercise and the second was Practicing Major Scales with C Major Fingering. This week we will be covering Broken Seventh Chords.

As long as you know all your seventh chords, you can play them in all keys as arpeggios. Why would you just play major and minor triads as arpeggios? Not only is this is a wonderful way to develop your technique but when you come across broken seventh chords in your music you will already know how to approach them.

The order I play them is:

– Major seventh chord
– Dominant seventh chord
– Minor seventh chord
– Half diminished seventh chord
– Diminished seventh chord

Why this particular order? If you play them this way, there is only one note that has to change between chords. Simply keep playing the chords one by one and go through all twelve of the keys. The video included with this article will show you a great example of this.

Here is the key on how to transition from chord to chord:

– Major seventh chord: Lower the 7th a half-step
– Dominant seventh chord: Lower the 3rd a half-step
– Minor seventh chord: Lower the 5th a half-step
– Half diminished seventh chord: Lower the 7th a half-step
– Diminished seventh chord: That’s it!

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

The Best Piano Exercises (Part 3) – Broken Seventh Chords

If you play the piano you have probably heard octave tremolos and were taken with how they sound. Today we are going to talk about how to approach these with the “Alla Turca” movement of the Mozart K331 Piano Sonata in A Major.

The secret to playing broken octaves – or octave tremolos – is first learning how to play octaves properly. One of the biggest secrets is using the correct fingering. You’ll want to use the first finger (thumb) and the fifth finger on all white key octaves – and thumb and fourth finger on black key octaves. This might seem like a small thing but it’s incredibly important to developing your octave playing by dividing the load between the fourth and fifth fingers which makes it much easier to play them quickly.

When you play octaves you will notice that the first finger (thumb) is much heavier than your fifth and fourth fingers. This is because your thumb is much stronger than your other fingers and you will have to learn to balance the weight of your hands. A great way to practice this technique is to play the top notes (fourth and fifth fingers) legato while playing your first finger (thumb) staccato. This might be tricky at first but keep practicing it because you will produce much more power on the top notes and your thumb will do it’s job with minimal weight.

The other thing that is essential is avoiding tension. One way to alleviate that problem is to practice in note groups. In this particular piece you can practice the first three notes of the broken octaves and relax your wrist and arm. If you feel yourself getting fatigued you should rest your hands and come back to it a bit later in your practice. Never put unnecessary strain on yourself and make sure you are keeping your hands, arms and body relaxed. As you develop more strength in your hands you will be able to practice for much longer periods of time. Your best bet is practicing octave tremolos for short periods of time throughout the day. That way you will develop strength and avoid injury.

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

How to approach Octave-Tremolos on the piano

The question today is whether you should major in piano if you want to play in an orchestra. This is an interesting question because while you might see piano in an orchestra every now and then, it’s actually not that common. So would studying piano help your chances to play in an orchestra?

Most of the time when you see a pianist performing with an orchestra they are actually not part of the orchestra. They are typically a guest artist who is touring through and soloing with the orchestra. Very rarely does orchestral repertoire call for a piano part. There is typically one keyboard position – and it’s not always full-time – where they might cover piano, harpsichord, synthesizer, organ and even celeste. Many orchestras without full time seasons will often times utilize subs for these parts.

If it is your absolute passion to play in an orchestra, piano might not be the best choice for you. The great thing about the piano is that its solo repertoire is unmatched. It is larger than all other instruments combined! More than that, nearly all the solo pieces for other instruments such as violin, flute, clarinet, or nearly any other instrument have accompanying piano parts; so the piano is an intrinsic part of playing with other instruments. From piano trio to piano quintet, the piano is an important part of many types of music and it has an immense repertoire.

If you want to play in an orchestra what is the best instrument to study? Orchestras are mostly composed of string players, so that is a great choice. However, with any instrument, the work involved in becoming an accomplished player, much less a professional, is so formidable that you should really choose an instrument you genuinely prefer. You want to play something you love and if you have a passion for it you will be driven to practice more and as such you will be more successful and fulfilled.

Getting a position in an orchestra is incredibly difficult and picking an instrument with more potential job openings is never a safe bet. Landing a position with any orchestra will require massive amounts of practice and some luck.. You are best off finding an instrument that makes you happy and something you love playing.

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

Should You Major in Piano if You Want to Play in an Orchestra?

Welcome to the second part in our series on Piano Exercises. Last week we discussed The Broken Triad Exercise. This week we will cover a very unique practice exercise that might sound a little crazy but is highly effective in developing your skills as a pianist.

If you’ve ever played complex counterpoint like Bach fugues or other selections you will find yourself having to use complex fingering that’s not very intuitive. Normally you will want to find fingering that would be easy to achieve – like avoiding using your thumbs on black keys (unless on octaves and chords) – and most of the time you will have the luxury of breaking down fingering to make it as simple as possible. This is not always the case and you must prepare yourself for having to deal with more difficult passages.

One great way to practice this type of non-standard fingering is by playing all major scales using the fingering for the C major scale. In the video provided with this article I demonstrate this technique using the D-flat major scale using the fingering of the C major scale!

While this might look and feel silly it will really help you develop strength and flexibility in your hands and fingers.

Thanks again for joining me and stay tuned for the next piano exercise. Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com

The Best Piano Exercises (Part 2) – Playing Major Scales with C Major Fingering

Welcome to my multi-part series of piano exercises. This is a great exercise I learned in conservatory that provides a wonderful way to build strength in your technique.

Sometimes you don’t have a lot of time to practice but you want to get the maximum amount of production out of your time – this is great exercise for this exact situation. It’s something you can easily do with just a few minutes every day.

Rather than playing an entire series of scales or arpeggios and without having to learn an entire etude, you can perform this exercise – which is based on a pattern of chords – relatively easily and frequently as a great way to improve your strength.

The exercise goes from a major triad, to a minor triad, to a diminished triad, to an augmented triad. If you’re unsure of what these mean we will have a series of videos explaining them in the near future.

The best way to learn this exercise is to watch the video included with this article, if you can’t watch I’ve included a link to download the exercise right here.

When you start with the C-major triad, you simply play the top two notes in the right hand and the bottom two notes in the left hand. From here you simply go back and forth through the scale notes. You’ll want to use all five fingers – this is a crucial step for the exercise as it’s all about building strength.

After you play the major, you simply move on to the minor, the diminished, and finally the augmented. When you actually perform the exercise you will want to go in a seamless line between each form of the triads and you will do this is every single key moving up chromatically.

This whole exercise takes only a few minutes and it’s an incredible workout for your fingers. There is no phrasing or dynamics to worry about; it’s simply a way to improve your strength. Over the years I’ve found this to be an incredibly helpful exercise and something I can do when I simply don’t have the time to sit down and practice for an extended amount of time.

Thanks again for joining me, there will be a couple more exercises for you in the next coming weeks, so stay tuned! Robert@LivingPianos.com

The Best Piano Exercises (Part 1) – Broken Triads

Welcome to my multi-part series of piano exercises. This is a great exercise I learned in conservatory that provides a wonderful way to build strength in your technique. Sometimes you don’t have a lot of time to practice but you want to get the max

You wouldn’t think that it would be tough dealing with a new piano. You would expect that you would simply set it up in your home and enjoy it. But it isn’t that simple. Caring for your piano is an important process and today I am going to offer a few tips to help you settle your piano in your home and prolong the enjoyment of your instrument.

First things first, you’ll want to make sure you are purchasing the right size piano for your home. I have a separate video that specifically addresses this situation:

Where to Place the Piano

There are all sorts of questions associated with placing a piano in a room: should you put it near a wall? How about placing a piano near a window? etc.

While there are a number of questions associated with placing a piano in a room, there is a simple rule to follow: if it is a place you personally would be comfortable sitting day in and day out, it’s probably a good spot for your piano!

Thing’s You Want to Avoid

Direct Sunlight

This is one of the most common problems with pianos in homes. People love the idea of placing a piano near an exposed window because it’s typically a nice spot for the instrument. This might actually be the worst spot in a room for a piano because the sun can cause an incredible amount of damage to the case of a piano sometimes in just a few weeks.

I can’t tell you how many people contact us with pianos they want to sell or consign that have significant sun damage. When you keep a piano in a room with the fly lid folded over the case and let it sit that way in direct sunlight you, your piano can become two-toned like this:

Luckily you can fix this but it’s not cheap and requires very specialized furniture work from a professional.

Avoid Air Vents and Keep a Consistent Environment

There is no quicker way to ruin an upright piano then placing it in front of a hot or cold air vent on a wall, or placing a grand piano over a vent blowing hot or cold air. Cold air return is not really a problem since it is pulling the air in, but keeping a piano near a vent blowing hot or cold air can damage your piano.

FInd the place in your home that has moderate temperature and humidity. Around 45-50% humidity is the ideal environment for your piano.

Excessive humidity can lead to rust on metal parts including the strings, and affect the tuning stability of the instrument.

Excessive dry environments can dry the wood, leather and felt parts – causing cracks in the soundboard, action issues and noise, along with other problems.

Luckily there are ways to tell if your piano is in the right environment. You can purchase an inexpensive humidity gauge to get an idea of the internal environment in your home. You can add humidifiers or plants to a room to add humidity to a room or get a dehumidifier or air conditioner to remove it.

Keep in mind, that enjoying your piano is important but it shouldn’t negatively affect your home. If you live near the beach you may want to keep your windows open. Fortunately there is a solution for you. A Dampp-Chaser system will be able to control the temperature and humidity of your piano’s soundboard. This is something you can have your piano technician install for you.

How Often to Tune

If you are buying a new piano or a piano that has just been rebuilt it will require more maintenance than other pianos in the first couple of years of ownership. The piano has to settle into it’s environment and it will require more frequent tunings as the strings stretch so it can stabilize.

You’ll probably want to have the piano tuned as the seasons change because the different temperatures and environments will affect the tuning of the instrument. At the least you will want to tune it two times a year when you go from heat to air conditioning and then back again. Even if the piano sounds OK, it might actually shift down or up and you might not notice. If you allow it to lose pitch over time, it can lead to more work for your piano tuner as they try and get it to hold a tuning at the standard A440 pitch.

There are applications you can get on your phone to see if your piano is playing at A440. Just load up the app, play A above middle C and see if your piano is in the range of A440. If it’s off by more than a couple of cents (438, 437, etc.), it’s certainly time to call your piano tuner.

Ask Your Tuner or Technician

Even if your piano seems fine, ask your tuner what maintenance it might benefit from such as lubricating the action, minor regulation, etc. – because these small things can add up and require major work in the future if you don’t keep on top of it.

Just getting a piano technician in your home can be an expensive task, so once they are there you should have them do any of the work that’s necessary since the extra amount they charge is often well worth it. Plus, you get to enjoy your piano on a higher level!

It’s also important that you find the best piano technician you can. The most expensive is not always the best, but you certainly don’t want to find someone who isn’t qualified to do the work needed – a piano in the wrong hands can be disastrous. A good idea is to look for local concert series or local symphony orchestra and see if you can find out who tunes their pianos – they probably utilize higher level piano technicians than average.

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.

How to Deal with a New Piano

While there are people who are supposedly tone deaf and have difficulty trying to match pitch, there are people who have an innate problem with even keeping a beat and clapping along with a song. So, is there any way to develop this? Or is it something you are born with?

There is a certain amount of talent that is simply “born” into some people and they are able to keep a beat well on their own, but it’s not a skill that can’t be learned. If you find yourself rhythmically challenged, here are a few exercises that can help you develop a sense of beat.

Traditional methods include clapping along with a beat or a metronome but sometimes these methods simply don’t work. You might encounter students that even with this type of practice still can’t keep a beat. Don’t give up on them, there is hope!

Simply listening to music will help develop a sense of beat a great deal. All sorts of music, rhythmic music, jazz, classical, rock, anything you can listen to will help develop a sense of beat. Beyond listening you should try moving with the music.

Dance is a natural way to learn to keep a beat by following the beat of the music but something as simple as even walking around a room and singing to your music or even walking around the room and timing your steps with the beat can help you develop a better sense of rhythm. Incorporating movement into your music will greatly improve your ability to keep a beat; there is actually a whole discipline called Dalcroze Eurhythmics that explores the relationship between motion and the beat of music. When you walk down the street you will most likely be keeping a steady step. Try adding in some music and you will probably find yourself naturally stepping with the beat of the music.

If you find yourself unable to keep a beat don’t give up. Anyone can learn this skill but like many other things in life, some people will naturally be better. Don’t get discouraged and keep trying. If you have any more questions about this or any other topic please contact me directly Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

How to Develop a Sense of Beat – Music Lessons

This is an interesting question because a lot of times people get into studying instruments because they are enamored with certain pieces of music. It may drive them to a certain instrument and they wish to recreate the sound and music they’ve heard before. But is it a good idea to fill your repertoire with well-known pieces?

There are a few things to keep in mind when learning any new piece. One of the biggest is the familiarity of famous pieces versus lesser known works. When it comes to learning a piece you’ve heard dozens or hundreds of times before it can become a crutch – you know what it sounds like and you will naturally emulate what you’ve heard in the past.

When it comes to pieces you haven’t heard before it may be much harder to learn them on your own. It’s actually quite an accomplishment and something you should definitely undertake in your musical development to learn music you’ve never heard before. Don’t listen to it at all while you are learning it. Simply figure out the music as written and use your knowledge as your guide. Once you feel confident with the piece and can play it well, listen to some recordings of it. You might be pleasantly surprised at different interpretations of the same piece and you will certainly be taken with how much of a unique spin you have put on your own version of the piece!

When it comes to public performances, is it better to play pieces the audience will be familiar with? There is such a wealth of music available and much of it is unknown to a lot of people. After all, Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas and only a handful of them are really well known. On the one hand, you might be worried that by playing famous pieces you will be compared to other musicians and you will be expected to perform at a certain level. This is not always the case.

A lot of times choosing a famous piece can be a safe bet for a performer. Orchestras constantly play the same symphonies and concertos over and over again because people really want to continue to hear the music they known. The audiences will show up time and time again to hear these pieces because they are well known and loved – just the thought of hearing them again makes them happy.

One of the best things you can do for your programming is to use famous pieces as a hook to get people interested and generate an audience. Once you have them there, play the famous pieces you promised but also mix in some lesser known works – you will expose them to additional music and they will love you for it. It’s a great idea to pepper your repertoire with famous pieces and lesser known ones as well.