Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

This is an incredibly common question for many people and especially parents with younger children who are thinking about getting them music lessons.

The short answer – no matter if it’s for you or your child – should be to get the best possible instrument you can (and afford) at the very beginning.

A lot of people might look at this as being counterintuitive. Why would you want to buy something expensive and then be burdened later on with trying to sell it? The truth is, sometimes if you don’t invest in a good instrument it could lead to frustration and eventually end up in your child giving up entirely.

It’s important to commit to music lessons. If you don’t feel entirely committed or sure about something then you should look elsewhere. Music is something that takes a lifetime to master and if you think that you or your child is ready to embark on that journey then you should go full steam ahead.

However, starting with a cheaper instrument and working your way up can be a great option. As long as the instrument you are starting with is good enough to be played and won’t impede your progress or learning you will be fine. With pianos it’s a good idea to start with a high quality upright and then eventually upgrade to a baby grand or full size grand when the time is right. Just remember that you will eventually have to progress past an upright piano because the action is not the same as a grand piano – it will never be as quick and won’t be able to perform more advanced selections of music.

If you get the best instrument you can afford you won’t be sorry. Not only will the person learning be happier and more successful but it will actually retain its value much more than a cheaper instrument. Search around and find the instrument that’s right for you or your child.

One of the greatest challenges in piano playing is being accurate when dealing with large leaps around the keyboard. String players also have similar challenges when going from low notes to very high notes traveling across the fingerboard without any hesitation – and you will want to execute them successfully as well. While this definitely is a challenge for any musician, there are a few things you can incorporate into your practice to make these large leaps seem seamless.

For this example – if you watch the video above – I am demonstrating with the B-Minor Scherzo by Chopin. This piece has leaps all over the place so it’s a great piece to use.

The trick is to practice getting your hands in the correct position when making leaps. So the ideal thing to do is to play your music right up to the leap – and stop just before playing the notes after the leap. Playing your passage as you normally would up to tempo, and when it comes time to play the notes – stop! Analyze where your hands end up. If they didn’t go far enough, repeat the procedure and make adjustments, Likewise, if you overshoot the leap, you can refine the process until you are perfectly over the notes.

As you practice, wait a moment after the leap and play the new notes. As you continue practicing, shorten the time in which you stop and then play the last notes. Eventually, you will be able to play the passage without any perceptible pause even though you may be thinking it! Over time you will be able to play it seamlessly and your hands will naturally fall on the right notes effortlessly.

The question today is: How do you play staccato on the piano? You may think of staccato as playing notes short. Indeed, in most contexts, that’s exactly how staccatos are played. However, staccato actually means to play detached, in contrast to legato which is played smoothly connected So if you have staccatos for example on slow notes (such as half notes), it might seem confusing at first for them to be marked staccato. In this case you would play detached but not necessarily short.

Many times staccato notes are found in faster music. Playing fast notes detached necessitates playing the notes short. In order to achieve a nice crisp staccato, you want to utilize the wrists. It’s really important to identify the wrists separate from the arms. The arms are too large and heavy to play fast and crisply. The wrists produce a completely different sound. The arms produce a heavy sound because the arms are large compared to moving only the hands from the wrists.

You’ve heard the expression, “It’s all in the wrist!” This is totally appropriate for successful execution of staccato in many contexts.

The complicated description of parallel chords is: A series of chords that consist of intervals which do not change as the chord moves. Let’s break this down and make it a little more digestible for the average piano student.

I was recently sent a question about parallel chords and I thought it would be an interesting subject for a video. Carol asks, “can you think of any pieces off the top of your head that utilize parallel chords?”.

The one that jumped out to me right away is Sarabande pour le Piano by Claude Debussy. While these chords are not exactly parallel chords, they are very close and have harmonic relevancy. In the video above I demonstrate the portion of the piece that utilizes parallel harmonies which is very close to parallel chords.

When I was a child I remember a piece called “Run Run” by Octavio Pinto that used a lot of parallel chords. I remember learning it as a kid and I’ve never forgotten it. It’s a great piece for beginning students as it sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. Although the hands alternate in the actual piece, they are just parallel chords!

I’ve been enjoying and trying to read and listen to all of your “blog” contents on various subjects. I really enjoy them and am learning a great deal from them.

Gary

The subject of smaller keyboards is fascinating going back to the great 20th-century pianist Joseph Hoffman who had a special smaller keyboard made for him by Steinway. Charles Walter Piano Company is offering smaller keyboards on their pianos as well. Having small hands myself, it’s good to learn of yet another piano company that has offered smaller keyboards!

While the market for such an instrument would be small, with the wonder of the internet, I believe with the right marketing, it would be possible to connect with people who would appreciate an instrument of this sort.

I have not had the opportunity to play many Steingraeber pianos, but understand that these are top notch instruments in the European tradition of Bösendorfers and others.

Thank you for your kind words about the videos.

If you were a music student at one time or have a child studying music you might be familiar with the popular numerical grades for music students. In the past I’ve had parents from potential students contact me and reference the student’s grade level. What do these grade levels really mean and are they important for students and parents?

The truth is that on a whole these grades don’t really mean much. In certain contexts they can be beneficial but they aren’t some gold standard to adhere to when it comes to studying music. Grade levels can be arbitrary, they are not universal when it comes to institutions. For example, the MTAC (Music Teachers Association of California) provides grade levels for their teachers and students but these are not universal grades used by other institutions. In different countries they have different grading systems and even in different states within the USA there are different grading systems within different organizations.

So why do we even have these grading systems? They do provide a good use for competitions. Teachers are able to better place their students in competitions when they use the grading system because they will have a good idea of where they fit in and what level will give them the best chance to win. Grade levels can also help teachers identify repertoire for students quickly because they will have a good idea of their skill level when searching for a new piece. If you are part of a music teacher’s association they often publish lists of repertoire and the corresponding grade levels that go with them making the search for a new piece very easy.

Beyond grade levels, musical scores have such a deep and complex nature to them that a number can’t really justify whether it’s a good fit for a student or not. For example, have you ever heard a student play a slow Mozart movement well? It’s very unusual to have a student who can play with the poetry required to play one of these deceptively simple pieces correctly. Just because it’s easy to play the notes doesn’t make it easy to play the piece correctly. Grade levels really don’t take into account the individual characteristics of a student.

Different students excel in different skill sets and these grade levels are really only a rough guideline for a teacher to see how advanced a student is. Any good teacher will recognize the individual characteristics of their students and can probably help select a good piece for them by using both their knowledge of the student and their graded level.

Today we are going to delve into a topic that you may be fascinated to learn about. We are all familiar with the traditional piano keyboard and the traditional method of reading and writing musical notation. But believe it or not, there are alternative systems to both of these that have existed for quite some time.

Everyone knows what a traditional piano keyboard looks like since we’ve all grown up with them and are familiar with how the keys are arranged. In 1882, a new type of keyboard known as the Janko Keyboard was invented.

It was supposed to be superior to the traditional piano keyboard since it was oriented both horizontally and vertically – somewhat like a typewriter or computer keyboard. So, when you want to reach higher octaves you just have to go up and down the keyboard instead of making large leaps left and right. The other interesting thing is that all scales have similar fingering!

So why didn’t this keyboard take off and replace the original one we all know? Some people claim that the act of watching someone perform on the piano and performing large leaps added an exciting visual element that would be lost on a keyboard like this; and those actions (despite being challenging to the performer) bring life to a performance and excite the audience.

I believe that this alternative keyboard may not offer the same level of power as a traditional piano keyboard particularly when handling large leaps.

As for alternative system of notation, there are a number of different notation types that exist such as leadsheet notation and the Nashville number system that are less new forms of notation as they are shortcuts to simplifying musical notation for improvised types of music.

There actually is an alternative form of musical notation developed that has notes oriented differently on the page. It is called The Klavarskribo System.

A lot of people new to reading music find it confusing that the piano keys are oriented left to right, yet the lines in the music are horizontal. The Klavarskribo system attempts to eliminate this confusion by having the lines of the staff line up with the notes on the keyboard.

As you can see, the lines go vertically and match up with the keys on the piano. So if this is easier to read, why isn’t more music created with the Klavarskribo system?

It’s not until you start breaking it down into more complex sheet music that you see where this system runs into problems. For example, with the lines going vertically, how do you account for ledger lines? How do you cover all the notes? There is a limit to how many lines you can read! You also would have instances of note clusters that can be difficult to read.

While there might be systems out there that simplify or improve upon the systems we have in place, there are issues with these alternative keyboards and systems of notation. When it comes to musical notation, you would have to change the world of music in order to adopt a new form of notation for everyone to agree upon. The traditional one we’ve had has worked for centuries and the idea of simply switching to a new one is a daunting task. Even if it were better and more streamlined, the process of changing everyone over to a new form of musical notation is next to impossible. Just think about how in America we still don’t use the metric system even though it’s adopted by nearly every country in the world; we have tried and failed to convert our system of measurement – the same would probably happen in music.

The simple saying If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! applies here! These alternative keyboards and forms of notation are interesting, but the systems we have in place work incredibly well – so we’re in good shape!

This is a great topic because it applies to so many different types of music. Voice Leadings refer to how each note of a chord resolves to the next chord. This is something found in every type of music you could imagine, from jazz to classical and to the early days of choral writing. While this all might sound confusing now, voice leadings are actually a very simple subject.

If you take the notes of a scale and number them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 (being the octave), which in C major would be C, D, E, F, G, A B, C, the formula is this:

– 2 goes down to 1
– 4 goes down to 3
– 6 goes down to 5 and
– 7 goes up to 8 (or down to 5 for better resolution in some cases)

This is true for both major and minor keys.

As for accidentals, raised notes go up, and lowered tones resolve down. So in C major, sharps resolve up and flats resolve down. In keys with sharps or flats, naturals may alter tones up or down depending upon context. But it works exactly the same way. So for example in F major which has a B-flat in the key signature, if you had a B natural, it would resolve up to C!

That’s basically the essence of how voices resolve! Active tones resolve to restive tones. 1, 3, 5, and 8 are the restive tones and the active tones must resolve according to the simple guidelines described above in order to sound fluid. You will find these truths evident in music of all periods to be rather pervasive.

This is a wonderful selection of movements that is a great choice for piano students just progressing past the intermediate level. I’m going to provide a few tips for you on how to get the best performance of these pieces of music.

Many of Schumann’s works are reflective of his life and he would constantly create multi-part pieces. What’s great about these pieces is that even though they are accessible to slightly above intermediate students, they still contain a great depth of expression.

I’m going to start from the first movement, Of Strange Lands and People. If you have a chance to watch the embedded video I highly recommend it. In the first section you have an almost choral sound to the music – except the inner voices (the notes under the melody) are staggered in triplets. The best thing to do is recognize what the harmonies are and the best way to figure this out is by breaking the music into chords.

This is a good technique for any new piece you are approaching and it allows you to flesh out the music and get a better grasp of what you are playing and the underlying structure of it. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t reach all the chords, this is not what it’s about. By doing this you will be able to both understand the harmony and structure of the piece as well as figure out the best fingering to use. In the video embedded with this article I break down this concept into great detail.

Once you have learned the harmony and figured out the best fingering by breaking the piece into chords it’s time to work on the melody. Bringing out the melody is something absolutely crucial in mastering your music. You don’t want all the notes to blend in together, you want the melody to rise above the harmony and sing.

You can play the melody legato and the accompanying triplets with staccato fingers to clarify the melody line in your hands. Once you have achieved this, you will be able to bring out the melody easily.