Piano and Music Videos

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I have an interesting question for you. Which are better, wood pianos or black ebony pianos? When you go to the symphony, onstage you see that classic black piano. You generally think of a piano as being black. But sometimes you see exotic woods, like rosewood. You see carved pianos, and they cost substantially more sometimes. But is there a benefit to wood pianos versus black pianos? That’s an interesting question with many ramifications.

Structurally and sonically, there is absolutely no difference between wood and ebony pianos.

There are many elements of the woods used in pianos that do make a tremendous difference in the sound quality. But pianos have had veneers on them for well over 100 years. So whatever the veneer is on top, whether it has a natural wood finish or a sprayed lacquer, whether it’s high gloss or satin, makes no difference in the sound of the piano. However, the wood underneath that finish, even on the rim of the piano can make a big difference in the tone of the piano. Many Asian production pianos utilize soft luan mahogany which is indigenous to the region. Luan rims are easier to bend than the hardwoods used in American and German pianos. So why do they do it? Since the soundboard is embedded into the rim, having a hardwood in the rim actually becomes part of the resonating chamber. So indeed the wood that a piano is made from does make a difference in the sound, but the finish does not. However, when piano companies are dealing with exotic woods, and intricate carved cases, they may naturally spend more time refining the instrument to the highest level since it provides a showcase for their work.

The wood of the soundboard has much more significance.

Almost all pianos today have spruce soundboards, but there are many different quality levels of spruce. Some soundboards are laminated woods with a cross grain. This kind of defeats the purpose of the fine spruce because generally the cement between those layers is going to inhibit the sound. But a laminated soundboard is far stronger, will last longer and is impervious to cracks, just like plywood is stronger than regular hardwood. So there are many things to consider about the different woods of a piano. For example, if you had the opportunity to have a wood piano or a black piano, and you really didn’t care one way or the other, black pianos tend to be more popular. So if you ever were to sell that piano, you might have an easier time selling a black piano than a wood piano.

There are people who love wood pianos and are willing to pay a premium.

With new pianos, wood finishes tend to cost a little more because they have to have matching veneers instead of essentially just spraying over with black paint. However, if you have a really beautiful wood piano, even though it might be harder to connect with someone who’s looking for that particular shade of wood, that person may be willing to pay a premium to get it. So there’s a lot to weigh here in choosing the finish of a piano. Ultimately you should get what you like because chances are, you’re not buying a piano to sell it. You’re buying a piano to enjoy it!

Choose the finish that you like best!

Get what you like! If you ever need to sell your piano, you want to have a long enough timeline so that you’re not under the gun. Because it’s not always easy to connect with someone looking for the piano you happen to have. Anything that’s relatively expensive, you want to have time to list it and get it into shape. But in terms of the sound and the playing, there is absolutely no difference in the finish of your piano!

Thanks so much for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

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For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Can you hear the difference between an upright and a grand piano? Today I have another listening test for you! Last time we tested a Steinway versus a Chinese piano. People really enjoyed that little listening test. So today we will listen to an upright piano versus a grand piano! Can you really tell the difference? What are the preconceived notions about these pianos?

I dug through the archives of Living Pianos recordings and found an upright piano and a grand piano playing the same Chiarina movement of Schumann’s Carnaval. I took the second repeat in one of the recordings but not the other, but other than that they are the same. Both pianos were recorded in the same place with the same microphones, which is really great for this test. I’m going to reveal what those instruments are after you get a chance to listen.

Write down your answer!

As I said before on the Steinway versus Chinese piano video, I want you to write down your answer so that you don’t fool yourself. Because of course, we all want to be right and think we can tell the difference. So, write it down and commit to which one you think is the upright and which one you think is the grand. Here we go. Happy listening!

See video to hear for yourself!

Eleven years ago I made a video about uprights versus grands and you can check that out at LivingPianos.com and YouTube. I discussed the differences. There are some substantial differences, primarily in the actions. But what about these two pianos? What are they? I chose a large grand. As a matter of fact, the grand piano is a seven-foot 1998 Baldwin SF-10. It’s a semi-concert grand. The upright is also a Baldwin, to make it fair. It’s a 1987 Baldwin Hamilton, which is just a 45-inch piano. 45 inches compared to seven feet, you would think there’d be an astounding difference in sound! Yet they both sound quite beautiful, don’t they? So which one was which?

The first one was the seven-foot Baldwin SF-10! The second one was the studio Baldwin Hamilton upright.

How many of you got that right? I’m really interested! My perspective is playing these instruments and making the allowances to get the best sound out of each piano, which is the job of a pianist. Because after all, almost all instrumentalists take their instruments with them. As pianists we have to play whatever instrument is available, and instantly adjust. I’ve had the good fortune of being around many pianos. I’ve learned how to make those adjustments. So the question is, how did you feel about the sound of these two pianos? Did you choose correctly? I would love to hear from all of you! Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Thanks so much for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

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1987 Baldwin Hamilton 45-inch Studio Upright
https://youtu.be/hfSi_p35PZk

1998 Baldwin SF-10 7-foot Semi-ConcertGrand
https://youtu.be/yb9c924YbMI

Upright pianos versus Grand pianos – Uprights Vs. Grands
https://youtu.be/ZD1QxoxabMQ

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about avoiding injury in your piano playing. Is pain ever OK? You know they say, “No pain, no gain,” but I’m going to come right out and say no, pain is not okay in piano playing. There are some exceptions, but I want to make it very clear that pain is always a warning sign that something is wrong. I’m going to bring up the exceptions, but first I want to show you ways you can mitigate pain in your piano playing. Of course if you’re having any kind of serious issues, particularly anything recurring, you should see a doctor to find out what is going on, because pain is not good.

How can you avoid pain in your piano playing?

First of all, it’s incredibly important how you sit at the piano. Take the time to make sure you’re sitting at the appropriate distance from the keyboard. Use a seat that you can adjust to exactly the right height as well. You can use an adjustable artist bench, or put books or a pillow on the bench to raise the height if necessary. Being at the right height is really critical. Generally speaking, you want your hands straight with your arms parallel to the floor. This is very comfortable because your wrists are straight. You don’t want your wrists to be bent. Imagine sitting at the piano so low that your wrists are lower than your fingers the whole time you’re practicing. That stresses the nerves and the tendons and your wrists can become swollen and sore just from being in that position. So take the time to make sure you are sitting at the right height.

How far should your bench be from the keyboard?

Sometimes you see people sitting too close to the piano. This is extraordinarily tension-inducing, particularly when playing in the extreme high and low registers of the keyboard. You want to be far enough away so there’s a wide angle to your arms. You don’t want your arms right at your sides. You also don’t want the bench to be right up against the back of your knees because you have no flexibility for getting from one end of the keyboard to the other quickly, as you have to do in a lot of different music. So sitting in the right place and having the right angle of your wrists is vitally important.

Your piano and environment also play a role.

If you feel pain and you wonder why, there’s the possibility that your piano action might need work. Maybe you’re playing on a piano that has 65 – 70 grams of down-weight and it just takes too much effort to push the keys down. Regulation, lubrication and easing of key bushings can possibly get things moving better. Another problem is if your piano has a really dead sound and you’re trying to fill a room that is too large for the instrument. You may overcompensate in your playing. There may be ambient sounds of air conditioning or some other sounds you’re constantly trying to overcome. You may be playing way harder than you think even if your action isn’t heavy. That could really be taxing to your hands. So that’s another thing to be aware of.

Is pain ever OK?

I talked in the beginning about the exceptions, about no pain, no gain. Is there any truth to that? Well, there is a little bit. Any of you who exercise know that if you’re weightlifting or running, the lactic acid naturally builds up in your muscles and you feel a soreness that can possibly be described as pain. But it’s a pain that goes away as soon as you stop. It’s a normal part of the growth of muscles. In fact, the only way muscles grow is by tearing down and rebuilding. This is the physiology of exercise. A little bit of that happens in piano playing. If you’ve ever done wrist exercises or even scales, when you finish you will feel tired. You’ll feel a certain soreness, at least temporarily, in your fingers. Now, if that persists after a few minutes of rest, then there’s something wrong. But to feel a little bit of fatigue bordering on pain in your hands after a workout on the piano, as long as it’s akin to what you feel when you’re exercising, is a normal part of building strength. Knowing that distinction is important so you make sure you don’t cross the line!

At times I’ve practiced some really treacherous sections of Liszt. I alternate between doing the really virtuosic sections and the more poetic parts of the piece, going back and forth to make sure I don’t put too much strain on my hands. This is what you must do in your practice. If you feel pain or major fatigue, that achy feeling you get when your muscles are being worked out, give it a little break and come back to it a bit later. And make sure that it’s nothing that persists!

Be sure to stretch and take rest when you need it!

Generally, you never want to experience pain in your piano playing. But when you’re doing a major workout, you may feel a sense of relief when you stop for a little bit. So give yourself rest! I like to do stretching throughout the day. It’s really helpful. Because your neck, your shoulders, all need to function properly. Your nerves are part of a system that goes all the way to your brain. If at any point the nerves become infringed upon it can cause problems in your hands, neck, or back. So you must be limber. Doing yoga or other stretching is vitally important. I highly recommend it! I don’t know what I would do without my stretching. I may make a video about the stretching I do because it’s stuff that I’ve come up with that’s based upon yoga, but it’s my own personal routine that I can do anywhere. You might enjoy that as well. Let me know in the comments! Thanks so much for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

You can contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you!

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949-244-3729

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how practicing the piano is different from practicing on all other instruments. I majored in both piano and French horn in conservatory. In fact, all through my childhood I was completely obsessed with both instruments. I think what I loved about the French horn and the piano was how completely different they were from each other. And in regards to practicing, it’s a completely different experience. Practicing the horn is about tone production, intonation, being able to play at any volume, with any articulation, at any register with control, and getting a beautiful sound.

Basic tone production on the piano is the easiest of just about any instrument!

On the piano, you push a key and it sounds pretty good. With flute, getting a sound out at all is really tough! Just holding a violin correctly is incredibly difficult. Other instruments have tremendous challenges. For example, double reed players like oboists and bassoonists spend a tremendous amount of time crafting reeds, either making their own reeds or refining reeds they get from others. This requires meticulous carving with knives to get just the right response out of the reeds. Vocalists have to study languages and diction. Think about the hours spent doing that, yet there is only so long you can practice singing before you will tire your voice. But there is a tremendous amount of research that goes into understanding what you’re singing in other languages, and being able to express content appropriately. You also have to stay healthy, because you are the instrument! Every instrument has challenges. The big challenge with piano is the music.

The piano is fundamentally easier to play, but the music makes up for it with its great complexity.

As a classical pianist, the vast majority of your time is spent learning scores. On French horn, there’s a tremendous amount of warmups involved in practicing. Things like long tones on wind instruments are essential. My wife is a flutist and she doesn’t miss a day of doing her long tones. What are long tones? Long tones are slow swells from very, very soft to very, very loud, back to very, very soft on every single note on the instrument. This is a great way to develop control on a wind instrument. So if you have a decrescendo, you can maintain the pitch and beauty of the sound by practicing each and every note consistently. On the piano, of course, we don’t have those issues. We don’t even have those capabilities!

With French horn, a great deal of time is spent on the instrument itself developing the physiology of the lips. There’s an old saying about French horn, “Skip a day and you know it. Skip two days, your section players know it. Skip three days, everyone knows it!” After a break from French horn, it can take weeks to get back into shape! The muscles of the lips are so delicate. You can’t just practice and practice until you’re back in shape, because you’ll blow your chops and then you can’t play anything! Your facial muscles become fatigued. So you have to really baby your lips and keep them in great shape. After a break from the piano, at first your fingers feel kind of mushy and lack strength. But just keep playing. Make sure you don’t tax yourself too much. After a day or two, you should be right back in shape. Everything should come back pretty easily.

What is so different about piano practice?

With piano you’re learning scores, and it is a meticulous process. One of the reasons I loved practicing French horn so much is that I could concentrate on pure sound, the beautiful rich tone of the instrument. The sound you get out of each note becomes a trademark of your own personality. On the piano, this just isn’t the case. Practicing the piano, if you’re doing it right, requires tremendous mental effort. You’re assimilating notes and scores and music. You must be able to think through complex arrangements that have polyphony and counterpoint and bring out different lines. Now, it’s true that other keyboard instruments have some of the same challenges. As an organist, you even have the pedals! However, you don’t have to balance notes and lines within a texture. For example, if you’re playing a four part chorale, you have four different lines. You can bring out the soprano line, the alto line, the tenor line or the bass line. You can do this simply by reaching with your fingers. The most obvious is to bring out the top line. But you can emphasize any of the four lines, each one calling attention to different lines within the score.

But balancing isn’t necessarily just bringing out one line, it’s being aware of all of the lines and controlling them.

In order to get that kind of control, you have to really know the scores. You have to study the music to develop that level of control. Are there techniques or exercises that can help with that? Somewhat. But there’s no substitute for spending a great deal of time really learning scores. You want to know the score so well that you have control of all the notes literally under your fingertips! And that’s what makes piano practice unique! I’m interested in your opinions on this subject. If you play other instruments, as well as the piano, let me know how you feel about practicing those instruments compared to practicing the piano and how it feels different to you. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how long it should take you to learn a piece of music. There are a lot of people who feel really committed to the piano. And when they are passionate about learning a piece, they don’t care if it takes a year to learn it. They just really want to learn that piece! This is not necessarily the best approach. Let me explain. In the amount of time that it would take in that year to learn one piece of music, imagine instead you focus on pieces that you can master in a couple of weeks. Then you build up a repertoire of pieces you can play on a high level.

Find music on your level.

Focus on pieces you can learn relatively quickly, each one a little bit more difficult than the last. You can expand not only the difficulty, but the style, the range, the mood, the period, all different aspects of music that you can assimilate into your technique. After a year, that piece that maybe would have taken you a year might only take you three or four weeks! The secret is finding music on your level. Now there are certainly exceptions to what I’ve just said. For example, maybe you’re a pretty serious pianist and you’ve just always wanted to study a monumental work like the Brahms Handel Variations, the Beethoven Hammerklavier Sonata, or the Liszt B Minor Sonata. Are you going to learn one of those pieces in two or three weeks? No, not likely. It could take you months to really learn and maybe up to a year to get on a performance level. A major concerto takes time to master as well. But even if you are learning such a work, I would strongly recommend that in parallel you also work on other formative pieces along the way. So at the end of the year you don’t have just that one piece, but maybe you have a dozen or more pieces that you’ve learned over the course of the year, including that one long-term piece that you’ve always wanted to learn.

Always be assimilating new music into your repertoire.

Learn music of different styles, different techniques, and you will grow as a musician far faster and greater than just focusing on one or two pieces that you really want to learn. You will actually be able to learn those pieces far sooner and get them at a higher level if you have progressive repertoire that you’re always mastering on the piano. I hope this is helpful for you and that you don’t find this discouraging. This is actually the fastest way you’re going to be able to learn that piece you’ve always wanted to learn! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

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