Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is. about focusing on corrections instead of your mistakes. This may seem counterintuitive. Don’t you have to find your mistakes in order to find the corrections? It’s true that you need to find where your problems are. But beyond that, you don’t want to hunt for what you did wrong. I know a lot of students desperately want to find their mistakes. What’s worse is when they not only want to find the mistakes, but they want to replay them to see exactly what they did wrong. This reinforces the mistakes! You want to learn and cement the corrections right from the get go. This might seem like an arbitrary distinction. But think about when you play a concert, you obviously want to put on a good performance. You want to have the performance securely memorized. You don’t want to go out there thinking, “I hope I remember everything. Am I going to remember the third movement?” If you start thinking that way, it’s a downward spiral, because whatever you think about tends to manifest itself.
Visualization can be extremely valuable in a concert situation.
Conceptualize and see things the way you want them to be in your performance. Imagine yourself on stage in front of an audience. Imagine your performance going well and you’re much more likely for that to happen. But, if in preparation for your concert you’re thinking about the mistakes you might make, it can be crippling. Those thoughts keep percolating in the back of your mind. Then when you get out on stage, it’s going to undermine your performance. It’s the same thing with searching for your mistakes. You don’t want to concentrate on your mistakes. You want to concentrate on the corrections! And that is what is going to assure a good performance for you.
So instead of asking, “What did I do wrong there?” Find out, “What do I need to do right there?”
This is an important distinction that will help the productivity of your practice tremendously. And it’s a lesson for life as well. Remember, you believe what you tell yourself. This is an important fact. So take this to heart, in everything you do and everything you think, because it has a profound effect upon what happens to you in life, and in your music.
I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Please feel free to contact me with any piano related questions for future videos!
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is. about focusing on corrections instead of your mistakes. This may seem counterintuitive. Don’t you have to find your mistakes in order to find the corrections? It
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is, “The Importance of Fingers on The Piano.” It seems obvious. But there are actually three parts of the body that come into play when playing the piano: The fingers, the wrists, and the arms. I have an extended video series on my Patreon channel on this subject. I’m going to give you a free taste today. I hope you enjoy it!
The first thing we have to talk about is how to approach the keyboard.
Sometimes, you see people sitting really close to the piano, and it strangles them. So you want to make sure you’re far enough away. And you don’t want to sit with the bench right behind your knees. You want to be able to have flexibility because sometimes you need to reach from one end of the keyboard to the other. You want to be comfortable!
When you look at the keyboard, you see white keys, and you see black keys. The white keys extend all the way forward. The black keys are set back. But, the white keys also extend all the way back. Why am I bringing this up? This is really important. Often I will see beginning students placing their hands on the keyboard where they can only reach the white keys. Then they have to move their hands in and out for every black key. What you want is to keep your hands at the point at which black and white keys meet. This is the appropriate place to keep your hands, generally.
It’s important to curl your fingers.
If your fingers are stretched out, some are far longer than others. So that’s one of the main reasons for curving your fingers. This way you keep them all in alignment with the keys and you don’t have to go in and out with the thumb every time the thumb has to play. This is very important. It might be obvious to some of you, but this is worthy of mentioning.
You can see there’s so much to piano playing, and identifying what parts of the body come into play is critical for being able to solve technical and musical challenges. I hope this is enjoyable for you. If you enjoy exploring pianos and piano playing, joining my Patreon family will offer you even more videos and the opportunity to be part of the creative process. These videos are for you!
I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Please feel free to contact me with any piano related questions for future videos!
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is, “The Importance of Fingers on The Piano.” It seems obvious. But there are actually three parts of the body that come into play when playing the piano: The fin
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is, “Tempo Must be the Lowest Common Denominator.” What does this mean? You may hear a performance that starts at a nice fast tempo and everything’s going great. Then the performer gets to a section they don’t know quite as well as the rest of the piece, so they slow down in order to make accommodations. Maybe they’ll speed up again when they get to a part they know better. This is a a terrible way to perform, but I understand the temptation. If you know a piece and you can play most of it at a nice tempo that sounds great, but there are one or more parts that you can’t quite play up to tempo, you might want to play everything up to that point at a good tempo and slow down for the sections you are struggling with. But, in a performance, you never want to do that. So, what can you do in order to correct this?
If there are just a few key sections of a piece that you can’t quite play up to tempo, work on those sections!
Zero in on the parts of the piece you can’t play up to tempo and work with a metronome. Set the metronome at a tempo you can keep up with, then slowly increase the tempo to get those sections up to the speed of the rest of the piece. Better yet, work until you can play them even faster than the rest of the piece! Then the weakest parts of your performance become the strongest parts. But if you ever find yourself in a situation where you don’t have parts of your performance up to speed, you must take a tempo at which you can play the whole piece, including those parts. This is very important if you are performing. At a piano lesson, or something of that nature, it’s not really necessary to do this. A teacher will understand if you haven’t quite gotten everything up to speed yet. But in a performance, be sure to lock in the right tempo!
How do you find the right tempo for your performance?
Think of a piece you’re playing where you have a couple of sections that you have really put work into, but your performance is still not secure. Listen to yourself play it. Then find the speed at which you can play those sections comfortably and make that the tempo of your piece. You will give a much more convincing and satisfying performance that maintains tempo throughout, rather than changing tempo to accommodate parts you can’t play as fast. You might think that it makes you sound less impressive because you can play some other parts so fast. But believe me, it will be much more enjoyable for the listener and they will be more impressed with you for giving a more cohesive performance.
I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Please feel free to contact me with any piano related questions for future videos!
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is, “Tempo Must be the Lowest Common Denominator.” What does this mean? You may hear a performance that starts at a nice fast tempo and everything’s going g
Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin with a really interesting subject today, “How mistakes in performance are like driving on ice”. I’ll never forget when I was a young child starting piano lessons with my father, Morton Estrin. While he taught piano at Hofstra University, he also had a huge teaching studio attached to the back of our house. We had a terrace on top of it. We had a lot of fun there. That’s a subject for another video! But what I want to tell you is about recitals my father had in his studio. Monthly, he would feature different students. Some of his students were incredible concert pianists who went on to illustrious careers.
In June, he would have his student recitals for everybody else who were not up to the level of playing a whole recital. That’s where I first got my feet wet in performing. I remember how terrifying it was because you practice and practice. You get used to playing your pieces. Then you get in front of people, and everything feels totally different! Something goes wrong, your hands are sweating, and everything seems surrealistic, exaggerated, almost like being in some kind of dream state.
But it can be like a nightmare when something goes wrong.
So, how do you deal with such a thing? And what am I talking about, mistakes being like driving on ice? It’s a very good analogy. Before I tell you about this analogy, let me share something with you I’ve mentioned before about mistakes in performance and how to deal with them appropriately. The way I sometimes describe it is, if you just keep going, most people aren’t going to notice mistakes. People who are intimately familiar with the score will probably notice. But even if they are:
If you keep the music going, that’s key because it keeps the performance enjoyable.
That is the important thing. It’s like going to see a motion picture. If you were watching a film and suddenly there was an edit which jumped back or forward even a fraction of a second, it would be jarring. And that’s what happens if you lose your rhythm or continuity in a musical performance. So, how is this like driving on ice?
If you’re ever driving a car on ice, as soon as it happens, it’s an unnerving feeling, because when you turn the steering wheel and nothing happens. Press the brake, no response! And so what do you do? Do you just go wild trying different things? Do you put the car in reverse? No, you don’t put it in reverse! You don’t start over-steering or hitting the brakes like crazy. Instead, you realize that you’re just going to keep going in that direction like it or not. Eventually, you’re going to hit dry ground and you’re going to gain control of your car.
It’s exactly the same thing in musical performance. Something goes wrong. Of course, it’s horrifying, just like driving a car and losing control. Even though your life isn’t in danger, you don’t feel that way. You feel like your life is flashing before your eyes! You’ve got a whole audience looking at you and even though everything went perfectly in practice, suddenly you find yourself in this horrendous situation.
The best thing you can do is keep your fingers moving.
Keep any part of the score you can remember, even if it’s a mishmash of notes, until your fingers and your ears can piece together where you are, and you keep moving forward. That’s the secret for getting through mistakes in performance. You never stop and correct them. This creates a real problem because in practice, of course, you always stop and correct mistakes because that’s what practicing is about. Performance is a completely different situation. I’ve talked about the necessity of practicing performance. You have to practice performing or else when it finally happens, you’re not ready for it. You can first try recording your playing on your phone or other device as if it’s a performance and see if you can generate some excitement that way. Then play for family members, trusted friends, then maybe groups of people, until finally you’re ready to do a live performance. At any time, even if you’re with a group of friends and something goes wrong, don’t stop and say, “Oh, I can play this perfectly. Let me start it over.” No.
Make it a performance!
This is an ideal opportunity to iron out what you’ll do in an actual performance when something inevitably goes wrong. And I’ve got news for you. You might think that concert pianists know the music so well, nothing ever goes wrong. That’s not true. There are always catastrophes! I don’t care how much you practice and how great you are, things will happen, whether it’s memory or something, where the piano doesn’t feel quite right and you find yourself in the wrong place, not feeling comfortable.
So, remember, just like driving on ice, don’t freak out! Just keep going until you get some traction in your music, just like in the car, and you’re going to be just fine. Try it the next time you perform. I’m very interested in any of you who have had this kind of experience. And for those of you who haven’t done this before, and you try it, let me know how it works for you. I’m really interested! Again, I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource. See you next time!
Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin with a really interesting subject today, “How mistakes in performance are like driving on ice”. I’ll never forget when I was a young child starting piano lessons with my father, Morton Es
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. I got a great question from a viewer, “How do You Approach Playing From A Score Compared to Playing From Memory?” They’re two completely different skill sets.
Let me tell you a little story. Years ago I would go to competitions to accompany performers. Sometimes at the last minute someone’s accompanist wouldn’t show up. Maybe it was a kid with some very simple accompaniment. They would ask some of the other accompanists to fill in. But some of them just couldn’t do it unless they practiced. They couldn’t sight read even easy student pieces! They would have to spend the time to learn the score first.
I’ve also seen people who could read very well, but even if they practiced a piece for months, they couldn’t gain security in memorization. They’re two completely different skill sets. So, why do you need both of them anyway? That’s the first question I’m going to answer for you. There are some types of music where reading the score is intrinsically important. There are other times when playing from memory is of tremendous benefit.
Why would you ever have to memorize music?
You’ve got a music rack right in front of you, so why not just read the music? I play solo music from memory all the time. But why? Am I just trying to show off? The secret is that once you have something memorized it’s much easier to play it without having to look up at the music. With solo music, there’s no reason not to have it all memorized. Put the work into the front end and enjoy a much easier performance not having to look up and down from the music to the keyboard.
Why wouldn’t you memorize all your music?
First of all, it’s time consuming. But more importantly, when you play with other musicians, chamber music or accompanying, you absolutely must get a grasp of the entire score. You have to know what everybody is playing. The score shows not just your part, but it has the other musicians’ parts as well. It’s really important when playing with other musicians to have the score so you’re aware of everything going on.
Practicing pieces to be memorized compared to pieces to be played from the score requires completely different methodology.
When approaching a piece of music you want to memorize, you want to read through it just two or three times and then get to work one little section at a time starting with the right hand, learning absolutely everything: the notes, rhythm, fingering, phrasing and expression. You can master a small phrase in a couple of minutes. You do the same thing with the left hand part. Get the left hand memorized, just a small phrase. As each phrase is learned, you put the hands together and then connect from the beginning. Eventually you have the whole piece learned and you continue solidifying the memory with and without the score. You get to a point where the music is part of you. It’s a great feeling of liberation!
When accompanying pieces of music, you don’t practice that way.
There might be certain key sections you work on that way, but generally speaking, you go through the piece slowly reading. Any parts that you can’t play satisfactorily, use the band-aid approach. Focus your attention on the parts that you can’t play up to speed and I work on those sections until you can. Try to play so you don’t have to look down at your hands at all so you can keep your eyes on the score and play totally by feel. It seems impossible! There will be quick glances for leaps and things like that. But in your practice, try to make it so you don’t have to look down at your hands at all. You get to the point of total comfort, being completely absorbed with the score. That’s a great feeling because then if you need a quick glance here or there, you’re okay. But never move your head, only your eyes.
How is it possible to play a piece without looking at your hands?
There are some incredibly great blind pianists who could play anything, even music with large leaps So, it is possible. Think about what violinists and cellists do with no frets making big leaps without always being able to look at their hands. So, you can learn to play without looking at the score. These are two completely different ways of practicing. With solo music it is worth memorizing, but when you’re playing with other musicians, seeing the score is of benefit. There are two completely different approaches to practicing. I’m interested in how others have dealt with these issues.
I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Please feel free to contact me with any piano related questions for future videos!
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. I got a great question from a viewer, “How do You Approach Playing From A Score Compared to Playing From Memory?” They’re two completely different skill sets. Let me tell you a l
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to share with you three tips for practicing scales. I’ve made quite a few videos about scales. But, Truth be known, I spend a minimal amount of time practicing scales to achieve the desired results, which is to have clean finger work, and to have mastered all the fingering of all major and minor scales and arpeggios. However, no matter how far you go with scales you can always go further. It’s endless what you can do with scales! Today I’m going to give you three tips to improve your scales. Maybe you’ve gotten in a rut. You’ve practiced your scales and you don’t know where to go next. Maybe you’re not totally happy with your finger work and you’re wondering, is there any other way to practice scales that will help to clean up your technique? Here are three techniques you can try. First of all, most of us practice scales just going up and down the piano in four octaves, an octave apart, as referenced in Hanon’s 60 Selected Exercises for the Virtuoso Pianist. That is a prerequisite for developing a good technique on the piano, particularly for playing classical styles or anything that’s technically oriented. It’s kind of like having a bag of tricks in your back pocket that’s always there when you need it, because you have scales in music pretty much all the time, in one way or another. So, what about practicing with different articulations or phrasings?
Instead of playing all legato, you could play with detached fingers in a staccato manner.
The reason this practice technique is so incredibly important is that the evenness from note to note isn’t just about the down strike of the key, but the release of each key as well. If you were to slow down a sloppy scale performance, you might hear that notes are striking together, but some notes are holding longer than others. You’ll hear haphazard lengths of notes, most likely where the thumb or finger crossings happen. By playing in a staccato manner you can hear things more clearly. You can play with staccato fingers, or the notes can have a little bit more length than that, and still be detached. Not really staccato fingers, but not smooth and connected the way you might think of playing scales usually.
Play one hand legato and one hand staccato.
In a recent video, I talked about how playing the hands two octaves apart when practicing scales can help you to hear things better. Well, here’s another tip for you. Play one hand legato and one hand staccato. This technique really allows you to hear what’s happening. Try playing the right hand legato and the left hand staccato. This can be reversed, playing the left hand legato and right hand staccato. This is just the tip of the iceberg! You can try this technique with two-note slurs or four-note slurs as well. And you could start on the second note of the scale and do the same thing. The whole idea is that it helps you to identify where the hands play together. It solidifies your scales in a way that just playing them the same way over and over again will never achieve for you. It could be a tremendous time-saver. So, what are some other ideas? That’s just one of three tips I’m giving you today. This can keep you busy for the next six months!
Do what solves problems.
The trick is not necessarily to do every articulation on every scale. If you find you have an unevenness in an F major scale descending scale, focus on that and start working on various techniques that solve that problem on that scale. Then you’ll find that this technique will translate from one scale to other scales.
Put your scales into a musical context.
We’re all used to playing scales loud, soft, medium. What about playing scales very, very loud? Or perhaps very delicately. You can play one hand loud and one hand soft, but it doesn’t just have to be that. You could make a crescendo up, a crescendo down, or you could start at the bottom loud and make a decrescendo all the way up and all the way down. The key is not to look at scales as an abstraction completely, but to put it into a musical context. After all, when you play music you’re not playing everything straight. So, you can explore this with your scales and make them more interesting and more musical. Always strive for a beautiful sound at the piano. This is really important in your music, anyway. You can also do all these techniques or many of these techniques with your arpeggios.
Play your scales at different speeds.
I am a firm believer in playing scales to a metronome. It’s very important that you practice your scales slowly and get progressively faster, increasing the speed of the metronome one or two notches at a time. This is what assures really clean, even scales. This is an incredibly useful technique. There’s no substitute for that sort of practice!
These are some musical things you can do with scales at home to enhance your technique on the piano. I hope this is helpful for you! Let me know how these tips work out for you and feel free to contact me with suggestions for future videos! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store.
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to share with you three tips for practicing scales. I’ve made quite a few videos about scales. But, Truth be known, I spend a minimal amount of time practicing scales t
