Piano and Music Videos

Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com. Today, three secrets to memorizing music. The three secrets all come down to one thing, and I’ll tell you how they relate to three aspects that will help you in memorizing music. Memorizing music is tough, it’s hard work if you’re doing it correctly. If you just play through a piece over and over in hopes that eventually it will assimilate, that’s not a very efficient way to learn music. You need to be organized, and I have videos on how to approach memorization.

The three secrets come down to memorizing every day.

Why does that give you three benefits? Well first of all, obviously if you’re memorizing every day you’re going to learn more. If you only try to do it once or twice a week, or every other day, you’re limited in how much you’re going to be able to learn by the sheer amount of time.

The second thing about memorizing every day is you get to reinforce your work from the previous day.

Otherwise, you’re going two steps forward, one step backward every day trying to get back what you learned, even the next day is a big challenge. But if you wait a couple of days you will have forgotten a great deal, and so you really are not going to be as productive.

Third reason is that since memorizing is very taxing, there’s only so much you can do at peak performance in one sitting.

If you do it every day, you get your mind when it’s fresh, and that’s a tremendous benefit to you. You can soak up a bunch of music before you get to that point of diminishing returns.

Today we’re going to explore a potentially controversial subject which is the shortcomings of class piano. First, there is some value to class piano which should be acknowledged. It’s a way to get people acquainted with the piano which can motivate people to undertake more serious study.

What else is good about class piano?

You get camaraderie with other people which mitigates the isolation of piano studies. There is an aspect of enjoyment to a class setting. One excellent possibility for class piano involving intermediate or advanced students is exploring collaborative 4-hand and 2-piano music. There is also the potential of delving into improvisation becoming comfortable with a wide range of piano styles.

However, class piano provides a poor substitute for private instruction for formative study.

Here is what I discovered years ago when I was engaged to develop a class piano program for an arts school. While I would begin each class with subjects of relevancy for all students, it would devolve into giving a bunch of mini private lessons. You may wonder why this is the case. The reason is very simple.

Piano involves so many independent skills where everybody has unique strengths and weaknesses to such a drastic extent that individual attention is essential in piano studies.

Each piano lesson one to the next, is a completely different experience. Other fields of study can be taught successfully in a class setting. For example, a biology teacher can develop a lesson plan which is refined over the years. The subject can be taught essentially the same way to different classes year after year.

Learning the piano doesn’t work this way.

For example, there are some people who easily pick up note reading while others slave over trying to recognize notes for weeks or months in order to become fluent at note reading. Rhythm requires other skills that vary from student to student. I’ve seen people struggle with clapping even the simplest rhythms. There is also the coordination of the two hands. Combining the hands is one of the most difficult aspects of playing the piano which comes more naturally to some students than others.

Memorizing music is also as skill that varies tremendously from student to student. While everyone can learn to read music as long as it is taught in a systematic way, teaching in a class setting can reduce the progression of studies to the lowest common denominator avoiding leaving people behind yet impeding the progress of other students.

So it’s not that class piano can’t work at all, but it’s not an efficient way of learning the piano.

Class piano can be fun and can provide a way to get your feet wet with the piano, but ultimately having private instruction provides an invaluable resource in order to maximize the progress of your piano studies. Ideally, you have the combination of private instruction and master classes where the you get together with fellow students on a periodic basis playing for each other, discussing theory and analysis of your music, as well as possibly playing piano duets and improvising. Combining classes with private instruction offers the benefits of both. I would love to hear your comments and experiences. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com. Please feel free to contact us at info@LivingPianos.com 949-244-3729

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.

Over the years I’ve made a lot of videos about pianos and practicing piano. Today I’m going to provide a concise list of some areas to focus on during your development as a pianist and give some examples of past lessons you can refer to.

1. Memorize, Memorize, Memorize!

One of the most important aspects to practicing the piano and developing as a musician is to spend time on a regular basis memorizing music. I can’t stress enough how important this is and how it is often neglected. Any pianist specializing in solo classical music must spend a vast amounts of time memorizing music.

The amount of music in the world is endless and nobody can memorize all of it. But if you spend time on a daily basis memorizing music, you will develop security and mastery of performance. Not only will you expand your repertoire, you’ll be giving your brain a workout and you will spend more time focusing on how to play your music rather than what you have to play.

My video on how to memorize music is a great resource for you:

2. Sight Reading

Sight Reading is another crucial element to your development as a pianist and is another topic that is often overlooked. Wouldn’t it be great to explore new repertoire and try it out before you commit a significant amount of time learning it? That’s where sight reading becomes incredibly beneficial.

Developing your sight reading is very important and if you work on it regularly, you will continually improve. The following video has tips to improve your sight reading:

3. Playing With Other Musicians

Playing music with other musicians is not only fun, it’s a necessary experience in developing your own skills. Even if your primary interest is playing solo piano, you should seek out opportunities to play with other musicians and do it as often as possible.

There is no need to be intimidated by playing with musicians who are better than you are. In fact, this is one of the best ways to advance your scope as a musician. Even if they play other instruments, examining their sense of style, phrasing, timing and other aspects of their playing can help you develop a new depth of understanding to music.

Sight reading might be incredibly difficult on your own as you will find yourself starting and stopping when you make mistakes. When you sight read with other musicians, you will be forced to recover and you won’t be able to stop playing. It forces you to become a better at sight reading!

If you need help in learning how to accompany other musicians I highly recommend this video that I produced with my wife Florence Estrin (a concert flutist).

4. Improvise Often and Don’t be Afraid to Explore New Styles of Music

Improvising is so important to understanding your music and gaining a new depth of understanding about how it’s constructed. Many styles of music such as rock and jazz rely on improvisation as a key element to the music and encourages musicians to create something new and interesting every time they perform. Developing your improvisation skills (even with classical music) is a crucial element to becoming a better and more well-rounded musician.

Exploring new styles of music enables you to experience and understand styles you might not have been aware of; it can also be a great deal of fun! I’m a classical pianist but when I’ve been at parties with other musicians and played blues music, it’s been a great deal of fun and an incredible learning experience to improvise with them and learn how they approach music.

Improvising is also a universal language. If you learn how to read a lead sheet for jazz standards, you can take that anywhere in the world, to play with any musicians. Spoken language is not a barrier for musical performance!

Never improvised on the piano before? No problem, check out this video to get some great tips on where to begin:

5. Practice Mentally

This is something that people might not ever think of. Practicing mentally away from your instrument can offer benefits not possible while playing your instrument. Playing music requires a thought process and there are tremendous benefits to thinking through your music.

Let’s say you’re waiting in line at the grocery store. You can practice your music mentally by thinking through a piece with every nuance of performance without any physical restrictions. Going through your music when you are away from your instrument allows you to think about it in a different light. Naturally, practicing with your instrument is essential, but you may rely on motor memory rather than the music. Practicing mentally allows you to think through your music playing it exactly as you want.

This can have tremendous benefits strengthening your memory. Just play through your music in your mind and see how far you get. You can always refer to the score to clarify the comprehension of the score.

As a musician or other person in the arts, it is necessary to work countless hours to master your craft. Yet, sharing life experience is intrinsic to artistic expression. You can look at this on the macro level of your life as well as how you deal with your career as a musician.

Like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, you must never push yourself to the point of destroying your love of music in your quest to develop a virtuoso technique on an instrument. Yet if you don’t practice enough, you won’t have the means of expression. So then how do you achieve such a high level and still have something of value to share with your audience? This is a timeless question.

Every person must find balance in their lives. No one can force you to become an artist. It has to come from within. It is necessary to have discipline, but the playful, spontaneous nature is intrinsic to the creative spirit. It is an amazing fact that people who have mastered piano technique are not rare in this world, yet an artist capable of conveying deep emotions to their audience provides a profoundly memorable experience.

You must make practice joyful work. But more than that, you must also let yourself live carefree at times, never losing the playful fun, interaction with people, and enjoyment and appreciation of living life to its fullest in order to be the ultimate, expressive artist you are capable of being.