Piano and Music Videos

Hi, this is Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource. Today’s topic is emotion in music. Does Music Have to Have Emotion? There’s a lot to this subject, so let’s dive in!

Throughout the centuries, there have been period styles with varying degrees of obvious emotions. For example, listen to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet or Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. While there may be some people who are put off by the sentimentality of this music, it’s hard to not at least appreciate the rises and falls of phrasing in an attempt to elicit strong feelings of longing, desperation and passion in this music.

But is the emotion in the music?

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In fact, art itself is subjective. Everyone has their own interpretation of what they see and hear. So, how universal emotions are felt in music is one question. But there’s more to this subject.

While there are certainly works of Johann Sebastian Bach which are extremely emotional in nature, such as his B minor Mass, or his Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, there are also works that are masterpieces of counterpoint which primarily hold great intellectual interest. Flash forward to the 20th century with composers who explored 12 tone serialized music which exhibited extreme ordered complexity in works of composers like Anton Webern and Karlheinz Stockhausen and the intellectual demands of listening to this music are predominant. Does this mean that people don’t feel emotion when listening to this music? Not at all! In fact, much atonal music can have a dark mood.

Another aspect to all of this is, how do we as performers address the implied emotions of the musical scores we play? Some people may play even the most blatantly emotional music with reserve so that listeners can take their own cues from the scores. Listen to Sergei Rachmaninoff play his 3rd piano concerto and you will be amazed at how straight he plays his music unlike so many obviously emotional interpretations out there. Performers succumb to emotions to one extent or another.

When I was at the Manhattan School of Music, I had the opportunity to study with a great pianist and teacher, Constance Keene. She described emotions in music like this:

You must play with the memory of the emotion.

She felt that it was self-indulgent to be gushing with emotion while performing music. There are other performers who completely let themselves go with total abandon. Keith Jarrett comes to mind. So, is one type of performance better than the other?

When listening to some of the greatest musicians of all time, there are those who are reserved in their playing allowing the music to speak for itself crafting jewel-like performances of pieces like the great pianist, Josef Lhévinne. Others allow the music to take them to new places every time they perform.

Listen to various recordings of Vladimir Horowitz in concert playing the same piece and you will be amazed at how unique each one of his performances were.

Each performer must find their own balance of emotion versus intellect. I sometimes describe it as the part of you looking down on yourself as you perform making sure you don’t go too far. While performers who let themselves go in performance may hit high points unimagined in practice, it can also lead to disaster!

You can listen to a musical example which demonstrates emotion in music. In the accompanying video, there is original music with unabashed emotions for you.

So, while emotion in music is subjective since music is a language and everyone has their own interpretation of what they see and hear, some composers and performers prioritize control and structure while others allow their emotions to inflict itself one way or another in music. How you feel when you listen to music is a personal thing. Ultimately, the most important thing is to be true to yourself when composing or performing music.

I hope this has been an interesting exploration for you. I welcome more questions and am happy to hear from each of you personally. Again, I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com. Thanks for joining me.

Robert@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

Hi, I’m Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos.com. Today’s question is, “How to Solve Your Piano Fingering Problems.” Fingering on the piano is one of the most important aspects of developing a secure technique. So what I’m going to do is tell you my personal story of how I solved my fingering problem.

Did I have fingering problems on the piano?

When I was a child studying piano with my father, my fingering was atrocious! First of all, I had weak fingers. And truth be known, I didn’t practice nearly as much as many of my father’s other students. I had little hands, I didn’t practice a lot, my hands were weak and I had terrible fingering. My father struggled with me to correct all the fingerings. I took a look at some of my scores from my early teen years, and this is where the solution came in for me. I’m thinking this might be helpful for some of you as well. I got to a point where I though, “I want to solve this problem.” I had fingering problems for years, and it was always a nightmare at lessons.

I didn’t know how to solve the fingering problem, so I just wrote in the fingerings for almost every single note!

That was the only way I could know that I was going to play the right fingering. Looking at some scores from that period of time, it looks ridiculous. There are fingerings all over the place! Fortunately, my father was smart enough to always have his students use pencil, so the scores are not destroyed. That is what I went through! But after doing this for a period of time, I got to a point where I stopped writing in fingering. I almost never write in fingering anymore. It sounds like a total contradiction, but I transcended fingering such that I understood fingering in a way that I didn’t have to write them in. Now it’s not to say that I never write in fingering, but it’s really rare that I need to write in fingering anymore. I will certainly try fingering that’s printed in the score, with the editor suggestions. But if I have a fingering problem, I will try many different solutions. The vast majority of the time, I just develop a sense of fingerings that work. Truth be known, I don’t always use the same fingering in pieces I play. Because I got to a point of understanding fingering in such an intrinsic way, I don’t need to write them in anymore.

How many of you have gone through this same process?

I’ve never talked to anybody about this. I’m wondering how pianists out there who’ve had fingering problems overcame them. Has anybody gone through what I went through? It worked for me, but I don’t know if it’s working for anybody else. That is a real key. Writing all the fingerings in, being meticulous, and then getting to the point where you just understand it on such a level that you understand what fingering should be. I hope this is helpful! I would love to hear from all of you about your experiences!

I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store.
Please feel free to contact us with any piano related questions for future videos!

Robert@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

Thanks for joining me here at LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin. The question today is, “Can You Catch a Virus from Your Computer?” You may be thinking of Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink. They are working with brain to computer interface technology. There have already been instances where people have controlled prosthetic limbs with their thoughts. The eventual goal is to create a symbiosis of human and machine – to interface vast amounts of knowledge directly to your brain.

Imagine if you could have all the piano works of Beethoven uploaded directly to your brain!

That would save vast amounts of practice time! Inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil talks about the singularity. That is when artificial intelligence exceeds human intelligence. Connection of the human brain to a central computer database should soon follow. He predicts that date will be around 2045. Ray Kurzweil has been correct in his predictions in the past 86% of the time. So, this shouldn’t be taken lightly. But all of that is in the future.

What I am referring to is something that is real right now.

Scientists at the University of Arizona have found that cell phones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats. But this is only one example of how you can catch a bacterial or viral infection from devices we use every day. Consider when going to the supermarket and paying by credit card – or buying gasoline. How many other people have pressed those same buttons? Or if you are working in a shared environment with appropriate social distancing, is anyone sterilizing the printer or other shared devices? This is serious business we need to be aware of.

So, while catching a virus from your computer sounds far fetched, it’s actually happening all around us every day. It’s not just piano keys that you have to be concerned with.

The New England Journal of Medicine estimates that the Coronavirus can live for up to 3 days on plastic surfaces.

So, be sure to sterilize not just your piano keys, but any computer equipment from keyboards, to mice, as well all the shared electronic devices in your lives. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin with a question from a viewer. Evan asks, “How Do You Compose A Cadenza?” Cadenzas in concertos, solo pieces with orchestra typically, often have sections where the orchestra dramatically stops, and the soloist plays their cadenza. In many concertos, the cadenzas are written. Cadenzas are not just in concertos, they’re also in solo pieces sometimes. For example, in Liszt’s 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, there’s a part near the end that says ad libitum cadenza. And indeed, many pianists play cadenzas. In concertos, the composers often write cadenzas, but just as often there aren’t cadenzas written by the composers. Sometimes, there are cadenzas that people typically play, for example Beethoven wrote some cadenzas to Mozart concertos! So, there are often choices of cadenzas to choose from. But suppose you want to compose your own cadenza.

You can hear the hands independently from one another when you play scales two octaves apart.

For example, Evan asked specifically about the Liszt 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. I haven’t played that piece in years, but when I did, I would actually make up cadenzas on the spot! I didn’t write one, I would improvise. I don’t necessarily recommend that. But I like to improvise. So, I would challenge myself. Here’s the key with a piece like that: You want to find techniques that are impressive sounding, but not necessarily something that is hard to play. It’s best to play something that sounds difficult because a cadenza is meant to show off your unique skills. However, I’ve heard cadenzas in concertos that were so far away from the style f the composer of the concerto, that it seemed ridiculous. For example, a Mozart concerto with a cadenza that’s in a 20th century style can be disorienting. Having stylistic integrity is important with cadenzas.

Showcase what you can do.

You don’t have to do the hardest thing in the world. You can do something that sounds hard, that lays into your hands. How would you compose such a thing? Start improvising! Just make something up that is based upon the themes and play around with it. Over time, you’ll find certain riffs that you like. Start building upon those and before you know it, you’ll have a framework. From there you can flesh out a cadenza for something like the Liszt 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. For a full fledged concerto cadenza, it’s a bit more of a task. If you’re writing a cadenza to a Haydn or a Mozart Concerto, you probably want to play something that sounds like the composer. This is no easy task. Even Beethoven couldn’t do it!

Try to have some stylistic integrity, but do something stylistically that you like.

That is always a good key not just for composing cadenzas, but for all composing. Use what comes naturally to you and you’ll be richly rewarded! I hope this is helpful for you Evan, and everybody else! Keep your questions coming in. There are over one thousand videos at LivingPianos.com. You can search for them with keywords. We’ve got everything covered for you here at LivingPianos, Your Online Piano Store. Subscribe to our videos and join everybody else having a good time here with piano. See you next time.

Robert@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s question from a viewer is, “Can You Play the Piano While Wearing Gloves?” That sounds like a silly question, but I started thinking about it. I’ve been in practice rooms that were so cold. What can you do about that? Can you play the piano with gloves on? Well, in advance of this video, I went out to my car and sure enough I had a pair of gloves there. I have not tried to play yet with these gloves. So this is going to be an experiment for all of us watching, as well as me. I remember as a kid just walking by the piano when I had my winter gloves on, and I was surprised that I could play! But that was a lot of years ago when I had the hands of a child. Let’s see what happens now! I’m going to play the beginning of Mozart’s famous C major Sonata K. 545 with gloves on. (You can watch the accompanying video performance.)

The answer is yes, you can play the piano while wearing gloves!

Now that’s kind of surprising, isn’t it? I remember the very first time I ever played the piano while wearing gloves. I was shocked that I could do it! The gloves don’t really add that much mass to your fingers in terms of hitting surrounding keys. If you’re somebody with big hands and fat fingers, the gloves might be such that you won’t be able to fit your fingers between the black keys. In fact, I’ve met pianists whose fingers don’t quite fit between the black keys as it is! Certainly on some old pianos where the black keys are thicker, it can be difficult to get your fingers between them if you have particularly large hands. With my modest hands I can play with gloves. So, I’m in good shape if I’m in a cold practice room!

I’m sure many of you want to try this now for yourselves. Tell me how it works out for you!

Please feel free to contact us with any piano related questions for future videos!
I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store. See you next time!

info@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729