Piano and Music Videos

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s topic is about the power of the perfect authentic cadence. Have you ever heard of this before? Well, I’m going to show you way more than that today! And what you’re going to learn here today is going to help you with your sight-reading, memorization of music, and improvisation. It’s that basic and important. It’s unbelievable. I’m surprised I have not done this video before because it’s so important.

What is a perfect authentic cadence?

In its simplest form, authentic cadence is basically just a five to one with some passing tones.

But what I want to show you today is even more valuable. It’s essentially how to establish a key with primary chords. What are your primary chords? Primary chords are your major chords. If you go up your scale and play chords on all 7 of the scale degrees, you have major chords on one, four, and five. The other chords are secondary chords. Your two chord, three chord, and six chord are minor chords. And your seventh chord is the one diminished chord, the outlier. So you have the one, four, five which are primary chords

Seventh chords are as follows. I7 and IV7 are major seventh chords. II7, III7 and VI7 are minor seventh chords. The VII7 is a half-diminished seventh chord. Why half-diminished? Because it is a diminished triad with a minor seventh.

And the V7 is the strongest chord of all – a major triad with a minor 7th which creates the dominant 7th chord. This chord is so powerful because it can establish the key with just this one chord. So here’s a great voicing for your basic four-part perfect voicing, resolutions, note leadings, and distance between all the notes. It follows all the classic rules of harmony.

Why do we have these rules?

We have these rules because they sound good! That’s why Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Schubert, and all the great composers wrote utilizing this basic structure in their music. Musicians analyzed all their great music and realized the truths behind it—the gems of truth that date back to Bach chorales. This basic chord progression is I, IV, I6/4, V7 I. You have nice voice leading and good spacing between the bass and the tenor, because it sounds better that way. Notice with the V7, it has the root, the seventh, and the third, but there’s no fifth. (It’s missing D.) Why would that be? It achieves better resolution. Doubling the root and leaving out the fifth can help to avoid the four going up to five because it resolves better going down to three (F resolving downward to E).

Why is this chord progression so basic and intrinsic to music?

Knowing all your primary chords and how to establish a key is enlightening in your music because it intrinsically makes you understand the harmonic underpinnings of all the music you play, read, or improvise. You can do this same chord progression in all major and minor keys. Once you get comfortable with all your keys, you can start expanding your repertoire of chords. A substitution for a four chord is a two chord in the first inversion, a II6.

Or you can spice it up even further with what’s called a Neapolitan sixth. What’s that? A Neapolitan sixth is like the II6, except it’s a major triad built on the flatted second degree of the scale. It’s almost like your II6 chord, but with two flatted notes. So you get a different flavor.

You can get to the point where you can modulate using a V7 of another key.
For example, if you used a D7, D is the five seven of G.

And instantly, you can modulate to G major! Start in C major, go to the D7, the dominant seventh, (the major triad with a minor seventh), and there you are in G major! And if you want to go to F major, the C7 (dominant 7th chord) brings you to F major.

The dominant seventh, the V7, is the secret to modulation.

Any time the key changes, the dominant seventh chord is pivotal. The V7 chord is almost always responsible for changing keys in music. Sometimes a diminished seventh can accomplish it too, but there’s nothing stronger than a dominant seventh chord for bringing you to a new key in music.

What is a dominant seventh chord?

A dominant seventh chord is a seventh chord built on the fifth scale degree. Build a chord on the fifth scale degree, (which in C major would be G B D F) and you get a major triad and a minor seventh. It’s the only place that exists in a scale. You can build seventh chords starting on any other note of the scale, and only the V7 has this arrangement.

I7 is major, II7 is minor, II7 is minor, IV7 is major, and V7 is the major triad with a minor seventh, it is the powerful dominant seventh chord. VI7 is minor, and VII7 is half diminished. Why half? Because it has a diminished triad and a minor seventh.

So the power of the dominant seventh can’t be stressed enough. For example, when you’re playing a sonata movement, they almost always modulate to the dominant (the key five scale degrees above the key of the piece). How does it modulate to the dominant in the exposition? Typically, it uses a dominant seventh chord! There’s modulation in so much of your music and the pivotal chord that gets you there is the V7, the dominant seventh chord, a major triad with a minor seventh

What is modulation?

Modulation is changing keys. For example if you start with a piece that has no sharps or flats in the key signature, then suddenly you have F sharps all over the place; you’re probably in G major! That’s an example of modulation. What gets you there? The D dominant seventh chord, which is the dominant of G (the fifth note of the G major scale).

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about why you must practice perfectly three times in a row. This is really important for any of you who want to develop consistency in your piano playing. So often, when I’m working with students and they come to a passage they are having trouble with, they play it a few times with issues, then finally, they get it right, and then go on. If you played it and missed it about five or six times, and got it right only once, what are the odds you’re going to get it right again? Only one in six.

You want to put the odds in your favor!

Three times in a row is the absolute bare minimum where you get any sense that the odds are in your favor at all. Why? Well, if you miss it once and then get it, you’ve got a 50/50 chance. By playing it perfectly three times in a row, you have a better than 50% chance of getting it. But it’s not enough just to be able to play it three times in a row perfectly.

You must get it three times in a row, perfectly with absolute relaxation and security.

If you’re just barely getting through a passage three times in a row, you aren’t really getting the security you need. You need to get it where it just comes out without even having to work hard. Your fingers should almost have an automatic response. You want to develop motor memory to the point where it’s just in your hand, and you don’t have to have tension to get it. So when I say three times in a row, I don’t mean just getting it to sound right three times in a row. It has to feel right three times in a row as well.

Three times in a row is the bare minimum.

You want to have security in your playing. So remember, get the odds in your favor! Don’t just get it three times in a row; get it to the point where you’re relaxed and it just comes out in a fluid manner three times in a row. Then, you can challenge yourself by playing it louder, softer, faster, or slower. Try doing different things if you want to really gain security. But don’t go on in your practice unless you get something at least three times in a row perfectly.

When you’re initially learning something, you might not be able to get something three times perfectly.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about drummers who play the piano. Why do drummers love to play the piano? I want to hear from all of you drummers out there who tune in to this video. Tell us why you love to play the piano.

I have a lot of drummers in my life, and, almost categorically, they all love to play the piano!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about playing pianissimo. How many different levels of soft playing are there on the piano? By the end of this video, I’m going to reveal the answer to you!

There are different levels of quiet.

So many times, pieces of music are written to be played softly or even very softly. For example, Clair de Lune is written pianissimo at the beginning and stays pianissimo for a long time. Does that mean you should play that entire section as quietly as possible? I’m going to give you a little analogy. Just imagine you’re with someone who’s very dear to you, and you’re having a tender conversation. Maybe it’s late at night when other people are sleeping and you’re whispering. As you’re whispering, you’re saying very important, personal things about yourself. There’s some animation, and there’s tenderness. It’s all quiet, but there are different levels of quiet, aren’t there?

There must be nuanced expression in your pianissimo playing.