Piano and Music Videos

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about the importance of setting goals in your piano practice. There are 3 distinct ways of practicing the piano depending upon what you’re trying to achieve. I have an extended video about this on my Patreon channel, which you’re all welcome to join. But I’m going to give you a little taste of it because it’s so important!

Knowing what you’re trying to achieve is a prerequisite for getting anything accomplished when you sit down to practice.

Whether you’re learning a piece of music to memorize it, or you’re trying to develop your sight reading, or perhaps you are working on improvisation skills, these are all important skill sets. So, here are some tips from my Patreon channel for you.

Piano music is extremely complex compared to almost any other instrument.

You have to have a unique way to approach learning music on the piano. For example, if I were to recite a series of twenty random numerical digits, it would be difficult for you to remember all of them. Even if those numbers were repeated several times, you would still struggle to commit all twenty digits to memory. But if I gave you only three digits, it would be very easy to remember them. Then, I could give you three more digits, and three more after that connecting as you go, you could learn those twenty digits in just a few minutes! Because, there is only a certain amount of information your brain can assimilate at one time. That is the secret to memorizing piano music, or anything else!

Look with your eyes, not your head.

When sight reading music, if you need to glance at your hands, do not move your head. It takes too long. Just look down with your eyes instead. Your eyes are quick! Trust your feel and and your ears when sight reading rather than trying to look at your hands.

Keep Your Eyes on the Score

When I was much younger, my father was performing the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall. One day he asked me to accompany him in his studio, since he had two pianos. He put the music in front of me and I felt overwhelmed – all those flats and so many notes, a whole orchestral score reduced for the piano! At that time I could barely sight-read anything. But, I just kept my eyes on the score. I missed more notes than I got, but I got through it! I never lost my place in the score. From that moment on, I knew I could read anything, and I’ve been getting more and more of the notes ever since! So, that’s the secret, keeping your eyes on the music. The best way I’ve discovered to have the discipline to do that is playing with other musicians.

This is just a taste of what’s available on Patreon.

I hope this has been enlightening for you! It’s so important to utilize different methods of practice depending upon what you want to accomplish. That’s a really important subject that I wish all teachers would show their students. If you enjoy exploring pianos and piano playing, you may want to join my Patreon family which offers 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!

Robert@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is, “Why You Must Find Your Place in the Score When You Make a Mistake.” Say you’re playing a piece and everything’s going fine. Suddenly, you make a mistake you never normally make. So, you just want to go back to the beginning and go through it again. You probably will get through it okay the second time around. But you’re missing an incredible opportunity.

Whatever you missed has some level of insecurity

I know how hard it is to find your place in the score. You just want to go back and pass that point. But if you take some extra time with the music, you can find where the confusion was that caused the problem. This will prevent future problems. You might get it right nine out of ten times, and every time you miss it you go back and think, “I know I can get this.” But when you do go back, you’re missing the opportunity to find out what the problem was and secure the memory so that it never happens again.

My recommendation to you is to take the extra time, even though it is more difficult

I understand how hard it is. It’s even hard for me! Sometimes I’m practicing a piece of music and I lose my place. It’s frustrating. I get it. But I take the time because I know it will help me in the long run. No matter how long it takes, find where you are in the score. That way you’ll be able to forever eradicate the uncertainty you have in that section of the piece. It will never plague you again! I hope this is helpful 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!

Robert@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

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

Robert@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

Hi, and welcome to LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource, I’m Robert Estrin. I am very pleased to announce that I am offering online video chat piano lessons. This is available to anyone in the world as long as you have a stable internet connection, a piano, as well as a modern smartphone, iPad or computer with a camera and microphone. For those of you who are unfamiliar with video chat, we offer technical support to get you up and running. You can email me at Robert@LivingPianos.com to get more information.

I started teaching the piano assisting my father, concert pianist, Morton Estrin while I was still in high school as my sister, Coren Estrin Mino did before me.

Teaching the piano has been an important continuum in my life and I am making the time to help musicians around the world who may not have great teachers available in their area.

When I attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York City after high school, I was surprised that many of my fellow classmates asked to study with me. There were such great pianists teaching there, however, not all performers are effective teachers.

The most important thing teachers offer students is showing exactly how to practice on a daily basis.

Because, no matter how much you get out of lessons, it is what you do the other 6 days of the week that’s going to make the biggest difference in your progress at the piano. When you have a lesson with a great teacher, you finish the lesson with a clear path of work ahead of you that will consume your time productively for the days that follow. So you accomplish exponentially more at the piano than just the time at the lesson.

I believe that you don’t teach at the student, you teach with the student.

There isn’t one curriculum that works for everybody. You must connect with each individual student with their unique strengths and weaknesses. Not only that, but each student has their own goals at the piano.

So, if you’re interested in finding out more about how to set up private video lessons with me online, please email Robert@LivingPianos.com and I’ll send you more information. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Resource.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to answer a viewer submitted question. Ploy asks, “What Influence Does Classical Music Have on Modern Popular Song?” What does modern music have to do with music from hundreds of years ago? Quite a bit really. Music is an evolving language. I would go so far as to say, modern popular song wouldn’t exist without the roots of Classical music. It’s so obvious to those of us who have delved deeply into music theory and music history because you see a lineage of development.

The structure of a pop song goes back to sonata-allegro and rondo forms.

These forms have been around for centuries. The harmonic language that is utilized in modern music is something that developed hundreds of years ago. This isn’t to say that music doesn’t continue to evolve, because it absolutely does. The integration of Afro-Cuban rhythms in jazz and leading to rock and even hip hop. It’s all a lineage. You can hear it if you appreciate that it’s a musical language that continues to grow. But if you took away the roots, what would you have left? You wouldn’t have the flourishing that we see today.

An appreciation of Classical music will serve you well if you’re writing in contemporary styles.

There are some exceptions to this. There are some styles of music that are so far afield, experimental styles that maybe have little to do with the roots of Classical music. But that’s really the exception rather than the rule. So for those of you who are delving into composition of popular songs, a good understanding of Classical harmony is invaluable for you. You will see so many things that will open your eyes to new possibilities in your writing. I hope that this is helpful for you, Ploy!

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!

info@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

Hello, I’m Robert Estrin and this is LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store. The question is, “Are there new musical classics being composed today?” The people I’m involved with, for the most part, have a great appreciation for the classics. Classical repertoire has endured centuries, and that might make you wonder, “Are any classics being written today?” This is a really tough question. Think about this. If you go way back to the time of Bach and Mozart, they didn’t necessarily know that they were going to be classics. They didn’t know their classical compositions would be studied centuries after they were written. In the thick of it, sometimes the composers who are immensely popular don’t live on and they’re not particularly important in the realm of history. Conversely:

There are some great composers who in their day were obscure or not highly respected.

Styles change. Even Johann Sebastian Bach near the end of his life while writing some of the most magnificent works, had fallen out of favor. The new classical era had begun and the flourishing complexity of the Baroque music he was writing was less in vogue than the music his sons were writing! Can you believe it? I will say this:

There are absolutely pieces being composed today that will live on for centuries.

Predicting what those pieces are is very tough to do. Who would have predicted, for example, in Beethoven’s life that Beethoven would be celebrated centuries later? In the 19th Century, there were hundreds of composers. Who could have predicted who would be the ones to live on in history and who wouldn’t live on? We’re living through a new era. Great music of all time can sometimes be found in unexpected places.

Consider the impact of technology on music.

In the time of Bach, the piano wasn’t even invented yet! Centuries later when the piano was more developed, there was a flourishing of music that couldn’t even have been conceived earlier. At one time, the symphony orchestra didn’t exist! The concert hall had not developed yet. We’re living through a time now with computer technology and some of you might not like the whole idea of computer-generated music. But it’s just a tool!

We can’t begin to imagine how people are going to be working with these new tools in the coming decades and centuries.

We’re definitely living through some tremendous music that’s being written that combines different elements of styles of music written all over the world. The entire world’s music is just click away! Composers can hear each other and develop music that combines elements that were never combined before. Eastern music combined with Celtic music. Anything’s possible today! What is going to be the great music that will live on? It’s hard to say, and we can talk about that. I would love to hear from any of you who has ideas about what music are truly classics that are being written right now. Thanks for keeping the great questions coming in. Again, I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com

info@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729