Piano and Music Videos

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!

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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

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Welcome to LivingPianos.com I am Robert Estrin and I am so pleased to have a return visit from pianist and novelist Jack Kohl. Today we are going to discuss, “Can You Play the Piano with 4 Hands?” Truth be told, I can’t, at least not by myself! However, there is a whole genre of 4 hand piano music. You are going to get a taste of it today and there is a wealth of literature as well as people who specialize in collaborative piano. My sister is a member of the Double Digit Piano Duo and we have also played 4-hand piano music together. The other related genre is 2 piano music. Jack has played 2 pianos some, and I have played 2 pianos as well. In fact, my sister and I played a 2 piano concert together a few months ago! We also did some 4 hand piano music as well. They are markedly different experiences. What makes playing two pianos different from performing 4 hand music? What are the special challenges of 4 hand piano music?

Try listening to the Beethoven Sonata Opus 6 for 4 hands. It is played with one piano with two pianists. You’ll be able to get a taste for what 4 hand music is like with this wonderful piece of music. There are also great compositions for 4 hand piano by Schumann, Mozart, Debussy and others.

I’m sure most instrumentalists would be thrilled if they had as much music in their solo repertoire as there is for 4 hand piano!

There are some challenges pianists face working collaboratively. The secondo player who sits on the left side of the bench handles the pedaling. The primo player who sits at the treble end of the keyboard has to make sure the secondo pianist pedals appropriately for them. You really have to work as a team. Sometimes in four-hand piano music, the hands are actually intersecting. The hands will be nesting between one another.

There are some places where you have to work out getting out of each other’s way. Sometimes you may have to lift off very quickly to get out of the way so that you don’t collide!

Beyond that, there is another aspect that is fundamental to collaborative piano and that is the balance you create. You have to think of your duo as being one big pianist. Normally as a pianist, you are bringing out the melody on the very top as well as the bass on the bottom of the keyboard. But, if you are on the top with a 4-hand piano piece, if you play the bass loud, you’re actually playing an inner voice loud! Likewise, when the secondo is playing, if they bring out their melody with their right hand, that is also an inner voice, not the melody. It just steps over everything.

The secondo player must lighten up their right hand and the primo must play their left hand delicately in order to sound like one pianist creating a beautiful balance. Together, you become one instrument.

There is so much to 4 hand piano music. I want to thank Jack for coming here today and if you haven’t read any of his novels they are pretty amazing. “Bone Over Ivory” has just been released. It is a great read, not too long, and I think it is something you’ll really enjoy. He brings to his literature love and a deep understanding of piano because he is a very accomplished pianist and has done quite a bit of piano performing before he centered his career in creative writing. He has degrees in solo piano performance. Rather than getting knocked out of that world, not being a competition type of pianist with the “fastest fingers in the West”, he decided he wanted to stay in piano by becoming a generalist. He has experience playing in theater pits as well as accompanying. The metaphorical implications of all of that have never been wasted on him. He keeps a journal and writes down observations about piano playing. He has written three novels and “Bone Over Ivory” is a book of essays you can enjoy.

http://www.jacksonkohl.com

Thanks for joining us here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store.

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This is LivingPianos.com and I’m Robert Estrin with a really interesting subject today: Fast Versus Loud Piano Playing. Some of you may be thinking that I’m talking about contest winning pianists. Some of them play faster than anybody, some play louder than anyone. Often times, that is sadly what it comes down to in competitions because when you have dozens of pianists who all play at such a high level, how do you quantify who is the best? Artistic expression is such a personal opinion after all. This article is not about any of that.

Today’s subject is about how oftentimes students will confuse fast and loud! I was just teaching Clementi Sonatina Opus 36 No. 1 to a student, and wouldn’t you know it, at the point when the music gets louder in the first movement, he started speeding up his playing! It is such a natural tendency. I talked to him about it and he said, “When the music gets exciting and louder you just want to play faster!” This piece starts out forte, then comes down to piano, and then when it crescendos there is such a temptation to get faster.

What is the Secret to Avoiding this Problem?

As with so many rhythm problems, solutions come down to working with the metronome. Have the metronome ticking so you can keep an absolutely precise speed. You will be able to play more evenly and not succumb to the excitement of getting faster when it gets louder.

By maintaining tempo when you get louder you will serve the music better. This is something you have to train yourself to do. It is not a natural thing. You will naturally want to rush the parts that get louder. The metronome is such a handy tool to measure your music until you have it really locked in and you can maintain tempo without the metronome ticking. Interestingly, by avoiding rushing the louder parts, the music is more exciting instead of feeling frantic.

That’s the long and short of loud vs fast. They are two different concepts that you should not confuse in your music. Occasionally they do coincide and that’s fine. But if they don’t, maintain the integrity of your tempo and you will be richly rewarded with a more satisfying musical performance. Thanks so much for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store.

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949-244-3729