3 Ways Active Listening Improves Your Piano Playing

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today you’re going to learn about three ways that active listening improves your piano playing. What do I mean when I say active listening? Aren’t you always listening when you’re playing the piano? Well, it’s actually very difficult.

Active listening keeps you engaged in your performance.

Let’s say you’ve been working on a piece for several weeks, maybe even months. You practice it all the time. Then, finally, you’re giving some kind of performance. Maybe you’re playing it for your teacher or for friends. Or maybe it’s a public performance. How can you stay engaged in the whole process? The secret is listening to what you’re doing. Now, that might seem silly. Of course, you’re listening. But are you really actively listening, or are you just passively playing? Maybe it’s become routine because you’ve done it so many times before. This is a tremendous challenge with something you’ve played so many times.

Listen with fresh ears and allow the music to unfold.

Try playing your piece in ways that you haven’t played before. This can be a scary proposition if you’ve never done it in your practice. So active listening is something that you want to do in your practice. Take the music to new places. Listen to inner voices. Maybe you’ve always been listening to your right-hand melody. Well, try listening to the left hand. You could even try bringing out different voices. If you’ve always favored the right hand, favor the left hand just to hear what’s there. Keep yourself engaged! The more ways you can play your music, the more creative you can be in a performance. And once again, listening to what’s happening keeps you engaged. So that’s one important benefit of active listening.

Active listening is the secret to keeping your audience engaged.

If you’re not listening to your performance, nobody else will either! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at concerts where there’s been an accomplished concert pianist playing, and I found myself getting bored. I’m thinking, What’s the matter with me? I’m listening, and everything sounds fine. There’s nothing wrong at all. Then there’s a memory slip, and I realize that the performer wasn’t actively listening. If they aren’t really listening, you can’t stay engaged either. So the secret to being able to have a performance that’s compelling to listen to is for you to be listening to what you’re doing. So that’s the second benefit. You keep yourself engaged, and you keep your listeners engaged in the process.

The third benefit, which is maybe the most important of all, is creating a beautiful sound.

You practice so much. You’re focusing on what you’re doing with your fingers. You’re focusing on the keys. You’re focusing on counting, fingering—a myriad of things. But the actual sound you’re creating is the most important thing of all! And it can easily be neglected. Now, this is particularly important if you’re playing on a different piano from the one you practice on all the time. Let’s say you’re at a friend’s home or you’re playing a recital somewhere, and you sit down at a different piano. You must listen! Maybe that piano is a lot brighter than yours at home. You may have to completely change your approach to the keyboard in order to get a beautiful sound because you might overplay the instrument. Of course, the inverse could be true as well. You may have to use more energy to project sound on a piano that has a kind of dead sound compared to the piano you play at home.

So these are three important benefits of active listening.

Practice active listening in your playing at home! Try to go to different places with your music. Play at different tempos and bring out different hands and different lines in your playing. Try different things to keep yourself engaged in the process. Your audience will be rewarded, and you’ll be able to create a more beautiful sound in your playing. I hope this is helpful for you! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrinContact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com