All posts by Robert Estrin

How to Remain Motivated as a Musician

I get this question all the time. It’s a hard thing to put yourself out there as a musician, for every success there is an equal or greater amount of criticism and potential failure to deal with; it’s enough to make anyone second guess themselves. So in the face of criticism and potential failure, how do you keep yourself motivated as a musician?

Music is a subjective experience and not all music is for everyone. I’ve had times where audiences are very sophisticated and engaged in the performance and other times when the audience might be talking and aren’t fully engaged in the performance. Do I take it personally when an audience isn’t paying attention? While it can be frustrating, I remind myself of the reality of the situation.

It’s taken me a long time and lots of performances to get an understanding of how people react to and appreciate what you are providing; it’s not all about you. People have other things on their minds and different frames of reference and your performance is not the only thing going on in their lives at that moment.

When it comes to auditions it can be equally frustrating. Maybe you keep winning and winning and then all of a sudden hit a big losing streak. Or maybe you haven’t won anything yet. How do you remain motivated at times like this? I know it’s much easier said than done, but if music is your passion, you shouldn’t give up and you must keep your focus on the big picture. If you look deep down in yourself you might find that it’s not about your performance but more about the random elements of auditioning and performing.

You are not the only one who has faced adversity. It’s sometimes comforting to read stories about hugely successful musicians and see that they experienced the same amount of struggle and conflict in building their careers. Lady Gaga was told time and time again that she would never succeed and that she was not good looking or talented enough to be successful – do you think anyone tells her that now?

If music is your passion then you shouldn’t give up. Obviously you have to find a way to make a living doing something, but you should always keep your passion alive and find ways to embrace your creative side. If you keep at it, will you become the next superstar musician? Probably not. However if playing music is what makes you happy, then sharing your art should be something that fulfills you; you must be creative finding ways of monetizing your art.

Failure is an essential learning experience. It should not define you and it should not deter you from reaching your goals.

Thanks again for joining us, if you have any comments about this subject or any other subject please contact us directly: info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

What is a Tension Resonator System? Mason & Hamlin Pianos

If you are familiar with one of the great American piano companies Mason & Hamlin you have may have heard about the Tension Resonator System, sometimes referred to as “The Spider” or “Crown Retention System”. This technology is unique to Mason & Hamlin pianos. What is this all about?

We have covered unique piano technologies in the past such as Baldwin Accu-Just Hitch Pins, Steinway Pianos and Teflon Parts and what makes Chickering Pianos Unique, but today we are going to discuss a technology we haven’t covered previously.

Some people refer to Mason & Hamlin pianos as being “overbuilt”. Mason & Hamlin prides themselves on building their pianos to last for generations and one of the ways they have done this is by incorporating the Tension Resonator System.

A thin membrane of wood called the soundboard is what produces most of the sound on a piano. Without a soundboard even the largest piano would barely be audible from across a large room. How could a simple piece of wood produce so much sound? There is a tremendous amount of tension that creates potential energy. The soundboard is built into the rim of a piano under tension which causes a slight upward arch referred to as “crown”. The soundboard is arguably the most important part of a piano and it’s something that varies from piano to piano – even on new pianos. Without crown, a soundboard produces a dead, lifeless sound.

There is a big challenge keeping the soundboard crown intact. After all,the soundboard is made of wood which is an organic substance that contracts and expands with changes in the temperature and humidity. Over time, the rim of a piano can expand and contract and cause the soundboard on a piano to lose its tension and therefore lose its crown. This is where the tension resonator technology comes into play.

If you look underneath a Mason & Hamlin piano you will notice the Tension Resonator System that sits below the soundboard and expands out to the rim of the piano. This technology allows the pianos to maintain their crown better because the metal device supports the rim of the piano and keeps it from expanding and contracting in different weather conditions; creating much more stability for the piano. Furthermore, Mason & Hamlin pianos have massively built inner and outer rims that further enhance the longevity of soundboard crown. This is why many older Mason & Hamlin pianos still produce vibrant sound when other pianos lose their energy of tone.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions or comments about this topic or any topic at all please contact us directly: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

What are Pentatonic Scales? Music Theory Lessons

Welcome to my ongoing series of music theory lessons. Today we will be covering Pentatonic scales.

“Penta” means five, and as such these scales all have 5 notes in them. Major and minor scales contain 8 notes and chromatic scales contain 12; so 5 notes is quite a difference from other scales. As far as the intervals for pentatonic scales go, you can form one in any key by using the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th note of that major scale.

It’s actually great that we are using a piano keyboard as an example because the black keys on the piano actually form a pentatonic scale all on their own starting on G-flat. You might have noticed that if you play just the black keys on a piano, they tend to sound good together. That’s because it’s literally impossible to play a wrong note using just the black keys!

What’s really great about pentatonic scales is that all the notes sound really good together. I’m not kidding when I say you can play the black keys and make nearly anything sound good. Even someone who has never played the piano before can play just the black keys and create something that sounds pretty nice. If you’ve never improvised before this is a great place to start learning; just start playing the black keys and make something up. If you have a friend, try playing together just using the black keys; you will be pleasantly surprised at how good it can sound!

That’s really about all there is to know about pentatonic scales. I hope you enjoyed this exploration and look forward to next week’s video when we cover more music theory topics.

Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

How to Play Glissando on the Piano

While you might not be familiar with the term glissando, you have no doubt heard it countless times before. It’s when the player slides their hands across the keys – it’s heard all the time in blues and rock. Believe it or not, it’s not as easy to pull off as it might look. You can actually injure yourself playing this incorrectly – which I have actually done as a child.

Glissando basically means a slide over all the keys. String players can perform this very smoothly by just moving their finger down the string; it’s not this easy on the piano. There is a simple secret however for playing this correctly.

The wrong way to play a glissando is to put your fingers down on the keys and simply slide them with the back of your hand. You can end up tearing off the skin on the back of fingers and causing tremendous pain!

The right way to perform a glissando is to place your hand at almost a right angle to the keys – so that mostly the nails hit the keys instead of skin. The video above provides an excellent demonstration of this. Believe it or not, that is it!

Now there are many different types of glissandos that can be performed in a few different ways. For example, you might want to play a descending glissando that would be played with the thumb on the right hand. The same principle applies; keep the angle straight up (at nearly a right angle) and slide the nail across the keys. If you stick to this technique you can even perform black key glissandos. Be careful though as this requires the angle to be precise in order to avoid injury.

If you are playing a glissando that ends on a certain note, try and use the second finger on the final note. This will give you a much better chance of actually hitting the correct note. There is a famous Mark’s brothers routine on playing glissandos where they actually employ this technique. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbUrsot6oeY Even if you don’t hit the last couple of notes before the last note, don’t worry, as long as you hit the correct note at the end you will create the same effect.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Why Were the White Keys and Black Keys on the Piano Reversed?

Anyone who is familiar with historical keyboards is aware that at one point the black and white keys were reversed from what we have today. What many people don’t know (including myself until recently) is the reason why they were changed.

On earlier instruments like harpsichords and fortepianos, the naturals are represented by black keys (often times rosewood or ebony) and the sharps were actually white keys (traditionally with a little bit of ivory). So, why did they eventually switch?

The reason is a lot simpler than you probably imagine. When you look at a picture of the keys on an earlier period instrument that has black keys you might notice that seeing between the keys is very difficult because the black space is camouflaged by the black keys.

They blend together. On the other hand those white keys sure stick out!

Now let’s look at modern keyboard:

You can easily see the dark lines between each of the keys giving excellent visual clarity.

Believe it or not, this is the reason that the key colors were switched. It’s easier to see the distance between the keys and separate them from one another. So if this was a problem, why were the natural keys ever black in the first place? The reason is most likely that ivory has always been more scarce than wood. So this solves this timeless mystery!

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

What is the Steinway Bell? Steinway Pianos

This is something many of you might not be familiar with, it’s truly a topic for Steinway aficionados or those curious enough to look underneath their pianos. So what is the Steinway bell and what does it do?

If you have ever looked below a large Steinway grand piano, you would have noticed a strange piece of metal that is attached to the bottom of the piano. It looks like this:

As you can see, it has the shape of a bell – which is where it gets its name – but does it actually serve a purpose? The short answer is yes.

On larger steinway pianos this bell is attached securely to the rim and the plate of the piano to help maintain the “crown” of the soundboard. This is extremely helpful especially with older pianos because over time they tend to lose crown on their soundboards which is essential for good tone. The link above includes an article and video that explains the concept of crown with regards to soundboards in much greater detail. To describe it briefly, the crown of a soundboard refers to the slight upward arching of the soundboard within the rim of the piano. Over time the wood of a piano may warp slightly with changes in weather. If the rim isn’t stable, the rim’s support of the crown may diminish over time. This will affect the treble notes the most – impacting the projection, sustain, and power of these notes.

The Steinway bell is placed in a strategic part on the rim of the piano. It is designed to attach directly to the curved part of the rim of the piano and the plate to maintain the shape of the rim and prevent it from expanding over time. This will in turn help the piano keep its crown longer.

I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions about this topic or any other, please email me Robert@LivingPianos.com for more information.