All posts by Robert Estrin

How to Play Trills on the Piano – Piano Lessons with Robert Estrin

I’ve had quite a few people recently asking me for tips on how to play trills on the piano. It’s no easy task – or is it? This video and article will provide a few tips and techniques you can use to help master trills.

The first thing to do is make sure you play your trills with minimal arm weight. If you’ve watched some of my other technique videos you know that I emphasize arm weight as a very big component in tone production – especially when it comes to slower melodies. The challenge with trills is playing lightly, almost floating your hand above the keys to allow the notes to flow with minimal effort.

The next thing in playing trills is keeping your fingers very close to the keys. Trills are played so fast that there is not a lot of time for movement, so it’s best to keep your fingers very close to the keys – so close you remain in contact with the keys!

Another thing is to make sure your fingers are rounded. It’s nearly impossible to play fast with outstretched fingers; keeping them rounded will help improve speed dramatically allowing more than just one joint to execute the trill. These are some of the most important aspects when it comes to hand position.

However, there is something fundamental about approaching trills. Even if it sounds like just a bunch of notes, you need to figure out exactly how many notes you are playing as if it’s written out. Learn trills like you would learn any other fast passage in your music working with the metronome increasing one notch at a time as you gain confidence.

Another big question is how to know how many notes to play in a trill. One valuable technique that I use frequently is to play just one note of the trill. For example, if you are playing a trill and starting on the upper note, just play that upper note. You will get an idea of how fast you can play the trill by only playing one note of the trill first, either the top note or the bottom note – whichever one you are starting the trill on.

This brings up an important subject in trills, what note does it start on? This could really be a subject for an entirely separate video but I am going to provide some basic information here. As trills are written, you will usually start on the auxiliary (the note above the written note of the trill; the next note in the scale of that key). For example, if you have a piece in C major and you have a D trill, you would start on E.

Can you start a trill on the note written? For example, if it’s written as a D can you start on a D and move up to E? Yes; it depends on the context. There are different schools of thought on this but generally, I would say a trill is basically a long appoggiatura (a non-chord tone resolving into the harmony). So starting on the auxiliary generally makes musical sense. However, in different period styles and in shorter trills, use your judgment as to what sounds best and what you can execute with confidence.

The last thing I want to address with trills is one of the biggest challenges; how to end them! If you don’t know exactly where you are it can be difficult to end them smoothly. The good news is there is a great practice technique for this.

I always like to play the trill right up to the point before it ends, and then stop in a relaxed manner over the keys. Keep doing that until you have a good grasp on where you will be right before the last notes of the trill. Keep playing that passage over and over and eventually add the last notes of the trill. But don’t play them right away; pause in a relaxed manner before you play the last notes. At first, make the pause as long as you need it; eventually, make the duration of the pause smaller and smaller; until the pause is imperceptible to the listener but guides the ending of the trill for you!

Thanks again for watching and reading. I enjoy bringing these videos to you and am planning more of them for you. So please, send in any questions or suggestions to me, Robert Estrin: Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Piano Technique Questions: Raised Finger Technique

This topic comes from a YouTube viewer of mine who was responding to a video I made about a Brilliant Piano Technique.

My piano teacher today told me that lifting those middle 3 fingers up and out of the way causes enormous tension all the way through your arms and that while playing octaves, you need to rest your middle three fingers on the keys in a relaxing position, directly contradicting your video. Please help me!

– Youtube Viewer

Your teacher is absolutely correct in directing you to keep your hands as relaxed as possible. The fact is, playing octaves requires strength. Without that strength, it is impossible to play rapid octave passages. If the fingers are not out of the way, they will hit notes between the octave. So, it is necessary to have a hand position that allows for clean octave work. You can see a demonstration of how this can work in a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodie.

When I was young and developing my technique, it was exhausting practicing this piece. I have extremely small hands that are naturally very weak. However, with progressive, intelligent practice, it is possible to develop strength and speed by utilizing proper hand position in the most relaxed manner possible.

Does a Humidistat Help with Tuning Stability?

Robert,
I enjoy your website and your videos. Thanks so much. My piano is a Baldwin acoustic upright and I have it tuned regularly. But now I have a new piano technician and he is suggesting I add a humidistat to the inside of the piano to regulate humidity at all times. He says this will cause me to not need regular tunings anymore. Does this make sense? I’ve never heard you speak of such a thing.

Sincerely,
Laura

Your tuner gave you some good pointers. In fact, stabilizing the soundboard will help with tuning stability particularly in environments with wide swings of humidity. Although I live in Southern California with a semi-arid climate, I have a Dampp-Chaser System on my concert grand which helps keep the tuning stable. However, all pianos will still require tuning on a regular basis, particularly if they are played a lot. The Dampp-Chaser System just prolongs the life of your tunings.

Does the Music Rack Affect the Sound of a Piano?

This might seem like a silly question. How would something as small as the music rack affect the sound of the piano? The truth is, for the audience it doesn’t. However, for the performer, it can have a big effect on what they hear while playing.

I remember during one of my father’s recording sessions he needed to reference the score for one small section – so he placed the music in front of him. This was completely out of the ordinary for him as he memorized all his music for all his performances and recordings. However, he was concerned that it might affect the sound of the recording. When he asked the engineer he said it wouldn’t be a problem; sure enough, it didn’t make a difference.

So you might be wondering what the point of this video is! Well, the music rack might not have an effect on the sound of the piano for the audience but it does have a tremendous effect on the sound for the player.

I would actually go so far as to say that the position of the music rack affects the sound you hear when playing the piano as much or more so than if you have the lid of the piano opened or closed. If you have never played a piano without the music rack down you really should, the sound you will hear is much fuller and is more open; this is yet another great reason to memorize your music!

You might notice on some pianos the music rack has an artistic design with carvings and holes through the wood. If you have a music rack like this, you won’t need to put down the music rack; the sound will travel through just fine.

music rack for a steinway art-case piano

If you have a piano with a solid music rack, try and play the same piece with the music rack up – then place it down. You will be rewarded with a dramatically improved sound!

Piano Questions: A Great Digital Piano – The Kurzweil K250


Hi Robert,

I played the Kurzweil 250 in the late 80’s for a temple job and loved it! The digitized sounds actually Felt like I was playing harps, guitars, strings, etc. and the organs were marvelous. Even the piano was amazing, considering I’m a classically trained pianist/organist and am used to the “Real Thing”, including huge pipe organs. Later on, when Kurzweil sold out to Young Chang I thought the quality went way down, but it’s possible they couldn’t afford the big instrument. But that 250 was a real treasure. Do they sell anything like them now? I’m also interested in this recording feature since recording for students has gotten so weird over the last 10 years or so!

Carolyn

There are actually a number of amazing 88 note weighted keyboards with phenomenal sounds and capabilities. But I am not aware of a similar instrument with real wooden keys like the Kurzweil K250. In its day it was a premier instrument. If you are interested in some of the state-of-the-art keyboards available today with similar features, there are great keyboards from Yamaha, Korg, Roland, Kurzweil, and others. Many of the workstation keyboards have extensive recording capabilities. More than that, any keyboard with a standard MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) output can interface with a personal computer for multi-track recording and score printing with appropriate software.

Where to Put an Upright Piano in a Room

Placing a piano in an optimal spot in a room is vital for the overall sound of the instrument in your home. With the right placement, you can make a smaller piano sound much richer and fuller.

When it comes to upright pianos, the obvious selection would be to put it against the wall; after all, the back is flat – and it’s not very attractive to look at. If you were to put an upright piano in the middle of a room it might look odd.

Even though the placement of an upright piano might seem limited, there are some things you can try to make the sound much better. The best thing to do is place the piano a few inches away from the wall – don’t place it directly on the wall. This will allow the sound of the piano to reverberate off the wall and fill the room with music. If the upright is flush against the wall, a lot of the sound will be muffled. This is because most of the sound from an upright piano comes out the back because that is where the soundboard is.

Another thing you can do to improve the sound is to place the upright in a position where it would divide the room – so it would not be against the wall, but essentially in the middle of the room. To get away from having the back of the piano exposed, you can install attractive fabric on the back of the piano to match the decor of your room.

Generally, you will have an upright piano against a wall, but it is worth experimenting to see what sounds best. The sound of your piano is dependent not only on the condition of the piano but the room it’s in.