Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

For a lot of musicians, it’s impossible to ignore emotion in music; it comes out naturally. However, there are ways you can express yourself and show more emotion in your music – making it a much more powerful experience for your audience.

You might find that the music you are studying or playing gives you an emotional impact but you might wonder if you are translating that to your instrument and the audience. You must overcome the technical challenges needed to express yourself freely. The first thing you will need to do is practice your music thoroughly tackling problems and technical issues.

Now here is the fundamental problem. If you practice a piece over and over again in hopes of being able to play it perfectly, will you still have the same love and emotion for it? Or will the task of studying and practicing a piece extensively destroy the enjoyment you once had for it? It’s a common problem for musicians who lock themselves up in a practice room for hours every day trying to perfect their music only to emerge with a disdain for the music they once loved. There have been a number of times I’ve attended recitals and watched incredibly capable instrumentalist put on boring performances! All too often the performers have lost track of why they are playing their music, to begin with; they’ve lost their love of music and possibly the joy of life.

But how do you avoid this while mastering your music? The first thing you can do is to practice effectively. Practicing with the metronome a great deal builds a solid foundation. This can offer you freedom when performing (without the metronome) since you will not stray too far from becoming self-indulgent when expressing yourself. Practicing the piano without the pedal is also fundamental building clarity in your music. These are simple and effective practice techniques. When you finally get to add the pedal and play without the metronome, it feels so good hearing the music in all its glory. The benefit of the structured practice gives you the freedom to express yourself in performance.

Another important thing to do is to play for other people on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter how much you practice until you get out in front of an audience and actually perform, the music doesn’t come to life. It’s like practicing for a job interview – no matter how much you practice, it will never prepare you for the actual conversation. It’s all about communicating which involves give and take.

Most of all, you must find a balance in life. You need to enjoy your life and your work and you can never achieve this if you let your work consume your life. Sometimes the best thing to do is to step away from the music and allow yourself to recoup and eventually fall in love with it again. Like the old saying goes, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”. You really should feel this way about your music. When you are away from it coming back feels so good! You will experience joy in your life and in your music!

Some musical scores can be extremely complex. Sometimes there are situations when someone needs a pianist desperately and there simply isn’t enough time to completely digest the score. People will be grateful for you to be able to accommodate them. This is when simplifying a score can sometimes be a lifesaver!

One example might be attending a Christmas party and a singer hands you some music and asks if you could perform a few Christmas carols for the group. You pick up the book and take a look and realize the pieces are embellished arrangements which contain a lot more notes than you would be able to play instantly. Don’t worry; there is a solution to this. I’m going to provide a few tips to help you achieve this.

Piano scores are much more complex than most instruments because you have two hands playing in multiple staffs. In the case I just described, removing some notes can still leave the integrity of the song; but which ones should you play? Usually, the top note is the melody and the bottom note, the bass provides the structure; these are essential to play. As long as you have the bass and melody you can work on fleshing out what’s in the middle. Generally, you would want to avoid doing this sort of thing with serious musical compositions unless it’s a desperate situation with no alternatives for the soloist or group you are accompanying. But arrangements are a great place to use this technique since they are arrangements anyway. In fact, sometimes you may encounter simplified arrangements you may want to embellish!

Overall, simplification can be useful to familiarize yourself with an accompaniment with a tight deadline or to enjoy playing musical arrangements for fun. And remember, the easy way to simplify is to offer the structure which consists of the bass, the melody and whatever other notes you can add to make a pleasing musical performance.

Learning to play softly on the piano is really a challenge and a skill of fine art. It is very challenging to master but when it’s executed well, the results can be amazing. So this article and video will provide some tips on how to improve your playing.

I want to mention first that you will need to have your piano regulated and voiced on a very high level to achieve consistent, quiet playing. If the notes don’t respond mechanically or sonically in a uniform fashion, you simply can’t achieve pianissimo playing since some notes will drop out.

I was very lucky growing up with my father, Morton Estrin, who is a concert pianist. We had several fine pianos around our house and in his studio, and I also got a chance to try out concert instruments when he was selecting pianos for performance and recording.

He has a reputation for being able to fill even the largest concert halls with tremendous sound; in fact, smaller halls were sometimes not big enough to handle the sound. However, while he was known for his massive strength, he had an incredible skill for pianissimo as well. This is a skill that is really daring for most pianists; as playing quietly really demands the audience’s full attention – even ruffling your feet can disturb the sound of the piano. However, playing like this can open up worlds of expression in the music.

But how do you achieve this? How do you play quietly and still maintain control of your playing? My father would describe pianissimo playing like this: think of the energy of the sun. Now imagine blocking it all out except for one single pinhole. The energy that flows through that one pinhole; that is what pianissimo playing is about. There is an intensity even at very low volume.

When it comes to playing quietly on a wind instrument or a string instrument there is the breath and the bow which provide continuity. So what can you use on the piano to get the smoothness of line in very soft playing?

You could try calculating each note successively louder, then softer trying to get a smooth phrase. However, if you use this approach it will sound calculated! You will not achieve a singing line.

The secret is to use the weight of your arm and to transfer the weight from finger to finger smoothly. When playing pianissimo you will also want to stay as close to the keys as you can making sure they aren’t depressed at all. Use minimum motion. The arm weight provides the analog to the breath of the human voice! It provides a continuum of energy creating the illusion of a singing line.

Keep in mind that the piano is technically not capable of a true singing line since all notes are fading away as soon as they begin. Yet, by utilizing the weight of the arm, you can achieve smooth, pianissimo playing with great control.

This really is a great topic to cover and there is a ton of information for you. There are two distinctly different types of repeated notes: slow repeated notes and fast repeated notes. I’m going to cover both of these techniques this week.

Let’s start with fast repeated notes. The easiest way to handle a fast note played over and over again would be to use two hands. However, for most music this is not going to be an option. Most of the time you will have to learn how to handle fast repeated notes with one hand, and the only way to achieve this is by changing fingers. You MUST change fingers in order to play the notes fast enough.

The most important thing is finding a fingering that works for you. Typically, 3-2-1 is a very good fingering for playing fast repeated notes. In the video above I demonstrate this on one of Scarlatti’s sonatas. I provide some additional instructions specifically on how to approach this; if you have time to watch, you may appreciate this.

Another thing to keep in mind when approaching fast repeated notes is that upright pianos will not be able to handle it. Not all grand or baby grand pianos can even handle the high level of repetition needed but it will need to be regulated well in order to play fast repeated notes.

So how is it done? It is absolutely essential to keep your fingers right over the keys. There isn’t time to make any motion beyond what is needed, so keep your fingers hovering very close over the keys. Also, keep your hand relatively stable, curve your fingers (keep them rounded) and try to hit the middle of the key. It’s best to practice slowly, with a metronome, and work your way up to speed slowly.

When it comes to slow repeated notes there are different schools of thought on how to approach them. I have a bias in the technique I use, however, the method I use is also used by many great pianists.

In the video I demonstrate these techniques on a Mozart Sonata. If you have the time to watch I would definitely recommend it.

Make sure that slow repeated notes are played as smoothly as possible. The big problem with the piano is that no matter how hard you try to connect repeated notes of the same note, they will always be detached in some way. This is because the dampers will always end the notes when they are released.

The trick is to not play the notes with one finger. Just like playing fast repeated notes, if you play with a finger pattern (like 3-2-1) you will be able to get a much better legato. Now the one problem with this is that if you if try and play the notes slowly with different fingers, you may find that a note doesn’t play. This is because the weight of your arm will most likely have your finger pushed down too hard for repetition. The trick is to keep the hand floating above the key putting minimal arm weight into playing. Having a high release of each finger allows the next finger to play the key again. If you do this, you will produce a stunning legato.

Make sure to practice the above technique without the pedal and try to achieve the smoothest legato you can.

Hi Mr. Estrin,

– Youtube Viewer

Thank you for contacting me with this very good question. It is typical for pianists to feel much more comfortable on the instrument you practice on daily since you become so familiar with the response. One of the biggest challenges facing pianists is the fact that unlike other musicians, we can’t take our instrument with us. So, being able to adjust to many different pianos is part of being a pianist. It is important to have a practice instrument that provides a baseline for other pianos you play on. For any reasonably advanced player, a grand piano or baby grand is essential to continue progressing. There are many reasons for this, but primarily, even the best upright pianos have sluggish actions because the hammers travel sideways instead of up and down as in a grand piano. As a result, they don’t have gravity working for them and they are slower in response. You can watch my video on the subject:

Your video on pedal use with Moonlight Sonata was very helpful. I noticed you used the left pedal (Una Corda?) as well. And, I think you kept it down continually as you played. If so, why?
Thank you for the huge amount of time you’ve devoted to helping us all learn to play better,
– Leslie

You are very perceptive! Since the entire first movement of the Moonlight Sonata is quiet, the una corda pedal is appropriate for this movement. However, the una corda pedal has dramatically different degrees of tonal change on various pianos. So on some instruments, it may be necessary to use the una corda only in some sections.

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First, a disclosure is in order: I grew up with a concert pianist, my father Morton Estrin who taught piano in our home. He was my piano teacher as well. He still teaches in the house where I grew up on Long Island! My sister Coren Mino is also a pianist. My life is centered around the piano and always has been, so my viewpoint is definitely focused on the piano!

If you are serious about studying music, the piano can be an essential tool for developing a deep understanding of music theory. If you attend a music conservatory, a minimum level of piano proficiency is required of all music students from composers, conductors, performers, teachers – everyone is required to learn to play the piano. What is so important about the piano?

One reason is that the piano is one of the only instruments in which you can easily play multiple notes at the same time. Most instruments can only play one note at a time. In fact, all brass and woodwind instruments are monophonic. (However, there are alternative techniques to get around this usually involving singing.) The piano is also quite different from other instruments because there is a vast repertoire of music which requires no other musicians to be complete!

The piano lends itself to fostering a deep understanding of the structure of music. On the piano, you can not only see the chord but you can hear it (with absolute certainty) as well. For example, assuming the piano is in tune, if you play a C, it will be a C. If you try and play a C on another instrument – let’s say a French horn – there are a lot of different fingerings that can get very different notes; a piano will play a note with certainty as well as visual feedback. For singers, it can be invaluable having a piano nearby to check pitches of vocal parts.

Another point is that playing a note on a piano is incredibly simple. Even a young child can walk over to a piano and play a note on the keyboard. Just try and do that with an oboe or a flute; you will need a substantial study of embouchure (lip position) breathing, fingering and more just to get a sound!

The piano is a wonderful instrument for everyone even if they don’t have formal training. I personally know people who have never had a lesson in their lives but still enjoy playing the piano. There are even professional musicians who have never taken piano lessons but have been able to play by simply watching people around them and learning by ear. This is particularly true of styles of music involving improvisation such as rock, pop, country, new age, and even jazz.

The piano truly is a universal instrument. Unlike other instruments relegated to being closed up in a case in a closet, the piano is a substantial piece of furniture in people’s homes beckoning to be played!

How do you correct mistakes on the piano? While this sounds like a really complex subject and seems impossible to cover in just one short article and video, the truth is, if you’re looking for an answer for how to correct all your mistakes on the piano; that is impossible! What this article focuses on is how to cement corrections you make so the mistakes can be eradicated permanently!

There are many practice techniques to correct mistakes including going slower, stopping and starting at precise places, playing each hand separately; the list goes on and on. What’s equally important to just correcting problems is how to cement corrections and avoid making the same mistakes again and again.

Here is the secret to making corrections stick. Play your trouble spot over and over again solidifying the corrections until you can play the section perfectly, and not only perfectly, but comfortably too. You might get it three times in a row perfectly but if you’re still a little hesitant or straining to finish, keep working until you can play it with ease; with as little tension as possible.

This is where most people stop. But this next step is vital to retaining the correction and continuing to play the passage correctly. The fact of the matter is that we are all prisoners of our own routines. Whatever we have done repeatedly in the past, we will do again; it’s just in our nature!

So how do you actually make a correction stick? You may play your problem spot over and over again ten times in a row perfectly. Yet when you play the piece later you will surprise yourself and make the original mistake again. So how do you avoid this?

First, you must solidify the correction in the context of the piece going back to the beginning of the section. But even this isn’t enough. You must then go back to the beginning of the entire piece or movement. When you play, be sure you are present so that when the corrected section comes, you are aware of at that moment! Once you play the correction from the beginning of the piece a number of times, the correction will be permanent!

Are the keys on a spinet piano the same size as an upright or grand piano?
– Youtube Viewer

Yes, the keys of a spinet piano are the same as other upright or grand pianos. However, the keys on Asian pianos are slightly longer than keys on American pianos. Also, there are some late 19th century pianos which have keys which are slightly shorter still, particularly pianos which had been player pianos. Black keys have slightly different angles in the front on some older pianos as well. The edges of black keys are sometimes more rounded in older pianos because they get worn from playing. The spaces between white keys also become larger over time from wear as well.