Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

Did you know that if you go to music conservatory or major in music at a university, you have to have a certain level of piano proficiency in order to get your degree?

All Music Majors Have to Play the Piano

Let’s start from the beginning. There are two essential instruments for all musicians. The piano is one and the voice is the other. They are diametrically opposed to one another. One is the most natural instrument we all carry with us. You must hear something in your head before you can even produce the sound. The piano is the opposite, when you push a key it makes the sound even if you don’t hear it first.

The Piano Can Play Complete Music

Most instruments can only play one note at a time. So, in order to play complete compositions, you usually have to play in an ensemble. What’s unique about the piano is that you can play complex, polyphonic music all by yourself! You can play chords and harmony. More than that, it’s visual. The piano is laid out in such a way that you can see what diatonic harmony is all about. That is, the half-step/whole-steps arrangement which is readily apparent on the keyboard. Chords are easy to negotiate as well. Even a child can do it. It’s that easy!

There’s More to Piano Than Just Visualizing Your Music

If you play the clarinet, saxophone or flute; the vast majority of music is written to play with other musicians. In fact, most solo music for other instruments contain substantial piano parts. Piano has more repertoire than all other instruments combined. Piano is a tremendous second instrument because you can realize the other parts to the pieces you’re playing. You might wonder what the orchestra is doing in a concerto you are playing. There will be an orchestral arrangement on our score you can play on the piano so you can hear it!

All People Should Study the Piano

The piano is intrinsic to music. You’ll learn theory and understand chord structure. It makes an excellent tool for ear training as well. It’s visually in front of you and you can produce sounds and harmonies that are impossible to create by yourself on most other instruments. I had the good fortune of starting the piano at a very young age. Later, when I was in 4th grade, I start playing the French horn in school. I could already read music fluently and was playing somewhat sophisticated music (for a relative beginner) on the piano. It was easy for me to grasp the horn initially because I was used to much more complex music on the piano. It made me take to the French horn quickly because I was used to the complexity of reading two staves on a score. Reading music for the French Horn was easy by comparison (even though there are many challenges playing a wind instrument).

There are so many things involved in studying the piano. There is everything from note reading, figuring out rhythms, considering hand position, following fingering, negotiating phrasing, expression and more. There are also skills which must be mastered such as memorization, sight-reading and improvisation. You must also have a keen understanding of the underlying music theory. But there is one intrinsic thing that is a macro to learning to play the piano which transcends everything:

How to Practice

There are so few teachers in this world who teach how to practice; not just in piano but all subjects. I remember when I was in 11th grade, for the first time Mr. Gray showed us how to to compose an English composition. Before that, any time a paper was assigned, I would break into a cold sweat having no idea how to approach such a thing! But Mr. Gray broke it down to an organized method of how to write a clear, compelling composition. I’m so grateful to him to this day. His methods have stayed with me. It’s how I do all my writing, and I write a lot of articles!

Having Productive Lessons:

I was fortunate to study with my father, Morton Estrin. From the very first lesson, he showed me how to practice as he did with all his students. Many of his students went on to teach his methods including my sister and myself. Our teaching is based upon showing students what to do the other six days of the week when they’re not at the lesson. This is the key for effective training which makes the lessons exponentially more productive. It’s not just correcting wrong notes and assigning new material. There are a myriad of things you can do in a lessons from working on scales and arpeggios, to delving into music theory.

Providing a Step by Step Approach

You must show students what to do on a daily basis. They should have a clear idea how to approach each skill set whether it is memorization, sight-reading or something else. The students must be provided with the methods for approaching each skill. The most valuable thing a teacher can do at lessons is to practice with the students. You may work with them for months or even years getting them to the point where they can work effectively independently. Once students reach that level, their progress at home will soar. Your role shifts more to a coach than a teacher being able to work on refining their playing to a high level. So, be sure your teacher (whatever the subject) provides clear, step by step instructions of how to work out assignments at home for fruitful study.

As crazy as it sounds, unlike people, pianos don’t age unless acted upon by an outside force, namely the environment or simply being played a lot. Upkeep also enters into it. A piano that sits in a stable climate with moderate temperature and humidity, away from direct sunlight, kept closed and rarely played, yet tuned on a regular basis can be in virtually new condition even after many decades. We have had a number of pre-WWII pianos that only required refinement but no new parts in order to get an extremely high level of performance and very attractive appearance. We have also seen 10 year pianos ready for major rebuilding. Beach pianos, desert pianos, pianos from schools, restaurants or hotels are examples of pianos.

What is also interesting is that new pianos (and newly rebuilt pianos) require more servicing in the first couple of years of ownership as strings stretch and woods become acclimated to their climate. So, although it may seem counterintuitive, older pianos require less maintenance than new pianos.

There are limits of what is likely to find. Generally, any piano going back into the 1800’s will undoubtedly require work or have had work performed on it in order to play on a high level. So, you must assess each piano for what it is. The year of manufacturer only tells a part of the story.

You may have heard about the need to play on the tips of your fingers. But if you hands are weak, you may find that your fingers collapse and there is no way of playing on the tips of the fingers no matter how hard you try.

I used to watch my father, Morton Estrin play the piano with his massive hands in the rounded position that you hear about.

Some people describe the ideal piano hand position as one that is shaped like holding a ball.

Today we’re going to compare uprights to baby grands and determine which are better. This is a very popular question. People may think they don’t have enough room for a baby grand piano and that a large upright will suffice or possibly sound better than a baby grand. This is because large uprights can have longer string length than smaller baby grands as well as larger soundboards. There is a lot to think about with this question.

Fundamental Differences between Baby Grands and Uprights:

I will tell you right out of the gate that I have a bias. I believe baby grands and grand pianos are fundamentally better instruments than upright pianos. There are a number of reasons why I believe they are superior instruments. First let’s consider why you might want to consider getting an upright piano.

There are 2 Good Reasons to Get an upright:

One reason to get an upright is if you have limited space. The other reason to consider getting an upright piano is if you have a limited budget. However, placement of a baby grand can sometimes be far simpler than placing an upright. Consider that an upright piano takes up 5-feet wall space which you may not have available. Whereas a baby grand piano looks good from any angle which offers more versatility in placement. As far as budget is concerned, you’re going to have to invest more to get a high quality baby grand compared to an upright. So this could be a final determination for you.

Reasons Why a Baby Grand Offers Higher Performance:

If you’ve talked to me about pianos in person or on the phone, you know I always stress the importance of considering the long term implications when purchasing a piano. Unlike buying a car, a refrigerator, almost anything else you buy, the piano you purchase you will probably keep the rest of your life if you buy the right one since they last a very long time.

Since the back of an upright piano is unfinished, they are almost always placed against a wall. Since the sound comes out the back of upright pianos, the sound goes into the wall. Whereas a baby grand or grand piano’s sound is projected into the room. So, there is a sonic benefit to the design of baby grands.

All Students Eventually Outgrow Even the Finest Upright Pianos

Something that baby grands and grand pianos offer is a superior action. In vertical piano actions on upright pianos, the hammers travel sideways. So, there is a limitation to the speed of repetition compared to a grand piano action which has the benefit of gravity since the hammers travel up and down. Even a mediocre baby grand piano can offer much more rapid repetition than a fine upright piano. Uprights will not repeat with a tremendous amount of energy because gravity is not working for it the way it does on grand pianos.

There is More to Piano Actions than Just Speed:

Another area in which grand piano actions are superior to upright actions is in key length. Grand pianos generally have longer keys than upright pianos – not the part you see, but behind the fallboard. Larger grand pianos have even longer keys than baby grands! This is important since pushing shorter keys on upright pianos is like being close to the center on a seesaw. It’s difficult because you are in a weak point of leverage the closer you get to the fallboard. It’s difficult to push black keys and between black keys on upright pianos relative to the ends of the keys. Grand pianos have a more consistent feel because the leverage is more even from the front to the back of the keys.

Pedals On Grand Pianos:

Only the sustain pedal has the same function on upright pianos as on grand pianos. The other two pedals on almost all uprights do not do what they are supposed to do. If you ever push the left pedal, you notice that the entire action shifts to the side slightly on grand pianos. Whereas normally hammers strike three strings through most of the piano, when you depress the una corda pedal, the hammers only strike two of the strings dead on when this pedal is engaged. This gives a change of tonal color. On upright pianos, the soft pedal does not change the tone. Instead, it alters the touch by making the hammers advance closer to the strings making it more difficult to play loud. One of the most extraordinary aspects of expressiveness on the piano is the use of the soft pedal. This is something that is important to experience. The middle pedal (sostenuto) which is rarely utilized in piano music usually doesn’t function properly on upright pianos. Usually they are practice pedals which make the sound soft by engaging felt between the hammers and the strings.

Well Worth the Investment:

So, if you have the space and the budget, you will be rewarded with superior action, projection of sound, full pedal functionality, as well as a more elegant piece of furniture if you get a baby grand or grand piano. Plus, piano students who practice on baby grands or grand pianos progress more quickly than those who have uprights at home since lessons, recitals and competitions are most often played on grand pianos and being used to these instruments gives students a competitive advantage.

I had the opportunity to meet the founders of P.A.S.K., Pianists for Alternatively Sized Keyboards at the NAMM Music Trade Show. They have developed a new size keyboard which is smaller than the standard piano keyboard for pianists with smaller hands. There is a rich tradition of smaller piano keyboards going back generations.

The great pianist Josef Hoffmann had Steinway & Sons manufacture 2 custom made pianos in the 1930’s with narrower keys to accommodate his smaller hands.

Unfortunately, the practice of manufacturing smaller keyboards never became a readily available standard. Fortunately, a growing chorus of pianists with smaller hands are vying for a standard 7/8 size keyboard which is referred to as “DS5.5”. However, there are other standards that exist. The hope is, that by having one alternatively sized keyboard standard, there could potentially be actions manufactured to this specification which could be used in different pianos. Since the Steinway Model D concert grand is the piano model found in the vast majority of concert halls around the world, the hope is there could be actions available that could be used in different pianos with some adjustments.

I had the experience years ago of playing on smaller keyboards. In the 1980’s, there was a cutting edge digital synthesizer, the CZ101 manufactured by Casio. It was a unique instrument for the time being a very affordable, programmable digital synthesizer, something that didn’t exist at the time. I bought 2 of them! They had smaller keys. Much to my surprise, I had absolutely no difficulty adjusting to the smaller keys. In fact, it was a pleasure playing on smaller keys.

There are many concert pianists with smaller hands, myself included.

We learn how to break large chords we can’t reach very quickly catching the notes on the pedal. It creates the illusion of being able to play larger chords than we can reach! While this technique works very well, it requires developing tremendous strength in order to achieve. I spent countless hours building strength in order to play music which years later I discovered students of mine could play on a high level with minimal practice!

For people who have difficulty reaching an octave, smaller keyboards are essential in order to be able to play vast amounts of the piano literature successfully. My hope is that this standard smaller keyboard catches on so it provides an alternative to countless pianist the world over putting them on equal footing to pianists with larger hands.

We would love to hear from all of you how you feel about having the availability of smaller sized keyboards on pianos.

The piano reigns supreme as the ultimate solo instrument. It has 88 keys as well as the ability to play complete orchestrations. It’s pretty obvious that the piano is the king of solo repertoire – it’s not even close!

Solo Music for Other Instruments:

Let’s consider for a moment some other instruments such as the clarinet, trumpet or flute. Solo music written for other instruments most often contain piano accompaniments! Often times the piano part is just as intrinsic as the solo part. They are truly duos even though they are classified as solo compositions. The violin has an immense amount of solo repertoire written for it and indeed some of it is truly solo music without piano parts, from Bach Partitas to Paganini Caprices.

The Piano Has More Solo Music Written for it Than All Other Instruments Combined!

Keyboard music started with the harpsichord and fortepiano. The harpsichord and clavichord are where it all truly began as they predate the fortepiano. Music composed by Mozart, Haydn and their contemporaries were originally composed for fortepiano and has been adapted to the modern piano. The first examples of fortepianos were a primitive yet efficient design yet were sophisticated for their time. This is the roots of true piano music.

J.S. Bach and the Clavichord:

However, pianists have taken all the wealth of music written before the piano was invented and co-opted it for the piano. For example, Bach never wrote anything specifically for the piano. All of his music was composed for the keyboard or “clavier” from the German. His preferred instrument was the clavichord which had a delicate and expressive sound. The most popular keyboard instrument for performance was the harpsichord because of its robust tone.

Early Repertoire on the Modern Piano:

Playing repertoire from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries on the modern piano as we know it today can be a completely different musical experience in comparison to the instruments the pieces were originally written for. The modern piano is designed to handle all of the repertoire both simple to complex with ease. Even the literature of the harpsichord works well on the modern piano even allowing for dynamic expression, something the harpsichord lacked since it plucked the strings rather than hitting them with hammers as in the modern piano. So, dynamics with touch were not possible with the harpsichord. However, levers or stops could be engaged on more sophisticated harpsichords to engage different strings and felt strips to change the tone globally.

From Fortepiano to the Modern Piano:

It’s interesting how the piano developed through Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and beyond. The limits of expression were expanded throughout the ages as the piano evolved with music. For example, the music written by Chopin couldn’t have possibly been conceived on a Mozart era fortepiano. As the piano evolved, composers did as well. This was because the advancement of the instrument allowed for more range of freedom and performance due to the availability of more sophisticated musical technology. So, the wealth of piano music contains music through the ages that evolved as the instruments the music was composed for developed.

Today we are going to discuss what and when was the Golden Era of pianos. You may have heard this term before and it may not be a precise time, but most people agree it was before World War II and even before the Great Depression. By the late 1920s, piano sales in the United States suddenly dropped by 80-90%.

Advent of the Player Piano

You have to go back a bit to gain perspective. The piano developed hundreds of years ago. But the player piano came about in the early 20th century. (It even had its foray in the late 19th century!) They became as common in American homes as televisions did later on. Before the phonograph or radio, the piano was the primary way you could have music in your home. Many people played the piano as a means of entertainment because there was nothing else available. The player piano changed this because it allowed people who didn’t play, to have music in their homes. If you’ve ever looked at player piano rolls, they sometimes have the words of the songs on the side of the roll so you could sing along with the music. Some more sophisticated player pianos had levers that would allow you to transpose the key. You could also adjust the tempo and volume of the instrument. There were even buttons that could adjust the dynamic range of the bass and treble sections of the piano making for an interactive playing experience.

The Expressive Player Piano

The intent of the reproducing piano was to play back an almost exact replica of a performance by a particular pianist from the classics played by Rubinstein and Horowitz, to composers such as Gershwin and Rachmaninoff. These pianos were very sophisticated for their time and still are today. They didn’t just play mechanically like standard player pianos, but would reproduce the dynamic expression of the pianos through the player system. There were people who learned to play the piano by watching the keys move; so you can get a grasp as to why they were so popular.

The Demise of the Piano Industry in the United States

You may have guessed already what killed the piano and player piano industry. Technologies were a big part of it because when radio came in, it was much less expensive than acquiring a piano and took up less room. The great depression finally hit and the U.S. went from hundreds of companies making pianos, to a small handful with many piano companies filing for bankruptcy. There were large corporations like Aeolian that bought many of the troubled piano companies. But it was never the same after that and the piano industry has never recovered to what it was in the Golden Era of pianos.