Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

This is a really loaded question. A lot of people think they should learn the notes of a piece first and later add the fingering, phrasing and expression. There’s a great fallacy in thinking that you can learn just the notes first. You might think that you should at least learn the rhythm with the notes and maybe you might even think the fingering should be learned initially. But can you add the expression and phrasing later? Here’s why this just doesn’t work.

Whenever you play a piece of music, you’re reinforcing the performance. The fallacy is that you can play without phrasing or expression such as dynamics. It’s virtually impossible to play without any phrasing or expression. How can this be? Well, what is phrasing? Phrasing is basically the way in which notes are connected or detached. So, if you play a passage that is written to be played staccato and you’re playing it legato, you are learning wrong phrasing. You will become used to playing it that way. The same is true for expression.

Why can’t you just add the expression later – things like dynamics (loud and soft). It’s because you’re always playing at a dynamic level! So if something is written to be played softly (piano) and you’re playing it medium loud (mezzo forte), you’re learning the wrong dynamic. Not that you’re meaning to, but you can’t play without dynamics. So, you’re learning the wrong dynamics and here’s why it’s so important to learn correctly all of the elements of your score right from the beginning. It’s because

Unlearning is much harder than learning.

Once you reinforce mistakes, getting rid of them is incredibly difficult and it takes massive amounts of practice to unlearn what you’ve solidified wrong.

So you may think you’re going to just get the notes and that you will add other elements later. This is a great mistake that does not serve you well in your practice. Take the extra time as you’re learning your music to learn all the details of the score right from the beginning and you will be rewarded by not having to go through the tedious process of trying to unlearn what is learned wrong.

The questions today is, “Do performers make mistakes?” I am referring specifically to Classical performers. You see them on stage playing and it seems effortless and perfect, but do they make mistakes? There is a lot to this question because first of all, of course performers make mistakes and brilliant performers sometimes have train wrecks, but it’s quite rare. Usually what happens is there’ll be something that may distract the performer and they have a mishap, but unless you’re intimately familiar with the score, seasoned performers know how to hide the mistakes well enough to not disrupt the performance. It’s not just that they’re trying to make themselves look great, it’s also that they don’t want the audience to feel uncomfortable.

This is an important skill, but there is more to it than that because performers today actually do play scarily accurately. If you compare performers from a generation or two ago, some of the greatest pianists of all time like Alfred Cortot, Arthur Rubinstein to Artur Schnabel, there are countless recordings that were made years ago where you’ll hear mistakes often in pre-WWII recordings of great artists with lots of missed notes. It is important to note that these recordings were made before the advent of editing. Yet even live performances today are on a much higher level of accuracy generally than years ago. What happened and how is everybody playing so accurately today and what does this mean?

I’ve talked about this quite a bit and of course today it’s quite obvious everybody hears everyone because of the internet. Even before that we had a generation of musicians growing up hearing edited recordings that were note perfect. As a result, everyone is expected to achieve this high level and there’s a certain homogenization of interpretations and tempos as well as voicing and other aspects of performance because everybody knows how everyone else plays. There is a standard level that is accepted today whereas years ago there was much greater variety. It’s true that the accuracy of performers and the sheer technical mastery that so many pianists and other instrumentalists have achieved is awe-inspiring.

What is an acceptable level of action noise on a piano? You might not have ever thought about this before, but the action indeed with almost a hundred parts to each note can have some noise to it, particularly older actions. There is a way I like to test pianos. First of all, having the lid opened or closed is going to make a dramatic difference in the amount of action noise you hear. When a piano is open on a grand piano or in an upright that has the possibility of lifting up the lid or some other way of getting the sound out, you’re going to hear the mechanical noise of the action.

One way you can test how much noise your action has is to push down on a bunch of keys with the palms of your hands and then let up very quickly. Pianos that are older and are located in dry environments can have dried out leather and felt parts. This can cause extraneous noise. There can be a lot of reasons for that. So, what do you do about such a thing? Well, if the parts are not too far gone, sometimes they can be treated with chemicals to soften them up or even brushed with metal brushes to get these parts to soften up to lessen the action noise. Other times, the parts are too far gone and parts do have to be replaced in order to get a high level of performance and to minimize the level of noise.

So what is an acceptable level of noise depends upon the kind of music you play as well as the situation. For example, if you like to play aggressive pop music or rock, action noise is really not going to be much of a problem because the sound of your music is always going to be above the level of the action noise. Perhaps for a new age pianist or anyone who plays delicate music, the noise could be more distracting. As I mentioned earlier, if the piano is opened or closed, it is going to determine how much noise you hear from the action.

Is it okay to use the pedal when playing Bach? This is a great question and there are many different ideas about this. Why should there even be issues with using the pedal or not when it comes to playing Bach? Bach lived from 1685 to 1750 and the very earliest pianos were invented just around 1700. While Bach got a chance to try some of these early instruments, he really never wrote for the piano. He never wrote for any specific keyboard instrument other than the organ. All his other works are written for clavier, which means simply “keyboard”. It is up to the performer to decide which keyboard. No keyboards had pedals anytime during Bach’s life (other than the organ, but that’s a completely different matter).

There are many purists who feel that you shouldn’t use the pedal simply because Bach did not have one. Other people feel that if Bach was alive today, he would love to use the pedal! There are different schools of thought. There is some music that absolutely calls for the pedal. Why? Music is written sometimes where there are notes to be held, yet you run out of fingers since you have to move your hands to another part of the keyboard. So the only way to hold those notes that are written to be held is to sustain them by using the pedal.

You can certainly play Bach without the pedal and get very good results. When I studied with Ruth Slenczynska, she insisted upon using no pedal in Bach and it works great! I am going to offer an example, of the beginning of Bach’s 5th French Suite. Why would you use pedal and how would you use pedal in Bach? You don’t use it to connect notes that you can’t hold with your fingers because there is nothing that is written that necessitates the use of the of the pedal for this purpose. Instead you use the pedal to add color. You’ll notice that even in this fast music, there are little touches of pedal to enhance the tone of key notes.

The important thing is that you must practice Bach using no pedal at all. In fact, I recommend practicing all of your music without any pedal until you can play as connected as possible finding the best fingering that accomplishes this first. Then it becomes obvious where the pedal can be utilized.

I am going to play the first section of the Bach 5th French Suite with the repeat as written. The first time I will play it with no pedal. Then upon the repeat, I will utilize the pedal to add color. If you listen to the video, you can determine which performance you prefer. I would love to hear from all of you in the comments on LivingPianos.com and YouTube.

Is the music industry imploding? This sounds like a horrible topic to bring up, but it occurred to me because there are a couple of big bankruptcies going on right now that you may or may not be aware of. One of them is the venerable American guitar manufacturer Gibson. They have been around for over 100 years and they are one of the leading guitar makers in the world. Yet they are facing bankruptcy. Gibson owns many different brand names including drum companies, other guitar brands like Epiphone and Steinberger and more.

They carry a whole range of products, even pianos! Gibson has been involved in the piano business and owns names like Baldwin, Wurlitzer, Chickering, and Hamilton. So, they are an important segment of the piano industry. What got Gibson in trouble more than anything was expanding their business into consumer audio. They own Teac and Phillips. Perhaps they should have just stayed with their core mission of musical instruments because they were doing just fine with that for a long time. Hopefully, they will be rescued from bankruptcy and will emerge stronger once they let go of some of their ancillary businesses.

The other bankruptcy is one that’s extremely troubling and may be related in some way which I’ll explain in a moment. The other company trying to stave off bankruptcy is the huge retailer, Guitar Center. Any of you who follow Guitar Center may not be shocked by this because although they’re the biggest music retailer in the United States, they have been very leveraged for a long time. Purchased by private equity firm Bain Capital in 2007, they’ve amassed major debt having suffered through the economic downturn caused by the housing crises. All the while they have been opening up new stores at a furious rate. In fact, they’re so big that Guitar Center by themselves is bigger than the next 27 American music retail companies combined! So it is a big deal when a major force in the music industry like this is facing bankruptcy.

Part of it I think has more to do with guitars than anything else because people were buying guitars at a voracious rate not that long ago and things have stabilized somewhat which could explain both the Gibson and Guitar Center bankruptcies. I’m sure there’s a lot more to it and I believe that some of this may be coincidental. It just seems shocking that two major companies are facing bankruptcies at the same time. Music will always be with us. I am an eternal optimist in this regard. But we all have to do our parts to support music wherever we can and in any way as educators, performers and as audiences. So let’s keep music alive and hope these companies emerge stronger and fresh companies grow in the music industry so future generations can enjoy music.

This is a really good topic, as many people – especially children – really don’t always enjoy practicing. I have a confession to make – when I was a kid, although I loved to play the piano, I didn’t always like to practice! So if you find yourself dreading practicing and trying to avoid it, don’t worry, you’re not alone! However, practicing is something that is essential on every musical instrument – if you want to improve you will have to practice; and practice a lot.

So how do you make practicing enjoyable? Well sadly there is no turnkey solution to creating a more enjoyable experience; however I have a few tips that may help you out.

The problem for younger people is that they have a harder time understanding the benefits of hard work leading to bigger rewards. We live in a society of instant gratification and while there is nothing inherently wrong with that, it’s a cycle that is hard to break. As you mature into adulthood the reality of work versus reward is more apparent and there are certain things you know will take time and effort in order to achieve – playing music is one of them.

The cast-iron plate of a piano is one of the most impressive structures of the instrument. It’s a large and complex part of the piano which weighs more than the rest of the piano – and you might wonder how they are made. There are actually two methods of making piano plates and we are going to talk about both of them and whether one technique is better than the other.

The traditional method of making piano plates is something that goes back to the 19th century. This is called a “wet sand cast plate”. In this method the plate takes a long time for the metal to cure; it can take months. This might not be the most time-effective strategy but this is still how most handmade pianos – such as Steinway and Mason & Hamlin plates are made today.

The Asian manufacturers found a much quicker way to produce plates for pianos – and comprises the vast majority of plates manufactured in Asia. By producing a plate with a vacuum mold process, it can be completed in just a few minutes. It’s a lot like how plastics are made – by filling a mold and letting it set.

Vacuum mold plates are structurally sound yet some people discern a different sound from wet sand cast plates. What is the truth? Wet sand cast plates have a higher density of metal and therefore don’t impart a metallic “ring” that you may hear from vacuum mold type plates.

So which one is better?

It’s more of a personal choice than anything else. Some people prefer the sound brighter sound of Asian pianos and some prefer the sound of American or European pianos. It doesn’t mean that one method is necessarily better than the other, but there are some sonic differences between the two.

I would love to hear your opinions about this topic. Have you played pianos with both types of plates? What are your impressions?

This is a very complex and deep subject and discussing this in the limited amount of time we have for this video won’t do this topic justice. However, there are some universal truths I would like to share with you. Music speaks to all of us in different ways and sometimes you may encounter a particular piece that you find to be stunning and unforgettable. What is it about certain artists that separate them from their contemporaries? Why is Mozart so much more highly regarded than his contemporaries?

Whether it’s listening to music, reading a novel, looking at a painting or watching a film, any piece of art sets up expectations. If you are reading a book or watching a motion picture and every time you think you know what’s going to happen next in the story it unfolds exactly as you predicted, you’ll find yourself disengaged and bored. The same thing is true for other pieces of art. A piece of music that is extremely predictable is not likely to hold your attention either.

The flipside to this is creating a work that is completely random and unpredictable. There are schools of music dedicated to this type of work such as expressionism and serialized music which aims to randomize elements. There is nothing inherently wrong with this type of approach – just as there is nothing wrong with making something predictable. But you might find that your audience becomes disengaged. It’s just like a movie with random images and no discernible plot – or a painting with a series of nonsensical images, complete randomness is impossible to comprehend and it can lose most of its audience just as quickly as something that is predictable yet for opposite reasons!

So how do you avoid these pitfalls? How can you create something that straddles the line between predictability and randomness?

The best pieces of art will tend to set up expectations and then surprise its audience in either big or subtle ways. The films which everyone tends to remember often have some of the most surprising elements in them. Just when the audience thinks things are going in one direction they are immediately thrown into another. If it’s done convincingly it can become something that people will remember. The same principle applies to music, setting up your audience and then surprising them in creative and significant ways will make your piece engaging and memorable.

Mozart was a master of Classical structure which seems deceptively simple. Yet, just when you are lulled into a sense of complacency, a turn of phrase will pleasantly surprise you with its subtle genius. It’s not shocking, but it’s a way to subvert expectations and create something captivating. Beethoven offers a different form of the same principal. His pieces are known to radically surprise listeners and keep them engaged by going down a certain path only to shock you with something completely different from what you expect. It’s can be intense in some moments and it’s never dull.

The balance between randomness and order is the ultimate foundation of art. You don’t want to bore your audience as much as you don’t want to confuse them. You want them to be surprised, engaged and remember your work. It’s what makes great art “great”. This holds true for musical performances as well.