Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

You may have heard the term polyphony before and might have wondered what it meant. Polyphony is intrinsic to almost all the music we listen to today but it wasn’t always that way. So, what does this term mean and why is it important?

There was a time when the only written music was monophonic, which means “one note at a time.” The first written music was called Gregorian Chant (or “plainsong”). This music was simply liturgical text that was sung with embellishments. There was only one line of music at a time and this is the only written music we have (and the very first written music) from the 9th and 10th centuries.

Eventually music evolved into something called organum, which had two lines – typically in parallel 4ths that would embellish the melody.

Timing is not only one of the most critical aspects in music; it’s one of the most significant aspects of life itself. Imagine you are going to a party: you know where the party is, you know what it’s celebrating, and you know everything you could except one thing; when it starts. If you don’t know the time, you have no party. I explain this concept to my younger students with this example. If you apply this same concept to music you can see that without timing and rhythm, you would have a mixture of notes with no meaning.

But how do you translate what’s written on the page into the rhythm the composer intended? You have to count! But how do you count correctly?

There is a popular way in which many people count that isn’t the best technique. However, because it’s so popular, I will mention it here and explain why it is flawed. This method is to count whenever there is a note. This might sound like a good idea but you’ll soon find that it’s very difficult to keep the counting consistent – after all, you will constantly have to change the speed of your counting. This is extremely difficult!

Instead, count all the beats consistently instead of just where there are notes. So you count all the beats the same – the counting never changes! This is a precise method and you will develop a fine sense of rhythm instead of trying to just count the notes. In this method, the notes will simply fall into place.

You can use this method on any level of music – no matter how fast or complex. If you have a hard time counting intricate rhythms, simply write down lines where the beats fall and the rest will fall into place.

Believe it or not, you can get drastically different tones out of the piano simply by pressing the keys a different way. How to approach the keys is a major part of playing the piano and especially important when it comes to chords.

In the video example provided, I demonstrate a bad technique by “slapping” the keys; it produces a very harsh sound. So how do you avoid this? It really starts with both the mental and physical aspects of your playing. Don’t think of hitting the keys; instead think of putting pressure onto them. Think and play with the sensation that you are trying to apply pressure onto the keys and push them into the key bed. Playing them with pressure and force will produce a much more pleasing sound. To be technical, you will be releasing the weight of your arms into the key bed.

But what about quiet chords? The general rule is that the softer you play, the more effort you will have to make to delineate the melody notes (generally the top notes). When it comes to playing loud, you can play the chords with the same amount of force and the top notes will come right through – this isn’t the case with quiet chords. You’ll want to reach for the top notes in quieter chords and let the melody sing through despite the lower volume. The video accompanying this article gives a great example of this.

I have known Jeffrey Biegel since childhood. Jeff studied piano with my father Morton Estrin for many years before going to Julliard and embarking upon an illustrious concert career.

This is a topic that a lot of people have very strong feelings about – either one way or another. Being a musician – no matter what genre you play – is so fiercely competitive that many venues and booking agents don’t only expect people to play for free but they sometimes actually expect the musician to pay them in order to perform.

This is not a new concept but it’s more widely used today more than ever. For example, musicians who play New York recitals actually pay in order to perform so that they can get reviews. They hope to sell enough tickets in order to break-even but they could be on the hook for a lot of money out of their own pockets if they don’t fill up the hall.

For rock bands you are often put in a position of what are called “pay to play venues” where they will issue a certain amount of tickets and require you to sell them. If you can’t sell all the tickets you still owe them the money so often times bands will need to shell out hundreds of dollars to perform. Most of the times venues will do little or minimal promotion for an event and the bands will be stuck marketing their own shows as well – so if you don’t sell any tickets or bring an audience you could be playing in front of an empty room (which happens more than you would think).

Getting back to the question at hand, should you perform for free? It’s something you must decide yourself but you should also look at the situation in which the performance takes place. How much is there to gain in playing for free? Sometimes it can be worth your while to get yourself in front of a new audience.

For example, if you were offered to play at a charity event somewhere and there was a guarantee of a good sized crowd, this could be something beneficial to you for the exposure. Not only would you get to perform in front of a lot of people but many of them see you performing in support of a noble cause and will be much more interested in what you are doing. Sometimes there are opportunities of collaborating with great musicians which can make performing a benefit concert worthwhile. Prospects of getting audio or video recordings of events which you can share in your marketing efforts may also make things worthwhile.

You must be careful with any opportunity to perform for free. Even though you might not be paying to play, you will be paying with time and work on your part. You will most likely be responsible for your own transportation to and from the venue and you will have to take into account the time you will need to dedicate to the performance – both the actual performance and practicing. Is this going to be worthwhile for you? You have to ask yourself that question; you shouldn’t put yourself in a position of being exploited.

An example of a bad non-paying gig would be something like playing at a party. If it’s not for a benefit and nobody will be specifically listening to your music, is it worth playing for free? Most of the time it won’t be; in some rare cases you might want to anyway because you can gain benefit from the networking opportunity. As a musician you really should value your talents and hard work and you should not let people take advantage of you.

The tritone was considered to be a forbidden interval hundreds of years ago. Churches actually banned this interval from being played! Luckily there are no such restrictions today so we will be experimenting with it and understanding what its function is.

To put it very simply, the tritone is half an octave. There are twelve possible tones in Western music and if you go six half steps you will create a tritone. When you invert a tritone, it remains a tritone because it divides the octave exactly in half. When you play a triton you will understand why it was feared; the sound is eerie and almost demonic. In fact, it is used extensively in heavy metal music!

How does a tritone resolve? This is a very interesting aspect to tritones because you can go outward or inward by half steps and the tritone will resolve either way. So, if you have a tritone C – F-sharp, it could resolve outward to B – G. Or, it could resolve inward by half steps to C-sharp – E-sharp. Interestingly, each of these resolutions (outward or inward) end up being a tritone apart from one another. When resolving outward we ended up in G and when resolving inward it resolved to C-sharp. (G and C-sharp a tritone apart!)

The tritone is actually the basis for all Western music. This is because it is very important in determining the key of your music. In the classic cadence, I – IV – I 6/4 – V7 I, it is the tritone of the V7 chord that establishes the key.

A diminished 7th chord is actually two tritones creating great tension and a myriad of possibly resolutions which you can explore in the following videos:

Asking if there is a right or a wrong way to learn the piano is a really loaded question. There is no clear cut answer but I’m going to try and answer this the best I can based on my experience. I’ve had the opportunity to study with several great teachers including Constance Keene, Ruth Slenczynska, John Ogden and my father, Morton Estrin. Despite many techniques and approaches for learning the piano, there are some basic truths that are almost universal among fine teachers.

Being able to count your music is one of the most important things you must learn. Practicing with a metronome to check your rhythm and timing is something that is vital in developing as a musician. Yes, there are some truths that are somewhat universal. Why not universal? Because there is more than one way to approach the piano – if you watch other pianists you will notice very different techniques.

My father, Morton Estrin, was my only teacher through high school (other than some master classes in Austria). When I attended the Manhattan School of Music I gained the opportunity to work with other concert pianists. However, for most of my early development on the piano, I studied with my father. He would describe playing the piano “with a quiet hand”. What he meant was that he used a minimal amount of motion and this is how I learned. I was taught to use as little motion as possible to produce the best sound I could. Now there are certain techniques which require more motion (such as wrist technique) but the principles of his method are fundamental.

When I went away to music conservatory I was surprised by my new teacher. She taught me to allow more movement in my playing and loosen myself up a bit. Now my father’s technique wasn’t wrong but in experiencing another way to learn I was able to develop further as a pianist. I used aspects of both of their methods to create a technique all my own. As I’ve said in other videos, no two people are built exactly the same. What might work for one person won’t necessarily work for another. If you have small hands – like me – there are some aspects of playing piano where you will be limited and other areas where small hands provide advantages; the same goes for people with larger hands.

So there are many correct ways to approach the piano as well as many techniques that may not be reliable. You must find solid techniques that work for you. There are dozens of techniques for learning certain aspects of the piano and there are hundreds of opinions on what is right and what is wrong. There are two things that matter as you continue to learn about various techniques and improve as a pianist. One is if the technique works for you. Two is if the technique can be applied to a certain aspect of playing but not another. Many times a technique will be a great way to solve one problem but will leave you struggling in other areas. This is why adopting many different techniques and developing your own playing style is so important.

So yes, there are right and wrong techniques for learning the piano. If a technique works for you don’t be discouraged if someone else does it differently. Right and wrong is more of a subjective experience when it comes to learning piano and what works for one person might not always work for another.

As a musician or other person in the arts, it is necessary to work countless hours to master your craft. Yet, sharing life experience is intrinsic to artistic expression. You can look at this on the macro level of your life as well as how you deal with your career as a musician.

Like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, you must never push yourself to the point of destroying your love of music in your quest to develop a virtuoso technique on an instrument. Yet if you don’t practice enough, you won’t have the means of expression. So then how do you achieve such a high level and still have something of value to share with your audience? This is a timeless question.

Every person must find balance in their lives. No one can force you to become an artist. It has to come from within. It is necessary to have discipline, but the playful, spontaneous nature is intrinsic to the creative spirit. It is an amazing fact that people who have mastered piano technique are not rare in this world, yet an artist capable of conveying deep emotions to their audience provides a profoundly memorable experience.

You must make practice joyful work. But more than that, you must also let yourself live carefree at times, never losing the playful fun, interaction with people, and enjoyment and appreciation of living life to its fullest in order to be the ultimate, expressive artist you are capable of being.