You may find the accompanying video helpful. My wife Florence Estrin demonstrates how to play a slur on the flute as it’s much more complicated to demonstrate on the piano. If you are only able to read the text, I will give you good information abo
Another factor is the plethora of “stencil pianos”. These are pianos marketed with familiar names of out of business companies or fictitious names stenciled on the fallboard. Many of these piano companies source the instruments from more than one manufacture. So, often times it’s all but impossible to figure out what company made the piano.
So, in today’s world, the vast number of pianos being produced are made in Asia. Last year there were only about 1400 pianos made in the United States mostly from Steinway. If money is no object, there are many fine piano companies out there from Fazioli in Italy to Mason & Hamlin outside of Boston. But for the vast majority of piano buyers, the short list of major piano companies includes 4 companies which include the two Japanese giants:
Yamaha
Kawai
Korean companies have been around since the mid 20th century. They come with different scale designs and price points just like Yamaha and Kawai and have very mature design and manufacturing:
Young Chang
Samick
The elephant in the room is the emergence of the Chinese piano industry. The largest Chinese piano manufacturer is Pearl River. But there are hundreds of companies now producing pianos in China.
The good news is that there are very few bad pianos sold in the United States. The secret is matching the right instrument for your needs. Ikea isn’t a bad furniture maker so long as your expectations are in alignment with what you are getting. Their products could serve the perfect purpose for you. So it is with pianos. Not everyone needs a piano that can play on a concert level to keep for generations.
Below is a list of hand-made pianos. All of these companies make a limited number of high end pianos. There is a range of quality to some of these manufacturers. However, the specific instrument as well as personal preference will determine which one is best for you:
Blüthner
Grotrian
Sauter
Steingraeber & Söhne
August Förster
Bechstein
Mason & Hamlin
Haessler
Schimmel
Steinway
Albert Weber
Shigeru Kawai
Fazioli
Petrof
Rönisch
S Series Yamaha
Schulze Pollmann
Wilh. Steinberg
Charles Walter
Stuart & Sons
Ravenscroft
Weinbach
So much has transpired in the piano industry in the nearly 6 years since producing my, “Best Piano Brands” video, I thought it was due time to offer a fresh perspective on the industry. In the first video I explained how countries of origin affec
Western music is built upon the Overtone Series – which is a fact of nature: all vibrating objects contain color tones. So when you hear a fundamental pitch it actually contains other notes above it. Any vibrating object that produces a pitched sound elicits these overtones – so a string instrument will produce the same series of notes as blowing through a French horn or even a garden hose! It is all the same series of tones. Here is the overtone series:
The intervals start out very large and then get smaller. These intervals are based upon simple relationships. For example, an octave (the first overtone) is just a 2 to 1 relationship. All sound is based upon vibrations so if you play A above middle C on a piano it has 440 vibrations per second. (This is why people speak of tuning to A 440.). Technically your eardrum is vibrating back and forth 440 times per second and it produces the sound of the note A. If you play A an octave higher you produce 880 vibrations per second, exactly twice the number of vibrations per second. That’s why it sounds like the same note. A perfect 5th (the second overtone) forms a 3 to 2 relationship.
A minor second is a very dissonant interval with a 16 to 15 relationship. The more distant the mathematical relationship of notes, the more dissonant they sound. Why is this? Because the human brain has trouble making mathematical sense out of more distant relationships of tones. So this is why some intervals of notes are harder to figure out than others. Clashing notes are referred to as sounding dissonant. Here is a chart of the mathematical relationship of musical intervals:
Unison (2 of the same note) 1/1
Octave 2/1
Perfect 5th 3/2
Perfect 4th 4/3
Major 3rd 5/4
Major 6th 5/3
Major 7th 15/8
Minor 7th 9/5
Major 2nd 9/8
Minor 2nd 16/15
Tri-tone 135/128
So, to some extent atonality going against nature and and is hard for the brain to digest. If you consider that the universe is constructed in an orderly manner – that there are inherent relationships between everything living and nonliving that can be organized down to a molecular level – than atonality goes against nature as it does not have tight formal relationships the way tonal music does. On the other hand, if you believe that the universe is chaotic and that many things are related only by random chance encounters which we seek to find order in, then atonality is simply an expression of the universe.
So the question of whether or not atonality goes against nature is related to how you see the universe itself. Is the universe ordered or chaotic? This is something that man has been grappling with since we first appeared on this earth and no definitive answer is possible. Ultimately we must find order out of chaos to survive in this world and that’s why tonality is so refreshing and easy to digest. Atonality is something that is hard to digest and challenging, yet some people find order within the chaos. The challenge of finding structure amidst the randomness that surrounds our everyday lives is what keeps us engaged in both art and life itself.
So the appreciation of atonal music ultimately comes down to your intellectual capacity of making order out of chaos. Some people prefer things to be more coherent while others enjoy the challenge of dealing with more randomness. What type of person you are will determine whether or not you enjoy or abhor atonal music. It also comes down to the level of sophistication of the listener because music is a language that must be learned.
Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com. I would love to hear from all of you and get your thoughts on this subject.
This week we are presenting Part 2 in our series on Atonality. In Part 1, we gave a Brief Overview of Atonality. Today we are going to go into a bit more depth. The question of whether or not atonality goes against nature is a difficult one which may
You have undoubtedly heard atonality in spooky movies and other places where notes clash and you hear strange dissonances. Unlike most melodic music which you can sing along, atonal music can be much more challenging to comprehend. Western music is b
This is an incredibly important topic and one that definitely will make an impact on your life. Ultimately it will always be a personal choice which instrument you choose to play but it’s worth examining the pros and cons of particular instruments.
It is my personal feeling that the more you assimilate musically, the richer musical experience you will have to offer. I majored in both piano and French horn in a music conservatory. I always felt that the breakthroughs I had with one instrument always seemed to translate to epiphanies for the other instrument!
Guitar and piano are very different instruments. They do share the ability (that few instruments have) to play many notes at the same time (playing polyphonically). The piano offers a very easy way to understand the basics of music theory because of the half-step arrangement of the keys. Guitar has frets which are half-steps apart, but the strings are tuned at different intervals from one another which isn’t as intuitive as the piano. So, the piano can be beneficial to understanding music theory which can help your guitar playing. Does this work the other way around though? Can playing the guitar help the development of your piano playing?
One aspect you can draw on immediately is the ability of the guitar to alter the tone of held notes while the piano has limited ability in this regard (with the exception of the pedals). For example, you can bend notes on the guitar and create different tones and expressiveness very easily. On the piano, without the use of the pedals, the notes you play will always produce the same basic tone. The thing you can impart to your piano playing is the ability to think about creating expression and tonal differences like you can with the guitar even with a more limited toolset. With practice and proper techniques, you can begin to create new and interesting sounds in your music much like you can working with the strings on the guitar.
You will also find that certain chord voicings are more easily accomplished on one instrument or another, opening avenues of creativity when exploring the same music on both instruments.
But does playing guitar hurt your piano playing in any way? Absolutely not! Play what you want and expand your horizons however you can. Learning new music and instruments will only enrich your musical experience. I would love to hear your opinions on this subject. Please feel free to email me directly with your comments or questions, Robert@LivingPianos.com
I have received many questions about whether or not playing other instruments or different styles of music can negatively affect your piano playing. Many people have asked whether playing jazz will hurt your Classical music skills. Many people want t
Debussy’s “The Little Shepherd” from his Children’s Corner Suite is one of my favorite pieces. It is simple but very poetic. This question comes from a viewer who wants to know the best way to use the pedal in this piece. The challenge of the
The metronome is much maligned by many musicians for its incessant ticking which can be like a form of Chinese water torture! Many teachers are insistent upon using the metronome and students have questioned whether or not they need this ticking box.
This is a question from one of our viewers. Matt asks, “Is it good to practice Hanon in different keys?”. In Hanon, the first 20 exercises are all in C major and have repeated patterns. It is good to utilize these exercises as a way to build strength – especially for beginning players. Once you can play through them, you are ready to move on to scales and arpeggios.
But what about the idea of practicing these exercises in different keys? I would say that after you have progressed through the exercises as written in C major and moved on to scales and arpeggios, there could be value in revisiting the initial Hanon exercises and play them in different keys.
It’s a beneficial exercise because you will have new hand positions which will help to build strength and comfort negotiating different keys. You will also have to challenge yourself figuring out the notes to play in different keys. While not essential, it could be worth pursuing.
My father Morton Estrin once suggested a radical practice routine to me which is to practice all the major scales using the C major scale fingering! For example, you could play a D flat major scale utilizing the C major scale fingering. It feels very unnatural and it would seem to be crazy to even attempt this. After all, you would never play the D flat major scale with C major scale fingering. So, why even attempt it?
This exercise is extremely beneficial because it allows you to experience a level of discomfort that you will eventually run into when you approach counterpoint and complex fugues. While you play these pieces you will run into sections where you must use some very awkward fingering to negotiate the notes. By challenging and preparing yourself for these eventual passages you will be able to approach them more easily.
Thanks again for joining us. If you have any questions please contact me Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729.
We have covered the Hanon exercises in the past: Hanon First Exercises, Scales and Arpeggios, and Tips for Practicing Hanon. Today we are going to cover something that was not covered in those subsequent videos – practicing Hanon in different k
