Piano Lessons- Music Theory Lessons

This is a very common question and it’s not as easy as it might seem. There are actually quite a few ways to tell if your piano keys are made of ivory.

Generally speaking, ivory keys are not one piece on the top; they are most often made from three separate pieces. There are two pieces on the top of the key and one on the front side. With most ivory keys you should be able to see a very fine line that separates the front and back piece on the top of the key.

Another telltale sign of ivory keys is that eventually, they will begin to yellow. Keeping your fallboard open will help to alleviate this some because light helps to bleach the ivory. However, plastic keys can also yellow and in fact, some are produced with a yellow tint to appear more like ivory key tops.

If you have a key that has one piece along the top; it might still be ivory. If you look very closely at an ivory key top you will notice a pattern that looks a lot like a fingerprint. This is because they are made from elephant tusks. You will need to look very closely – you might need a magnifying glass and a really good light source. Look for the fine pattern to determine if they are real ivories or not.

Ivory keys are porous, so they will have a texture to them as well. When you run your finger across them, you can tell a difference between the feel of plastic and ivory keys. However, some ivories are polished and will feel completely smooth. Also, some plastic key tops have faux patterns to look like ivory.

One indicator of whether or not your piano keys are possibly ivory is when the piano was produced. If a piano was made after 1972, chances are you don’t have ivory keys because the ivory trade was made illegal around that time. However, pianos were produced with ivory or plastic for many years prior to 1972. There are still sources of ivory keys available rarely today, but they are very expensive and possibly illegal.

This is a very common question from piano owners. After all, the idea of calling someone in to tune your piano can be costly. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could learn to tune your piano yourself?

Every now and then I get comments from someone saying they are going to try to tune their own piano. They take out a pair of plyers or a locking wrench and think, “It can’t be that hard!”. Tuning a piano takes much more skill than you may think. Attempting to tune a piano in this manner can cause serious damage to your piano.

I personally learned how difficult it is to tune a piano when I was a young boy. I used to see my father touch up his piano in his studio and one day when I was alone there I thought it would be fun to try to tune one string on the piano just to see what it was like. I got out his tuning wrench and tried to tune one note. But once I struck the key I heard two notes coming out and I thought I had destroyed the piano! I sheepishly called him into the room and he very easily got the piano back in tune. If you have an interest in tuning your piano, I recommend that you acquire the right tools and try to tune just one string. You will gain a deep respect for your piano technician.

So can you tune your own piano? If you get the proper tools (tuning wrench, felt strip, rubber wedges) and appropriate software, you can attempt to tune your piano. However, only a good tuner is able to provide a tuning that will hold for a reasonable amount of time.

The Right Type of Tuning Wrench

1. The head should be removable since the best wrenches are built that way.

2. 2. Make sure the tuning wrench has a star head. A square head will go over the pin, but you will not be able to place the wrench in an ergonomic position in order to finesse the string. You absolutely need a star hex head to properly tune your piano

3. You can buy a cheap tuning hammer that will fit your basic requirements, but you are much better off getting high quality tools if you plan on tuning your piano or even doing touch-up.

Software Can Help

Luckily we live in an age where there is software available to assist in tuning your piano. I have seen professional piano tuners utilizing software on their phones! Technology has come a long way. Years ago when seeing a piano tuner come in with a strobe tuner, you knew that they were hacks. But today, the best software models the specific piano you are tuning and can offer good results in the right hands.

It’s Not Just Getting a Note in Tune

There are many aspects that go into a proper tuning that only an experienced tuner or technician can learn through the process of tuning hundreds of pianos. Getting a note in tune is just the first step. If you watch a great tuner you will notice how they strike the same note over and over again at a very loud volume to make sure the notes will hold. There are many techniques utilized by fine tuners in order to be assured that the notes will hold beyond the first hard blow.

Every string has a tremendous amount of tension on it and setting the strings properly is a very difficult task. Strings have what is called speaking length and non-speaking length areas to them. In between these sections you have points of tension. Setting a string requires you to deal with the tension points and how they will even out once you strike the string.

Once you strike the note the tension will even out and the string will immediately go out of tune. There is always a section in the back of the string where the tension is divided between another point of tension or point of termination.

As you can imagine, getting a string to set properly and hold tuning is a very complex task and is something that takes a true professional to finesse and get just right. There are also over 220 strings on most pianos, and every one will have to be set properly for the piano to stay in tune – it’s a very time consuming task!

Another thing to remember is that when you go up into the higher treble notes the sound will not last very long. So, it’s very difficult to hear or for a tuning application to register. Even an experienced tuner can have issues hearing the correct pitch in the extreme high and low registers on a piano.

Can You Do It?

If you plan on tuning your own piano you should be prepared for a lot of hard work and practice before you can reliably get your piano in tune. You will need to perform dozens of tunings before you start to become competent at it.

This article isn’t meant to scare anyway away from trying to tune a piano. But you should be aware that a piano tuner’s job is not as easy as it might seem. There is a lot of work and experience that goes into learning this craft properly and that’s why it’s both a time consuming and expensive process when done properly.

The good news is that you can learn to touch-up the tuning on your piano. This can prolong the integrity of the tuning on your piano. It is also a lifesaver if you ever have a broken string replaced since they need to be tuned 5-6 times before they hold.

You might have heard this term and wondered exactly what it meant. Is an art-case piano something that affects the sound or function of a piano – or is it just a cosmetic difference? Today we will discuss what makes a piano an art-case instrument and how they differ from other pianos.

If you see a piano that has intricate carvings on the case, the music rack, or the legs it would probably classify as an art-case piano. There are many different models and types of art-case pianos but they are all similar in that they have more details in the case including the possibility of intricate woodwork and carvings that differ from traditional design pianos.

Here are a couple different examples of art-case piano designs:

Steinway Louis XV

French Provincial Art-Case Upright Piano

German-made Feurich with Burled Mahogany

Steinway Model A Art-Case from 1893

German-made Blüthner Art-Case

Sohmer American-made Art-Case

As you can see, there are many different types and designs of art-case pianos. So you might be wondering, does any of this effect the piano as an instrument?

Art-Cases are made by many different manufacturers in addition to their regular case designs. They are usually exactly the same pianos internally, but with more intricate elements in the cases. They have the exact same parts as their regular piano models and are not compromised as instruments in any way. So for example, the Steinway model A art-case is the same piano as the traditional spade leg Steinway model A.

So why would you want an art-case piano? It’s all based on your taste in furniture. After all, a piano is one of the most significant pieces of furniture you invest in as well as being a musical instrument. Some people prefer the more intricate woodwork and others would rather have a basic piano design. Art-cases tend to be a bit more expensive, but it’s purely an aesthetic preference.

Beethoven’s Fur Elise is one of the most recognizable pieces of music in history. Many people play this piece and certain mistakes are very common. I will give you some pointers how to approach this little gem of Beethoven.

The beginning is not the problem for most people; it’s the middle section. Most people will tend to slow down dramatically when they reach the middle section because there are much faster notes. So how do you fix this problem?

Beethoven actually marked the piece with a Con Moto tempo (which means in motion). It’s not marked Allegro (or fast). The best thing to do is approach the piece with a more relaxed tempo, so that the change in the middle section will not be so daunting.

In the video presentation above I provide an excellent tempo to start with so that the middle section will be much more manageable. If you have an opportunity to watch the video it may be helpful for you.

Another common mistake for a lot of people is the timing. The piece is written in 3/8 time but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people playing the wrong number of notes! You absolutely have to count when it comes to performing this piece.

While you may encounter other problems when it comes to Fur Elise these suggestions should put you on the right track.

Console and Spinet Pianos can look almost identical from the outside case but what lies beneath separates them a great deal from one another.

Both spinets and consoles are upright-style pianos that are typically very short The fundamental difference between the two types of pianos are the actions.

Spinet Pianos

Spinet pianos have what’s called an indirect blow action (or drop action). The instruments are so small that they have to change the way the action works in order to fit them into the piano.

Compared to a typical piano action, spinet pianos have shorter keys and they have rods that connect each key to the rest of the action. This is why they are called indirect blow actions, because you don’t have a full length key that interacts directly with the action. Instead it drops down to the other part of the action.

Console Pianos

Whether it is short or tall, a console pianos have a regular style upright action where the key is much longer and connects directly to the action:

Pianos Today

Nobody makes spinet pianos anymore. At some point they lost favorability with consumers and have since been replaced by less expensive consoles that don’t have to sacrifice the quality of the actions.

Despite spinets having different actions, there were some higher quality models – the Baldwin Acrosonic being a classic example – that were decent pianos. The inherent limitations in console and spinet pianos lies more in the size of the pianos more than anything else. With a smaller soundboard and shorter strings, the pianos are limited in the amount of sound they can produce.

Generally console pianos are superior to spinet pianos because of the regular style actions and the slightly taller size of the instruments which offers a more rewarding sound.

The question today is, “Is Silence Music?” Naturally you may think, “How can silence be music?” Interestingly, there’s a pivotal piece of music that was composed in 1952 by John Cage called “Four Minutes, Thirty-three Seconds“. You may have heard of it.

“4’33” was written for piano in three movements and all three movements are nothing but rests. The artist comes on stage, opens the fallboard of the piano, and looks at his or her watch and waits the appropriate time for each of the three movements and that is the whole piece! What was he trying to prove? It’s actually a very interesting point that is made.

When you think about the whole universe, you cannot have matter without having space. Indeed, the space between things is as much of a reality as the objects in it. One cannot exist without the other. When I was attending the Manhattan School of Music, we studied the literary works of Carlos Castaneda in one of my classes. Castaneda conducted many different experiments to come to the realization of the meaning of life.

One of the teachings of Don Juan was when you look at a tree most people just look at the leaves of the tree, identify it and stop thinking about it because that is what we are programmed to do as human beings. He was trying to get the young man to understand that you can look at the tree and try not to classify it and indeed you can look at the space between the leaves and appreciate the beauty of that reality as well.

This is a very overlooked topic for many pianists. Ending a piece correctly is extremely important and is crucial to a great performance. While there is no one solution to the challenge, I will provide some tips on how to make your endings memorable.

For the example in the video above I use the Chopin Prelude in E Minor. The ending of this piece has three chords. It’s a simple ending but it can be a very powerful one with the right technique. You’ll want the music to linger in the air even after the sound has stopped.

The trick is to release the hands and pedals very slowly at the same time. This way if you have any issues with damper regulation on the piano the effects are minimized. You don’t want certain notes sticking out and being louder than others and you certainly don’t want an abrupt ending.

Many students will end a piece very abruptly and then take their hands and slap them down on their lap and act like it’s a relief to be done playing! Nothing sucks the mood out a room more than someone displaying negative emotions onstage.

When you hear great performances in concert halls there might be a few seconds of absolute silence after a piece. It’s a powerful tool to let the music and the emotion seep into your music. Sometimes music will actually end with fermata on the double bar even when there is no music. What is the composer telling you in a situation like this? They are visually representing what we have discussed here – letting you know that even though the music has stopped, the mood should linger in the air for a few moments. In this case it’s an actual part of the piece.

Another mistake that some people make is to rely completely on the pedal at the end of a piece. On a well regulated piano it might sound OK but taking your hands off the keyboard early will make the audience think the piece has ended – even if it technically hasn’t. This is true for changing movements as well. If you keep your hands on the keyboard it will let the audience know that there is more to come.