Piano and Music Videos

You may or may not have heard this term before. In studying with my father, Morton Estrin, he stressed the concept of playing with a quiet hand years before I left for conservatory and it’s something I’ve incorporated into my playing ever since. This is a great technique for creating expressive playing on the piano and today we are going to learn about what it is and how you can incorporate it into your playing.

This might sound like a funny topic but I’ve gotten this question quite a few times over the years.

In the past, I’ve had students who would let their fingernails grow to ridiculous lengths and they caused clicking whenever they played! This can be distracting!

Why are long fingernails a problem? Good hand position is extremely important when it comes to playing the piano. You want to be in a position that takes no effort to maintain. Naturally, your fingers curve into a comfortable position.

In this position, your fingernails would be the first things to strike the keys. Playing the piano with your fingers and hand in this position is much more natural than trying to play with them outstretched like this:

While this hand position might make it easier on long fingernails, playing the piano like this would cause a lot of unnecessary strain and make playing rapid passagework cumbersome.

So can you play the piano with long fingernails? Sure, but if you’re serious about playing, you need to trim them to a length that allows you to play the piano without creating extraneous noises with your nails and maintaining an ideal hand position.

This is an incredibly common question for many parents who are starting their children with piano lessons. After all, a keyboard has the same number of notes as a piano (as long as it has 88 keys); how different can it really be?

Before we get into the finer details of the differences between keyboards and pianos let’s first examine the cost – which is the driving factor for most parents. Like pianos, there is a large selection of keyboards available. They range from a few hundred dollars well upwards of $15,000 for some very advanced models. If you plan on getting a decent keyboard you could be looking at thousands of dollars.

Most piano teachers will agree that the bare minimum for a beginning student is an 88 key weighted action digital piano. In case you might not have heard the term weighted action before, this refers to a keyboard or digital piano that has weighted keys – which replicate the weight of keys on an actual piano. If you’ve played a regular keyboard you might notice that the keys are incredibly easy to push. If you’ve played a piano you know that the keys take some force in order to generate a good sound. So if a digital piano (keyboard) can replicate this, will this be enough? Not really. An actual piano action has hundreds of moving parts on each key and while a weighted action keyboard has weighted keys, it’s impossible to replicate the feel of an actual piano.

The keys on a keyboard are also very short. On a piano, the keys extend far behind the fallboard. On a keyboard, this is impossible to replicate. If you play on a keyboard it’s like pushing down on a see-saw close to the center when playing black keys and between black keys. On a grand piano, the force necessary to push down the keys is more equal from the front to the back of the keys.

The action on an upright piano is an improvement over a weighted action digital piano or a keyboard but it still isn’t as good as a grand piano action. Here is another video where I explain the differences between uprights and grand pianos. Eventually, every pianist who continues to play will outgrow the action of an upright piano and must eventually practice on a grand or baby grand piano because an upright action isn’t fast enough to keep up.

One of the biggest reasons parents decide to buy a keyboard in lieu of a piano is that they are worried that their children won’t continue to play. There is truth in the idea that the interests of children change rapidly – but starting them off on an inferior instrument is really only a recipe for failure. Investing in a suitable instrument will not only reinforce the interests of the player, it will actually help them develop much more quickly. Having an actual piano to play on will do wonders for the development of any musician.

So is it OK to start with a keyboard? Sure, it’s far better than nothing. But if you plan on actually playing the piano, prepare to make an investment at some point in the future and get yourself an actual grand or upright piano.

Many people wonder if there is anything they can do to improve their fundamental skills of playing the piano once they progress past the basic lessons to become a competent player. Are there any tips, tricks, or advanced exercises you can employ to progress your playing even further?

I’ve stressed in the past the importance of learning all major and minor scales and arpeggios. But beyond this, are there any hidden secrets that will make you a better pianist? There is a simple thing you can do that won’t take much time and can greatly improve your playing:

Practice at least 10 minutes a day

Seriously, that’s it! You may not be able to do this every single day, but if you sit down and practice even a little bit every day, it can dramatically change your piano playing. Like any endeavor, whether it’s music, writing, drawing, or physical fitness, the key to success is to work consistently over time.

By practicing every day for even a few minutes, you will be keep yourself in shape on the piano both mentally and physically. Whether it’s scales, arpeggios, or what I recommend above all else, repertoire, you will enjoy benefits to your playing. You will also build on what you have worked on the previous day instead of taking two steps forward and one step back forgetting what you had learned previously when you skip days.

You can revisit a piece you played in the past, play through something you are working on currently, or learn a brand new piece. Focusing your practice sessions on actual music is one of the best ways to improve as a pianist, and it can be an enriching experience.

Just sight-reading through music can help you grow musically by getting exposed to new music while improving your reading. Learning new music will help you expand your horizons as well. You’ll learn new techniques, get exposed to new sounds, and discover new ways to play your instrument. As pianists, we are extremely lucky because there is more solo music written for piano that any other instrument. You will never run out of new music to learn!

So instead of focusing on just scales, arpeggios and exercises, try focusing on music and work some at the piano every day. Not only will you be exposing yourself to something new that presents fresh challenges, you will be able to actually play something enjoyable for people once your master a particular piece.

I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions about this topic or any other, please email me Robert@LivingPianos.com for more information.

This is a topic that many people might not be familiar with but it’s actually very important to be aware of. When it comes to buying a new piano, do you need to break it in? Much like getting yourself a new baseball glove, you may wonder if you need to spend time with your new piano to get it to loosened up so it’s easier to play.

The answer is a little more complex than a simple yes or no. There is definitely some truth to the claim that you will have to “break in” a new piano. I actually know some technicians who don’t like to perform voicing on new pianos until they are broken in because the sound will change anyway. However, in the hands of a great technician a new piano can be brought to an extraordinarily high level even if it hasn’t been played much.

The biggest factor when it comes to new pianos is getting them to become stable and that requires tuning them many times. Tuning a new piano multiple times will help it settle into the correct tuning and become stable. So not only does the piano need to be “broken in” but it also needs to be adjusted so that it will continue to hold a stable tuning.

The action of a piano has almost 100 parts for each note. Wherever there is friction, there are felt bushings. These loosen up as you play your piano. So, the action becomes somewhat easier over time.

When you press a key down on a piano the hammer will strike the strings. As it hits the string continually the hammer will start to develop grooves in which you can see the indentation of the strings on the hammer. These grooves are compacted felt and over time the harder felt will produce a brighter tone. This is something that happens naturally over time but a skilled technician can treat the felt on the hammers to produce the same type of tone right away, even with new hammers. If you just play the piano casually it could take months or even years to finally achieve a brighter sound.

So yes, over time the sound of your piano will change a bit as you break it in. In a perfect world you would work closely with your technician to achieve the sound you are looking for with your piano. As you continue to play the piano the instrument will become more stable and voicing and tunings will last longer than they did when you first bought your piano.

On the other side, as your piano gets older (and this is an issue especially with Asian pianos that tend to have harder felt to begin with) you might find that your piano is getting too bright. A technician can try and remedy this by treating the hammers, needling them or shaving some of the older felt off to try and get a more mellow sound but in some cases you might need to replace the hammers altogether if there isn’t enough felt to work with. This is something that can happen on any piano with age and it’s always a good idea to speak with your technician and see if this is a concern because replacing hammers can be an expensive job.

After a couple of years your piano should be at optimal performance with proper maintenance. Everything will have been broken in nicely and with regular tunings your piano should be stable. With regular maintenance and care you should be able to keep your piano at a very high level for years to come. The only occasion where a piano would wear out quickly and need repairs within a few years is if it is abused or played for many hours every day (like a practice room piano in conservatories).