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This topic will certainly have varying degrees of opinions. Some teachers will tell you that you should never look at your hands and others will say you must always look at your hands. I think there is an ideal situation for looking at your hands or not looking at your hands depending upon what type of music you are performing.

There are two distinctly different types of piano playing when it comes to classical music. There is solo music and chamber music. When it comes to solo music, generally you play from memory. With chamber music you will typically be reading a score since there are other musical parts of the other musicians you must be aware of.

When it comes to solo music, there can be leaps that will require you to memorize your scores so you can watch your hands as they make those leaps around the keyboard. It’s extremely difficult to do this without looking at your hands. There are also page turns to deal with which can be a real pain!

Chamber music is a little different because it involves more instruments then just the piano. The piano score actually contains the parts of the other instruments so when you’re playing it’s very important to see what is going on. If you are playing chamber music with other musicians you really should never have to take your eyes off the score except for quick glances – you should be following along the whole time. There might be sections you want to memorize because they have large leaps but typically you don’t want to take your focus off of the score in front of you.

With enough training you can learn how to play piano without having to look at your hands. It might seem impossible but it can be done and there are many fine blind pianists out there who prove it’s possible. You can learn to negotiate large leaps in your music through your peripheral vision as well.

When it comes to solo music, if you have your music memorized I don’t really see any reason why you wouldn’t want to look at your hands. It gives you the opportunity to keep your eyes on the keyboard and make sure that you are hitting the correct notes and have your hands in the right positions.

Generally if you have sheet music you will want to keep your eyes on the music and when you are performing solo piano music you will want to focus on your hands. Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Should You Look at Your Hands When You Play Piano?

This topic will certainly have varying degrees of opinions. Some teachers will tell you that you should never look at your hands and others will say you must always look at your hands. I think there is an ideal situation for looking at your hands or

We have addressed octave techniques in a couple of past videos: It’s all in the wrist and Piano Exercises – Octaves, among countless other videos in which I talk about certain techniques I will address in this video as well.

This video is quite unique. A couple weeks ago a good friend of mine named Jeffrey Beigel (who studied with my father Morton Estrin) was touring through Southern California. We had time to catch up and even film an extended interview (which you will see on the website and YouTube very soon).

I had mentioned to Jeffrey that I was playing the Liszt B-minor Sonata which contains numerous octaves sections. He immediately went to the piano and started playing parts of the Liszt Sonata and said, “Curl the second finger”. I had never heard this before and I started incorporating it into my octave technique.

In case you are unfamiliar with my video on octave technique, it involves playing from the wrist – as the arms are not fast enough to get the job done in many cases. Jeff’s suggestion was to simply curl the second (index) finger. It works wonderfully by relaxing the hand which allows you to play your octaves more easily.

Thanks again for joining me and I look forward to sharing more of these techniques with you in the future. Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

A Secret Octave Technique for Piano

We have addressed octave techniques in a couple of past videos: It’s all in the wrist and Piano Exercises – Octaves, among countless other videos in which I talk about certain techniques I will address in this video as well. This video is qui

As a piano teacher as well as performer, I get this question a lot. Many parents wonder if there is a specific age they should start getting their child piano lessons. Should they start now or should they wait awhile?

This is a tough question to answer, because every child is unique. I have seen children at the age of 4 or even younger ready to start piano lessons and I’ve seen children 8 or 9 years old not ready – it is very dependent on the child.

Generally speaking (in my experience), the age range of 6-9 is an almost magical time to start taking piano lessons. This is not an accident. By this age, kids are going to school and learning how to take written direction and how to work independently; these are two major things required in piano study.

When working with children younger than this, it definitely helps if you take an active role in their education and have a background in music yourself. However, some children just have different levels of maturity and teaching them at a young age can be a challenge – they might not want to sit still at the bench for more than a few minutes. In this case, it’s probably a good idea to wait a bit before getting them lessons or teaching them yourself – it’s never good to be in a battle for their attention when it comes to learning a musical instrument.

In any case, one of the best things you can do is to expose your children to music at a young age. Play the piano for them yourself, play recorded music for them to enjoy, play games at the piano, anything that can make music a fun experience for them. Exposure at a young age is a big element in developing talent and understanding the language of music, just as children growing up in a bilingual household can have complete comfort with more than one language.

So when will you know it’s the right time to begin piano lessons? If your child seems genuinely interested, if they can take written direction and if they can complete their homework on their own – these are signs that they are ready for lessons. You will definitely want to consider helping your child once they start lessons because practicing the piano correctly is hard work. If you are learning alongside them it will help in their development.

It is important to encourage your children and make the experience of learning the piano fun for them. For information about a specific situation, I am happy to help in any way I can. As always, check out LivingPianos.com for more blogs and articles in the future.

What is the Best Age to Start Piano Lessons?

As a piano teacher as well as performer, I get this question a lot. Many parents wonder if there is a specific age they should start getting their child piano lessons. Should they start now or should they wait awhile? This is a tough question to answ

This video deals with the correct fingering in scales and arpeggios on the piano as found in Charles Louis Hanon’s The Virtuoso Pianist. Last week we covered the basics and a good routine for the first lessons of his text: Learning Hanon Part 1 – The First Lessons.

When it comes to playing other instruments, fingering for scales can differ greatly. For the violin or the French horn (which I also play) or other woodwind instruments, there are a number of different fingerings for scales and everyone’s approach can be quite different. Fortunately for the piano there is a resource that everyone pretty much adheres to – which is Hanon.

Hanon is a great resource for fingerings for scales and arpeggios. The problem of fingering on the pianos is that we have 10 fingers and two hands yet there are 88 keys that will require you to jump up and down the keyboard. Finger crossings are inevitable and can be effortless with the right fingering!

For each scale there are a total of eight fingerings which you must memorize. You can see examples in the accompanying video.

This might sound formidable. After all, how can you memorize eight finger patterns for each of your major and minor scales and arpeggios? While it might seem impossible it’s really not as difficult as you may think. A lot of the scales and arpeggios have the same basic patterns so you will be repeating what you already know. There are some unique scales but it’s not an insurmountable task.

There is one other method of fingering beyond Hanon that I thought I would mention. It’s called mirror fingering. I personally don’t know anybody who uses this technique – The idea of mirror fingering is to have the thumbs play on the same notes in both hands on all scales and arpeggios. If anyone out there uses this techniquewood I would love to hear more about it.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin: Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Learning Hanon Part 2 – Scales and Arpeggios

This video deals with the correct fingering in scales and arpeggios on the piano as found in Charles Louis Hanon’s The Virtuoso Pianist. Last week we covered the basics and a good routine for the first lessons of his text: Learning Hanon Part 1 –

If you play Classical Piano you have undoubtedly run into Charles Louis Hanon’s The Virtuoso Pianist. It contains valuable exercises as well as the standard fingering for all major and minor scales and arpeggios. My father Mortin Estrin www.MortonEstrin.com taught these to me and now I am sharing them with you.

While the full text for Hanon is quite large, he includes numerous exercises, all the major scales and arpeggios as well as scales in different intervals. In this video we will be covering some of the early lessons which can be very helpful if you continue practicing them a little bit every day.

It is essential to practice Hanon exercises as well as scales and arpeggios with the metronome. Why? Because the whole idea is to develop precision and evenness in your playing – for both timing and volume of each note. The metronome is an essential tool for the musician as the tape measure is for the carpenter.

For the first exercises, set the metronome at 60 beats to the minute and practice one note to the beat playing definitely. The video above provides a good example of this. Notice that when playing the exercise only the fingers are working. Utilizing raised fingers trains your hands to delineate each note. You must avoid any arm motion in these exercises. Play the entire exercise about 4 times through at one note to the beat playing at a fairly strong volume. Once you feel comfortable, try to play two notes for every beat. Make sure you continue to use only the fingers and not resort to arm motion. Why no arms? The whole idea of Hanon is to develop strength to play fast and the arms are too large to move quickly. Developing a strong finger technique is essential for fast scales and arpeggios.

Once you work your way up to 4 notes to the beat on these exercises, you will find it’s nearly impossible to lift the fingers and play fast.

The faster you play, the closer the fingers must be to the keys. Simply put, Faster = Lighter

There is no way to play with great strength or extreme movement in fast passages. Be sure to keep the fingers naturally rounded. This is necessary since your fingers are not the same length; by rounding them it makes all the fingers align at the same point on the keys.

The whole routine should take about ten minutes. If you continue to practice this every day you will find yourself developing more finger strength. It also provides a great warm up.

I would recommend doing one Hanon exercise per week. Once you have mastered 10 exercises, you should have enough strength to graduate to scales. If you master one scale or arpeggio each week, after a year you will have learned all of you major and minor (harmonic and melodic) scales and arpeggios, all with just 10 minutes per day! As your technique grows, you can adjust the metronome speed faster and faster over time.

Next week I will discuss scales and arpeggios in Hanon. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Learning Hanon Part 1 – The First Exercises – The Virtuoso Pianist

If you play Classical Piano you have undoubtedly run into Charles Louis Hanon’s The Virtuoso Pianist. It contains valuable exercises as well as the standard fingering for all major and minor scales and arpeggios. My father Mortin Estrin www.MortonE