Piano and Music Videos

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I am giving a tutorial on how to play Burgmüller’s The Limpid Stream. I have a bunch of Burgmüller tutorials for you. This is another beautiful piece. What’s great about these pieces of Burgmüller is that they’re accessible even if you don’t have a virtuoso technique. They are wonderful pieces of music, each with its own unique voice, and this is no exception. What I’m going to do for you first is play the piece. Then I will go through it thoroughly, showing you how to practice all sections of it and how to get the most out of this wonderful piece of music.

First of all, let’s talk about the name The Limpid Stream.

It sounds kind of odd. It’s actually from the French Le Courant Limpide. If you translated that directly, it would be The Clear Current. That still doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. But you could hear that it sounds like a babbling brook, which I think would be a better name for this translation! The Limpid Stream sounds kind of odd in English, doesn’t it? But getting back to the music, essentially this entire piece is broken chords of one sort or another, so naturally, learning it in chords first is critical for being able to understand the harmonies and to develop good fingering. So I’m going to show you how to do the two different sections in chords. It’s in A-B-A form. You have the first section, the second section, then a da capo back to the beginning section.

What I recommend doing is learning it in very small chunks.

If I were learning this, believe it or not, I would just take one measure at a time! That doesn’t sound like much. It’s basically three different chords. You start and end on the G-major chord in the first inversion. The left hand is even simpler. Then you play the hands together in chords. I don’t play the second chord because it’s the same as the first chord. Instead, I just hold it for two beats. After you play it in chords, then you play it as written.

Notice the double-stemmed notes in the right hand.

What is this all about? It’s basically as if you have two different instruments playing. Imagine for a minute that the top triplets are played on a guitar strumming, and the bottom part is played with a viola or something else. On the piano, of course, you can play more than two parts at a time. Even with one hand, there are two parts. So you must hold down that quarter note longer than the value of the eighth so they overlap. Naturally, you have to lift it up so it can replay again. Once you add the pedal, it’s much easier because the pedal can catch these notes. But it’s essential that you practice holding those notes long enough so that the pedal has an opportunity to grab those notes. Because if you just played it as eighths and tried to grab it with the pedal, you might not be able to get the pedal in time. But by holding it long enough, there’s plenty of time to catch those notes with the pedal. You want to pedal half measures. For the second measure, since it’s all just a broken G-major chord, you can just hold the pedal for the whole measure if you want. But doing half-measure pedaling throughout the entire first section works just beautifully.

It’s important to take note of the dynamics.

It’s easy to remember. As the notes get higher, they tend to get louder. As the notes get lower, they tend to get softer. Until the end of the entire section, which ends gently as it’s going up the G-major arpeggio. So the middle section can also be practiced in chords. This is really a great way to learn this section. You will develop good fingering and an understanding of the harmonic underpinnings of the music by practicing in chords first. Once again, I recommend taking very small sections at a time and to play slowly. Even if you’re learning two measures at a time, you may find it helpful to break it down to one measure. Just do that first measure until you get it memorized, then do the second measure until you have it memorized. Then put the two measures together, once again, practicing in chords first.

The right hand is all a series of two-note slurs.

You don’t want it to sound mechanical. The two-note slurs are accomplished with a wrist motion going down on the slur and up on the second note, essentially making the second note of the slur staccato. Why is this? Slurs mean to connect, and staccatos mean to detach. Because the slur ends on the second note, it is de facto detached, which is staccato. To make matters even clearer, Burgmüller puts in eighth rests, so you absolutely must release the second eighth of each group. What better way than with the wrist? I’ve talked about how the wrist plays staccatos with a down-up motion, so it delineates the phrasing. It also helps you avoid accenting the thumb. The thumb is the strongest finger, but here it’s playing on the weakest part of the beat. You can practice this very slowly using a down-up motion with the wrist. The arm doesn’t move up and down, only the wrist. Strike from above to make the slurred note stronger than the staccato note at the end of the slur. Then, finally, when you have the right hand worked out that way, you put the hands together.

The left hand also has slurs. You must delineate the slurs by not connecting what is not slurred.

That is the way to learn this second section. First, learn it in chords. Just learn the right hand, the two-note groups, and get that memorized. Even if it’s one measure, take the smallest amount you need in order to learn it in a reasonable amount of time. If it takes you more than five minutes to learn something, then take a smaller section because you want to be able to digest things quickly and easily. The smaller the section, the easier it is to master it. If you’re learning it from the music, same thing. Take small sections. Even if you aren’t memorizing the music, the small sections give you an opportunity to really study the score and make sure you’re learning accurately right from the get-go. And that is basically the secret to this section.

At the very end, you may need to practice that scale passage slowly with the metronome ticking to quarter notes.

Take a tempo slow enough that you can play it, and be sure to practice that with a decrescendo back to the original theme. It’s not written, but it’s logical. Descending lines tend to get softer, just like when you’re singing, you naturally get louder with the higher notes and softer as you descend in pitch. You want to get that same sound out of the piano, so it gives it an organic quality, like singing, or a wind instrument, or a bowed instrument. You want to achieve a flowing line. Once you can play it at that tempo, then raise it a notch. Keep raising the tempo by one notch every time you not only get it perfectly, but it feels comfortable. It may take you a little while. But if you spend just five minutes, you will get the scale passage up to a faster speed. Keep going to the point of diminishing returns. You might not be able to get it up to performance tempo in one sitting. Don’t worry about it. There’s always tomorrow! Always take your practice to the point of diminishing returns. Don’t beat your head on something that you’re not making any progress with. Always consider taking smaller amounts and playing hands separately.

Try to break things down into smaller elements that you can absorb so that every minute of your practice is productive.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s question is: What Are Living Pianos? It sounds like a science fiction story, doesn’t it? Artificial intelligence enables sentient instruments to compose, perform, and even teach music autonomously. Or maybe it’s pianos that are bioengineered to grow and evolve along with the player! There are all kinds of possibilities. But it’s actually something much more terrifying than that. That’s why Living Pianos is committed to bringing new life to old pianos!

Did you know that many pianos end up in landfills?

In Minnesota alone, hundreds of pianos end up in landfills every year. As you’re watching this video, pianos are being thrown in landfills all over the country. It’s a horrifying thing to contemplate. You might wonder why this happens. Well, there’s a huge price gap between hand-built American pianos, which are mostly the ones that end up in landfills here, and Asian production pianos. So when pianos wear out, people will replace them with far cheaper Asian production pianos or even digital pianos.

That’s why Living Pianos specializes in the sale of restored, hand-built pianos, which are so rare today.

There are other companies that do this, but most of them specialize in Steinway because Steinway commands more money in the used market. But we’re not prejudiced against other brands. There used to be hundreds of American piano companies, and there were several dozen that made absolutely stupendous pianos! Of course, Mason & Hamlin pianos are still built outside of Boston. Baldwin was the last casualty of the American piano industry. There are now Asian production pianos with the Baldwin name on the front. But the Artist-Series Baldwins that graced concert halls all around the world are a thing of the past.

We not only restore Steinway, Baldwin, and Mason & Hamlin pianos but also other great American pianos like Knabe, Chickering, Sohmer, and others. You can end up with a piano that has tremendous value instead of having them end up in a landfill. European pianos like Bechstein and Blüthner are also great candidates for restoration. Of course, they’re quite rare in this country.

Knowing which pianos to restore and which ones to stay away from is critical.

You can’t always get good results out of older pianos. One of the really difficult things is restoring pianos that have had some restoration along the way. If you have everything original, even if everything is worn out and in bad condition, at least you know the original specifications. It’s a huge challenge to match the original specs of pianos that have had work done, particularly if the work was subpar. Even with Steinway, you might think you could just order Steinway parts. But it’s not so simple. Steinway has changed their specifications over the years. You have to know exactly what the specification is for each of the almost 10,000 parts of a piano to restore them properly!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s question is: How can you afford a Steinway? If you’ve seen some of my previous videos, you know that a new baby grand Steinway costs over $80,000. So you might think it’s just insurmountable to be able to buy a Steinway. Well, I’ve got some good news for you, as well as some tips on how you can get a great piano without necessarily breaking the bank.

Be aware that there are other great pianos in the world.

Steinway owns the concert market, with over 97% of concert pianists playing Steinway because it is the de facto piano that’s available worldwide in concert halls. So most touring artists play Steinways, unless they can travel with their own pianos. But there are many other great piano brands, such as Bechstein, Bösendorfer, Blüthner, Fazioli, Mason & Hamlin and quite a few others. So, there are many other great pianos you might want to consider. While many of these pianos cost as much as Steinway, or even more, dealers will sometimes discount some of these other brands. Steinway holds their price much firmer because they can. There are only a limited number of them in the world, and they’re highly sought after.

The used market is a gold mine if you can find the right instrument.

Years ago, there were hundreds of American piano companies. Many of them made great pianos, and you can get them for a fraction of what they’re worth. For example, Baldwin was in the concert market, and Baldwins cost as much as Steinways when they were new. But in the used market, you can get a great Baldwin for far less than a Steinway and have a great piano. But let’s get back to Steinway.

You have your heart set on Steinway, and only Steinway will do. How can you possibly afford one?

Once again, the used market is your best option, but you have to be very careful. In fact, Steinway doesn’t even let many people put the Steinway name on the front of rebuilt or refinished pianos. Make sure you find someone who actually plays so they know what the piano feels like, what it sounds like, and if it’s really going to be a Steinway-quality piano. Just having the name on the front isn’t enough.

Another important thing is when you buy a piano.

There are certain times when the prices are just lower. For example, at Living Pianos, on Memorial Day, we drop our prices. Some of our pianos are less than half the usual sale prices, which are already a fraction of the cost of new pianos. We do this to clear out inventory and go on a buying spree in the summer. So you can sometimes get phenomenal deals on Steinways and other pianos if you buy at the right time.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about triads. What is a triad? A triad is the most basic chord that exists in music. I’m going to break it down for you, so you’ll have a keen understanding of what a triad is. Simply put:

A triad is a chord containing three notes arranged in thirds.

What is a third? Scales are built diatonically. That means interval of seconds. So each note of a scale is a second apart. If you skip a note in a scale, you have a third. Anytime you skip a note in a scale, it’s a third. In fact, anytime you go from one letter and skip a letter and go to another letter, that is some type of third. Fortunately, there are only two types of thirds that are used in triads. And by the way, there are only two types of thirds that are used in the vast majority of chords. Believe it or not, even sophisticated chords can all be broken down to some type of thirds.

In triads, you have two types of thirds: major thirds and minor thirds.

To make things easy for you, I’m going to explain what they are in the simplest possible terms. Once again, they’re always two letters that are separated by another letter. A major third is a total of four half-steps. So if you start on middle C and count up by four half-steps to E, that is a major third. It’s very simple. A minor third is smaller. It’s only three half-steps. So once again, start on middle C, but this time count up by three half-steps to E-flat. That’s a minor third. That’s basically those are the building blocks of Western harmony, in a nutshell. You can actually figure out just about all chords by simply arranging the notes in thirds. Sometimes they are inverted. I’m going to get to that in a little bit. But first, let’s get to the basics.

You have four possible arrangements.

As I said, a triad contains three notes arranged in thirds. So you have a root, a third, and a fifth. So you have two sets of thirds. If you have a major third on the bottom and a minor third on top, that is called a major triad, for example, C – E – G. If you reverse it and have a minor third on the bottom and a major third on the top, that is a minor triad which would be C – E-flat – G. Could you call the middle note, D-sharp? No. Why? Because all chords are spelled in thirds skipping letters between each note of the triad.

If you have two minor thirds, that’s a diminished triad. Why is it called a diminished triad? Because the fifth has become diminished. Instead of the perfect fifth, which is the fifth note of the scale, C to G, it’s now a half-step smaller C to G-flat. So the triad is spelled, C – E-flat – G – flat. The diminished triad has two minor thirds. Finally, two major thirds is an augmented triad because the fifth has become augmented, C to G-sharp. It has become larger by a half-step. The augmented triad is spelled C – E – G-sharp.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

If you had, for example, a C-sharp major triad, once again, a major third on the bottom and a minor third on top, you start on C-sharp and go up by four half-steps. What is that note? Is that F? Well, it can’t be F because triads are built in thirds. Thirds must skip every other letter. So it has to be an E-sharp. Why would it be spelled that way? Isn’t that confusing? Quite the opposite. If you saw this written C-sharp, E-sharp, G-sharp in your score, it would look like a triad. If you saw C sharp, F, A-flat, or something of that nature, it wouldn’t look like a chord anymore. You wouldn’t recognize it as a chord. When it’s written correctly, you just see all the notes thirds apart, and it clicks that it is a triad.

You can figure out any major, minor, diminished, or augmented triad using this method.

Just remember they always must skip letters, and there are four combinations. To recap, a major triad has a major third on the bottom and a minor third on the top. Switch it up, and you get a minor triad, with the minor third on the bottom and the major third on top. Two minor thirds make a diminished triad. Two major thirds make an augmented triad. Triads are always spelled in thirds.

Keep in mind that triads are not always in root position.

That means that the root of the chord isn’t always on the bottom. So if you had a C-major triad and the E was on the bottom and the C was on top, this is still a C-major triad. How do you know this? You take the letters and arrange them in thirds, and that’s how you find the root of the chord. Understanding this will help you figure out harmonies, learn music, read more effectively, and improvise. All of this is great practice for you! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to tell you the secret of extreme slow practice. This is an incredibly valuable technique. I’m going to demonstrate how this works and how it can be unbelievably valuable for your practice. I’m going to play part of the Bach French Suite in G major. The second movement, the Courante, goes really fast. I’m going to play it, and then I’m going to solidify it using extreme slow practice right in front of you. I’ll explain how valuable this is for you for a number of reasons. But first, let’s have some music!

Watch the video to see the demonstration.

Let’s say you have a piece you can play O.K, but maybe it’s getting rusty. What can you do to re-solidify it? Or you have a piece that you’ve gotten to a certain level and you just can’t quite get it really secure. Take a piece like this that’s fast, and you find an extremely slow tempo. You play looking at the score, using the metronome, and using no pedal. Exaggerate all the markings in the score including phrasing and dynamics so they become ingrained in your playing.

What’s so interesting about this technique is that when you play fast, some things may be a little blurry, and you may barely notice it. But at this extremely slow speed, any little imperfections are blown up.

It’s like putting your playing under a microscope!

And as a result, you can really solidify your playing. Now, here’s the amazing thing about this technique. Obviously, if you get it solid, and work with the metronome speeding up a notch at a time, that would be ideal. But if all you do is play it slowly like this, you will gain so much just from that! Not that progressively faster metronome speeds aren’t of value. Obviously that’s a great technique. But just going through things slowly and deliberately, even a piece you can play reasonably well, you will always learn new things about your score.

When you play things that slowly, you’re going to see things, hear things, and you’re going to feel things and understand things in a new way. Have you ever taken a word and say it over, over, over, over, and the word doesn’t even sound like a word anymore? And then eventually you really understand that word on a new level. Well, that’s what happens when you play very slowly like this, a piece that your fingers can play on auto-pilot.

You must be deliberate at these slow speeds, and you end up learning your music so much more securely. So try this with pieces that you want to get on a higher level, or pieces you’ve had on a high level, and you want to reinforce them. There’s no better way, by the way, before a performance, when you already have a piece in shape and you’re playing it over and over again, and then some days it’s better than others, and you wonder, what can you do.

Extreme slow practice to the rescue!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to show you how to make your melody float on water. What am I talking about? You want to be able to have your melody soar above a bed of rippling currents. The accompaniment in the left hand is like the rippling waves, with the melody in the right hand floating above. I’m going to tell you how to achieve this!

You must find really great fingering for the left hand in order to achieve a delicate legato.

The way to discover good fingering is by practicing without the pedal. Support the melody in the right hand with a lot of arm weight, so the melody can be above the accompaniment, and then play with a very fluid legato in the left hand. By playing without the pedal, you can hear what’s involved in this process. You’ll hear the fluidity of the left hand. You have to find fingering that enables that kind of legato.

The other side of this is that you must have a buoyant melody that rises above the accompaniment.

Why is this so difficult? For two reasons. First of all, high notes don’t last very long on the piano compared to low notes. And on top of that, you have more notes in the left hand. The left hand is faster than the right hand, so it’s a double whammy. So you must create an angularity in your balance where the melody is much louder than the accompaniment. But how can you achieve it without making it sound harsh?

The secret is to transfer the weight of the arm smoothly from note to note.

Instead of articulating each separate note, use the weight of the arm to smoothly transfer from key to key achieving a fluid line, like the breath of a singer or the bow of a string player, so each note floats to the next. You can never achieve a smooth line by calculating from note to note. It will end up sounding calculated! When you transfer the weight of the arm smoothly from key to key, you get a fluid line. By doing this, you can play with tremendous energy without getting a harsh sound. Remember, the piano is a percussion instrument. When you’re playing a beautiful melody, how can you make it sound smooth? Use the weight of the arm in the right hand and a smooth left hand that’s very beautiful, but underplayed. Find a fingering where you can play that extreme legato.

Practice incessantly without the pedal so you can find the fingering that enables this.