When I first received this question from a viewer I thought immediately how the pedals can add color to your music. Then I began to think about the subject and realized that there are other ways to add color to your music beyond simply relying on the pedals. Certainly the impressionist music of Debussy and Ravel make creative use of pedals to color the music, but what is possible with the hands alone?
This article and accompanying video demonstrates how to add color to your music without using the pedals at all. A second video to follow will cover how to color your music with the pedals. In the video attached to this article, I demonstrate some techniques using Mozart’s C major K545 Sonata. It’s a great piece to use since the piano of Mozart’s time had no pedals!
One technique is how you balance the hands. Playing the melody stronger than the accompaniment immediately adds more flavor and color to the music. An easy way to achieve this is to simply apply more arm weight to the right hand while playing.
All instruments essentially imitate the human voice. However, with the piano, every time you play a note, it immediately begins to fade out. One thing I’ve noticed from listening to my wife Florence play the flute is that she will play higher notes with more breath and volume than lower notes. This is totally natural when singing or playing a wind instrument. One thing I learned from one of my great piano teachers, Ruth Slenczynska is that you can mimic this effect on the piano. Playing higher notes louder and lower notes softer will add a lot of color and expression to your music. You can also take a bit more time when you reach the higher notes to add a greater effect. You will create the sense of a singing line on the piano!
But let’s not forget about the left hand in all this. If you were using the pedal you could meld the notes to create a nicer sound. Yet without the pedal you can achieve this by holding selected notes with your fingers! Try holding the bottom note holding the first note in each group so it overlaps the following sixteenth notes. You will be rewarded with a rich sound!
Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729. And be sure to look for part 2, which will cover techniques using the pedal.
3 thoughts on “How to Add Color to Your Piano Music – Part 1”
Robert,
This is an excellent subject and one close to my heart! Your comparison to a flute technique and other instrumental technique is right on. Also, when playing chords, voicing the notes differently can bring a richness and strengthen the harmonic values. Another thing that I try to remember is to sing (in my head) along with the parts that I wish to bring out (or have trouble playing). Monotony is a great bore and organists are particularly prone to this when playing the piano. It’s difficult for us that play both instruments to seek good tonal quality in the different ways the instruments require.
Hi Robert, having been around pianos for 65 years (my stroller being pushed up to an old Kimball upright at one year old), I have come across many piano teachers and sales people using visual adjectives (color, dark, bright, just to name a few) to describe sound. Not that this is that harmful, but maybe a lead-in definition of these terms as you understand them would help the student understand that its variety of technique that makes music interesting to us all and can actually create an “identity” for an artist as you hear the same style of “run” or other unique “trick in the bag” You are very lucky to have the playing skill for demonstration and transfer of these concepts to the beginner. Keep your knowledge coming. Best regards, Bruce
I enjoy your viewing and listening to your demostrations. Better, they are really lessons on how to improve our technique and expression in addition to learning the notes.
Thanks much!
Helen Christopulos LoBosco
Piano Teacher