Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. I’m here today with part two of, How to Make it in Music. In part one I talked about how you just have to keep moving forward even if you don’t know where you’re going exactly. Move in the general direction. You will get clues as to where to adjust your path. You will be able to see what opportunities present themselves, as well as what resonates with you and what you can bring to light. I used the analogy of being lost in the woods and getting any clues as to how to get out. Sometimes you might feel that way in life. You’re yearning to do something with music but you just don’t know what that is. You don’t know where to begin. Keep moving forward! If you stay stuck in one place you’ll never get out of those metaphorical woods and you’ll never get anywhere in music.
Eventually you’re going to find your goal in music.
Seeing an end goal clearly and envisioning it is the first step. Once you have that, you can start filling in all the steps. Work backwards from that end goal. Find out what is required in order to get there. Work day-by-day in an organized fashion. You’re not going to have all the answers. But once you have identified a clear goal you can work step-by-step each day getting closer to achieving your goal. That is intrinsically important, not just for music, but in any field. But in order to be successful, first you have to explore. Let yourself go wild in many different directions to see what resonates with you, what’s genuine and what you have a passion for. Once you see something, latch onto it and figure out the steps involved in getting there. I know that sounds really simple. But obviously every single career has a different path and you have to find your own way.
It’s essential to find strategic partners.
People can help you on your journey. Once you identify something tangible, and you’re taking steps to get there, you’ll find people to give you that lift where you need it. People will be inspired by your commitment. They’ll also feel like it’s worthwhile helping you if they can see that you have thought things through, and you just need a few strategic partners in order to achieve your goals.
So that’s what I recommend. Go into that exploration phase. Don’t stand still! Once you find something you want, latch onto it and take all the steps to get there. That’s a life journey that’s worthwhile, if you have a passion for music or anything else. I hope this is enjoyable for you! Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about becoming a concert pianist. Do you aspire to be a concert pianist? Maybe you have children you’d like to expose to piano with the hopes that someday they can become concert pianists. There are many things involved with this. First, I don’t want to disappoint any of you out there, but starting young is really important. It will help to set the foundation and passageways in the brain.
Is it essential to start playing piano at a young age?
There are always exceptions, but I’d say starting young is important. Many concert pianists not only started playing young, many of them were child prodigies concertizing as children! Some of those people evolve into great artists. Many of them go by the wayside. The transition from being a child prodigy to being a concert artist later in life is not an easy one for many reasons. Coming into one’s own as an adult is a time of discovery for everyone, not to mention the fierce competition in the world of concert pianists.
Innate talent plays a role.
Some things are just just inborn in your DNA. There are so many different facets of intelligence and physiology that come into play as a concert pianist. You need to be able to memorize scores, the dexterity to be able to play complex passages with your fingers, the ability to hear things acutely, and good hand eye coordination. There are so many aspects that obviously somebody who’s born with these natural skillsets is going to have a much easier time. I can tell you from years of teaching there’s a dramatic difference in how different people learn. Yet interestingly, because there are so many different facets involved in playing the piano, some people have tremendous gifts in some areas and struggle in others. For example, somebody might have perfect pitch but be rhythmically disabled. Simply counting to a metronome might totally elude them. They will have to work 10 times harder at rhythm than somebody else. There are so many aspects to playing the piano. Just because you have weaknesses and strengths doesn’t mean that you can or cannot become a concert pianist. You must develop your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses.
Proper training is a must.
To become a concert artist, you must have superb training at some point along the line, hopefully in your formative years. If you have poor training that has compromised your playing and you’re already an adult, being able to unlearn bad habits and relearn proper piano technique and musicianship is a daunting task that few people will endure. It takes intensive work to relearn something that’s been ingrained for years incorrectly.
Exposure to music is vital.
Being exposed to music, especially from a young age, is so important. You have to live it and breathe it! Go to concerts, listen to recordings. If you’re in a family of musicians you’re surrounded by music and that’s great. But there are some people who just take to the piano and they’re the only musician in their family!
There are exceptions to every one of these rules. There isn’t a cookie cutter way to become a concert pianist. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t check all these boxes and you have hopes for yourself to become a concert artist.
You have to have an unwavering commitment to become a concert artist.
If it’s something you kind of want to do but you don’t have a dedication to it, that’s not really a recipe for success in any field, much less the piano which is so highly competitive. Speaking of being competitive, how about competitions as an avenue? Competitions are one of the few ways to get recognized for your achievements on the piano. But today, there are more fine pianists out there than have ever been around in the world, and the number keeps growing. China in particular has 40 million piano students, many of them on an increasingly high level. Competitions are not for everyone, but if you want to be a concert pianist, it’s one of the few ways to put yourself on the line and see how you stack up. Even if you don’t win competitions, you might be recognized by some of the concert artists who are judges. They might keep you in mind for something. You might develop a relationship with somebody. So, competitions are an important component if you want to become a concert pianist.
Developing and sustaining a career as a concert artist is incredibly difficult.
Versatility at the piano is valuable when trying to carve out a career in music. Being able to play different styles of music with different ensembles and having some kind of creative approach can be helpful. You want to be able to bring something to the table that’s different from everyone else. Playing the same music but maybe just a little better, is that enough? Well, there are tens of thousands of accomplished pianists that are doing that already. Just playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata brilliantly isn’t enough. Even playing the hardest piano literature, there are many people who do that. But if you have a vision for programming or some comprehensive idea of how to expose audiences to music in new and creative ways, you might be able to carve out a career for yourself.
These are all different aspects that go into becoming a concert pianist. If it’s something you really have a passion for and you’re willing to be creative in your approach, you can make a life in piano. You can develop your playing to a concert level if you have the aptitude, the willingness and the training to make it happen. If you have questions I would love to hear from you! At the Living Pianos Patreon I can give you even more personal attention! Thanks so much for joining me. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about happy accidents in music. This transcends just performance. This can occur in composition, improvisation, and so many aspects of music. What are happy accidents? When something unexpected happens, particularly in a live performance, where you can’t just stop and try it again. So you go with it and it takes you to unexpected places. From that point on, you will envision this piece in a way that you had never imagined before.
Just go with it.
Now, here’s the thing that I want to encourage all of you to do. If while playing piano something happens where you’re feeling uncomfortable for some reason, maybe you took a dramatically different tempo, go with it and see where it takes you. You can discover things. Maybe you won’t want to take that faster or slower tempo later, but you envision the piece in a new way that you never would have come upon before. In composition, it’s even more important to experiment wildly, with abandon. Don’t be worried about what comes out. You can always judge later what you want to keep and what you want to discard.
Don’t let the beauty in life pass you by!
I say that happy accidents can only happen if you pay attention to them. Otherwise you might just hear it as a mistake and move on. If it’s interesting, listen to it. You might discover something new. It’s the same with life. Take in the beautiful things around you, even if you don’t expect them to be beautiful. Maybe you’re on your way to someplace and you pass a beautiful scene without expecting it. You didn’t plan this, but here it is. Enjoy it! It’s the same thing with your music, your performance, your composing, and your improvisation. Pay attention to what is around you and take advantage of those opportunities. Explore them further, because they can be the seeds of creativity!
I hope this is enjoyable for you! Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Please consider joining the Living Pianos Patreon to unlock even more content!
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about the challenge of playing the piano while wearing glasses. I was lucky enough to be born with perfect vision. To this day my distance vision is 20/20. But for close vision I need reading glasses, like almost everybody at a certain age. One of the problems with wearing glasses while playing piano is you can see your score fine, but the bottom of the frames oftentimes forms a line right where the keys are and it blurs everything out.
Find glasses that are the right size for your needs.
With larger reading glasses, you can see everything through the lenses. But it’s really not necessary. I’ve found smaller glasses allow me to see the music just fine, but they don’t go very low. I can see the score well, and I don’t need glasses to see the keys. They’re big. It’s not a problem, whatsoever. But you have to find something that works for you.
Bifocals can be really distracting while trying to play the piano.
My wife is a flutist. She has specific glasses for reading music while still being able to see a conductor. The possibilities and the combinations of what you need to see when playing the piano will dictate what sort of eyewear you need. Contact lenses could make a great choice. But even people with contact lenses eventually need reading glasses. So, I wonder how many of you have found little tricks, like the smaller glasses I have found which allow me to see the keys without going through the lenses, but still see the music through the glasses. It’s an unusual pair of reading glasses that I just happened to notice worked really well for this purpose.
So that’s a little tip for reading your music and playing the piano with glasses. I’d love to hear from you! Tell me about any challenges you’ve faced or solutions that might help other people. Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Please consider joining the Living Pianos Patreon to unlock exclusive content!
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The topic today is about how computers and pianos require completely opposite approaches to problem solving. For example, in a recent video I talked about how when you make a mistake in your practice, it’s actually a great opportunity to stop and to find where you are on the score so you can cement the correction. The worst thing is when people make a mistake and they go back to the beginning to try again. Maybe they will get it and maybe they won’t, but it doesn’t solve the basic insecurity that’s there. It’s a real shame because you want to cement the correction by finding what it is and approaching the score. You don’t want to just hope that your tactile memory will just happen to get it right next time. Computers are the exact opposite! I’m going to tell you a story about how I discovered this years ago.
In the early 2000s, I was engaged by a music software company called G-Vox in Huntington Beach, California to be the head of the music content development team.
When I arrived the first day there were brand new Dell computers in boxes. I was a Mac guy all the way. I’d never even worked with Windows computers, and then I was the head of the department with Windows computers! It was my job to set them up, so I was a little bit scared. But everything kind of worked. I was very lucky and started getting productive. It was great! The team there was wonderful. It was a lot of fun. I was working in a high-rise right near the beach. I was very happy.
Every now and then something would go wrong with the computer system, not just for me but for the whole team. Something would screw up and we would ask the head of the program, “Isn’t there somebody who can help us?” So, he sent in an IT specialist. We were all looking forward to that because every time something went wrong we couldn’t figure out how to fix it. When this gentleman came in, I was actually looking forward to the first time I had a problem so that I could see how he solved it. I wanted to learn from him. Finally, I had a problem. I went to him and showed him what the issue was. He asked if I had tried restarting, I told him I had. He asked if I had tried reinstalling the program, I told him I had done that, too. Then he told me to reinstall Windows. I was shocked! I thought he was going to go in there with his magic fingers. I wanted to see the codes he would find, the underlying programming where he would get to the nuts and the bolts of what was wrong. But that’s not the way it’s done. This is diametrically opposed to piano where you want to zero in on the correction when there’s a problem. You want to figure it out so you can find out how it’s supposed to be.
When there is an issue with computers, the best thing you can do is just restart your computer or reinstall the program.
You want to start with a clean slate. It’s really counter-intuitive for me. I’ve owned recording studios for years. I had an analog studio many years ago. When there was a problem, you would simplify, but you wouldn’t tear everything apart and start over. You would want to try to identify where the problem was and correct it so you wouldn’t have that issue again. With modern digital technology, that just isn’t the case. When data is corrupted in one way or another, the best thing you can do is start over.
So many of us now are spending so much time online with virtual piano lessons and virtual visits with friends and family. As great as this technology is, it isn’t perfect. Sometimes for no reason, the audio drops out or something gets distorted. Of course, the best way to solve these problems is to logoff, close the program, and start over.
That’s the lesson for today. There is a huge difference in approach to computer technology, where you just want to start with a clean slate when you have a problem. Because you can spend far more time trying to identify the problem than just starting over again. Whereas, on the piano, that’s the worst thing you can do, because you’ll never really develop security. Isn’t that interesting? They are diametrically opposed! I’d love to hear from any of you who have different ideas about this subject. There are plenty of people who know more about computers than I do. Maybe there are secret tools that I don’t know about. Let me know in the comments! Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
If you want even more premium content, you can join Living Pianos Patreon and support these piano resources.
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about the ultimate musical form: The fugue. Even if you don’t know what a fugue is, you’ve heard them many times, from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to Handel’s Messiah. The fugue is actually a technical type of form that can be utilized within compositions. There are also whole movements that are fugal. The master of writing counterpoint and fugues is Johann Sebastian Bach. He could craft such unbelievable compositions of counterpoint, of interweaving lines, that it’s a mathematical wonder that he could create such intricate music. But it’s the joy of the music and the emotional content that is most important!
What is the structure of a fugue?
A fugue is an amazing type of composition that is based upon counterpoint, the interweaving of separate lines. Rather than just having melody and harmony, imagine having more than one melody at the same time. Is this possible? Well, we all are familiar with a round. A fugue is a bit more complex than a simple round or canon. First let’s talk about a simpler form than a fugue, which is called an invention. Then you’ll understand and appreciate what goes into writing a fugue. An invention is simply two different lines or voices. One line played by one instrument and another line played with another instrument. One isn’t melody, one isn’t harmony. They’re both melodies that interweave with one another.
Bach wrote a whole bunch of inventions for the keyboard. To understand what an invention is and what counterpoint is about, listen to the beginning of Bach’s 1st Invention in C major. It starts off with what’s called the subject, which provides the seed for the whole composition! It starts off rather simply. Then the subject is repeated an octave lower, while the other hand plays the countersubject. The entire composition is built upon both the subject and the countersubject. Even though they’re independent lines that could be sung by different people or played on different instruments (or in the context of the keyboard, played with different hands), the way they intersect creates harmonies that are lush and beautiful.
Bach lived from 1685 to 1750, or dates around that. (Nobody is 100% sure.) He wrote Preludes and Fugues in every one of the major and minor keys. But that wasn’t enough for Bach! He wrote two complete books. So, you have all 12 major keys, all 12 minor keys – times two, for 48 preludes and fugues! It’s one of the milestones of musical literature.
What kind of things can be done with the subject and the countersubject of a fugue?
There is so much that can be done! Naturally, the subject and countersubject can be transposed. They can also be played slower or faster. This is referred to as augmentation and diminution. They can also be played backwards. This is called, retrograde. They can be played upside down as well which is called inversion. These can be combined, for example, retrograde/inversion. For a demonstration of this, listen to Bach’s fugue in C-sharp minorfrom book one. This is an example of a five-voice fugue. This means there are 5 separate lines of music interweaving with one another. Can you believe this? There are at least three voices in a fugue. The initial statements of the subject and countersubject are called the exposition which is followed by the development where the subject and countersubject are presented in many ways.
For example there is Bach’s fugue from his Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp Minor from Book I. The subject of this fugue is incredibly simple. It has only 4 notes! As in all fugues, it is restated a fifth higher. This is the way fugues work. As in inventions, you have a counter subject. And once again, it can be altered in many ways. It can be played backwards, upside down, faster, slower, or it can be altered in combinations of techniques. But the entire work is built upon the seeds of the subject and countersubject. Listen to the first section of this fugue to get a feel for what a fugue sounds like. And listen for how this simple subject keeps coming back again and again along with the countersubject. It’s remarkable how 5 voices keep interweaving with one another! There are five separate lines going on. The writing requires mastery in order for a piece of music constructed this way to hold together.
Fugues are rarely pieces all by themselves.
Fugues are usually just parts of pieces. Even Bach wrote preludes and fugues which are two movement works. The only way to really appreciate a fugue is in context. Just like if you really wanted to appreciate a great motion picture, you wouldn’t watch just one or two scenes of it. You’d watch the whole movie! Because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
So what I’m going to do for you is play a complete work of Bach that ends with an absolutely stupendous fugue. I’m going to perform on my grand piano so you can really get the full experience. Bach wrote several toccatas and they’re emotionally charged works. And his E Minor Toccata is one of my favorites. I’m going to play you the whole toccata. It’s not that long, and it ends with a brilliant fugue. Be sure to listen to the fugue subject. This is a three voice fugue, meaning there are three separate lines going on at the same time. The emotional content and how this affects you is unbelievable.
I’m a firm believer in listening to music to really understand it.
I could go deep into the weeds and show you the subject, countersubject and all of the permutations. At a certain point later on in fugues, there is often a section called a stretto, where the statement of the subject is interrupted before it can finish again and again. It creates a chaotic madness of emotional tension. We could go through and analyze it very methodically. But I learned a lot from my father, Morton Estrin. I’ve talked about him so much because he was my piano teacher, my theory teacher, my harmony teacher, sight-singing, everything! Aside from his private piano teaching, he gave many classes. He was a professor at Hofstra University. He also gave classes in our home where he had a big studio. One of the things I used to love was attending his classes. Whenever he would have a class about music, he would play recordings of music, and people coming from other teachers would ask, “What should I listen for?” If you go to a music conservatory, you understand where this question comes from. I remember in music conservatory, whenever we had any kind of theory, harmony or dictation, if we would listen to music it would be to listen for specific techniques, such as where the development starts or where the stretto is. We were told to listen for this, listen for that. But if somebody asked my father what to listen for he always said, “You listen to enjoy!” Because you will understand in an intuitive way what makes a fugue great by listening to a masterfully composed composition. So I hope you enjoy the performance of Bach’s Toccata in E Minor which accompanies this article.
So, that is just one example of how a fugue at the end of a toccata can build such tremendous emotion. It’s not all just about mathematics. You have to have a certain awe that someone could craft a composition that has such intricacy. These lines all coming together and forming this magnificent piece of music out of all these separate voices that somehow weave in and out of one another in ways that you can’t even imagine. It’s hard to believe what’s actually going on!
I hope this has enlightened you enough that you’ll take an active interest in listening to more fugues! Beethoven, Brahms and other composers also wrote magnificent fugues. If you are interested in part two where I get really deep into analyzing a fugue, telling you all the statements of the subject and countersubject, the retrograde, inversion, diminution, augmentation, and how it’s all crafted, I’m happy to do that for you. Just let me know in the comments or send me an email. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
Please consider joining the Living Pianos Patreon to help support us and get access to exclusive Living Pianos content!
