Tag Archives: piano playing

How to Practice With a Metronome

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how to practice with a metronome. The metronome is one of the most valuable tools for your practice. It is perhaps the most valuable tool other than the instrument you’re playing on. The metronome is something that should be on your piano whenever you practice, to check your work, and to work out passages.

How do you use a metronome to work through a section of a piece?

Let’s say you’re working on the famous Alla Turca movement of the famous Mozart Sonata in A major K.331 no. 11. You get to the F-sharp minor section that has some tricky finger work, and it isn’t gelling for you. Some people might think you should go through the whole piece with the metronome. There is value in doing that to check your tempo, and the consistency of speed throughout a movement. It’s important to make sure you’re not speeding up or slowing down. But what I’m going to show you today is how to use the metronome to be able to solidify a passage like this. So let’s say you aren’t happy with your playing in the F-sharp minor section. It’s not as even as you would like. What can you do about that?

Find a speed on your metronome at which you can play the trouble section evenly and beautifully.

Taking too large a section to do progressive metronome speeds can sometimes be counterproductive. If you work on smaller sections, and then string the sections together later, you might have more success. Not only that, but maybe there’s a section you can already play up to tempo, but the next section still needs improvement. It’s unnecessary to work all those metronome speeds on both passages.

There are metronome applications for your phone that allow you to simply tap in the tempo. That’s a real help. If you are using a traditional metronome, you just start tapping or clapping along with your music as you sing or play mentally, so you can match the speed on the metronome. Make sure that it’s a comfortable speed for you. The most important thing is finding a speed at which you can play it perfectly. Once you can play the passage absolutely perfectly, and repeatably, you’re ready to increase the speed. But make sure you find the speed at which you have absolute security first.

The first time you do this, you’re going to find it to be really difficult to play perfectly at any tempo.

Here’s the key: Spend the time on the front end. Play it perfectly even with comfort. If you find you can’t do that, slow the metronome down further until you find a tempo where you can. Make sure you can play without feeling you’re getting off from the metronome at all. Make sure it’s rock solid, steady, and repeatable. You should be able to get it at least three times in a row, perfectly. It should not only sound perfect, it should feel comfortable. Then once you have it at one speed, take the metronome up a notch.

Physical metronomes actually have one benefit that digital metronomes don’t have. On physical metronomes, each notch goes up multiple numbers instead of having every number. For example, 60, 63, 66, 69, 72, 76, 80, et cetera. Notice how the speeds progress from going up by three, to going up by four beats per minute. If you double the speed, 60 to 63, at 120, the next notch on the metronome is 126 which is double the slower speeds. It doesn’t just go up by three throughout the range of speeds on the metronome. So the progression of speeds on a metronome is calculated correctly. You don’t want to go from 69 to 70 to 71 because the increases in speed are infinitesimally small. But one notch on the metronome, or maybe two notches at most, provides just the right amount of challenge to speed up a passage. Once you can play it successfully and repeatably with comfort at one slow speed, go to the next notch on the metronome. So if you’re at 60, play the passage at 63. You may only have to play it once to feel that it’s perfect and keep going notch by notch. But anytime you have any issues where it doesn’t sound right or doesn’t feel comfortable, keep doing it at that metronome speed.

This is one of the greatest practice techniques for developing speed, fluency and evenness in your piano playing!

I recommend doing metronome speeds on a regular basis with anything in your music that isn’t up to a high standard. If you feel that there’s some passage work or any sections of your music that aren’t even, or aren’t reliable, find a speed at which you can play it perfectly, repeatably, and comfortably, and go through metronome speeds notch by notch. You can solve almost any technical problem this way. Try it out! Let me know how it works for you! You can leave comments here at LivingPianos.com or YouTube. Thanks so much for joining me. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Why it’s So Hard to Start in The Middle of a Piece

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about why it is so hard to start in the middle of a piece of music. Have you ever had that situation? Maybe during your practice something fumbles. So, you want to start from where you left off. You try, but it’s too hard, so you just go back to the beginning. Worse yet, you’re in the middle of a performance, and you have a finger slip or a moment of memory insecurity. Then you try to start in the middle, and you just can’t do it. You have to go back to the beginning. It feels so terrible! The audience is fidgeting because they already heard you play that music. This is a real issue. So, first I’ll explain why this happens, then I’m going to offer you some solutions.

It has to do with the way the human mind works.

Learning things sequentially is much easier than random access memory. For example, have you ever seen memory geniuses who can remember thousands of digits? Some of these people are just unbelievable. Or, they can remember countless unrelated items. How do they do it? The secret they use is relating the things they are trying to remember to each other. If you had random objects and you wanted to remember them sequentially, the first visual image that comes into your head can really help. So let’s say you want to remember car, toaster. Imagine a toaster with a car popping out of it. That’s a really weird image that came to my mind. So now I have a car and a toaster. And then you go on. What’s next thing on the list to remember? How about car, toaster, orange. The car is popping out of the toaster and there is an orange on top like the light on a police car. It can be anything. The more outlandish the visual images, the better. You can do a chain of dozens of unrelated things so long as the visual images are so ridiculous that you can’t forget them. The more abstract the better.

There is a sequential nature to memory.

In school growing up, I learned all kinds of music because my father taught me how to memorize. From my first lesson when I was a young child, I had to memorize all my music, and didn’t think anything of it. But in school in social studies, we had to memorize all kinds of dates, wars, generals and battles. I had no idea how to learn that kind of stuff! The sequential nature of learning is so powerful. I wish I had known about this technique back then!

What do you do when you want to start in the middle of a piece?

You get so used to going through a piece all at once, there’s a certain amount of motor or muscle memory. Your fingers themselves remember where to go! Once you get off track, they have no idea where to go anymore. There are a few things you can do to remedy this. Number one: in your practice, whenever there is a problem and you stop to fix it, find your place in the score! I know it can be painstaking to do that sometimes, but by finding the place in the score and making yourself start there, you will gain the ability to start from that place. If you had insecurity one time, you may have insecurity another time. If you know how to start from the point of insecurity, it can be a lifesaver in performance. Anytime you have a problem with something messing up in your practice, that’s an opportunity to learn how to start right at that point. That’s a terrific way of solidifying your music.

There’s more you can do! Practice incessantly with the music even after you’ve memorized something! Look at the score as you play slowly without the pedal. Utilize the metronome where appropriate, and go through to solidify your memory. Let’s say you have a piece you’ve memorized, and it’s pretty secure, but you still have issues with it. What can you do to make it totally solid so you are able to start anywhere?

One of the best techniques is to be able to play a piece without the benefit of playing it on the piano.

First, try just playing it on a tabletop or in your lap. Have the score nearby so when you get to a point of insecurity, you can find your place in the score. Go back a little bit and pass that point until you can play the whole piece away from the piano. Then, the ultimate, is to be able to play without even moving your fingers! Think the piece all the way through. When you can do that, you will gain great security in your playing. That’s why for example, memory problems often happen when you have leaps in music because your fingers have a memory all their own. But when you have to jump from one section of the keyboard to another, you have to be aware of where you’re jumping! Worse yet are pieces that have repeated sections in different keys. When you have a sonata where in one section you modulate from one key to another key, and later the same thing comes back, but it goes to a different key, you have to be very deliberate. Study your score to remember (for example), first time D, second time A, or whatever it may be. Lock it in your brain, and then be present enough in your performance to know, yes, the second time go to A. You have to have that information ready in the back of your brain, looking down on yourself while you’re playing so you’re not all just on automatic pilot! You can’t always trust finger memory. It is a godsend having it. If people didn’t have that to work with, I don’t think pianists could memorize massive amounts of music nearly as easily. But you can’t depend upon it completely.

Conductors have to memorize scores.

Conductors have to know their scores without the benefit of muscle memory. Of course, many conductors are pianists, so they may flesh out a lot of the music on the keyboard first. But for all you pianists out there, take advantage of the music you know by playing mentally. The sound of the music, the feel of the keys as well as the vision of the keyboard. The whole playing experience away from the instrument can be an awesome learning experience. In the meantime, as a first step, make yourself find where you are in the score when you have insecurity in your playing so you can learn to start from there. That’s going to help you if you ever have problems in those particular places during a performance. Thanks so much for joining me. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Fingering Tips for The Piano

Hi, I’m Robert Estrin and this is LivingPianos.com. Today I’m going to show you fingering tips for the piano. Fingering on the piano is as much art as it is science. It is a complex subject. There isn’t one right fingering for everyone. But there are a lot of fingerings that are definitely better than other fingerings. I’m going to give you some general guidelines. Keep in mind that this is a deep subject. These are guidelines that you can take to heart, but finding fingering solutions is something that involves a lifetime of discovery.

To find appropriate fingering, try to cover as many notes in a passage as possible.

 

Avoid unnecessary finger crossings. If you can be over a whole chord and have your fingers play those notes, it is far easier than having to cross over unnecessarily. There are some exceptions to this. Sometimes you might find that by playing over a chord, it’s hard to get enough power and speed. You might find you want to do finger crossings. But generally you can just get over as many notes as possible in a hand position because it’s easy to play once you’re over the notes. Thumb crossings and third and fourth finger crossings can be difficult to achieve. So get over as many notes as possible.

Unless you’re playing octaves or chords, generally you avoid the thumb on black keys.

Every single rule I’m going to tell you has exceptions. If you’re playing a Bach fugue for example, where counterpoint is very complex, you’ll have the craziest fingering you could ever imagine that breaks every single rule I’m going to tell you here today. So these are only guidelines that you try first. If you can accomplish fingering without using the thumb on black keys, do so. Now of course, if they’re in chords or octaves, that rule does not apply.

On repeated notes you must change fingers.

Obviously, for fast repeated notes it’s essential to change fingers. There’s no way anybody could play fast repeated notes with one finger. But what about repeated notes that are slow? In order to get a true legato out of repeated notes you must change fingers, so one finger is going down while the other finger is going up. For example, the beginning of the second movement of the K 330 C Major Sonata of Mozart. It starts off with three C’s. Without changing fingers, you end up with breaks between the notes. Changing the fingers on those notes makes it possible to achieve a smooth legato sound. You can add the pedal to enhance it. But you can achieve that beautiful legato just with your fingers by changing fingers for each note.

There isn’t just one fingering for all players.

People’s hands are built differently. Not just the size, but the angle of the thumb, as well as the length of different fingers. For some people, the thumb is at a greater angle offering a wider reach. The thickness of fingers can also determine what fingering works best. So every player has to discover what fingerings work for them.

Find the fingerings that work for you!

You must experiment with different fingerings in order to find what works for you. In fact, I will go so far as to say that whenever you have a technical problem, you should search for a fingering solution.

Reference different scores that are edited with different fingering suggestions.

You’ll find if you have more than one edition of a piece, the fingerings are not the same. Different editors have different ideas about what fingerings are going to work best. Sometimes you’re tearing your hair out, not able to play a passage, and then you find another book that has a different fingering and it instantly solves the problem for you!

Those are some tips for fingering for you!

I’m sure there are other valuable tips out there. If anybody has any more tips, leave them in the comments here at LivingPianos.com or on YouTube. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

The Top 5 Piano Lesson Fails

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to tell you the top five piano lesson fails. Now I just want to say right from the get-go that I love teaching and I appreciate the hard work all my students put in. I have students all around the world. I counted it up on my schedule yesterday. I have students in 12 different countries! It’s mind-boggling, the world we live in, that such a thing is even possible! I appreciate the time everybody makes to practice and diligently attend lessons. So with all due respect, I’m going to give the top five piano lesson fails.

1. Stopping to ask if you should take a repeat

You’re playing a piece and as soon as you get to a repeat sign, you turn and say, “Do you want me to go on? Or do you want me to repeat it?” I always kind of chuckle inside. It’s better to just make a decision. I’m happy with either one, frankly. But it’s better to go on when you get to the repeat sign or take the repeat so that you have the continuity of the repeat or the continuity of going to the next section. But that’s a heck of a time to ask whether you should go on or not. Make a decision and go with it, or ask beforehand if you’re really not sure.

2. Waiting until the lesson is over to ask questions

You go through an entire lesson and you’re getting some good things done. Then later in the day when checking my email, there’s an email with a bunch of questions from the student. We just got done with this whole piano lesson and now after the lesson, when there’s not going to be another lesson for a week, all of these questions come in. Now I am always happy to answer questions by email. I’m always available for that. I encourage it! But obviously, during the course of the lesson, these questions could be answered much more thoroughly with a back and forth communication that emails don’t allow for. So if you have questions during the course of a lesson, ask your teacher. That’s what they’re there for, to answer all your questions. So make sure that you take the opportunity to ask your teacher at the lesson anything at all that is important to you.

3. Cramming in all your practice just before a lesson

This is something that students are sometimes guilty of. You get busy during the course of the week and you only have a few days left before your lesson. So you just start cramming through everything, trying to get as far as you can. Then you come into the lesson and right from the beginning, nothing is solid. From the very first phrase, everything is muddy and sloppy. This is a real problem for you as a student. Why? Because now you’ve just spent all this time solidifying sloppy playing. Undoing the damage of bad practice is much harder than just learning a smaller part really well. Your teacher will appreciate the thorough work you do, even if it’s a small section, rather than have a whole bunch of music that isn’t on a high level. So don’t worry. Your teacher understands! Believe me, my life gets so busy, it’s hard for me to find time to practice! So I understand. I get it. I’m sure your teachers are understanding in that respect also. Cramming doesn’t work on the piano.

4. Starting a piece at a tempo you can’t maintain

You’re starting to play a piece for your teacher, and you’re gung ho. So you start at a nice fast tempo. But almost immediately you start slowing down. You get a little further and slow down more and more. This isn’t very helpful for you. You must find a tempo that you can maintain throughout the piece. If you can’t play measure 12 at the tempo that you’re starting, you’re in trouble. Now, if it’s a long piece and there’s a section you don’t know as well, you might want to stop at a certain point and say, “I don’t know this part as well, so I’m going to take it slower”. That’s perfectly understandable. You don’t want to necessarily take the whole piece drastically under tempo if you have a large chunk of it at a good clip. But if you’re going to keep slowing down the whole time, this does not really help you. You want to get used to playing at one tempo.

5. Stopping after a couple of measures when your teacher asks you to play from a specific section

Your teacher asks you to start on measure 47, so you start at measure 47. You get one or two measures in and you stop and say, “Do you want me to go on?” This is similar to the repeat thing, but in this case, there’s no repeat or anything. It’s just that they asked you to start at a certain place. For some reason, you think they didn’t want you to play more than that one measure or two. Now, often I will have students play one specific section. I will say, “Only play up to the first note of measure 50 and that’s it.” Then of course, it’s very hard for students to stop on that note because they’re not necessarily aware of where that note is in the score. But sometimes it’s really important to stop on a specific note to gain security with it. But if your teacher asks you to start at a certain place, you can assume they want you to keep playing unless they stop you or instruct you to play a smaller section.

If you avoid these piano lesson fails, you’ll have more productive lessons. I promise you!

So take it to heart. It’s meant in a positive spirit! I hope I’m not hurting anybody’s feelings with these. That’s not my intention. Hopefully, you find it helpful. Anybody who knows of other lesson fails, share them in the comments here on LivingPianos.com or YouTube. Thanks to all you subscribers and Patreon subscribers! You are what keep me motivated! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

How You Make Fast Piano Playing Feel Slow

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about how you can make fast playing feel slow. There’s nothing worse than feeling rushed, whether it’s in your music or even in life! When you’re going through your day and you can’t quite get caught up with things, it can drive you nuts! You’re supposed to be able to relax with your music. So many people say classical music is relaxing. Music is more than just relaxing, there’s a whole range of emotions. But when you sit down to play the piano, you want to feel that you’re in the zone. You don’t want to feel like you’re constantly rushing.

When you play in a hurried manner, it’s just not good piano playing.

The problem with playing in a hurried manner is that the notes are compressed. Even playing at the same tempo, but playing all the notes as long as possible within the beat, it provides a more relaxed feeling for the listener and for the player. How do you achieve such a thing? You want to work at a very slow tempo, filling up all the notes for their full value. I recommend working with the metronome doing this. You’ll find that if you’re not really in the zone, even at the slowest tempo, you’ll be rushing no matter what tempo you play.

It’s a matter of filling up all the notes for their fullest possible value.

Wind players understand this in an intrinsic way. I’ve played the French horn almost as long as I’ve played the piano. I haven’t done much with it in the last few years because I’m so immersed in Living Pianos. But the point is, a wind player knows that you must fill up each note with air in order to produce a good tone. This allows for the playing to be fluid, and to create a musical line. Well, the piano is no different! It’s not air that is producing the sound on the piano. The analog of the air is the continuous weight of the arm transferring from finger to finger in slower playing. And in faster playing, filling up all the notes for their full value.

So, practice slowly at first. If you find that you’re not quite with the metronome, find a tempo at which you can play precisely with the metronome and work from there progressively speeding up. This way you can achieve comfort in your playing where you don’t feel hurried, and the audience will be rewarded with a performance that feels more relaxed.

I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

How to Negotiate When Buying a Piano

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about how to negotiate when you’re buying a piano. This doesn’t just apply to pianos. You’ve probably experienced this if you’ve bought a car or anything where the price isn’t set. With large ticket items there’s often negotiation in the pricing. How do you approach such a thing? A lot of people are very uncomfortable with this. That’s why cars are being sold at Costco, so people don’t have to negotiate. There are also things like college sales where the prices are pretty much set so you don’t have to go through the rigmarole of having to negotiate down to the lowest price.

How do you approach negotiating a price?

Well, there are all different personality types in this world. You have to go with what’s comfortable for you. But what I recommend is to just be honest with people. If you tell the salesperson what you’re looking for, what your budget is, and what you have seen, you give them the opportunity to help you. After all, they’re there to make a living. You want to let them know what they’re up against. They might be able to give you special treatment if you let them know the truth!

Be honest and respectful.

Blowing a bunch of smoke and pretending things, that’s really not going to help you. You want to deal with people in a respectful manner and, hopefully, most people are going to be respectful back. There’s no science to this. It’s just a matter of being forthright with people. You should be able to find out what the situation is and work something out if you find the right piano for yourself. Keep in mind that there isn’t always room in the price of pianos or cars. Right now there is scarcity of both due to shipping industry problems.

So some prices are actually being negotiated up from list price!

I hope this is helpful for you! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com