Tag Archives: piano practice

Is There a Wrong Way to Learn Piano?

Asking if there is a right or a wrong way to learn the piano is a really loaded question. There is no clear cut answer but I’m going to try and answer this the best I can based on my experience. I’ve had the opportunity to study with several great teachers including Constance Keene, Ruth Slenczynska, John Ogden and my father, Morton Estrin. Despite many techniques and approaches for learning the piano, there are some basic truths that are almost universal among fine teachers.

Being able to count your music is one of the most important things you must learn. Practicing with a metronome to check your rhythm and timing is something that is vital in developing as a musician. Yes, there are some truths that are somewhat universal. Why not universal? Because there is more than one way to approach the piano – if you watch other pianists you will notice very different techniques.

My father, Morton Estrin, was my only teacher through high school (other than some master classes in Austria). When I attended the Manhattan School of Music I gained the opportunity to work with other concert pianists. However, for most of my early development on the piano, I studied with my father. He would describe playing the piano “with a quiet hand”. What he meant was that he used a minimal amount of motion and this is how I learned. I was taught to use as little motion as possible to produce the best sound I could. Now there are certain techniques which require more motion (such as wrist technique) but the principles of his method are fundamental.

When I went away to music conservatory I was surprised by my new teacher. She taught me to allow more movement in my playing and loosen myself up a bit. Now my father’s technique wasn’t wrong but in experiencing another way to learn I was able to develop further as a pianist. I used aspects of both of their methods to create a technique all my own. As I’ve said in other videos, no two people are built exactly the same. What might work for one person won’t necessarily work for another. If you have small hands – like me – there are some aspects of playing piano where you will be limited and other areas where small hands provide advantages; the same goes for people with larger hands.

So there are many correct ways to approach the piano as well as many techniques that may not be reliable. You must find solid techniques that work for you. There are dozens of techniques for learning certain aspects of the piano and there are hundreds of opinions on what is right and what is wrong. There are two things that matter as you continue to learn about various techniques and improve as a pianist. One is if the technique works for you. Two is if the technique can be applied to a certain aspect of playing but not another. Many times a technique will be a great way to solve one problem but will leave you struggling in other areas. This is why adopting many different techniques and developing your own playing style is so important.

So yes, there are right and wrong techniques for learning the piano. If a technique works for you don’t be discouraged if someone else does it differently. Right and wrong is more of a subjective experience when it comes to learning piano and what works for one person might not always work for another.

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 – 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 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.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

The Best Piano Exercises (Part 2) – Playing Major Scales with C Major Fingering

Welcome to the second part in our series on Piano Exercises. Last week we discussed The Broken Triad Exercise. This week we will cover a very unique practice exercise that might sound a little crazy but is highly effective in developing your skills as a pianist.

If you’ve ever played complex counterpoint like Bach fugues or other selections you will find yourself having to use complex fingering that’s not very intuitive. Normally you will want to find fingering that would be easy to achieve – like avoiding using your thumbs on black keys (unless on octaves and chords) – and most of the time you will have the luxury of breaking down fingering to make it as simple as possible. This is not always the case and you must prepare yourself for having to deal with more difficult passages.

One great way to practice this type of non-standard fingering is by playing all major scales using the fingering for the C major scale. In the video provided with this article I demonstrate this technique using the D-flat major scale using the fingering of the C major scale!

While this might look and feel silly it will really help you develop strength and flexibility in your hands and fingers.

Thanks again for joining me and stay tuned for the next piano exercise. Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com

Tips for Improving Your Sightreading – Sightreading Part 2

Last week we discussed the importance of sightreading and why it’s a required skill for many musician. This week I will offer some helpful tips and tricks to improve your sightreading!

As a personal note, as a child I progressed to a fairly high level on the piano. By high school I was playing Beethoven Sonatas, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, Chopin Ballades; overall very advanced music. However, even though I progressed to a high level, I always had something holding me back as a musician; I was not a very good sightreader.

My sightreading was on such a low level in high school that when the choir director came to me with a stack of music to accompany his choir when his pianist was unavailable, I had to decline. He probably thought I was being rude. But I simply didn’t possess the skills to get this done – I would have had to memorize all the scores and there simply wasn’t enough time!

So how did I change this? It really came to me in an “Aha!” moment. My father, Morton Estrin was set to perform the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor piano concerto at Carnegie hall and he needed to play the concerto with someone playing the orchestra part at the second piano. He handed me the score – which if you’ve ever seen, is a very thick book. I told him I couldn’t read it and I would end up missing half the notes.

I opened up the score to face a swarm of black notes splattered all over the pages; it was going to be a challenge for sure. I realized immediately that if I looked away from the page I would definitely get lost. So I decided to put my fingers at the starting keys and simply play what I could but never look away from the score. I counted like crazy staying with the party as best I could. We went through the entire concerto, all three movements, and I never got lost! Although I missed tons of notes, to my surprise it didn’t seem to matter. All my father needed was to run the concerto and that we did.

I learned something incredibly valuable that day. Keeping your eyes on the music and keeping the music flowing in time is critical to your sightreading success. But even more important is playing with other musicians and sight reading with them is essential for developing your reading. It will greatly improve your sightreading capabilities to perform as a group. Sure, you can practice every day by yourself (and you should) but it’s not until you actually start playing with other musicians that you will be forced to keep the music flowing.

With complex music sometimes it’s necessary to approach the score like a skeleton and flesh out the music. As your sightreading develops, you will realize more substantial elements of the score over time.

What’s more important than actually playing all the notes when sightreading is to keep the general character of the music going, keep the nuances of expression and timing; all of this is much more important than just playing all the notes. Especially when you are in a group setting, it’s more important to have a coherent, unified sound.

Practicing this way will enable you to become a much better sightreader over time. Practicing every day, playing with other musicians, and especially staying in time with the music will enable you to develop your sightreading. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin at VirtualSheetMusic.com

Learning Hanon’s Virtuoso Pianist Part 3 – How to Practice

The third part in my series on Hanon’s Virtuoso Pianist comes from a viewer question about how much to practice these lessons. In case you missed them here are the first two parts in my series on:

Part 1 – The First Lessons

Part 2 – How to Practice Scales and Arpeggios

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as over-practicing exercises. One of the great things about the piano is that there is a wealth of music – so much so that it would be impossible to learn it all in a lifetime. So why practice strictly exercises when there is so much other music you could be learning and playing?

There are some instances in which you will need to correct technical problems with your playing and develop fluid a technique. Scales and arpeggios are a great resource for this. But how much is too much practice when it comes to exercises?

Generally, you should think of these as a warm-up to your practice session. If you dedicate 10 minutes to the beginning of your daily practice to focus on scales, arpeggios, or other exercises, it will benefit you immensely. What’s most important for your progress is the consistency of practice.

There may be times in your musical development when exercises can be critical in expanding your technique and developing strength. However, you should not ignore repertoire. You can continue to develop your strength and technical prowess while learning music as well – after all, we learn our instruments to play music!

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