Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how to play with rubato. When you hear great pianists and other instrumentalists, they bring you on an emotional journey with their music. This is in no small part by the use of rubato. Rubato is an expressive playing technique, used primarily in Romantic era, 19th century music, of speeding up and slowing down, never gaining or losing time, but having a little bit of motion in the tempo.
Rubato pulls the listener in and adds emotion to your playing.
An example of a piece you would play with rubato is the B minor Prelude of Chopin. Play it absolutely straight with no rubato whatsoever and it doesn’t really grab you and pull you in. It’s a beautiful melody, but it doesn’t feel right without rubato. If you tap along, you’ll notice you can just tap out the eighth notes along with the music.
One of the secrets is thinking of the larger pulse.
Instead of feeling the eighth note rhythm, feel the quarter note as the beat. The ebb and flow never gains or loses time, but just floats around the beat. It pulls you in. It’s very emotion inducing music when you play with rubato. Experiment and remember to feel the longer note value. You can’t play rubato very effectively if you’re thinking every single eighth note, or worse every sixteenth note! Feeling the pulse of the quarter note gives you a lot of room to play around with the beat. And remember to never gain or lose time.
That’s the secret to rubato!
Try it in your music! Let me know how it works for you in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and on YouTube. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
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2 thoughts on “That’s the secret to rubato”
Thanks for this advice. I have no trouble introducing rubato, but overdoing it can be an issue. I think part of it is reminding myself that I’m not playing an instrument with sustain and dynamics within a held note like a flute or violin. Ie: the sound coming out of the piano may differ from my musical wishes. Which goes to your point about the beat.
To make sure you are playing rubato without being excessive, you can try recording yourself. When listening back, try to tap your foot to the music. If you can do it, then you are probably in good shape!