As we have discussed in a previous video (Upright Pianos Vs. Grand Pianos), upright pianos have a few limitations when compared to grand pianos, but for many people they are a great option.

Here are 2 good reasons to consider getting an upright piano:

– Space
– Budget

If you can’t fit a grand piano in your home, then having an upright piano may be the next best option. If you don’t have the budget for a grand piano, you may be able to find an upright piano in your price range.

This is not to say that upright pianos are inexpensive. A top-of-the-line upright piano can cost tens of thousands of dollars!

As far as entry-level instruments go, brand new uprights piano can be found for as little as $3,500-$5,000 and should provide a decent level for beginning students.

Grand Pianos

Grand pianos cover the largest section of pianos available in that they can come in sizes ranging from baby grand pianos under 5 feet, all the way up to concert grand pianos that can be 9 feet or even longer!

Depending on your budget and space, the bigger the piano, the more rewarding the tone. However, with size comes increases in cost and as we’ve discussed in a previous video the best size grand piano for you is dependant on a number of conditions.

When it comes to new entry-level baby grand pianos, you need to spend at least $5,000-$10,000 to get any kind of instrument and potentially a lot more. The prices go up depending on the size of the piano you’re looking for. But that is a good baseline price you can expect to pay for a new, entry level baby grand piano (or even smaller petite baby grand) that will be suitable as a musical instrument (not just a furniture piece).

Used Pianos

You might have noticed that we neglected to mention used pianos up until this point. That’s because the price of used pianos is widely different than that of new instruments. In fact, the starting price for used pianos is $0!

Yes, believe it or not, you can find pianos online or in your local area for free! However, this might sound good in theory, but the reality is much more complex.

Would you buy a used car without getting the opinion of a mechanic or at least having a cursory knowledge of cars yourself? Probably not. The same principle applies to pianos. Unless you are knowledgeable about what to look for, a free piano could end up costing you much more than even a new instrument.

To provide an example, let’s say you find a used upright piano on Craigslist and someone is giving it away for free. You call them up and they say that as long as you can move the piano out of their home, you can have it. Unless you’re extremely adventurous, you’re going to want to call a professional piano mover to move the piano for you. Let’s assume that this costs a minimum of $200. Unless the previous owner took great care of the piano (which is rarely the case if they are giving it away for free!), you are going to, at the very least, get the piano tuned by a piano technician. For the sake of discussion, let’s say they can get the work done for another $200. So at a bare minimum, that free piano will actually cost $400 – which is almost the price of a brand new digital piano.

We get hundreds of pianos offered to our store every year and only a few are worth restoring. The pianos we take in are almost never in a condition to sell and they typically require thousands of dollars worth of work to put them into fine playing and cosmetic condition. Here are just a few things we evaluate with every single piano we are offered:

The finish of the case
Condition of the soundboard
The condition of the action parts on the piano
The tone of the instrument, does it need tuning, regulation, or voicing?

There are dozens more options that go into evaluating a piano, but these are just a few of the important aspects we evaluate on every single instrument. Each of these areas could cost thousands of dollars in repairs or replacement parts (as well as labor) and you must work with seasoned professionals.

Needless to say, you don’t want to move a piano into your home only to find out it’s simply beyond repair or going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars to get into playing condition. You’ll soon find out why that person was so desperate to get rid of their piano!

Buying a piano is a real challenge and whether you are looking for a new or used instrument it is extremely important to research your purchase and speak with someone you trust and is knowledgeable about what you’re looking for.

If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

If you’re a musician, you are probably familiar with solfeggio (or solfege). But, if you are unfamiliar with the term or need a quick refresher course, please check out our full video on What is Solfeggio?

So, what do we mean by movable-do or fixed-do solfeggio? These are two distinct types of solfege and there are a number of variations on those styles as well.

With Fixed-do, C is always “do”, D is always “re”, E is always “mi” and so on through the scale. You don’t account for flats or sharps. So, it is basically note naming. The notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C are called: do, re, mi fa so, la, ti, do.

Movable-do is different from fixed-do except for the syllables. The notes in movable-do are based on pitch relationships so that “do” is the tonic of the major key you are in. So, in a piece with no sharps or flats, C is “do”. In a piece that has one sharp, G becomes “do” because you may be in G major. In a piece in G major (with F-sharp in the key signature) with movable-do, the notes: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G would be: do, re, mi fa so, la, ti, do! This is true for all keys. “Do” is the tonic (first note) of whatever key you are in. So, for example, if you had 5 flats in the key signature, D-flat would be “do”! You might wonder what the purpose of this is.

You also account for accidental syllables:

do – di – re – ri – mi – fa – fi – so – si – la – li – ti – do

Descending chromatic scale is:

do – ti – te – la – le – so – se – fa – mi – me – re – ra – do

Movable do can be extremely valuable for developing your ear. It enables you to hear all intervals since all scales have the same pitch relationships. For example, a perfect fifth will always be a perfect fifth whether it’s a C to a G, or a G to a D, or anywhere else. Utilizing movable-do can help you learn the pitch relationship between notes. It is a great tool for comprehending the music you hear.

Movable-Do

A great tool for hearing music

As a young child I was taught solfege and it is an extremely valuable skillset I utilize whenever I hear or play music. In fact, whenever I hear a piece of music, I automatically translate it into the syllables which helps me know the notes of music just from hearing it. It makes it possible to play by ear and to transcribe music I hear into written notation.

The problem with Atonal music

The whole idea of movable-do solfege is based on tonal music – having a tonic – that is having a starting note of the scale and all the pitch relationships between. Without this context, movable-do is meaningless and doesn’t work with atonal music.

Fixed-Do Solfege

Note naming is more important than you might think.

If you play the piano or the flute, it is probably not a big deal naming notes. Once you know how to read music, the notes are the notes and translating them to syllables may seem pointless.

But if you are a conductor, things are quite different. You have a many instruments in different keys and different clefs. It can be a great challenge knowing what notes you’re looking at. Note naming becomes an essential tool in this case for having a baseline for all the notes and naming them appropriately. It is also essential to communicate pitches with members of the orchestra.

Which One is Better?

This really depends on the situation and what your goal is.

If you want to be able to hear music and develop the ability to sight-sing music, transpose at sight, and transcribe music, learning movable-do solfege is an extremely valuable tool in achieving this. You will learn the relationship between notes to a very advanced degree that will make reading, transposing, and dictating music much easier.

Fixed-do solfege is a valuable tool in learning how to read a conductor score filled with various transpositions and a variety of clefs and being able to know what the absolute pitches are. If you’ve ever seen a conductor go through a score and digest it on the fly (realizing the music at the piano) it’s awe inspiring.

I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions about this topic or any other, please email me Robert@LivingPianos.com for more information.

Welcome back to our two part series on dots and notes. Last time we covered What a Dot Does to a Note. Today we are going to discuss what two dots do to a note.

Last time we talked about how adding a dot to a note adds the value of the next faster note. So what do two dots do to notes?

You might have seen these before:

It’s a little bit more complex than a single dotted noted and the general definition would be adding the value of the next faster note and then adding the value of the next faster note after that one or even more confusingly, adding half the value of the note plus a quarter value of the note. This is a needlessly complex way of explaining this and nobody wants to be doing math in their head while trying to play their music. Let’s take a look at the actual values of these double dotted notes and discuss this:

So let’s break down this concept using a whole note. In the case of a whole note you would add the value of a half note and a quarter note onto the whole note.

Whole note = 4 beats
Half note = 2 beats
Quarter note = 1 beat

Double Dotted Whole Note = Whole note + Half Note + Quarter note = 7 beats

All the note values can be broken down this way. At first it might be confusing but breaking it down into note values is so much easier than using fractions.

So while this isn’t a long lesson today it’s certainly an important and somewhat complex one. I hope this helps de-mystify this subject for you. Just for reference, here is a full chart of the note values when adding a dot or two dots to a note.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions please contact us directly info@livingpianos.com (949) 244-3729.

Welcome back to my two-part series on Diminished 7th Chords. Last week we talked about What a Diminished 7th Chord is and today we’re going to get a bit more in-depth about how and why the diminished 7th chord can be deceptive.

Last week we talked about how you can’t really invert a diminished 7thchord because it’s all minor thirds. There are however three ways to resolve these chords.

The first way to resolve a diminished 7th chord is to resolve it upward by a half step. So a B diminished 7th chord would resolve to C major or minor.

The next way to resolve diminished 7th chords is rather fascinating. If you lower any note in a diminished 7th chord by a half step and you will get a dominant 7th chord which can resolve in its usual manner from V7 to I. In C major, a G7 would resolve to a C major triad.

This might seem overwhelming but this is what makes the diminished 7thchord so deceptive yet so intriguing. It’s a wonderful chord and tool to use for improvisation and it’s one indicator of where a piece is going and the structure behind it.

The last way to resolve a diminished 7th chord is truly deceptive. You can take any note of a diminished 7th chord and make it the root of a major or minor triad. Try this out and you will be amazed a the unexpected sound!

This is a complex lesson and it would be a good idea to watch this video and try out the different resolutions so you can hear them. To recap: You can’t invert a diminished 7th chord because it’s all minor thirds even when inverting. There are three ways to resolve a diminished 7th chord. These chords are incredibly useful tools for many musical applications and it’s a great idea to get familiar with them and how they work. Once you understand the concepts behind them you will find it easier to understand them when you encounter them in your music.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com. If you have any further questions please feel free to ask and I look forward to bringing you more of these videos.

Welcome back to our series on technology and art. If you missed Part 1, we discussed technology’s impact on art throughout history and how it has affected musicians in modern times. Today we are going to talk about the influence of social media, the internet, and the connected world’s impact on music and art.

At the end of the 19th century, the Vorsetzer was invented. It was the first of its kind, a player-piano type of technology that could record performances with technical and musical accuracy recreating the original artists’ interpretation. No longer would you have to see a performance to hear it. Now you could sit and listen to the performer as if you were there – by having it re-created on a player system! Suddenly, the world of music became more connected and global.

When I was growing up and studying a piece of music, I would go to the store and buy a couple different recordings of the piece by different artists. I would get a good sense of how other pianists would approach the same piece but I was limited to what was available at the store. Today, things are much more accessible. All you have to do is open your internet browser and you’ll have access to dozens of different pianists playing the same piece!

What does this accessibility do to our music and art? You would think that it would be a great benefit, right? Not necessarily.

While music is much more accessible now, a somewhat vanilla approach has evolved. If you listen to recordings of performers from the 1930’s, you will hear a lot of differences in individual performances. The same piece played by Rachmaninoff is incredibly different from Hoffmann, Lhévinne, Horowitz or Rubinstein. The differences in each of their performances are drastic and very apparent. Today’s differences between artists don’t exhibit the same type of individuality in their performances. Why is this?

With the advent of technology and the availability of content and recording capabilities so accessible, we have experienced a deluge of content. With the quantity of content has come a homogenized approach to music – performances tend to sound more the same. This is because when there are countless examples of particular pieces, people will tend to emulate influences in their playing. Dramatically different interpretations may be considered “wrong” by some people accustomed to the norm created by the massive number of established performances.

On the other hand, music from other countries and cultures is more accessible and able to be heard by a global audience that has never been accessible before. Suddenly, we are able to experience music we have never heard before! This helps to develop musicians from different cultures with unique influences. Some of the most interesting new music being written today is a hybrid of different styles from around the world – much like culinary artists creating fusions of Asian, French, Spanish or other elements in their creations.

So the social reach and accessibility of music has both good and bad qualities. On one hand, everyone can hear new music and have access to new sounds and influences. On the other hand, we have somewhat of a simplification of style for musical performances as a new “normal” is established through recordings, and people tend to be somewhat fearful to stray from the established standard.

I’m very interested to hear your opinions on this topic and how it’s affected your own music and performances. Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos, if you have any questions or comments about this topic or any topic at all please contact us directly Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729.

What is a Major Scale?

How Many Musical Scales Are There?

What is a Relative Minor Scale?

What is a Chromatic Scale?

What are Pentatonic Scales?

What are Whole Tone Scales?

So let’s get back to the topic at hand. Why is it a good idea to sometimes have E sharp instead of F or C flat instead of B written in your music?

Let’s say for example you had a piece in C-sharp major:

As you can see, it has all the same letters as a C major scale and we happen to have an E# in there as well instead of F. It would look pretty weird on paper if the notes were C# D# F F# G# A# B# C# wouldn’t it? In cases like the one above it is much easier to decipher the notes if they are written diatonically.

Let’s examine this same topic when it comes to chords. Chords are built on the interval of 3rds (for more information you can see our video: What is a Chord?). To put it in simple terms, chords are built upon the interval of a 3rd which are two letters apart – all lines or all spaces. So for example, here is a C major chord:

So if you had a C# major chord it would look like this:

And the same principle applies as the one above. It’s much easier to comprehend the chord written with an E# rather than an F. It makes more sense and is more digestible on the page. It is instantly recognizable as a chord.

Hopefully this clarifies the concept of why E sharps and C flats are (and other accidentals which are white keys) are easier to read than their enharmonic equivalent spellings.

Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact us directly: info@LivingPianos.com or (949) 244-3729.