We’re continuing with our series of reading music versus playing by ear with Scott Houston The Piano Guy. Scott has a lot of books and he’s got all kinds of resources. Piano In A Flash – being able to play by ear is his specialty and he’s helped thousands of people. So you should check out his resources. Today, we are going to cover why playing by ear is essential for classical pianists. You might wonder why you would even need that when you have the score. Isn’t that enough? Let me put it to you this way. Whether you take the music from the written score initially or you learn it by ear, ultimately all playing is by ear!

It’s so easy to play a piece you have learned once you commit it to memory as a pianist. You may have found yourself as a classical pianist playing the piano and realizing in the middle that you’re not zoning out but you’re zoning back in! You don’t even know how long you’ve been playing on auto-pilot. How can this be? There is a certain amount of motor memory where your hands just go without thinking. This is not good. In fact, it is dangerous because you can easily take a wrong turn. If you have a sonata movement where there’s a recapitulation that goes into a different key from the exposition, you can find yourself either leaving out half the piece or going back to the beginning. This can be a nightmare situation!

There is another aspect to this. I’ve noticed sometimes listening to a performance at a concert, even though the playing is fine, I find myself not being able to concentrate on it. I find myself zoning out. More often times than not in these situations, that’s when the player has a memory slip! If you’re not engaged when you are performing as if you yourself are composing the music, then the audience can’t concentrate on the music either. That’s the secret of captivating an audience no matter what style of music you’re playing:

You must remain engaged in the music listening as you craft each note essentially playing by ear no matter how you initially learned the score!

The other reason why it’s essential for a classical pianist to be able to play by ear, is no matter who you are, how accomplished your skills playing the piano, or how much experience you have performing solo music from memory; you will have memory slips. It happens to everyone from time to time. None of us are perfect.

Here’s why playing by ear is so invaluable in these situations. If you get fouled up momentarily finding yourself over the wrong notes, you can hear the music in your head. Then you can play the correct notes by ear until you get back on track. I’ve actually had circumstances in performance where suddenly I find that I’ve forgotten something. Maybe I’m on the wrong finger on a note and I don’t know where I’m going. I just feel my way. Often times when I listen back to the recording of my performance I’ve actually played all the right notes even though I had a memory slip. I was able to flesh it out the correct notes. Other times might not be so fortunate. But by being able to play by ear, a momentary memory slip may result in only a slight blip in a performance in a situation that could have been disastrous.

So many classical pianists I know have never played by ear and have no clue how to even approach such a thing. I think everyone thinks that being able to play by ear is a God-given gift. We all have the ability to play by ear. If you can ever remember tunes, you can play by ear in some way. It’s a very human thing to do. Here is a critical thing to remember and this probably applies to a lot of people today who are serious classical pianists. You need to get to a point mentally where you realize that the black dots on white paper that you consider music, are really just a recording of music. It’s not the actual music. The music is the sound you are creating. Sheet music is no more music than writing is speech.

So, with that in mind, here are a couple of different thoughts: I think it’s helpful at the beginning if you’re trying to play by ear you should think through and use the ability you have as a good classical pianist or great notation reader to your advantage. When you’re reading a score, pay attention to what chords the score is spelling out. The step between doing 100% reading and the other side of that coin which is being 100% playing by ear is that it doesn’t just happen with no steps in the middle. The middle step is that you understand chord changes. It’s the theory that we’ve all learned of working through a tune and working through the chord changes. I think the middle step is to just start down that path and paying attention while you’re reading the score.

The more you’re working through tunes and you’re working through scores, you can imagine the score as what it looks like underhand and not as individual notes, but as a chord progressions. That’s the biggest tip I can give someone who has never done it at all and is to start to think in terms of chord progressions instead of individual notes. That can be a huge help. More than that, I think it’s really important not to be afraid to just try things because you’re going to experiment with hitting right notes and wrong notes. As you do this, you’re will refine what you do. That’s why playing by ear is essential for classical pianists and it’s a lot of fun too. We hope this has been helpful! I thank Scott Houston for joining in this continuing discussion about playing from the score versus playing by ear. Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store 949-244-3729 info@LivingPianos.com

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DOES ATONALITY GO AGAINST NATURE? THE OVERTONE SERIES – ATONALITY PART 2

The overtone series is a characteristic of all pitched sounds in nature as well as musical instruments. Anything that makes pitched sounds contains color tones above the fundamental tone. It’s a series of tones that goes up by an octave, then a fifth, then two octaves above the fundamental pitch and on and on. All these color tones affect the quality of the tone. That’s why in its simplest form a trumpet sounds distinctly different from a violin playing the same pitch. It has to do with the overtone series and how these overtones interact. So when you’re hearing an extremely low note, you are actually hearing more overtones than fundamental pitch! Your mind constructs the fundamental pitch particularly in descending lines that go lower than your hearing.

As a young child I performed an experiment utilizing my father’s tape recorder and my tape recorder. I recorded the lowest note of the piano at one speed, then played it back 4 times faster which raised the pitch 2 octaves. To my shock, instead of hearing a single note I head a chord! This is because on smaller grand pianos, the fundamental tone is so weak, that the overtones are actually as loud or louder than the fundamental tone! So, this is how you’re able to hear notes that are below 20 cycles per second such as the Bösendorfer Imperial which goes lower than your hearing as do some pipe organs with immense pipes that produce frequencies in the low double digits of frequencies. It’s not only that you feel the room shaking, but you hear the overtones and you surmise the fundamental pitch that you can’t actually hear. So the question is answered for you very simply, you’re not hearing something you can’t hear but your mind makes an image of that low tone in a convincing way.

Again, this is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com. info@LivingPianos.com

If you’ve followed my videos you might be familiar with some of my more advanced videos on this subject: How to Play Chords on the Piano Part 1 and Part 2; Diminished 7th Chords Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, and What are Parallel Chords? as well as some videos that cover the basics of scales: Relative Minor Scales, Major Scales, Whole Tone Scales, and Chromatic Scales. A lot of these videos go very well with this topic and they all relate to one-another.

So what is a chord? It might seem simple when you think about it but trying to put it into words can be challenging.

A chord is 3 or more notes arranged in thirds.

A scale is built upon whole-steps and half-steps (seconds) and a chord is built on the interval of a third. What is a third? It is essentially every other note of a scale. So if you were to play a C major scale (or any other major scale) and leave out every other note you would have a chord! It really is that simple; you can make a chord by simply playing every other note of a scale.

There are two types of thirds that are used in chords: major thirds with a total of four half-steps and minor thirds which contain three half-steps. Different combinations of major thirds and minor thirds are the fundamentals of Western harmony. There are expanded chords we can get into in another video but this is the basic information on what exactly a chords is.

And when it comes to chords, you don’t have to start on the first note of a scale, you can start on the second, the third and so on as long as you skip every other note of the scale.

Thanks so much for joining me here. We will be bringing you more videos on this topic very soon. If you have any questions please contact me directly Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729.

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.