Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to tell you about 7 YouTube piano channels you should know about. It’s remarkable what a resource YouTube is. Did you know that YouTube is actually the second-most popular search engine after Google? Which is kind of scary when you consider that they’re both owned by the same company, Alphabet. I’m going to tell you about channels you may already know about and some you may not know about.

I’m going to start with a very popular channel by concert pianist Josh Wright.

Josh Wright Piano is the name of his channel. He’s here in the United States. He started on YouTube in 2009, the same year that Living Pianos started our YouTube channel. He has over 20 million views, 187,000 subscribers, and 711 videos! Josh is very professional in his delivery. He’s a fine pianist, and he’s got so much to offer. He’s a concert pianist and a teacher. He has everything from mastering sight-reading to tutorials on different repertoire, from Chopin waltzes to Scott Joplin rags. He also has performance videos of his playing. He has exercises. He even has videos about the psychology of playing and tips on piano technique. So it’s a really well-rounded channel that covers a lot of basic things that you’re probably interested in.

Tiffany Poon has a very different channel that I came upon years ago, and I’ve been following it ever since.

Tiffany Poon Pianist is the name of her YouTube channel. She’s a young, aspiring concert artist. She gives you a glimpse into what it’s like, from her days at Juilliard to the concert stage. She’s also in the United States. She started on YouTube back in 2007. She has 54 and a half million views, 323,000 subscribers, and 374 videos! From her Juilliard admissions to backstage at concerts, you get a real feeling for what it’s like for a young artist in this world and the psychology of it. She lets you into that world, so you feel like she’s talking just to you. It’s very personal. She reveals her inner emotions about all the things involved in the rigors of concertizing, traveling, and all of that. She’s proud to be releasing her Schumann album, which is just coming out now. This is really an achievement for this young concert pianist. She has tutorial videos on famous piano pieces like Clair de Lune and Chopin Fantaisie-Impromptu. She’s a delightful young woman and an emerging artist worth checking out.

Moving on to the other side of the world, we have Paul Barton.

Paul Barton Piano is located in Thailand. He started on YouTube in 2008. He has 199 million views, 700,000 subscribers, and over 2000 videos! He has involved his daughter in the videos since she was a baby sitting there by the piano. And now, he has four-hand videos playing along with his daughter. Sometimes he’s accompanying his daughter while she’s singing, and it’s really touching to see this development. He has tons of videos, playing famous piano pieces like Clair de Lune. But perhaps you’ve seen his most famous videos, where he plays piano for elephants! Pretty wild stuff. It’s definitely a different YouTube channel that covers many things and has a personal element with the family involvement.

Pianist Magazine is a tremendous resource, and they also have a YouTube channel.

Pianist Magazine is the name of the YouTube channel. One of their main artists is Graham Fitch. He’s in the United Kingdom. He started on YouTube in 2012. The channel has 9.7 million views, 100,000 subscribers, and 350 videos! This is a terrific channel! He gives in-depth tutorials of all different types, like How to Use Rubato and Understanding Meter and Rhythm. He has videos on scales and arpeggios and a masterclass series on different techniques like wrist and octaves, pedaling runs, and passage work. This channel is just a treasure trove of useful tips from a great pianist. Interestingly, Josh Wright, who I mentioned earlier, did an interview with Graham on his channel. So you can see them interacting together, which I think could be richly rewarding for you.

Another great channel you may have come upon is Pianote.

Pianote Official is the name of the YouTube channel, and it’s all the brainchild of Lisa Witt in Canada. The channel started on YouTube in 2008. It has 142 and a half million views, over a million and a half subscribers, and 834 videos! Lisa covers a wide range of styles, from worship music and rock piano to Chopin. She has videos like How to Play by Ear in Three Simple Steps, The Genius of Stevie Wonder and Piano Finger Speed Exercises. And she helps you to be able to match chords to melodies. So it’s not just about classical repertoire. It covers a wide range of styles in a very friendly, easy-to-follow format. It’s worth checking out if that’s the sort of thing you’re interested in.

Another great YouTube channel is Learn Piano with Jazer Lee.

Jazer Lee Piano is the name of the YouTube channel. He’s located in Australia. He started on YouTube in 2017. His channel has 32 million views, over 600,000 subscribers, and 165 videos! He covers piano technique with videos like 5 Classical Pieces Beginners Shouldn’t Skip, 5 Common Pitfalls of Self-taught Pianists, and Learning Piano as an Adult. These are subjects that I’m sure many of you are interested in. His videos are definitely worthwhile!

Next, we have Nahre Sol.

Nahre Sol is the name of her channel. She started on YouTube in 2017. She has 695,000 subscribers, over 54 million views, and 227 videos! She does some spectacular things that you’ve got to check out. For example, she plays Happy Birthday in the style of ten classical composers. And she nails it! It is really fun to listen to things like this. But she also covers things like piano technique. Her videos have very intriguing titles, like Is Chopin Jazz. You really have to see her take on these things. She has a whole series on how to sound like different composers, like Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and Chopin. It’s really interesting to get her insight into these composers. She really grasps the fundamentals, which is how she’s able to improvise and play in these styles. She also has great warm-up exercises. She has really keen insights into the great composers that could be really enriching for you!

That covers the seven great YouTube piano channels, but I have two bonus channels I’d like to share. The first one is Lord V.

Lord Vinheteiro is the name of his channel. You’ve probably already seen him because he’s so famous. He has over a billion views, over 7 million subscribers, and 671 videos! Can you believe it? How could he be that far ahead of everybody else in terms of views? The reason why is because this man is a comic genius! You’ve got to check him out. His videos have the goofiest titles sometimes, and yet, he never disappoints. He always takes you on an interesting journey. The funny thing is, he never talks in his videos! He plays, and he does little routines. He has videos like, Can You Hear The Difference Between a Cheap and Expensive Piano? 10 Songs You’ve Heard and Don’t Know The Name Of, and Can You Play Piano With Your Feet? Sometimes they get absurd, but they are so fun. They’re not usually that long. If you just want to have a blast and laugh your head off, tune in to Lord V, and you won’t be disappointed. Interestingly, Lisa Witt at Pianote has a collaborative video with him where he identifies pianos blindfolded. It’s unbelievable! You’ve got to check that video out! It’s a great introduction to both of these artists.

Lastly, my dear friend Zsolt Bognár.

Living The Classical Life is the name of his channel. This is such a rich resource. He travels the world with an absolutely exquisite video team from Germany and interviews some of the great artists of our time. He’s interviewed artists such as Yuja Wang, Daniil Trifonov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Joshua Bell. Zsolt has a way of disarming people, so you feel like they’re talking just to you. It’s almost like you’re grabbing coffee with someone and they’re just pouring their heart out. There’s a personal element to it. He’s able to get these people to just relax and open up. And the production is absolutely stellar! In fact, many of these videos are seen the world over on television broadcast stations. So check out Living The Classical Life – The New Channel. You’ll love it!

Let me know how many of these channels you already watch! Which ones do you like, and why do you like them? Let us know 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.

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

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

If they’re forced to practice and they hate every minute of it, they might just want to quit altogether. So they have to have some fun. Maybe they want to make up some music or play some popular songs. Some teachers don’t let them do that. You must strike a balance in your piano practice between hard work and the things you find enriching. With anything in life that you have a passion for, make sure you take time to enjoy it! Thanks again for joining me, 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

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about memorizing piano music. I’m going to give you strategies and techniques for long-term retention. This is a really important subject. Have you ever learned a piece and gotten it to a high level, but after some time you don’t remember it? You put in all that work, and now you can’t remember how to play the piece! Now what do you do? You can go back to the score and play it slowly. That might help you rekindle the music. But today, we’re talking about how to keep pieces in shape.

How many pieces can you keep in shape?

There are only so many pieces you can keep in shape. If you spend too much time with your review pieces, you don’t have time to learn new music. So you have to prioritize which pieces you’re going to keep in shape.

How do you keep pieces in shape after you learn them?

The most obvious thing of all is to simply play them on a regular basis. If you don’t play the pieces you learned before, they’re going to elude you after a while. So play them on a regular basis. If they’re short pieces, play them every day! People do all kinds of exercises just to keep their fingers in shape. Instead, you can use the pieces you’ve learned as good physical exercise for your hands. That way, you get the added benefit of keeping them in your memory.

Is playing through your pieces regularly enough to keep them in shape?

Sadly, just playing through your pieces regularly is not enough to keep them in shape. Did you ever play the game Telephone as a kid? You whisper a message to somebody next to you; they whisper to the person next to them, and it goes on and on. By the end of the class, you end up with a whole different message! The same thing could happen with your music. If every time you play it, it’s slightly different and you don’t realize it, you can end up with a whole new piece!

You have to refer back to the score.

The best thing you can do is get out the score, take your foot off the pedal, and play slowly, delineating everything in a very deliberate manner. You may also want to work with the metronome. For example, let’s say you’re working on the third movement of Mozart’s K. 545 C Major Sonata. You want to practice that piece slowly, exaggerating the staccatos from the wrist and using raised fingers so that the fingers that are up are up, and the fingers that are down are down. By doing this, you’re not just using motor memory. You’re deliberately playing each finger in a relaxed manner. You shouldn’t have any tension playing with raised fingers. It’s just like the stretching of an athlete. If you stretch to warm up before exercising or dancing, it doesn’t add tension. Quite the contrary, it’s a relaxation technique if you do it correctly. Playing very deliberately and slowly, absorbing the score, and solidifying the fingers and the sound is a fantastic way to solidify your review pieces.

You can also just think through your scores!

If you ever have time when you’re waiting in line somewhere or taking a shower, you can play the music in your head! Keep the sound of it, even just the sound of the melody, in your head so that you don’t forget it. Ultimately, the sound is the most important part of your music! Listening to recordings is a great way to keep a piece familiar while expanding your interpretive possibilities. Keep your music fresh by playing it on a regular basis, practicing it, listening to it, and thinking it through. You will be rewarded by having music you can play! What is it all about if you don’t have music you can sit down and play? If you do this enough, and take pieces that you have dropped and re-learn them again and again, then you really will have pieces in your permanent memory! I hope this is helpful for you! Thanks again for joining me, 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

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to give you an important wrist technique. I’ve talked so much about how to utilize the wrist in many of my videos, as well as with my students. The wrists are almost as important as the fingers in piano playing! There’s so much the wrists allow for in phrasing, the way in which notes are connected or detached. Generally speaking, I’ve talked about how the wrists have to be independent from the arms.

If you play with your arms, there’s a limitation to the speed you can achieve compared to playing with your wrists.

The wrist also has a crisper sound. So, for example, in a Bach Minuet, you would use your wrists to articulate the staccatos. The way to practice that is with various exercises where you just use your wrists without using your arms to achieve staccatos. And one simple exercise for this is to utilize thirds, just using your second and fourth fingers. You set the metronome on 60, and play using just your wrists, not going up and down with your arms.

The arms are important in keeping your fingers exactly over the right keys.

You want to move your arms to put your fingers over the correct keys. It seems so simple, and really it is! But playing in a simple manner might be hard if you’ve never done it before. But this enables you to achieve great speed. Once you can identify the wrists separate from the arms, then you can have the speed and power to play advanced repertoire. And it’s rather effortless, because you’re only using a small amount of mass instead of trying to play with your whole body or your arms. But what I’m talking about today is something entirely different. I’ve never brought this up in any video before. It’s a different type of wrist technique.

Suppose you want something a little bit more subtle, where the staccatos are not punctuated in such a manner.

With the technique I previously described, every single one of the staccatos are accented. Maybe you don’t want that. Maybe you want it to taper at the end, yet still keep it short. For that, there is an alternative wrist technique where you come up, instead of going down with the wrist. You actually come up with the arm, and allow the wrist to just be lifeless. This way it comes off with a gentle staccato, not an accented staccato. So that’s the tip for today. If you want a gentle staccato, you can come up with the arm and allow the wrist to be floppy. You get the opposite of an accent.

Come up with the arm, and let the wrist just gently bend without any force, and you get a gentle staccato that isn’t accented.

So that’s a new technique for you to try out in your music. I’m interested in how this works for all of you! Try it out where you have staccatos that are on the off-beats, staccatos that are not punctuated, that are not to be accented. This is a way you can achieve that phrasing without accenting the staccatos.

I hope this is helpful for you! Let me know in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and YouTube. Thanks again for joining me, 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