Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about why you must peak later in your phrases. What am I talking about? In most lyrical music, that is, music with melody, you have a line that has a rise and a fall. You may have noticed that oftentimes, when you are trying to make those decrescendos to have beautiful phrase endings, it’s difficult to control.
Find musical solutions to your technical problems.
Taking the crescendo of the phrase almost to the end and then tapering off sounds much more musical than peaking in the middle of the phrase. And it’s technically so much easier to execute! I often talk about musical solutions to technical problems, and that’s exactly what this is. The music and the technical execution are in perfect alignment. This is what you must look for, not only in this aspect, which is fundamental to melodic music, but in all your technical challenges in music.
By having the peak of the phrase later in the phrase, you’ll get a more intense expression.
The idea of round phrasing is fundamental to music, but remember to make the peak of your phrase later. It propels the music forward and makes it easier to control the end of the phrase to have a nice, expressive, delicate phrase ending. It’s much akin to the way a wind player or a singer will use the air, and they don’t run out of breath before the end of the phrase. Have you ever heard a singer or wind player who just doesn’t have enough air support? They get to the end of the phrase, and it’s just lacking. For wind players, the pitch goes flat at the end. This is exactly the same idea as in your piano playing. I want you to go through all your lyrical music and try this for yourself! Let me know how this works for you in all of your lyrical music. Leave your 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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Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how to solidify rhythms. I did a video a while back called What Is the Most Important Aspect of Music? I identified rhythm as the most important part. Of course, it’s hard to say one aspect of music is the most important, but rhythm is an intrinsic part of music. What can you do to solidify rhythms in your music? There are many things you can do! I’m going to outline them for you today to help solidify your music.
The essential way to figure out and solidify any written score is to count the rhythms.
Count them out loud. First, you can simply clap the rhythms before you even play them, so you can solidify the rhythm without being encumbered by fingering, phrasing, expression, and notes. The important thing about counting is to count consistently. In other words, if you’re counting a piece in 4/4 time that has eighth notes, you want to count with the “ands” even if you don’t have eighth notes on those “ands.” So you want to count, “one – and – two – and – three – and – four – and.” Count all the beats and just fit in the notes where they land, even when you aren’t playing eighth notes. If you don’t count all the “ands,” the rhythm can go haywire.
Your counting must have the same divisions throughout.
This is also true if you have a piece that just has occasional 16th notes. It can be really cumbersome to count, “one – uh – and – uh – two – uh – and – uh – three – uh – and – uh – four – uh – and – uh.” It’s hard to get up to speed counting that way. Initially, you might want to do that, but then soon you might just want to count with the “ands.” But again, you want to be consistent. Keep your counting style consistent throughout a piece, or at least a section of the piece, for it to really have value for you. What else is there other than counting?
The metronome is invaluable for solidifying rhythms.
You can use the metronome to solidify rhythms as well as tempo. You might have the rhythm solidified, but then your tempo fluctuates in different sections of the piece. For example, a piece that has mostly slow notes in one section and then faster notes in another section. How can you possibly have the same pulse unless you use the metronome? For example, in Farewell by Burgmüller, you have eighth notes at the beginning, then it goes to triplets. You even have a ritard thrown in there in the transition. Take out the trusty metronome so you know how to justify the beat when you’re going from two divisions of the beat to three divisions of the beat. This is a great way to solidify your tempo and rhythm. The metronome is an invaluable tool, as I’ve talked about before. Is there anything else you can do?
Believe it or not, there’s something you can do away from the piano!
You have a piece of music, and you’re having trouble really feeling the pulse of the beat. The metronome isn’t working for you, so what do you do instead? You can go marching! Take a walk and play in your mind, or sing the part that is giving you trouble to the beat of your stride. That’s something you can do to literally feel the beat.
Dancing is a tremendous way to feel the beat.
Just feel the music and make motions to it. There’s a whole field of study about this called Eurythmics. It enables people to get a sense of rhythm by clapping, moving, and improvising, all of which utilize the body as part of the process of learning and becoming comfortable with rhythms. Move parts of your body, particularly when you’re away from the piano. You don’t want to get into the habit of moving around when you’re playing the piano because it’s distracting to the audience and can become a habit. If you need to tap your foot, a little trick you can use is to tap your left heel. If you tap the toe, it can make noise. You can even tap your heel while you’re using the soft pedal, and it won’t really get in the way of the music or the audience.
So those are some tips for you! Once again, counting out loud is important; using the metronome is a vital part of any serious classical player’s practice; you can master music while singing or thinking it in your head; and you can dance to your music. These are all ways you can solidify your rhythm on the piano or other instruments! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
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Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com
Welcome to Living Pianos, Robert Estrin here providing ways you can make money playing the piano. Can you make a living playing the piano? Did you know that there are tens of millions of piano students in China alone? And there are countless pianists in the entire world. However:
There are only around 200 pianists performing internationally in the great concert halls around the world.
There are close to 1,800 higher education schools granting music degrees in the United States alone. And each of these has piano majors graduating, hoping to become concert pianists. You might be discouraged by the whole idea of making a living as a pianist, but hang on a minute, because:
There are many ways to make a living playing the piano.
You’ll find that most people today who are making a living with the piano are people who are highly creative, not just in their art of playing the instrument but in their whole approach to how they bring the piano to people. After all, the piano has been around for centuries. It took hundreds of years for the piano to develop, but it’s been in its modern form since the latter part of the 1800s. Naturally, in that time period, there were some phenomenal pianists, from Liszt to Chopin and so many more.
In the early 20th century, the piano was the de facto home entertainment system in the United States!
The piano was tremendous, but it’s been on the decline, particularly in the United States, for over 100 years now. In China, the piano is really huge. There are hundreds of companies making pianos. And, as I said, there are about 40 or 50 million piano students in China! So at least in one part of the world, piano has risen in popularity. But let’s get back to how you can make money with the piano. There are many different ways. Obviously, playing solo piano concerts is tough. If you’re creative and you can figure out local series and what they’re looking for, you might just be able to find some possibilities for performing solo piano concerts. That is great because you are able to hone your craft and exploit what you’ve been trained for and spent your whole life lovingly working on.
Accompanying other musicians and collaborative playing in general can be richly rewarding.
There is some phenomenal chamber music repertoire for piano quartet or quintet. I was able to perform the Schumann Piano Quintet a couple of years ago. It’s a great piece. There are also great works by Brahms and Dvořák. There’s just spectacular music, and it’s quite an art form! It almost sounds like an orchestra because you have the string quartet plus a piano. It is one of the greatest ensembles, if you haven’t explored it. And there are many other opportunities for collaboration.
Almost all violin and cello solo music has piano parts that are fundamental to the works.
There is some great solo music for strings, by Bach in particular. Paganini and other composers did write solo music for violin and cello. But the vast majority of solo music for strings has integral piano parts that can be as demanding or even more demanding and intrinsic than the string parts. It can be a richly rewarding experience to accompany a soloist. But it’s not just string players. Virtually every orchestral instrument that has solo music, the vast majority of it is collaboration with the piano. Because of this, people are always looking for pianists. It can be a daunting task to think of all the music you have to learn. You might consider specializing. Maybe you’ll just learn a lot of vocal accompaniments. Maybe you’ll specialize in opera accompaniments or art songs. Maybe you played clarinet and are familiar with the literature, so you could specialize in learning accompaniments to clarinet music. You will find that virtually all instruments are looking for pianists to play their music with. So this is a great possibility!
What other possibilities are there in regards to performing?
There are other opportunities, whether it’s a musical theater production looking for somebody to play keyboard parts or rock bands, folk, country, or what have you. There are dance companies and schools that need pianists for rehearsals and performances. There are many different performing opportunities if you are versatile. Expanding the styles that you are comfortable with makes you much more marketable. This can provide you with more opportunities to play the piano.
Playing at church or in other places of worship can offer rich opportunities for musical collaboration.
There is a vibrant in-home concert scene in many communities in which people with good pianos in large enough homes host concerts and offer refreshments. Audience members all pay a fee to the artist. This provides important performing opportunities for musicians while enriching the lives of the people in the community. If you are creative, you may be able to work out musical programs in nursing homes or private schools offering a valuable experience for people of all ages. Composers are always looking for opportunities to have their music performed.
Teaching is a tremendous way to share your craft.
You don’t necessarily have to get an advanced degree to teach piano. If you want to teach at the university or college level, a master’s degree is a prerequisite these days. A doctorate degree is very helpful because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of piano performance majors graduating each year in the United States and abroad, and they are all looking for these positions. So you have to do something to set yourself apart. I recommend not just getting advanced degrees, but trying to do something original so you can be noticed among the hundreds or thousands of applicants that schools receive for these positions. Something that is unique to you, some voice that you have, a vision about the piano in society today, or a specialty of repertoire. Maybe you love contemporary music and just want to help composers. That’s another great way to get performance opportunities.
Composers are always looking for opportunities to have their music performed.
If you love contemporary music and are willing to put in the work, you can find people who will pay you to play their music because they need performances. Otherwise, the music just sits somewhere, and nobody gets to hear it except maybe a machine playing it. What fun is that?
To teach privately, you don’t even need a degree!
You just have to have training to be able to know how to teach. There are people like myself who teach piano pedagogy, so you can get instruction in that. You don’t have to be a concert-level player to be a good teacher. In fact, there are many concert pianists who are not necessarily great teachers. Maybe they were child prodigies, and they have no idea how they do what they do. Someone who started later in life may not have a virtuosic technique, but may still understand how to convey what it takes to learn a piece of music. That knowledge could be passed on to piano students. It can be a tremendous experience to help people develop their piano playing.
There are many ways in which you can share your music on the piano.
Creating music for media is another way. You could offer original music for websites, films, or commercials. There are endless possibilities. Become adept at software and social media, because this is the way of the world. Maybe 100 years ago, it was possible just to play classical piano concerts. In some places in the world today, like Europe, may still be possible. But in this country, it’s a lost art to a great extent. And there are so many people vying for opportunities to perform. There are places like the Nixon Museum in Orange County that have people wanting to perform there with no fee whatsoever, playing for free! So there’s a lot of competition. You have to be creative! Think of all the different types of performances, teaching, and what you can do with media, social media, and technology to be able to bring piano to more people and to be able to make money doing it. So those are my suggestion for you. Anyone who has other suggestions, please let us know in the comments! Thanks again for joining me,Robert Estrin, here atLivingPianos.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
Bach lived in Leipzig, Germany and did very little travelling. However, whenever musicians came through town, he would make a point of hearing them. So he wrote a vast array of music of different cultures including English Suites, French Suites, Italian Concerto, as well as a wealth of other music. He wrote weekly masses at the church where he worked. At one point, he was composing music for 3 different churches!
One of Bach’s most substantial bodies of work are his 48 Preludes & Fugues known as, The Well Tempered Clavier. He celebrated the advancement of tuning technology, which finally afforded the possibility of playing in all 12 keys without the necessity of re-tuning the instrument, by composing Preludes and Fugues in each of the major and minor keys. As if that wasn’t enough, he composed 2 books of them!
The Toccatas are pieces in which Bach explores free-form writing.
This gives insights as to what it might have been like to hear Bach improvise music at the keyboard. The E minor Toccata starts with a short movement, then goes right into a fugue. Then there is a very free movement which is like a fantasy. Finally, an incredible fugue with a subject that only Bach could utilize with his brilliance with counterpoint. It is a long, fast subject, and the fugue ends with a flourish of notes for a rousing ending to this fantastic piece!
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. With over 1500 videos on LivingPianos.com, it’s amazing when I think of a topic that I’ve never covered before that’s so fundamental! Today I’m going to talk about how to practice reading pieces. First of all, let me explain what I’m talking about. I have obviously described the process of practicing pieces to memorize: the painstaking process of taking one hand at a time, very small phrases, mastering all elements of the score, the notes, rhythm, fingering, phrasing, and expression of each hand separately, memorizing them, putting them together one phrase at a time, and then connecting them. But sometimes your pieces are not solo pieces, and it wouldn’t make much sense to memorize them.
You may have pieces you aren’t going to memorize but still want to play at a high level.
For example, let’s say you’re playing in an orchestra that has a piano part in it. You’re not going to memorize such a score. Or if you’re accompanying a singer, if the piece is at your reading level, you can just read through it. But suppose it’s harder than that, and you want to play it with them. You’re not going to memorize this piece; so how do you approach such a thing? I’m going to tell you about that. Read to the end because I’m going to tell you an additional benefit to this that’s essential for your piano practice.
You can’t learn a piece by simply reading through it.
I describe the process of how to learn a piece of music that you’re memorizing as opposed to just reading it through again and again until you kind of get it. The danger with that type of practice is that unless you’re playing it perfectly, you are likely doing more harm than good. If the piece is of sufficient difficulty for you, it’s probably not something you cqn just read through perfectly. Otherwise, why study that piece if you can already play it? So usually, you’re taking a piece of music that has more challenges than something you can just read through perfectly. If you read through something you’re missing again and again, you’re going to reinforce those mistakes. In a piece, each note has a rhythm, a fingering, a dynamic level, and other expression markings. So if you count up the number of notes in a piece and multiply by four or five with all the elements that it has, you come up with thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of details! There’s no way that you can just assimilate that kind of information without an organized approach.
What do you do to learn a piece of music you’re not memorizing?
Interestingly, you can use much of the same type of practice method with a piece you are not going to memorize! First, read through the piece just to get acquainted. If there are large sections you can already play just reading, that’s good. You may not need to practice those parts further. But for any sections that you can’t just read through adequately, practice them the same way you practice memorizing. However, because you’re not memorizing, you can take a bigger chunk of music at a time. So if normally you take two measure phrases, hands separately, maybe you take four measure phrases or even eight measure phrases.
Get one hand really fluent, study the score carefully for all details, get the dynamics right from the get-go, and work out good fingering. Learn all the details of the score. If there are expression marks that provide additional indications of how the music should be played, incorporate them right from the beginning. Get one hand as fluent as possible, and then do the same thing with the other hand. You’re not memorizing, but just getting it totally fluid. Then put your hands together. Slow down at first so you can get it accurate the first time, then play it many times and speed the phrase up. Work through the whole piece in this manner connecting sections as you go. You might not be able to get everything up to tempo right at the beginning, but get each section as fast as you can, knowing that you’re going to revisit it tomorrow to work on all the sections again. Then you can get it a little bit faster and get more fluid connections between sections, always working to the point of diminishing returns on all sections. You’ll know which sections still need work because you won’t be able to play those sections adequately up to tempo yet.
You can revisit pieces you’ve already memorized and solidify your work by reading them.
You can go through pieces you’ve already memorized, and any sections you can’t read, you can practice in this manner. It’s absolutely essential that you are able to read through pieces you have memorized. Otherwise, over time, they will degrade. You won’t possibly be able to keep all the integrity of your memory over a long period of time through sheer repetition of playing without referencing the score. You must go back and reinforce the memory by reading through the score. This is a great way to develop your reading abilities in pieces that you want to be able to play that are not to be memorized, as well as reinforcing the memory of pieces you’ve already learned. 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 two reasons why you must change fingers when you have repeated notes on the piano. Oftentimes, you’ll see fingering telling you to use different fingers on the same note. Why would you need to do that? Can’t you just play the same note with the same finger? The answer is yes, but there are two times when this is not true. Today I’m going to show you two times when you absolutely must change fingers on repeated notes.
Changing fingers is crucial on fast, repeated notes.
Very fast, repeated notes are virtually impossible to play with one finger. You couldn’t possibly play fast enough with one finger instead of using multiple fingers. Different fingers can absolutely go faster. So that’s an obvious place where you must change fingers on repeated notes. But there’s another time when you must change fingers on repeated notes as well.
If you want to achieve a true legato on repeated notes, you must change fingers.
By lifting up previously played finger while the next finger is coming down, you can achieve a far smoother sound when repeating the same note. You can achieve a far greater legato.. Now, you might think that you can make it work by using the pedal, and the pedal will indeed help; but even without using the pedal, you can achieve a legato sound by changing fingers on a repeated note. It’s remarkable how much legato can be achieved even without the pedal!
By adding the pedal with the repeated notes and changing fingers, you get the ultimate smooth legato.
You don’t need to use the pedal all that much. The changing of fingers makes for such a better legato. To recap, when you play quickly, you must change fingers in order to facilitate rapid, repeated notes. And when you have slow repeated notes that are to be played smoothly, you also must change fingers in order to achieve a true legato. However, if you have instances with repeated notes that don’t require an extreme legato, or aren’t so fast, you can use the same finger and get good results. But these are two instances where you must change fingers on repeated notes. 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
