Tag Archives: how to play piano

How to Make Memorization Easier

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to show you how to make memorization easier. Memorizing piano in music is one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do mentally. It takes all of your concentration. I’m going to show you how to approach this so that you can make it easier and more effective!

How much music should you learn at a time?

I will use, as an example, the second movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata. I’m going to play the first phrase, and then I’m going to show you how to approach memorizing it to make it easier. Let’s say you sit down to learn this piece. You figure the first eight measures is a good amount to learn, so you play it over and over again until you kind of get it. But that is far too much material to take at a time! If you were to add up the sheer number of notes, it doesn’t seem like a lot of music. But there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of details when you consider that every note has its own fingering, phrasing, and expression. So there are four details to each note, not to mention the rhythm!

I’ve talked about how to memorize by taking small amounts of music at a time, playing hands separately, and then putting them together. Well, there is more to it than that. I’m going to show you some tips right now. First of all, if you analyze the score right at the beginning, you realize that the right hand is in chords. So learn it in chords first. Now, if I were learning this, I wouldn’t take eight measures at a time. Sometimes you can learn four measures of one hand, but when you put the hands together, chop it in half. Just do two measures when you’re putting the hands together, because:

The hardest part about memorization is putting the hands together.

I would suggest just learning the first two measures. Start with just the first two measures, but give yourself the extra note of the beginning of the third measure as a connection point. That’s plenty of material, believe it or not. How long will it take you to learn that? Not so long. Now, you might have gone through the first eight measures and played it over and over again for 30 minutes or an hour. But you know what? You’ll never quite get it because you don’t give yourself the opportunity to really study the infinitesimally small details that you can master in just a few minutes. Once you get the right hand memorized in chords, then you get the left hand memorized. Then you put hands together in chords. The next step would be to play the right hand alone the way it’s written. And then finally, put the hands together going extremely slowly at first. Then, if you like, you can reward yourself and play with the pedal, which is the last thing you do in your practice.

If you have trouble delineating the melody from the 16th notes in the right hand, you can practice with articulations.

Play with a light finger staccato on the 16th notes to train your hand which notes are accompaniment and which notes are melody. Better yet, put your hands together, and you have a duet between the soprano and the bass with the inner voice playing with a gentle finger staccato.

If you learn just two measures, or if you learn four measures, hands separately and then put together just two measures at a time, you’ll give yourself a fighting chance to really perfect the music as you go. Plus, since you’re not overwhelming yourself, you can sustain a longer, productive practice. So remember to cut things in half. Learn less at a time, and don’t use the pedal until the very end of the process so that you can hear what’s there and develop the best fingering in your playing. So those are some memorization tips for you! I hope this helps with your memorization. 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

How to Have a Piano While Traveling

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how to have a piano while traveling. Sometimes I go on vacation, and it’s frustrating not having a piano. I finally have time to devote to the piano, but there is no piano to play! What kind of vacation is that? Maybe you feel the same way. You’re busy all the time, and then when you finally have some free time, there’s no piano. Not that you want to spend your whole vacation practicing the piano, but you certainly want a piano you can play. How can you achieve such a thing?

Bring a digital piano with you!

One way you can have a piano on vacation is by doing what I do. I have a high-quality, very lightweight digital piano that I can take with me. It weighs just 24 pounds! If you have a simple folding X-stand, it takes up so little room. If you like, you can even take some headphones with you so you don’t have to disturb anybody. You can just put it in your trunk along with your other stuff. I’ve taken that piano with me to all kinds of places. What about if you’re flying? This is a big problem, but I have some tips for you!

Do you know that you can search Airbnb for places that have pianos?

You’ll find that there are some places you can stay that have pianos in them. There’s even a website that has places you can stay all over the world that have pianos in them. So that’s an ideal situation. Stay in a nice house, apartment, or condo that has a piano. Maybe you want the amenities and convenience of a hotel. Well, a lot of times, bigger hotels have pianos in them. I’m pretty brave in that respect. I will sneak into rooms and find a piano. You might get kicked out, but you might just be able to play for a while. People might even appreciate it! Sometimes there’s a piano in a bar or a restaurant, and you can possibly play it when they are not that busy.

There are different places you can steal time on pianos, if you’re lucky.

If you have any friends in different cities who have pianos, that is obviously a great way to get some time with a piano. Piano stores are probably not the best place to try to play pianos because they have an agenda of selling pianos. If you’re in there practicing or even playing, that’s probably not going to be conducive to their business. Sometimes a school will have pianos, but getting into schools can be tough. So I recommend finding hotels or Airbnbs that have pianos.

There is another option, but it’s not a very good option…Yet!

This is an option I’m hoping will improve over time, which is folding pianos. Yes, there are folding pianos. I have one. There are times when I’m traveling and I still want to do my teaching. If I’m traveling by plane, I obviously can’t take my digital piano with me. The good thing about folding pianos is how compact they are, but the bad part is that they have horrendously bad actions. It’s not possible to do serious playing on folding pianos. For memorization, music theory, composition, and even teaching, where you’re just demonstrating things, these folding pianos get the job done and are very inexpensive. I’m hoping someday somebody comes out with a decent quality folding piano you can fit in the overhead bin on a flight. Wouldn’t that be great? In the meantime, take the little tips I gave you. If you’re traveling by car, get a digital piano to take with you with an X-stand. Look for hotels or Airbnbs that have pianos. In a pinch, you could do some work on a folding piano. If anybody has any other ideas, let me know in the comments! 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

Will Playing by Ear Hurt Your Classical Playing?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about playing by ear. Will playing by ear hurt your classical playing? There are many teachers who tell their students they must not play by ear because it will mess up the precision of their classical playing. The only ounce of truth to this is if somebody is learning classical repertoire by ear and not studying the score. You’re never going to be able to play Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, or Bach as intended if you do it all by ear.

Is playing by ear intrinsically bad for you?

Not only does playing by ear not hurt your classical playing, but I’ll go so far as to say that all playing is by ear! You may take it from the sheet music initially, but ultimately, with all the music you play, you’re playing by ear. You first learn it from the visual representations on the page. But then you hear it and create it on the piano. So playing by ear is essential for piano playing. Not only that, but for most styles of music, it’s absolutely necessary to play by ear because the written score is not how that music was conceived to begin with. You’ll never be able to play blues faithfully from a score. You have to be able to play by ear.

What about playing classical music by ear?

Ultimately, when you play your classical music, even though you’re playing the notes faithfully to what the composer wrote, you should be essentially playing by ear. In fact, one of the biggest fears when playing a memorized piece or program is having a memory slip. But if you can play your classical music by ear, how can you possibly have a memory slip? It’s virtually impossible to have a memory slip because even if you forget where your hands go for a moment, you’ll know where you are and you can keep going. You can get back on track instantly because you know what it’s supposed to sound like.

I encourage all of you to play by ear!

Play your classical music by ear. Even though you’ve digested the score from the sheet music, you must transcend the visual and turn it into an aural experience that you can share with your audience. I wonder if any of you disagree with this assessment about playing by ear and how it affects your classical playing. Be sure to let me know how you feel about this in the comments!

Will playing swing rhythms in jazz or blues affect the integrity of your classical playing?

The difference between how you approach 19th-century music compared to 18th-century music is stylistically extremely different. If you can play those styles, which are different from one another, why shouldn’t you be able to expand to other styles of music that have different rhythmic feels? My personal feeling is: the more, the merrier! If you can play more styles of music, you will enjoy music more, and you will be a more well-rounded musician. 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

How to Recharge Your Piano Playing

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today, I’m going to show you how to recharge your piano playing. Have you ever gotten a piece to a really high level and played it on a regular basis, but somehow it goes stale? It’s just not quite there. It’s not like there are trouble spots you can practice. The whole thing just doesn’t have the spark that it once had. How can you get it back into shape? I’m going to show you today. There are some very basic techniques that are going to do the job for you.

Slow practice is one of the most important aspects of piano playing.

I have had the opportunity to study with some absolutely stupendous piano teachers, including my father, Morton Estrin, Ruth Slenczynska, Constance Keene, and John Ogden. They all practiced slowly. Every fine pianist I have ever met practices slowly. Even when you can play something up to tempo, going back and practicing slowly is absolutely essential on the piano. You should also take your foot off the pedal. Listen to what your fingers are doing. The pedal covers so much. I can tell you that these two tips I have just given you are so fundamental that every great classical pianist uses them.

Use the score.

Even if you have a piece memorized, it’s not good enough. You have to reinforce your memory. Do you think you can remember every single detail, like where a slur ends, where a crescendo begins, or the exact voicing of every chord? You must constantly reinforce your memory!

Use the metronome.

Practice with a metronome to keep yourself honest. Put the metronome on a nice, slow speed. Play with no pedal and keep your eyes on the score. The amazing thing is that just going through it slowly like that a few times will already clean up your playing enormously. But if you really want to develop a stellar technique, you can do all the speeds in between, where necessary. You might not have to do all the speeds everywhere. But any place that doesn’t come out consistently or feel comfortable, do progressively faster metronome speeds on those sections.

I remember watching my father practice when he was preparing to record his Brahms album. I used to watch my father practice all the time. I loved it! It was really enriching. I remember he got to a point where he was playing through everything just slightly under tempo without the pedal. It was totally relaxed and clean. That’s what you want. You want to get to the point where you get it up to tempo and it’s all comfortable. The notes are just there. You don’t have to work to make it come out. And because you study the score again and again, slowly seeing every detail, you really perfect your performance.

This is a great way to get any piece back into shape!

If you have a piece that’s gone stale or a piece you’re performing and you want to make sure it’s still in good shape, this technique is bulletproof. Practice slowly, with the score, no pedal, and using a metronome. Try it in your practice! You’ll be amazed at what this can do for your playing! I hope this is valuable for you! Let me 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

How Many Levels of Pianissimo Are There?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about playing pianissimo. How many different levels of soft playing are there on the piano? By the end of this video, I’m going to reveal the answer to you!

There are different levels of quiet.

So many times, pieces of music are written to be played softly or even very softly. For example, Clair de Lune is written pianissimo at the beginning and stays pianissimo for a long time. Does that mean you should play that entire section as quietly as possible? I’m going to give you a little analogy. Just imagine you’re with someone who’s very dear to you, and you’re having a tender conversation. Maybe it’s late at night when other people are sleeping and you’re whispering. As you’re whispering, you’re saying very important, personal things about yourself. There’s some animation, and there’s tenderness. It’s all quiet, but there are different levels of quiet, aren’t there?

There must be nuanced expression in your pianissimo playing.

When you are playing quietly, there is nuance of expression, just as there would be in a tender conversation with a loved one. You must have expression in your playing. So the question is: how many levels of soft are there? And the answer is that there’s an infinite range of soft expression, just like dividing halfway between two points again and again and again. There is no limit to how much expression you can bring to a well-regulated piano while maintaining a pianissimo dynamic. I want you to try this with your music and see how many different levels of soft playing you can achieve, getting the maximum expression 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.

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

Why You Must Peak Later in Your Phrases

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.

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