Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about why you must exaggerate your playing when practicing slowly. Why would you want to exaggerate? Shouldn’t you try to play exactly the same way slowly as when you speed up? Yes, that’s a valuable technique, but there are many times when you want to exaggerate dynamics and phrasing in your slow playing.
If you don’t exaggerate your slow practice, you may end up with a watered-down performance.
If you’re practicing a piece slowly without exaggerated dynamics, when you play it up to speed, it can sound dull. Since you had so little definition of dynamics and phrasing, it all but disappears when you go faster. You naturally lighten up in order to facilitate speed. Those differences in dynamics and phrasing become diluted. So instead, when practicing slowly, exaggerate all the elements of the music. Then, when you play faster and with ease, your hands know what to do. The fingers are staying closer to the keys. The wrists are not making such exaggerated motions because they are already solidified. It still comes out because you have trained your fingers and wrists to delineate the phrasing and dynamics with such definition that when you speed up, staying closer to the keys, and lightenening up, the dynamics and the phrasing are still there. You can play with ease, and you don’t lose the expressiveness of your playing!
Try that in your practice! Let me know how it works for you in the comments! 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 why you need urtext editions. I received a question from Chris. Chris asks, “I find urtext editions online, but then they say ‘edited by.’ I thought urtext meant they weren’t edited. So how does a fully edited edition differ from an earlier text?” This is a great question!
The original manuscript scores of the great composers can be a nightmare in some cases.
For example, take a look at some of Beethoven’s scores. With all the crossing out and the quick way his calligraphy was executed, it’s all but impossible to tell what he really meant.
So there are scholars who go through early editions – not just the autograph copies, but early editions as well. They compare them to the autograph and try to figure out what is authentic. Another challenge is that many times composers rewrote their scores again and again. Chopin, for example, rewrote many of his compositions. So what is authentic? Is it the first one that he signed, or is it the last one? Is it something in between? So there’s a lot of scholarly work that goes into figuring out what is authentic.
Urtext editions strive to have exactly what the composer intended. However, there are also edited urtext editions.
It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Well, not exactly. Here’s how it works: either with footnotes giving alternatives to what is printed or, very often, in a different typeface like gray instead of black, the composer’s markings are augmented with suggestions. For example, in a sonata movement, if during the exposition there are certain phrase markings or dynamic markings, then later in the recapitulation the composer didn’t write those markings, it’s assumed that they should be there. So the editor of the urtext edition will put it in lighter type or some other way to distinguish it from what is in the original manuscript.
Do you really need all of that? Is it important to have an urtext?
If you’re a serious player, you really want to know what the composer wrote and what the editor added. Otherwise, you might not be faithful to the intentions of the composer. However, Bach, for example, rarely wrote any phrasing or dynamics in his keyboard music. But that doesn’t mean it should be played devoid of expression or phrasing. So having some suggestions from the editor can be a godsend. Even Mozart doesn’t have a lot of expression marks. Sometimes having those markings can be incredibly helpful if you’re a beginner or intermediate student. So the ideal, to sum it up, is to have a good scholarly edition that’s an urtext with editors markings and fingering.
Composers didn’t write in fingering!
If you’re a student, you want to have fingering suggestions. Even for a professional, having fingering suggestions can save you vast amounts of time. On websites like IMSLP.org, you can actually get two or three different editions for fingering suggestions. It’s such a wonderful thing. Before the internet, it would have been very costly to compare several editions. Maybe at the library you could do that, but buying several editions wouldn’t be in the cards for most students. This brings up the cost. Many urtexts are very expensive, like Henle Editions, which are really beautifully bound, scholarly editions of many works by Brahms, Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. But there are others, like Schenker Editions by Dover, which are very well bound, good scholarly editions that are not as expensive. Search out good, fingered, edited urtext editions for yourself! I think you’ll be rewarded with good suggestions and the knowledge of what the composers actually wrote. Great question, Chris! Keep them coming! 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’s question is: What makes a piano great? I have come across thousands of pianos in my life. I literally grew up with pianos. We had four pianos in our home growing up because my father, Morton Estrin, was a concert pianist and a Baldwin artist at that. We had three Baldwins at one time, a Steinway, a Sohmer; we had different pianos at different times, but I grew up with all of those pianos. I got to try out my dad’s pianos before recitals at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. During his recording sessions, whenever he took breaks, I’d play these magnificent instruments that were prepared to such a high level.
I started selling pianos after graduating from music conservatory.
I was teaching piano, and so many people calling me for lessons didn’t own pianos! The first question I would ask is, “Do you own a piano?” Half the time, people would say, “No.” I would tell them they were better off with a piano and no lessons than with lessons and no piano. How can you learn if you don’t have an instrument to play? So I wouldn’t take students who didn’t have pianos, but I was losing out trying to start my career. That’s why I started seeking out inexpensive pianos that were worthy of restoration, mostly big, tall, old uprights, consoles, and spinets. The need for that has been so great that, my entire life, I’ve always had pianos in my home, at one time a large live/work loft, and have had piano stores as well. I’ve always literally lived with pianos!
I have a real perspective on what makes a great piano.
I’m going to share some tips with you. If you’re looking at pianos, you may wonder if the one you’re looking at is worthwhile. Well, of course, there’s a lot to that subject, and condition is of paramount importance. But what I’m talking about is not really the condition of the piano. Sometimes, we take in pianos that need complete rebuilding, which can take six months to a year! Yet some of them are good candidates, because I can tell the seeds of greatness are in there. Many just don’t have much potential and aren’t worth rebuilding.
How do you know if a piano has the potential to be great?
First of all, the condition of a piano has to be such that you can tell what it sounds like, unless you’re an expert who has vast experience with pianos. If it hasn’t been tuned in ten years and the strings are rusty, you might have no idea if it has any kind of potential at all. But I have an interesting story for you. A few years ago, I had a repeat engagement with the Piano Teachers Association. On stage, they had two brand new nine-foot concert grand pianos. I sat down at one, and it was an absolute dream. The other piano was nothing special. It really didn’t have the magic. So what is that magic? What makes one piano a gem and another one not so great?
Even with brand new pianos, some have more potential than others.
Piano soundboards are hand-built. Even though there are specifications for how they’re built, no two trees are the same. Every soundboard is unique! They are usually tapered on the edges, and they’re built with an arch in the middle, referred to as crown. You can measure crown, but that’s not going to tell you very much. You can run a string under the soundboard to see if there’s a little gap in the middle to check if it has that arch, but the tone of the piano is the way you can tell how good the crown of a soundboard is.
A large old piano might have a thunderous bass, but it’s in the treble that you most often lose the sustain of the tone.
Sometimes a piano will have good sustain in one register but may be lacking in another. By simply playing single notes with no pedal, you may be able to tell the potential of a piano. My personal piano is a late 1930s Steinway S, the smallest baby grand Steinway makes. My grandfather bought this piano for my father, and we rebuilt it a number of years ago. It has the original soundboard without even a hairline crack in it! That is very lucky, since this piano has grown up in a number of environments, yet it has pretty amazing sustain and projection. Listening to a single note with no pedal, you can hear how long the tone sustains. When you get to the really high register, that’s where a lot of pianos really lose it.
There are all sorts of techniques that can be employed to try to increase the sustain of the tone. First of all, you can restring a piano if the strings are old and tired. Just tapping down the strings at the point of termination at the bridges to get good, clean contact from the metal to the bridge can really help. But if you play note to note and none of them have really good sustain, you’re probably not going to get very good results. If you find some of the notes have good sustain and others don’t, there’s hope!
In the middle register on a great piano, the sound of the notes seems to almost get bigger after the initial attack.
You can hear how notes in the middle register open up after the initial attack. That is a sign of a great piano. If you have that in all registers, you’re in great shape. Now, if you’re looking at a piano you may want to buy that has not been prepped and you’re wondering what potential it has, listen to several different notes in various registers. If a good number of the notes have that quality of sound, the piano may be worth restoring. But if you have a whole register that is lacking in that expansiveness of tone and sustain, you’re probably never going to get great results out of it. Sometimes you can replace a soundboard and bring that vibrant life back to a piano; however, that’s very expensive because it involves rebuilding the whole piano. Just the soundboard can cost in excess of $10,000!
That’s how you can determine if a piano is great!
Obviously, a great piano is one that has the potential, has had the work done, and is in magnificent condition inside and out. If you have that, you have the ultimate piano! I hope this has been 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
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’s question is: How do you get back in shape on the piano? If you have ever gone on vacation and returned to find your fingers out of shape, you may have wondered how to get them back into shape without hurting yourself. I personally have experienced pain in the joint of my right thumb when I play big chords and octaves after taking a break from playing the piano. However, I have found that building up the muscles in my hand helps me overcome this issue.
If you take a break from playing the piano, it is important to be cautious when getting back into it.
The most taxing pieces to play on the piano are those that involve big chords and octaves. Music like this puts a lot of stress on your fingers. Pieces that are right under your fingers and do not require reaching far are much less taxing on your hands. The ideal music for getting back into shape on the piano are Bach’s two-part Inventions. These pieces have clarity, musical lines, and rarely have more than one note at a time in each hand. This makes them perfect for gradually building up your finger strength. I will demonstrate this with the very first Bach invention in C Major in the accompanying video. It is ergonomic and falls right under the fingers.
Bach’s music is great for getting back into shape because it rarely involves massive chords.
Even the Italian concerto, which does have a number of chords, never exceeds an octave. By playing pieces that have no more than one note in each hand, you can gradually build up your finger strength so that you can handle more taxing music. Playing slow movements of Mozart Sonatas is another great option since the music lies under the hands very nicely. This is the best way I have found to get back into shape on the piano! Share your ideas on how to build back strength here on 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
Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how to be in the moment in your playing. It’s so important! If you have performed for friends or your teacher, you know that sometimes it’s easy to become distracted. You want to be present in your playing; but it can be so incredibly difficult. I’m going to give you some ways of thinking about this, and approaching it, that hopefully will be helpful for you!
The first thing I want to talk about is a little bit philosophical.
We sometimes assume that words are thought. The whole idea of thinking in your head is that you’re stringing words together. But words were invented for communication, to be able to express ideas to one another. You don’t actually need words to think about something. Have you ever had a revelation that just came to you? Did you have to string words together in order to have that thought? Of course not! The words express the thought, but they aren’t the thought themselves. This is why there are those who master the art of meditation. They clear their minds from the internal dialog to be able to have pure thought, not hampered by words. If you’ve ever been in a state of flow while doing anything, whether it’s experiencing a beautiful sunset, looking at a beautiful painting, or just enjoying a moment of life without quantifying it and defining it with words, you understand that this is one of the most beautiful things there is in life! You don’t need to label every single thought.
How does this relate to music?
When you’re playing music, the thing that will distract you more than anything else is using words in your head, and thinking about what you’re doing instead of just doing it. You want to be present in your performance. You don’t want to be analytical and judgmental, thinking about what note comes next. You can’t think that way, it’ll drive you crazy and destroy your performance. You have to be right in the moment with a sense of where you’re going. Just like in life itself, you want to be living in the moment with a sense of continuity. You want to know where you are and where you’re heading.
The way to achieve this in music is simply by listening!
Listen to the sounds. Become absorbed in the beauty of the music you’re creating at that moment, rather than getting distracted with the mechanics of your playing. Of course, there has to be a certain amount that you keep present, in the analytical sense, so you don’t take a wrong turn in the score. There has to be a certain amount of intelligence. But moment to moment, you should not be bogged down with these intellectual ideas. Instead, enjoy the sound and explore where it’s going next. The most satisfying musical performance you can ever have is one where the music is unfolding, and you yourself are listening in anticipation of where it’s going to go next. You may have experienced this before if you have ever played on a different piano. It sounds different, and as a result, you’re playing with fresh ears. That’s the secret of what you want to achieve in your musical performance.
You want to be listening to, and engaged in your own music.
That’s what draws the listener in! It’s what keeps you on track in your musical performance. So remember, don’t get hung up with intellectualizing what you’re doing more than necessary. Just keep your wits about you to avoid taking wrong turns, knowing where repeats are, and knowing where you are in the score. If there are leaps that you have to quantify, you need to have your intellect alive. But don’t get bogged down with it. Enjoy your musical performance! Listen to it and everybody else will too. I hope you’ve enjoyed this! 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. How soft is piano? That’s the question for today! You see piano written in your music, or maybe pianissimo. How soft should you play it? How soft is soft, and how do you even achieve it on the piano? We’re going to dive right into this today and cover this in a way that will help you achieve soft playing.
Dynamics can’t really be measured.
There is something called a decibel meter. It measures the unit of volume and you might think this could provide a good answer to this question. For example, when you see allegro in your score, how fast is allegro? What number is it on the metronome? There’s a similarity here because allegro is more of a mood, a feel to the music, not an exact number. It’s the same thing with dynamics in music. So how do you achieve a piano or pianissimo sound? How do you get a quiet sound?
Piano has more to do with tone than just volume.
For example, if you play the first Clementi Sonatina Opus 36, No. 1, the second movement is a quiet movement. Some people struggle to play really quietly, finding it difficult to even get the keys down! How can you possibly play that quietly? There’s a lot to be considered here. First of all, you should realize and understand that you are the closest person to your piano. Anybody listening to you is going to be much further away. Even if they’re just across the room, they might be three, four, or five times further away from the piano.
You must project your playing!
When you are performing in a hall, there are people listening from the last row of the balcony. Think about how far away from the piano they are. Think about a large hall like the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City at Lincoln Center. It’s is an astounding hall with magnificent acoustics. It holds 3,800 people in the audience! It’s an enormous place to fill with sound. There is no P.A. system; it’s all just acoustics. The singers on stage. and the instrumentalists in the pit, are being heard acoustically. There are no microphones or speakers. So when they have something written piano, they still have to use an immense amount of energy to create a projecting sound. The singers take big breaths and put it under pressure with their diaphragms so that they can project even the softest sound.
Playing piano or pianissimo is like being able to project a whisper by using diaphragm support.
When you whisper with diaphragm support, it can be heard across the room. That’s what you must achieve in your piano and pianissimo playing. Using the weight of the arm, you can project a big flowing line that will come through. It will still have a soft quality, even though the actual decibel level may be greater than you think. You would not believe the amount of energy you have to put into the keyboard, with tremendous weight of the arm transferring smoothly from finger to finger. So you shouldn’t just be limply pushing down keys.
The continuity of the arm weight is what creates the line and ensures that you can control a quiet line.
Remember, the melody line must project above the accompaniment in the left hand. It has to have more projection than you might think. Without that support, it would have more of a percussive quality, sounding loud even when you’re not playing particularly energetically. Instead, you want to play with a smooth quality that evokes the quality of sound of piano or pianissimo. This also enables you to shape the rise and fall of the phrase providing room to grow and die away, giving architecture to your music.
So remember, piano is more a quality of tone than an absolute volume.
Not only that, but you must project out into the room. Remember, you’re not just playing the piano, you’re playing the room you’re in! You must reach every listener in that room. So project your sound. Don’t be afraid to use some energy! As long as it’s a smooth energy, transferring from key to key with the weight of the arm, it will never have a harshness, and it won’t sound forte or even mezzo forte. It will have a tonal quality of piano. That’s the lesson for today! 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
