Tag Archives: music theory

Why You Must be Able to Play Your Scales on Auto-Pilot

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about why you must be able to play your scales on auto-pilot. What does this mean? I’ve talked before about motor memory or tactile memory being a dangerous thing to rely upon in your piano playing. You can take a wrong turn here or there if your mind isn’t cognizant of where you are in a composition. With repeats, expositions, developments, changes of keys, you must have an intellectual awareness of your music. Otherwise, you can end up in the wrong place in the middle of a piece! But, you absolutely must be able to play your scales with just motor memory because of the fingering crossings.

All major and minor scales involve finger crossings.

Scales encompass thumb crossings in the right hand going up and in the left hand coming down. And you have third and fourth finger crossings in the left hand going up and in the right hand coming down. All major scales and minor scales have the same basic premise of third and fourth finger crossings in one hand going up, the other hand coming down, and thumb crossings in one hand going up and the other hand coming down. That’s a whole lot of stuff to remember! That’s why in the early years of study, rather than working on scales which have complicated fingering to learn, it’s better to develop the strength of your fingers first by playing early Hanon exercises which avoid finger crossings.. The whole idea of practicing scales is to develop fluid notes in a row so that you can play beautiful streams of notes with evenness and clarity.

What if you can’t get the fingering?

As I mentioned, I love to start students with the very first exercises in Hanon, which have myriad different patterns, but none of them involve finger crossings. So, you get to work out your fingers developing strength, fluidity, and speed, without worrying about the complexity of finger crossings. But why do they have to be on automatic pilot? When you’re playing a fast scale, there just isn’t time to think of all of those fingerings! You have to be able to just do it without thinking about the actual fingering. Then you can focus on the sound, the expression, the volume, the evenness, and the clarity without thinking about fingering.

I made a video a few weeks ago on how playing the piano is like learning how to walk. At the beginning, it’s a struggle. If you’ve ever watched a toddler taking their first steps, the concentration on their faces is unbelievable as they figure out how to traverse one step to the next. We don’t have to think about walking, because we walk on auto-pilot. Imagine if every time you took a step you had to think about everything involved, the coordination, the foot muscles, the leg muscles, and keeping your body upright. It would be almost impossible to do anything while walking! Yet, we walk and talk about all sorts of things all the time and don’t even think about it. That’s exactly what you must do with your scales. How do you get to that point? Well, first of all, you should only start scales when you have enough strength in your fingers. If you’re just starting out learning scales an octave or two octaves, it’s really not that valuable.

You want to play all your scales in four octaves right from the get-go.

Even though the fingering is the same, when you’re playing in the low register, the angle of your arms is quite different from playing in the high register. You must get used to playing the whole keyboard. If you’re not up for that challenge yet, you’re better off doing 5 or10 Hanon exercises first to prepare yourself for practicing scales. This is a great way to get your fingers strong and to develop fluidity. Start with one note to the beat at 60 to the metronome, so you can really see how your fingers are working, then two notes to the beat, and then finally, four notes to the beat. Work on these Hanon exercises until you can play them in a fluid manner with strength and evenness. Then you are ready to embark upon scales. You should work on your scales in exactly the same way. Work on them in four octaves, just like in Hanon: 60 Selected Studies For The Virtuoso Pianist. This book is like the Bible of scales and arpeggios because it has all the standard fingering that 99% of pianists utilize. I highly recommend getting a copy. Get to the point where you can play your scales without thinking about fingering. Then when you have scale passages in music, you don’t have to start practicing like it’s a fresh thing. It’s already there, literally at your fingertips!

That’s the lesson for today. Get your scales on automatic pilot, on motor memory, on tactile feel, so you don’t have to think about the fingering. If any of you touch type as I do, you know that you don’t even have to think about where your fingers are going. Those of you who have to hunt and peck, you know it’s a little slower, a little bit harder, but you can get pretty fluid at it. But when you know where the keys are without even thinking about it, it makes it so much easier. You want your scales to be that easy as well!

Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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Does Music Need to Have Melody?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about the necessity of melody in music. Does music need to have melody? When you think of almost any music, the first thing you think about is the melody. What is melody? Melody consists of two elements: pitch and rhythm. Some of the most beautiful music that we know and love is based upon melodies. For example, Chopin’s famous Nocturne in E flat. Listen to the beginning of this piece to understand the beauty of melody, and how we think of melody and music as synonymous. Another example of melody that everyone is familiar with is the gorgeous second movement of Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata.

Not all music is based upon melody.

Does music need to have melody? The answer is no! There are whole genres of music that don’t utilize melody. But the vast majority of the music that we all know and love is based upon melody. Why is this? Most music throughout the millennia was never written down or recorded and was not played on any particular musical instrument. It was the human voice! The human voice has been with us as long as we have roamed this planet. The imitation of the human voice in wind instruments and bowed instruments is pretty obvious. Yet, we can also evoke that same quality of a singing line on a keyboard instrument. It’s in our biology. It’s in our DNA.

Some music is based solely on rhythm.

There are other types of music that could have been around in primitive times, rhythmically-based music that utilizes percussion instruments and is devoid of melody. In fact, African rhythms have permeated Western music since the introduction of jazz. This is the combination of Western harmonies along with African rhythms, which is very compelling. But does it have to have melody? Not necessarily. Many offshoots of jazz, particularly hip hop, can be devoid of melody to some extent or entirely and still it has musical context.

Another example in the classical world is minimalism.

 

Listen to Steve Reich, John Adams and Philip Glass, and you’ll hear music that has textures. It has pitch, but not necessarily melody. When you think of a melody, you think of a line. You think of a rise and a fall, just like the human breath. Yet, there is some great music that does not utilize this aspect.

While the vast majority of music is based upon melody, some music can just be rhythmically-based and still offer rich possibilities. Melody is vitally important in the vast majority of music. We all love the melodies that are dear to our heart. They speak to us in a visceral way because it’s part of our DNA. Throughout history and prehistory, melody has been with us and I hope it stays with us for a long time!

Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource

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2 Types of Encores – for My Parents – Scriabin: Etude in D# minor Op 8 Debussy: The Little Shepherd

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about the two different kinds of encores. There are fundamentally two different types of moods you want to create in encores, and I’m going to get into that. But first I want to start with a personal reflection for you.

My father, Morton Estrin, had such a profound effect upon me.

I want to talk a little bit about my father’s experiences as a performer. As much as he performed, he got extremely nervous for performances. And when he would walk out on stage, it was a terrifying experience for him! He would get so nervous, his pedal foot would shake. I remember watching him perform and feeling so badly for him. There he was, trying to control things, and his foot was going up and down like crazy! It was once kind of funny, in retrospect. In one of his New York recitals, the reviewer commented on his beautiful performance and his “fluttering pedal technique.” Little did he know it was nothing intentional. It was something my father fought with his whole career. And the way he overcame it was very interesting. For him, the easiest thing to start a program with was something really heroic. He could go out there and play the most bombastic virtuosic music right from the get go. With that, he didn’t have any trouble. But to go out and start a program with a delicate piece, like something of Mozart, or a Schubert Impromptu, was extremely challenging for him. With that very delicate music, any little motion of any part of the body has such profound effects. He worked really hard to overcome this and was proud of himself that he could go out on stage and play something delicate as an opener for a program. Because programmatically, he wanted to be able to have architecture and not just start with the most heroic piece. Usually you want a big finish at the end of your program.

What was interesting about my father’s performances, we would always go backstage at intermission and hug him and tell him how beautiful it sounded. He couldn’t even believe it because he was so terrorized up there for the first half! But in the second half, he would relax. By the time he got to the end of the program, he was in his element. He would play encore after encore and the audience would cheer for more! He would play five, six encores, as many as the audience wanted. And at that point he could do anything. He had no nerves left whatsoever. It was a thrilling experience for everyone who heard him!

There are two different types of encores.

When a program ends and you come out for an encore, the audience has been through a whole program. You want to charge them up! So you play something like a Chopin etude, something virtuosic and energetic. But what if the program ended with something big and dynamic and it’s already a blockbuster at the end of the program? That’s when you want to flip it and come out with a poetic encore, maybe a Chopin Nocturne or Prelude. That could be just the mood you’re looking for.

My father recorded the Scriabin Etudes Opus 8.

It was the first modern recording of the complete Opus 8, and it won record of the year. You can find them on YouTube. His performances don’t sound like etudes. They are rich musical experiences. He didn’t play them as just technical exercises. He played them for the gorgeous music that this early Scriabin is. The Opus 8 was very different from later Scriabin where he explored very sophisticated harmonies that bordered on atonality. Early Scriabin is sometimes compared to Chopin. It really has a voice all its own, but it’s quite chromatic, beautiful romantic music that is extremely emotional. I got to hear my father play them in New York at Lincoln Center. It holds a very special meaning for me.

I’m going to play the D-sharp minor Etude from Opus 8 which is the last of the set. Then, just as if the program ended heroically, because that is an incredible blockbuster piece, I’m going to go right into a movement of Debussy from the Children’s Corner Suite, The Little Shepherd, which was my mother’s favorite piece. I would play it for her as an encore. So this is very special and a personal performance for you. You can listen to the accompanying video. I hope you enjoy it.

Those are two completely different types of encores. What is appropriate depends upon your programming. So remember, if you’ve already pulled out all the stops, and you’ve ended really big, then bring it down and show poetry and express intimate feelings. Show what you can do to the soul! On the other hand, if the program ends with something long and melodic like a Schubert Sonata with beautiful architecture, then you’ll want to charge people up with your encore so they leave the hall with energy. Judging your encores is very important. Sometimes you can even have two or three encores prepared. Or maybe you’re brave enough and you have an audience that’s enthusiastic enough so you can play a bunch of encores like my father used to do!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this. Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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Getting into a State of Flow With Your Music

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about getting into a state of flow with your music. You’ve probably heard this term before, and we’ve all experienced it. What does it mean to be in a state of flow? When you’re completely absorbed in something, whether it’s making pottery, a walk in the woods, practicing the piano – it can be almost anything. You stop thinking about what you’re doing, and you just are. It’s all one experience where you don’t have that sense of looking at yourself and telling yourself instructions with words. Instead it just flows naturally.

Getting into a state of flow during a musical performance can be a magnificent experience.

If you’re playing written music from the score, you have to keep a certain amount of your cognition so that you don’t take a wrong turn. You don’t want to get carried away! But you can get to a point with a score, if you are intimately familiar with it, where you are just absorbed in it completely. It comes out of you so naturally that it isn’t even work anymore and time seems to disappear. Have you ever had that experience? If you can get into that state in your practice, you’re really doing well.

Improvising is a fantastic opportunity to get into a state of flow.

With improvisation you don’t have to focus on a score. It’s much easier to get into a state of flow where you’re no longer thinking about what you should do next. It just comes out of you, and you can feel the trajectory. You can feel the flow of the music. You are just part of it. In music and in life, to be in the moment is the ultimate feeling! But it’s one of the most difficult things to do. People use meditation and other things to try to get into that state of flow. But music is a fantastic vehicle for that. So, let yourself go! Sometimes you just have to see where music takes you. You can do that in the privacy of your own home. Eventually, if you have the confidence and the security in your playing, you can do it in performance as well!

I hope this is enjoyable for you. Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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Happy Accidents in Music

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about happy accidents in music. This transcends just performance. This can occur in composition, improvisation, and so many aspects of music. What are happy accidents? When something unexpected happens, particularly in a live performance, where you can’t just stop and try it again. So you go with it and it takes you to unexpected places. From that point on, you will envision this piece in a way that you had never imagined before.

Just go with it.

Now, here’s the thing that I want to encourage all of you to do. If while playing piano something happens where you’re feeling uncomfortable for some reason, maybe you took a dramatically different tempo, go with it and see where it takes you. You can discover things. Maybe you won’t want to take that faster or slower tempo later, but you envision the piece in a new way that you never would have come upon before. In composition, it’s even more important to experiment wildly, with abandon. Don’t be worried about what comes out. You can always judge later what you want to keep and what you want to discard.

Don’t let the beauty in life pass you by!

I say that happy accidents can only happen if you pay attention to them. Otherwise you might just hear it as a mistake and move on. If it’s interesting, listen to it. You might discover something new. It’s the same with life. Take in the beautiful things around you, even if you don’t expect them to be beautiful. Maybe you’re on your way to someplace and you pass a beautiful scene without expecting it. You didn’t plan this, but here it is. Enjoy it! It’s the same thing with your music, your performance, your composing, and your improvisation. Pay attention to what is around you and take advantage of those opportunities. Explore them further, because they can be the seeds of creativity!

I hope this is enjoyable for you! Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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Piano is a Flawed Instrument!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how piano is a flawed instrument. Now, I love the piano. It’s incredibly expressive. It’s one of the greatest instruments of all time. So I’m not complaining about the piano in any way, shape, or form. But it’s important to understand the limitations of the piano. The piano is a tempered instrument, meaning it can play in all keys. So, every single interval on the piano, with the exception of the octaves, are out of tune.

There are no two notes you can play on the piano other than the octaves that are in tune with one another.

So when you play a perfect fifth, it is not perfectly in tune. How can this be? Well, years and years ago, keyboard instruments were tuned for the specific key they were playing. String players, singers, and other instrumentalists will naturally adjust their tuning to make every interval pure. It’s just not mathematically possible to do that on the piano to be able to play in all keys. Every interval is a little bit out of tune, but they’re all equally out of tune in all keys. That is what is meant by tempered tuning. And we’re so used to it now that it sounds in tune to us as long as the piano is in tune. It’s important to understand this fact.

I recently listened to a piano roll of Gustav Mahler playing his Fifth Symphony, the first movement. If you’re familiar with any Mahler symphonies you know that these are incredibly complex orchestrations. Piano rolls are actual performances of the great composers and pianists from years ago before audio recording existed. A lot of times they don’t sound quite right, because the playback instrument has to be regulated exactly the same as the instrument that it was recorded on for it to work properly. Well, this is an amazing recreation of Mahler’s piano playing, which is astounding! This is an orchestral work with lush strings and brass with a huge orchestration. So, in order to achieve the sustain of these rich sonorities, there are tremolos all over the place. Because if you’re trying to get the sound of sustained strings and you just play the notes, they will quickly fade away. And you certainly won’t be able to create a crescendo.

Gustav Mahler plays his Symphony no.5

A crescendo of one note on the piano is virtually impossible.

There are nuances of tonal shading you can impart using the pedals. A crescendo is a little bit of a stretch, but there is a small amount of crescendo you can achieve by judicious use of the pedals. Starting with the una corda pedal, and then putting the sustain pedal on just as the note begins to fade out will give a little extra swell, but that’s all you’ve got to work with.

So yes, the piano is a flawed instrument. But what a wonderful instrument it is anyway, because of all the things it can do! You have this huge range of keys from the very highest notes to the lowest notes. And you’ve got the ability literally at your fingertips to play complex orchestrations that are all but impossible on just about any other single instrument. So, as flawed as it is, I love the piano! How do you feel about this? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and other subjects. Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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