Musical expression is the personal take a musician has on the music they perform. It’s a uniquely individual experience. What do I mean by the term, “infinite expression” and how can you apply this to your music? Let’s start by explaining the two concepts of infinity and how they can relate to music.
The first concept of infinity is the idea of moving endlessly in any direction.
For example, if you go out into space and just keep going in any direction, you could theoretically go on forever. So, when it comes to music, what if you were to allow the music to flow in any direction with no limits? In the video included with this article, I demonstrate this concept with Chopin’s A flat Ballade No.3, Op.47.
If you listen to the piece in the video you might have an interesting response. Those who are intimately familiar with the piece would probably not be pleased with the performance. However, those of you who are new to the piece might have a more positive response. How can this be? In the context of the whole piece, adding so many liberties with timing, expression and voicing with infinite expression causes the music to go in so many different directions that it would be unsustainable. The whole piece wouldn’t hold together. It’s impossible to maintain the music cohesiveness for the duration of the piece playing in this manner. Infinite expression in this sense simply doesn’t work for classical performance.
The second concept of infinity is the idea of going halfway to a destination again and again repeatedly.
This presents another concept of infinity. Your musical framework allows for minute levels of expression and detail which is truly limitless. The nuance of each note, the levels and the balance of each chord, there are an infinite number of possibilities to add more character and expression to your performance. This concept of infinity can be applied to musical expression. This might sound like a complex concept, and it is, but I have provided an example of this type of performance in the video included in this article as well.
If you listen to the second performance in the video, you will notice how it contrasts with the first performance. While there are an infinite number of gradations of tone, balance and expression, there is a continuity that holds the music together.
I could play that section over again and again and never play it the same way twice!
Adding subtle details to different elements allows you to create character and expression while potentially never repeating yourself – a truly infinite form of expression.
Adding subtle details to your music within a framework allows for infinite possibilities in your music while still maintaining the intentions of the composer and the structure of the music. Yet with this concept, you can still add your own unique voice and expression to everything you perform. When you look at your performances in this way, it’s incredibly exciting – you can truly play a piece thousands of times and always add something fresh and creative.
I hope you have enjoyed this video and I encourage you to experiment with this type of expression in your music. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store info@LivingPianos.com 949-244-3729
When I first thought of this question, I was interested in what information was available from Google and on Youtube. I was surprised to find that there isn’t much information available on this subject! This is a really important subject for anyone who has studied Chopin Waltzes or Mazurkas. Chopin wrote a thick book of Mazurkas as well as a big book of Waltzes. These staples of the piano repertoire are stupendous pieces of music!
The Differences and Similarities of Waltzes and Mazurkas
First, there’s a great deal that Waltzes and Mazurkas have in common. Waltzes and Mazurkas were both dance forms of the 19th century. They are also both in ¾ time. So, what makes them different? In this video, I’m going to demonstrate the B-minor Waltz and the B-flat major Mazurka so you can hear them for yourself to see if you can figure out what’s different about them. Since they are both based upon dance forms in 3/4 time, you might wonder what sets them apart.
In a nutshell, the difference between Waltzes and Mazurkas is which beats are accented!
Let’s start with a Waltz. They typically have a strong first beat. The third beat is also somewhat strong, but the first beat is the strongest beat. In a Mazurka, the emphasis is on the second beat. On the accompanying video you will hear complete performances of the B-minor Waltz and the B-flat major Mazurka with all of the changes of sections. You can listen for the accented first beat in the waltz as well as the somewhat prominent third beat.
When listening to the Mazurka, notice the strong second beat. I chose these particular selections for you because they have similar tempos and are both energetic pieces. Some Waltzes have a solemn mood with slower tempos while there are Mazurkas which are highly introspective. They can be quite deep pieces of music. They’re well worth listening to and I may present these in future videos. I hope you get a sense of the fundamental differences between Waltzes and Mazurkas. This is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store 949-244-3729 info@LivingPianos.com
Welcome to LivingPianos.com. This is Robert Estrin. Today the subject is, how to approach a new piece of music on the piano. I randomly opened this big fat book of Chopin Mazurkas to the Mazurka in A-flat Opus 24 No. 3. I do not know this piece. I literally flipped through the book, and we’re going to see what happens.
The first thing you want to do when you’re approaching a new piece of music is to sight read it through to get acquainted with it. There’s a fundamental difference in the way you’d sight read a piece when you’re playing it for someone, or certainly when you’re accompanying someone where you have to keep everything moving. If you’re playing with someone else, you must stay together. When sight reading a piece for someone, you do the best you can even though you may have to flesh some of it out leaving out some inner notes. You must surmise what it should sound like and do the best you can. But in this case, when you’re reading to get acquainted (not playing for or with someone), you want to make sure you’re playing everything accurately, even if you have to play slower.
So, I want to start off and sight read this piece. I’m going to do it the way I would if I was playing it for someone and when it starts, maybe I’ll know if I’ve heard this Mazurka before! You can listen on the accompanying video.
That went pretty well. But at this point you will notice, it wasn’t entirely accurate. I was sort of getting the chord changes. Since there is a repeated section, I’m going to stop. If I was playing it for somebody, I’d make my way through it, perhaps not using the best fingering and not quite getting all the notes. However, if I was reading this to get acquainted with it, I wouldn’t do that. Instead, I would take it slowly figuring out the exact notes. I would figure out how to negotiate the music properly. I wouldn’t get too hung up because I wouldn’t want to start practicing yet. I just want to get acquainted. So, you have to draw the line of how far to go with your reading in order to get a sense of the music, yet not start pounding out wrong notes and cementing mistakes. So let’s see how to approach learning a new piece.
I am going to use no pedal so I can hear everything clearly. This will give a sense of the harmony. I had it mostly right! I did spot a double flat that I had missed.
The first time I went through it, it wasn’t perfect, but it was like a performance at least. So if somebody wanted to hear the piece, it could be satisfying for them because I wasn’t stopping and starting all the time. However, when you’re approaching a new piece of music, you want to take a moment to make sure you’re playing the correct notes, the correct harmonies. Double check your accidentals and things of that nature.
Now, the next step, after you’ve read through the whole piece in the matter I’ve described, you really don’t want to read the piece ever again, if you want to read pieces, pick another Marzuka or another piece of music entirely. Why is this? If you continue to sight read the piece, unless you played it perfectly, the first time through, you’re going to continue to miss things. And even though I played fairly accurately most of the piece the first time, there are all kinds of details on the score that are essential for the piece that are important such as, the exact place where slurs end, where dynamic start and end, and other fine details. Composers aren’t haphazard with these details. These are intrinsic to the composition and must be learned meticulously.
The very next thing to do after the precursory reading, is to go to the very beginning and break it down to the smallest possible elements checking everything. I could probably start from the beginning and read it through five or six times and sort of know it and then I could go back and keep reconstructing the score trying to fill in the details I didn’t quite get. But that’s not very effective practice.
On a piece like this, I might be able to get away with it honestly, because I can almost read it! But if I was learning a Bach fugue or a late Beethoven Sonata, or a piece of Ravel, there’s no way that method would work! So, you might as well use this practice technique with everything you learn which is the method I described in a video years ago that’s worth watching.
I’m just going to show you that here with this piece. The very next thing I would do if I was learning this piece, even if it was a piece of Mozart which is relatively easy to memorize, is to break it down as follows.
Start at the beginning taking just the right hand, the very, first tiny phrase.
Believe it or not, that’s all you should take because you can learn that really quickly and it’s satisfying. You will notice things like how the music starts with a decrescendo, and then you have a decrescendo. Also, the very first note starts with an accent. That doesn’t take very long to learn, so you might as well get all these details learned right away.
You want to check your work constantly as you go. Work out the fingering as well as the notes, the phrasing and the expression – everything!
Before moving on, be sure everything is solid. Play it until it becomes automatic and you don’t even have to think about it!
Next, you take the left hand. Solidify the music until it is memorized.
Check everything over and make sure there are no other markings, no indications of expression or phrasing that you may have missed.
Before putting the hands together, refresh your memory of the right-hand part you learned earlier.
Make sure you still remember it. Check it with the score once more. You might wonder why you need to go through such tremendous pains to learn a piece of music. It’s because you never want to have to unlearn something. You must make sure you are learning things correctly.
Next is the hardest parts – putting the hands together!
It’s important to put the hands together from memory the first time. You must challenge yourself even if you have to play much slower. Again, check your work with the score. You will hear subtle differences when you follow details precisely.
Finally, you add the pedal – That’s your reward for a job well done!
Keep playing until you are happy with your performance. Then you can go on to the next phrase and learn it the same way.
If you practice this way, you will be able to play your music exactly as you intend it to sound.
By taking very small phrases, you can spoonfeed the music to yourself. This is important because you can practice like this all day long because it’s relatively easy. Where if you try to memorize eight measure phrases or 16 measure phrases, you may be able to do it. But it would take so long that you may be limited in how many phrases you can emass in one practice session. However, you can work through this entire piece of two measure phrases and never get mentally tired. And better than that, you know it’s secure since you’re looking at every detail and solidifying as you go..
Next, you want to put the phrases together from the beginning.
First, refresh your memory of the first phrase you learned earlier. Check your work with the score. Play many times until it is secure from memory putting the two phrases together. Now you can reward yourself playing with the pedal!
So, that is the secret of productive piano practice. You must take your time focusing your attention on all the details as you learn. Remember, first read through the piece, a little bit more carefully than you’d read it if you were just reading it for somebody or accompanying somebody certainly. Take the time to make sure you have all the notes and at least have an idea of places you need to work out fingering later, even if you can’t quite get it initially. And then get to work and practice. Don’t take more than you can bite off at a time. If you’re taking more than a minute to learn something, you’re taking too much, because that way you can learn something every single minute of your practice and make it really productive and sustain a long practice. Even if you could read through the whole piece a bunch of times and almost have it memorized, and almost is the key word here, you don’t want to do that. You want it to be learned perfectly. You want to get every last detail of the score because that’s what makes it sound so beautiful!
Chopin was a master and crafted his music taking advantage of every marking in the score. Don’t get used to playing it wrong, because the correct phrasing and expression and fingering are going to bring the piece to life.
I hope this has been enlightening for you and you see the way I work and I recommend that you try it with your music. You can go through the whole piece connecting phrases as you go, memorising first just after you’ve just read through it and you won’t believe the difference it will make it your practice.
I hope that’s been helpful for you again, this is Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store. info@LivingPianos.com 949-244-3729
If you’ve taken piano lessons and listened to your teacher, they undoubtedly told you to play with rounded fingers – having your hand shaped like you’re holding a ball. If this is true, then why did one of the greatest pianists of all time play with flat fingers? Did Vladimir Horowitz play with flat fingers? The answer is yes; there is some truth to this!
Difference Between Round Fingers and Flat Fingers
You may wonder why you’re supposed to play the piano with rounded fingers? It’s very simple: if you play with your fingers outstretched you don’t get the benefit of using all of your finger joints. First of all, some fingers are longer than others. So thumbs and pinkies don’t reach all the keys! When rounding the fingers, they all form a straight line so your fingers are all over keys. Also, when playing fast passage work, it is necessary to play with curved fingers in order to play with speed. However, in slow passages, you’ll see Horowitz and other pianists such as Glenn Gould sometimes playing with flat fingers. This technique can allow for different tonal gradations which are difficult to achieve with rounded fingers. On the accompanying video, you will hear two versions of the beginning of Chopin’s Prelude in E minor, one with rounded fingers and the other playing with outstretched fingers.
Can You Hear the Difference?
I’m interested in your impressions of this demonstration. Do you see the value of playing with rounded fingers for fast passage work? And do you hear a difference in the tone playing with flat fingers? How many of you have tried this technique? We would be very interested in your thoughts about this. Again, this is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store 949-244-3729 info@LivingPianos.com
A lot of people wonder if you can begin studying the piano as an adult. I often hear from people who have just retired and finally have the time, if they can begin studying the piano at their age. There are also people who never practiced when they were younger and wonder if it’s too late to take up the piano again. The simple answer is:
It’s never too late to begin learning the piano!
It’s important to have your expectations in alignment with reality. There are certain things you must be aware of. I’ve seen an incredibly wide range of results in piano progress among various people. Some have made remarkable progress at the piano in a short amount of time as adult beginners. How can this be? Your exposure to music in general is going to have a great deal to do with your success at the piano.
For example, if you’ve played an instrument like the clarinet, you are used to reading at least one staff of music as well as playing music. You’ve also developed finger dexterity. A transition to piano is going to be a lot more seamless than for someone who has never even listened to music let alone played a musical instrument. That person is going to have a harder time assimilating musical language.
A lot of affinity for music develops just from listening to it. So even if you’ve never played anything, but you’ve been an avid listener of music; you’re going to progress faster than someone who has avoided music their whole lives.
There is a parallel to how exposure to a foreign language can make it much easier to learn a second language.
There are a lot of things that enter into your success with studying the piano at any age. For example, there are different programs like Scott Houston’s Piano in a Flash. He was recently on our show and demonstrated how he helps people to enjoy the piano with his innovative chord system. His program isn’t designed to be able to play classical compositions of Beethoven or Mozart, but it offers fun for people wanting to play popular songs they are familiar with. His method of playing chords with the left hand and the melody line in the right-hand makes delving into the piano an enjoyable, casual endeavor. His program also offers ear training and guides you with improvisational skills. This is a way that a lot of people can get enjoyment out of the piano without striving to be a concert level player. For those of you wanting to play classical compositions, I suggest getting a teacher and studying the piano more formally because it’s more difficult to learn classical music on your own. Having a good teacher can help to guide your practice.
So, anyone can learn to play the piano at any age!
Enjoying the piano is what is most important. I don’t care who you are or what level you’re at, there is always going to be someone who is at a higher level and can do things you can’t do. This is for every single pianist in the world! So don’t worry. You don’t have to achieve any particular milestone. The point is to enjoy the process just like anything else in life. It’s about the journey, isn’t it? Thanks for the great question and I hope you have enjoyed this! This is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com info@LivingPianos.com949-244-3729
Did you know that if you go to music conservatory or major in music at a university, you have to have a certain level of piano proficiency in order to get your degree?
All Music Majors Have to Play the Piano
Let’s start from the beginning. There are two essential instruments for all musicians. The piano is one and the voice is the other. They are diametrically opposed to one another. One is the most natural instrument we all carry with us. You must hear something in your head before you can even produce the sound. The piano is the opposite, when you push a key it makes the sound even if you don’t hear it first.
The Piano Can Play Complete Music
Most instruments can only play one note at a time. So, in order to play complete compositions, you usually have to play in an ensemble. What’s unique about the piano is that you can play complex, polyphonic music all by yourself! You can play chords and harmony. More than that, it’s visual. The piano is laid out in such a way that you can see what diatonic harmony is all about. That is, the half-step/whole-steps arrangement which is readily apparent on the keyboard. Chords are easy to negotiate as well. Even a child can do it. It’s that easy!
There’s More to Piano Than Just Visualizing Your Music
If you play the clarinet, saxophone or flute; the vast majority of music is written to play with other musicians. In fact, most solo music for other instruments contain substantial piano parts. Piano has more repertoire than all other instruments combined. Piano is a tremendous second instrument because you can realize the other parts to the pieces you’re playing. You might wonder what the orchestra is doing in a concerto you are playing. There will be an orchestral arrangement on our score you can play on the piano so you can hear it!
All People Should Study the Piano
The piano is intrinsic to music. You’ll learn theory and understand chord structure. It makes an excellent tool for ear training as well. It’s visually in front of you and you can produce sounds and harmonies that are impossible to create by yourself on most other instruments. I had the good fortune of starting the piano at a very young age. Later, when I was in 4th grade, I start playing the French horn in school. I could already read music fluently and was playing somewhat sophisticated music (for a relative beginner) on the piano. It was easy for me to grasp the horn initially because I was used to much more complex music on the piano. It made me take to the French horn quickly because I was used to the complexity of reading two staves on a score. Reading music for the French Horn was easy by comparison (even though there are many challenges playing a wind instrument).
So I recommend that if you don’t already play the piano to go for it! It will enlighten you about music structure and help you with your primary instrument. You’ll get to explore a lot of music and it will be fun! You have so much to gain! Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store 949-244-3729 info@LivingPianos.com
