Tag Archives: piano lessons

The 3 Essential Skills of Piano Playing

Whenever I meet new students, the first thing I do is listen to them play. Then I ask them a critical question, “Has anyone ever taught you how to practice?” One of the most important things a teacher can share with a student is how to practice. A teacher might be absolutely brilliant but their time with a student is very limited (typically an hour a week or less). The student’s progress is determined by what they do the other six days of the week. Effective practice is critically important.

I have previously produced videos on all three skills. (You can follow the links below.)

The first skill that any pianist needs to learn is memorization. With some instruments, you can actually play and look at the music the entire time. With the piano and other instruments, there is certain music that forces you to look at your hands (specifically music with big leaps). The complexity of some scores necessitates memorization. Here is a video on the subject:

How to Practice the Piano – Memorizing Music:

The second skill that is essential to playing the piano is sightreading. Being able to read through music casually is not only incredibly helpful, it’s fun being able to explore new music and to play with other musicians! However, you must not confuse sightreading with practicing. If you keep sightreading through a piece again and again with mistakes, you are practicing mistakes. Mistakes are very difficult to correct when they become ingrained in this manner. So be sure you are clear if you are sightreading or practicing.

Tips for Improving Sightreading:

The third skill is one that many accomplished, classical musicians overlook – improvisation. Improvising (or playing by ear) is not only fun but absolutely essential in progressing as a musician. Many types of music from jazz, rock, blues, gospel, country, new age and others – all absolutely require improvisation to play correctly. Playing with other musicians, making up pieces on your own, learning how a song or piece is composed and created are all enhanced by the development of musical improvisation.

How to Improvise on the Piano:

I would love to hear from everyone on this topic. Please contact me here on the website or directly at: Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Piano Lessons – How to Play Softly on the Piano – Controlling Quiet Playing

Learning to play softly on the piano is really a challenge and a skill of fine art. It is very challenging to master but when it’s executed well, the results can be amazing. So this article and video will provide some tips on how to improve your playing.

I want to mention first that you will need to have your piano regulated and voiced on a very high level to achieve consistent, quiet playing. If the notes don’t respond mechanically or sonically in a uniform fashion, you simply can’t achieve pianissimo playing since some notes will drop out.

I was very lucky growing up with my father, Morton Estrin, who is a concert pianist. We had several fine pianos around our house and in his studio, and I also got a chance to try out concert instruments when he was selecting pianos for performance and recording.

He has a reputation for being able to fill even the largest concert halls with tremendous sound; in fact, smaller halls were sometimes not big enough to handle the sound. However, while he was known for his massive strength, he had an incredible skill for pianissimo as well. This is a skill that is really daring for most pianists; as playing quietly really demands the audience’s full attention – even ruffling your feet can disturb the sound of the piano. However, playing like this can open up worlds of expression in the music.

But how do you achieve this? How do you play quietly and still maintain control of your playing? My father would describe pianissimo playing like this: think of the energy of the sun. Now imagine blocking it all out except for one single pinhole. The energy that flows through that one pinhole; that is what pianissimo playing is about. There is an intensity even at very low volume.

When it comes to playing quietly on a wind instrument or a string instrument there is the breath and the bow which provide continuity. So what can you use on the piano to get the smoothness of line in very soft playing?

You could try calculating each note successively louder, then softer trying to get a smooth phrase. However, if you use this approach it will sound calculated! You will not achieve a singing line.

The secret is to use the weight of your arm and to transfer the weight from finger to finger smoothly. When playing pianissimo you will also want to stay as close to the keys as you can making sure they aren’t depressed at all. Use minimum motion. The arm weight provides the analog to the breath of the human voice! It provides a continuum of energy creating the illusion of a singing line.

Keep in mind that the piano is technically not capable of a true singing line since all notes are fading away as soon as they begin. Yet, by utilizing the weight of the arm, you can achieve smooth, pianissimo playing with great control.

Why Everyone Should Learn to Play the Piano – You Should Learn the Piano

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First, a disclosure is in order: I grew up with a concert pianist, my father Morton Estrin who taught piano in our home. He was my piano teacher as well. He still teaches in the house where I grew up on Long Island! My sister Coren Mino is also a pianist. My life is centered around the piano and always has been, so my viewpoint is definitely focused on the piano!

If you are serious about studying music, the piano can be an essential tool for developing a deep understanding of music theory. If you attend a music conservatory, a minimum level of piano proficiency is required of all music students from composers, conductors, performers, teachers – everyone is required to learn to play the piano. What is so important about the piano?

One reason is that the piano is one of the only instruments in which you can easily play multiple notes at the same time. Most instruments can only play one note at a time. In fact, all brass and woodwind instruments are monophonic. (However, there are alternative techniques to get around this usually involving singing.) The piano is also quite different from other instruments because there is a vast repertoire of music which requires no other musicians to be complete!

The piano lends itself to fostering a deep understanding of the structure of music. On the piano, you can not only see the chord but you can hear it (with absolute certainty) as well. For example, assuming the piano is in tune, if you play a C, it will be a C. If you try and play a C on another instrument – let’s say a French horn – there are a lot of different fingerings that can get very different notes; a piano will play a note with certainty as well as visual feedback. For singers, it can be invaluable having a piano nearby to check pitches of vocal parts.

Another point is that playing a note on a piano is incredibly simple. Even a young child can walk over to a piano and play a note on the keyboard. Just try and do that with an oboe or a flute; you will need a substantial study of embouchure (lip position) breathing, fingering and more just to get a sound!

The piano is a wonderful instrument for everyone even if they don’t have formal training. I personally know people who have never had a lesson in their lives but still enjoy playing the piano. There are even professional musicians who have never taken piano lessons but have been able to play by simply watching people around them and learning by ear. This is particularly true of styles of music involving improvisation such as rock, pop, country, new age, and even jazz.

The piano truly is a universal instrument. Unlike other instruments relegated to being closed up in a case in a closet, the piano is a substantial piece of furniture in people’s homes beckoning to be played!

Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com: Robert@LivingPianos.com – (949) 244-3729

How to Play the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata – Part 2 – The Third Movement

Welcome back to my two-part series on how to play the Beethoven moonlight sonata. Today we will be addressing a question from Dong about the third movement:

I’m still working on the 3rd movement of the moonlight sonata. I can’t get the measures 7 and 8: the problem is that I can’t do the broken chords while moving up octaves each time fast/ precise enough… can you give me some advice on how I should practice that?

For your reference, here is the section Dong is referring to in his question:

This part of the piece is much different from the ethereal first movement; it comes on fast like a bat out hell!

When you slow this part of the piece down you’ll find that it’s simply a broken minor chord going up by octaves, and then moves on to a diminished chord in the same manner. It is actually not so difficult to play once it is broken down into its component parts.

The secret is hand positions and finger patterns.

As I’ve addressed in previous videos, being over the right keys with each hand position change can make any passage much easier to play and helps to develop confidence in your playing.

In this piece, you simply play to the fifth finger – the C# – and then switch your hand position by placing the thumb on the exact same note you started with (the C#) and play the same sequence again.

In your slow practice – which we’ve addressed in a previous video – you’ll want to play up to and not past the 2nd C# – the one in which you switch hand positions and play starting with the thumb. If you play this correctly, you will end up instantly over the next cord simply one octave higher.

The trick is to position your hand over the chord as soon as you play the second C# with your thumb.

Start by playing slowly and then consistently practice faster and faster until you can get up to speed. Try just starting up until the second C# and get that up to speed, then move on from there to the next chord position.

The good news is that this is not just a technique for this piece or this movement. This hand and finger technique is something you can use in all your music. Being aware of hand position and finger patterns can make any technical challenge very manageable.

I’ve really enjoyed presenting these tips on how to play the Beethoven moonlight sonata and would love to provide some tips and help for other pieces of music as well. If you have any requests for other pieces or questions about this one, please email me at: robert@livingpianos.com

10 Tips for Practicing the Piano

tips for practicing piano

Use the music: After you have the piece memorized, you must periodically go back and read the score carefully. I suggest playing slowly without pedal and using the metronome for the most dramatic results.

Practice slowly: Fast practice is like moving in quicksand. You dig yourself into the ground by reinforcing mistakes instead of identifying and eradicating them as you do in slow practice. Slow practice is like putting newsprint under a microscope. You see all the imperfections. This enables you to refine your playing by identifying rough edges.

Practice without the pedal: While the pedal makes everything sound better, when practicing, you can not only hear more critically without the pedal, but you will also be able to quickly hear fingering problems before they become ingrained.

2888760718_f80b63c318Use the metronome: Even in music that has fluidity with the tempo will benefit from metronome practice. You need a reference of time to know how much you are bending the phrase with rubato. Also, when learning difficult passages, it is usual to slow down. Over time you may even overcompensate for difficult passages rushing them. Difficult passages can be mastered by increasing the metronome a notch or 2 at a time to speed up particularly difficult passages.

Take very small sections at a time: It is tempting to try to learn large chunks to save time. The problem is that it becomes overwhelming. If you take tiny sections at a time and master them, you will be able to sustain a productive practice much longer.

piano_playingPractice in chords when possible: Not only does reducing the music to chords help to clarify the structure, it also helps to figure out the best fingering.

Always put corrections into context: Fixing a mistake isn’t enough. After you have mastered a correction, go back and connect the phrase to the preceding phrase. Then go back to the beginning of the section and connect, or you will find your old mistake recurring.

Practicing should be like a fine meal, served in courses: If you divide your practice into different sections of activities, you will be productive longer. First you may do some memorization. Then you can work on refining previously learned material. Then perhaps scales and arpeggios, and then perhaps some sight-reading. Doing any one skill for too long takes much greater mental effort and you may not work at optimum level.

lennon_pianoUse the 80/20 rule: If you focus the majority of your time on the few places that are weak, you will get much better results than practicing equally on all sections of your music.

Be keenly aware of how you feel: It is essential to be relaxed, sitting comfortably at the right distance from the keyboard and at the right height to avoid injury. Also, you should take periodic breaks to stretch or at least take a short walk to keep your body limber. Be aware of any lingering pain and take appropriate steps to avoid injury.

How to Play Piano – Part 3 – Arms Equal Power and Depth

HOW TO UTILIZE PARTS OF THE BODY: Power Versus Speed

In playing the piano, different parts of the body are utilized according to the requirements of power and speed. The more power required, the more mass of the body is utilized. The more speed, the less mass is needed.

– Finger technique: When the utmost in speed is required, only the fingers will do.

– Arm technique: When massive strength is called for as in big chords, only the arms can provide enough power.

– Wrist technique: While not as powerful as the arms, the wrists are faster than the arms and more powerful than the fingers.