Tag Archives: piano technique

Can You Practice the Piano too Much?

Today we’re going to talk about the importance of reflecting upon your practice by taking strategic breaks.

How is taking a walk in the middle of your practicing beneficial?

When you’re immersed in practicing, after awhile you need to reflect on things. Not only that, you’re doing everything with your upper body. It’s good for you to get out and get some air and get the blood flowing throughout your body. It will also give you an opportunity to assimilate what you have been working on.

Reflecting on your practicing

One way to digest your work is to analyze what you have done in your practice. You can play your music over mentally and work out fingerings while testing how much of the music you have retained. That’s the left brain or Western way of quantifying knowledge – the analytical part of your brain. However, perhaps even more important is to detach yourself from analytical thinking and clearing your mind. This is a more of a Zen approach. If you never get away from the music to enjoy life, what do you have to share with your music anyway?

Why it’s not just about playing the piano or practicing

This principle isn’t just about practicing the piano. It applies to practically any endeavor! You need to get out and smell the flowers to have a chance to simply be – not just try to accomplish things. In the process, you will discover something extraordinary. The analytical part of your mind will help you solidify memory. I’ve talked about practicing away from the piano and that can be incredibly beneficial. But what is equally important is detaching your mind from everything and being in the now!

Maintaining an intense practice regimen.

Those of you who are practicing intensely on a regular basis will be surprised at how getting away periodically will increase your productivity. While intense practice certainly has an essential role in developing your musical skills, getting away from it all is just as important.

I hope this is helpful and thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store

info@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

How to Get Good Tone on the Piano

This is Robert Estrin from LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store with a great subject today: The fundamental importance of arm weight for producing a good tone on the piano. You might wonder what I’m talking about. Before I get into that, let’s discuss the piano as a unique musical instrument.

What was the first musical instrument ever?

The first musical instrument was obviously the human voice! Every other instrument imitates the human voice to one extent or another. Wind instruments, for example, have a clear connection with breath, flow of the phrase, natural progression from note to note, and the smoothness of the line. This is intrinsic not just to vocal performance, but also all wind instruments. String instruments have the bow to create the sense of line like the breath in singing.

What is the analog for the breath on the piano?

You might think, since phrases naturally ebb and flow like ocean waves, that you can simply calculate playing each note louder and louder towards the middle of the phrase, then gradually softer and softer towards the end of the phrase. However, if you try that, you’ll end up with a calculated performance. No surprise there! The secret of creating a smooth line at the piano is, gradually increasing and decreasing arm weight by transferring smoothly from note to note, growing toward the middle of the phrase, and diminishing toward the end of the phrase.

You can try it for yourself!

Play a phrase once while calculating each note getting progressively louder, then progressively softer. Then try playing the same phrase but using the continuous arm weight that ebbs and flows. You’ll find that no matter how much you try to craft the line based upon your musical inclinations, the first version will sound calculated. That is, after all, exactly what you are doing! When you play the phrase again, remember to use the concept of the breath by utilizing the natural weight of your arm. Instead of pushing down more, just support the weight of your arm with your fingers. Lean into it the keys even after initially playing them. Lean more toward the middle of the phrase and less toward the end. You’ll find that this creates a completely different sound. There is something engaging about imposing upon a phrase the idea of the breath and letting the notes flow naturally with that overarching concept. It creates a singing line that belies the reality of the percussive nature of the piano.

I’m interested in your impressions of how this works for you. If any of you have different ways of achieving the same sound, I’d love to hear from you! Once again, this is Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store.

info@LivingPianos.com
949-244-3729

3 Secrets to Playing Slow Music

3 SECRETS TO PLAYING SLOW MUSIC

This is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store. Today, I have three secrets to playing slow music. When you hear instrumentalists, such as pianists, you notice that many have a lot of technical achievement. But when you hear a great artist play a slow movement, magic can happen. It can reach the inner depths of your soul. This is the sign of a great musician. How do you approach slow movements in order to get that quality, to get that beauty and be able to reach people on an emotional level? These are the secrets I’m going to give to you today.

Number one is: Make sure you take the right tempo.

A lot of people play slow movements too slowly. For example, if someone were to perform Debussy, Clair de Lune, you may hear it played very slowly. Now, it might be okay at the beginning, but by the time you get to the middle and compare the tempo they’re playing in the middle of the piece, often, they’re going faster because it gets ponderous after awhile at such a slow tempo.

Another clue for you when you’re taking a tempo that is too slow is that you will find that if there are repeats, you won’t want to take them. They don’t seem to work. So, if you have a piece of music and think, “Mozart didn’t mean all those repeats”. Yes, he did! And if they don’t work, it’s a clue that you are playing too slow a tempo. Another thing related to this is to:

Hold long notes long enough.

There’s nothing worse than robbing long notes. But it’s so easy to rob long notes because you’re just sitting there doing nothing! It’s easy to count to yourself and accelerate your counting in your head. You can lose the pulse.

A lot of performers play very slowly and rob the long notes, such as again, the beginning of Clair de Lune. To me, that is simply playing out of rhythm. But you’d be surprised how many performances you’ll find online of very renowned concert pianists playing this piece and robbing the long notes. Holding all the long notes for their full written value gives the music soul, doesn’t it? You’ve got to take the right tempo and you must hold the long notes long enough. What else is there? The other thing is to:

Think of the long note as the pulse.

This enables you to have a slow pulse with a faster tempo. An example is the second movement of the K. 332 Mozart Sonata in F major. First, you could play it thinking of each sixteenth note as the beat. The left hand has sixteenth notes, and each one of those can be punctuated as the beat. Then, instead of thinking each sixteenth note as the beat, try thinking each eighth note as the beat. It’s already going to be better. Rachmaninoff said,

“The bigger the phrase, the bigger the musician.”

Well, related to this is, the longer note that you feel as the pulse, the more freedom you have with your music. Now try feeling the quarter note as the pulse. This also gives you the benefit of being able to take a faster tempo but still having a relaxed feel to your music. Even with a slightly faster tempo, but with the quarter note as the pulse, it doesn’t feel hurried! Those are three secrets to being able to play slow music.

Make sure to hold long notes long enough, feel the long note as the beat, and choose the right tempo.

Don’t take slow pieces too slowly. If you do those three tips, it will enhance the performance of your slow music. I’d love to hear from all of you and give me your perspective. And if you haven’t subscribed to LivingPianosVideos’ YouTube channel, go for it! You’ll get all the fresh videos. We produce them for you every week.

Thanks for joining me again,  Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store.   info@LivingPianos.com 949-244-3729

Is Pain Necessary to Play the Piano? – Playing on the Tips of Your Fingers

You may have heard about the need to play on the tips of your fingers. But if you hands are weak, you may find that your fingers collapse and there is no way of playing on the tips of the fingers no matter how hard you try.

I used to watch my father, Morton Estrin play the piano with his massive hands in the rounded position that you hear about.

Some people describe the ideal piano hand position as one that is shaped like holding a ball.

If you let your hands drop down onto the keyboard, your fingers will naturally round and you will be in a position that takes no effort to maintain. That is the ideal piano position.

My father seemed to have pads at the end of his fingers which could punctuate the notes on the piano while maintaining rounded fingers playing on tips. But what if you have weak fingers that collapse, and your fingernails extend beyond your fingers? Then, you can’t play on the tips without getting “clickety-clack” sounds with your fingernails sliding all over the keys. So, you end up playing with flat fingers. This creates all sorts of problems, not the least of which is when your fingers are outstretched, your thumbs and pinky don’t extend far enough to play the keys!

So, how do you develop pads at the end of your fingers?

Here is what I experienced: I was always dazzled by brilliant octaves I heard my father, Horowitz and other pianists display. When I had the opportunity to study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria in high school, I worked furiously on the Liszt 6th Hungarian Rhapsody which has a long, demanding octave section that goes on and on at the end of the piece. There were Bösendorfers and Hamburg Steinways to practice on and I was in heaven!

Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #6

Then something happened that caused great pain. I’m not referring to the kind of muscle pain you experience from exercise when lactic acid builds up in your muscles. That pain subsides as soon as you stop playing (as long as you don’t overdo it!) If you have ever clipped your nails a little too short then practice the piano intensely, the fingernail can become slightly detached at the very end of your finger. You see a thin line of blood right at the point at which the nail meets the finger. As long as you keep your fingers clean (as well as the keys) you probably won’t suffer infection. (You can even put a Band-aid over the end of the finger if necessary.) But it is intensely painful! Since I was in Austria taking master classes and had this phenomenal opportunity, I just powered through my practice and ignored the pain.

Something really interesting resulted from this. Since the ends of my fingernails became detached from the fingers, I developed the pads like I saw on my father’s hands! I was able to play on the tips of the fingers which were rounded avoiding the clicking of the nails on the keys! I have spoken to other pianists who have had similar experiences. Perhaps there is a method for developing these pads which avoids the horrific pain I experienced developing my piano technique. I would love to hear from any of you who have either shared this phenomenon or have found other ways of being able to play on the tips of the fingers without your nails hitting the keys.

This is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com Your Online Piano Store 949-244-3729 info@LivingPianos.com

A Secret Octave Technique for Piano

We have addressed octave techniques in a couple of past videos: It’s all in the wrist and Piano Exercises – Octaves, among countless other videos in which I talk about certain techniques I will address in this video as well.

This video is quite unique. A couple weeks ago a good friend of mine named Jeffrey Beigel (who studied with my father Morton Estrin) was touring through Southern California. We had time to catch up and even film an extended interview (which you will see on the website and YouTube very soon).

I had mentioned to Jeffrey that I was playing the Liszt B-minor Sonata which contains numerous octaves sections. He immediately went to the piano and started playing parts of the Liszt Sonata and said, “Curl the second finger”. I had never heard this before and I started incorporating it into my octave technique.

In case you are unfamiliar with my video on octave technique, it involves playing from the wrist – as the arms are not fast enough to get the job done in many cases. Jeff’s suggestion was to simply curl the second (index) finger. It works wonderfully by relaxing the hand which allows you to play your octaves more easily.

Thanks again for joining me and I look forward to sharing more of these techniques with you in the future. Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Learning Hanon Part 1 – The First Exercises – The Virtuoso Pianist

If you play Classical Piano you have undoubtedly run into Charles Louis Hanon’s The Virtuoso Pianist. It contains valuable exercises as well as the standard fingering for all major and minor scales and arpeggios. My father Mortin Estrin www.MortonEstrin.com taught these to me and now I am sharing them with you.

While the full text for Hanon is quite large, he includes numerous exercises, all the major scales and arpeggios as well as scales in different intervals. In this video we will be covering some of the early lessons which can be very helpful if you continue practicing them a little bit every day.

It is essential to practice Hanon exercises as well as scales and arpeggios with the metronome. Why? Because the whole idea is to develop precision and evenness in your playing – for both timing and volume of each note. The metronome is an essential tool for the musician as the tape measure is for the carpenter.

For the first exercises, set the metronome at 60 beats to the minute and practice one note to the beat playing definitely. The video above provides a good example of this. Notice that when playing the exercise only the fingers are working. Utilizing raised fingers trains your hands to delineate each note. You must avoid any arm motion in these exercises. Play the entire exercise about 4 times through at one note to the beat playing at a fairly strong volume. Once you feel comfortable, try to play two notes for every beat. Make sure you continue to use only the fingers and not resort to arm motion. Why no arms? The whole idea of Hanon is to develop strength to play fast and the arms are too large to move quickly. Developing a strong finger technique is essential for fast scales and arpeggios.

Once you work your way up to 4 notes to the beat on these exercises, you will find it’s nearly impossible to lift the fingers and play fast.

The faster you play, the closer the fingers must be to the keys. Simply put, Faster = Lighter

There is no way to play with great strength or extreme movement in fast passages. Be sure to keep the fingers naturally rounded. This is necessary since your fingers are not the same length; by rounding them it makes all the fingers align at the same point on the keys.

The whole routine should take about ten minutes. If you continue to practice this every day you will find yourself developing more finger strength. It also provides a great warm up.

I would recommend doing one Hanon exercise per week. Once you have mastered 10 exercises, you should have enough strength to graduate to scales. If you master one scale or arpeggio each week, after a year you will have learned all of you major and minor (harmonic and melodic) scales and arpeggios, all with just 10 minutes per day! As your technique grows, you can adjust the metronome speed faster and faster over time.

Next week I will discuss scales and arpeggios in Hanon. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729