Tag Archives: piano techniques

Why is slow piano practice so important? Piano Lessons

Practicing slowly is essential in order to develop and maintain a high level of piano playing. There are actually several different components I’m going to discuss when it comes to the magic of slow practice. Even pieces that you have polished and are on performance level will benefit from the reinforcement of going through slowly. This means playing the piece slowly and definitely looking at the musical score, using no pedal and most often using the metronome. Practicing like this will help solidify your memorization and your fingers. I find this is the best thing to do in the final practice for a performance you are well prepared for.

There is another form of slow practice that you might not have heard about before. I find this to be incredibly important; in fact, I discussed this with my wife www.FlorenceFlutist.com and she had the same exact perception of this concept. Let’s say you sit down to practice and have a whole piece to work out. Perhaps it is partially learned but the piece is not up to performance level yet. You could try to power through and keep working trying to improve it. However, a much better approach is to not worry about the whole piece at all at this point. Simply start at the beginning of the piece; the first phrase. Play it slowly – slower than you are used to – until you have complete comfort and satisfaction with that section.

If you do this you will undoubtedly spend a lot of time working out that first section. You will probably wonder how you will even get through the whole piece learning so slowly! You will be very tempted to move ahead to the next section before you should. However, if you stay with it, the results will be remarkable.

Continue working slowly on the first section of the piece until it is absolutely perfect and it feels very comfortable. Then begin working up the tempo with the metronome one notch at a time. The good news is that most sections of the piece will not require such intense practice and you will get them on a high level without spending much time at all. However, there will be a few sections that will definitely benefit from this slow practice routine. It comes down to the 80/20 rule:

You should spend 80% of your time on the hardest 20% of the music!

Most pieces are not written with equal difficulty throughout. By taking sections that are difficult and practicing them slowly until they become comfortable (and then increasing the speed), your practice sessions will become much more productive. Slow practice is an incredible tool to advance your piano playing. Just practicing a piece slowly and definitely without incrementally speeding it up will be tremendously beneficial. Try these techniques out and see how it works for you. I would love to hear your comments.

How to Play Ornamentation on the Piano – Piano Techniques

Here is a great reference sheet from our friends at Virtual Sheet Music

This is an excellent topic. In fact, there are entire books written on the subject! Ornamentation is used in many period styles of music but the Baroque era is specifically known for its ornamentation in architecture, art, as well as music. That’s why in the video example above I am using the first section of the Sarabande movement of the 5th French Suite of Johann Sebastian Bach.

You’ve probably seen Baroque music with squiggly lines written above the notes. There are many idea how to interpret them. The problem is that over the course of decades and even centuries, perceptions change. In fact, ideas about ornamentation continues evolving over time. So, how do you approach ornamentation?

If you listen to a number of different artists playing the same piece, you will notice that there are dramatically different executions of trills, turns, mordants and other ornaments. This is because ornamentation offers a degree of free license of creativity; To a large degree it’s up to you what to play.

In the video above you can hear the difference ornamentation makes in a musical section of Bach. The section I chose repeats. So I play it the first time with no ornamentation. The second time you will hear one approach to Baroque ornamentation. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin – Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-37296

How to Approach Thirds on The Piano

Thirds on the piano can be very difficult. We only have five fingers on each hand so negotiating thirds can be a real challenge. As with other aspects of piano technique, fingering is critical. Here are some related resources for you:
How to Practice Scales & Arpeggios and Brilliant Piano Fingering Technique.

In this article and video, you will find some tips on how to approach thirds and some routines to add to your practice. Of course, thirds can be practiced endlessly. It’s said that Josef Lhévinne practiced the Double Thirds Etude by Chopin for ten years before performing it! His historic recording of the piece is a testament to this fact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XCj-j7TBTY

In the following tips, I utilize a D Major Scale played in thirds.

A great way to practice thirds (this example refers to the right hand) is to play the top notes legato and the bottom staccato; doing this will help to clarify the melody notes. You can make it a bit simpler for yourself by trying to play the top notes and leaving out the bottom notes. You can also try playing every other note on the bottom and then go through and play the notes you left out the first time.

All of these simple techniques will help you develop the muscle memory and strength to play thirds with precision. Try practicing with a metronome to keep consistency and remember that fingering is critical in playing thirds. Check out the videos links above for more fingering techniques.

Thanks again for joining me and keep those questions coming: Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

How to Correct Mistakes In Your Piano Playing

How do you correct mistakes on the piano? While this sounds like a really complex subject and seems impossible to cover in just one short article and video, the truth is, if you’re looking for an answer for how to correct all your mistakes on the piano; that is impossible! What this article focuses on is how to cement corrections you make so the mistakes can be eradicated permanently!

There are many practice techniques to correct mistakes including going slower, stopping and starting at precise places, playing each hand separately; the list goes on and on. What’s equally important to just correcting problems is how to cement corrections and avoid making the same mistakes again and again.

Here is the secret to making corrections stick. Play your trouble spot over and over again solidifying the corrections until you can play the section perfectly, and not only perfectly, but comfortably too. You might get it three times in a row perfectly but if you’re still a little hesitant or straining to finish, keep working until you can play it with ease; with as little tension as possible.

This is where most people stop. But this next step is vital to retaining the correction and continuing to play the passage correctly. The fact of the matter is that we are all prisoners of our own routines. Whatever we have done repeatedly in the past, we will do again; it’s just in our nature!

So how do you actually make a correction stick? You may play your problem spot over and over again ten times in a row perfectly. Yet when you play the piece later you will surprise yourself and make the original mistake again. So how do you avoid this?

First, you must solidify the correction in the context of the piece going back to the beginning of the section. But even this isn’t enough. You must then go back to the beginning of the entire piece or movement. When you play, be sure you are present so that when the corrected section comes, you are aware of at that moment! Once you play the correction from the beginning of the piece a number of times, the correction will be permanent!

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

How to Play Trills on the Piano – Piano Lessons with Robert Estrin

I’ve had quite a few people recently asking me for tips on how to play trills on the piano. It’s no easy task – or is it? This video and article will provide a few tips and techniques you can use to help master trills.

The first thing to do is make sure you play your trills with minimal arm weight. If you’ve watched some of my other technique videos you know that I emphasize arm weight as a very big component in tone production – especially when it comes to slower melodies. The challenge with trills is playing lightly, almost floating your hand above the keys to allow the notes to flow with minimal effort.

The next thing in playing trills is keeping your fingers very close to the keys. Trills are played so fast that there is not a lot of time for movement, so it’s best to keep your fingers very close to the keys – so close you remain in contact with the keys!

Another thing is to make sure your fingers are rounded. It’s nearly impossible to play fast with outstretched fingers; keeping them rounded will help improve speed dramatically allowing more than just one joint to execute the trill. These are some of the most important aspects when it comes to hand position.

However, there is something fundamental about approaching trills. Even if it sounds like just a bunch of notes, you need to figure out exactly how many notes you are playing as if it’s written out. Learn trills like you would learn any other fast passage in your music working with the metronome increasing one notch at a time as you gain confidence.

Another big question is how to know how many notes to play in a trill. One valuable technique that I use frequently is to play just one note of the trill. For example, if you are playing a trill and starting on the upper note, just play that upper note. You will get an idea of how fast you can play the trill by only playing one note of the trill first, either the top note or the bottom note – whichever one you are starting the trill on.

This brings up an important subject in trills, what note does it start on? This could really be a subject for an entirely separate video but I am going to provide some basic information here. As trills are written, you will usually start on the auxiliary (the note above the written note of the trill; the next note in the scale of that key). For example, if you have a piece in C major and you have a D trill, you would start on E.

Can you start a trill on the note written? For example, if it’s written as a D can you start on a D and move up to E? Yes; it depends on the context. There are different schools of thought on this but generally, I would say a trill is basically a long appoggiatura (a non-chord tone resolving into the harmony). So starting on the auxiliary generally makes musical sense. However, in different period styles and in shorter trills, use your judgment as to what sounds best and what you can execute with confidence.

The last thing I want to address with trills is one of the biggest challenges; how to end them! If you don’t know exactly where you are it can be difficult to end them smoothly. The good news is there is a great practice technique for this.

I always like to play the trill right up to the point before it ends, and then stop in a relaxed manner over the keys. Keep doing that until you have a good grasp on where you will be right before the last notes of the trill. Keep playing that passage over and over and eventually add the last notes of the trill. But don’t play them right away; pause in a relaxed manner before you play the last notes. At first, make the pause as long as you need it; eventually, make the duration of the pause smaller and smaller; until the pause is imperceptible to the listener but guides the ending of the trill for you!

Thanks again for watching and reading. I enjoy bringing these videos to you and am planning more of them for you. So please, send in any questions or suggestions to me, Robert Estrin: Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729