Tag Archives: piano techniques

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

Piano Technique Questions: Raised Finger Technique

This topic comes from a YouTube viewer of mine who was responding to a video I made about a Brilliant Piano Technique.

My piano teacher today told me that lifting those middle 3 fingers up and out of the way causes enormous tension all the way through your arms and that while playing octaves, you need to rest your middle three fingers on the keys in a relaxing position, directly contradicting your video. Please help me!

– Youtube Viewer

Your teacher is absolutely correct in directing you to keep your hands as relaxed as possible. The fact is, playing octaves requires strength. Without that strength, it is impossible to play rapid octave passages. If the fingers are not out of the way, they will hit notes between the octave. So, it is necessary to have a hand position that allows for clean octave work. You can see a demonstration of how this can work in a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodie.

When I was young and developing my technique, it was exhausting practicing this piece. I have extremely small hands that are naturally very weak. However, with progressive, intelligent practice, it is possible to develop strength and speed by utilizing proper hand position in the most relaxed manner possible.

Brilliant Piano Finger Technique – Piano Lessons

When I was growing up, I would listen to some of the great pianists such as Horowitz and Rubinstein. I would also listen to some of the pianists from the early 20th century such as Hoffman, Rachmaninoff, and Joseph Levine. I was always so impressed with the pristine finger work. It almost would sound like a string of jewels because of the evenness of the notes, and I always wondered how to achieve that sound. So today’s show is about how to achieve brilliant finger work.

I’m going to regress a little bit more. When I first started studying the piano with my father Morton Estrin, he showed me how to practice scales with raised fingers and often times my students ask me, “Why do I have to raise my fingers?” Let me show you what I’m talking about. With slow scale practice, it’s important for strength to raise the fingers. You may wonder why you would ever want to play that way because obviously when you play quickly, you don’t have time to raise your fingers. The secret to getting the evenness in your scale work and fast finger passages is the release of notes.

For example, if you were to put your hand on a flat surface and just try to lift one finger, some of them are pretty hard to lift. Lift your fourth finger with your hands on a flat surface, and it’s very hard. It’s actually the release of notes that takes more strength than the pushing down of notes! So to strengthen and then to release is the reason for practicing slowly with raised fingers so you’ll practice the release of each note and that will lead to the pristine beauty you can get in fast finger work.

That is one of the secrets for achieving beautiful clarity in your playing. There are many others that I will discuss in future videos in terms of hand position and other practicing techniques. For now, I suggest that you practice very strongly. Practice your scales and your arpeggios slowly with raised fingers then work up gradually faster. As you get faster, your fingers, by necessity, must be closer and closer to the keys until you can play quickly but still have the pristine evenness, so each note is exactly the same length because the raising of fingers accomplishes the release of each previous note. That’s all for today and thanks for joining us! info@livingpianos.com

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.

How to Play Piano – IT’S ALL IN THE WRIST

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. For passages that require power and speed, the wrists can accomplish both.

IT’S ALL IN THE WRIST: The Secret to Dazzling Octaves

The wrists provide the right balance of speed and power for octave and fast chord work. Octaves are accomplished by positioning the hand in two perpendicular “C’s” which utilize the power of the arch for strength and support.

How to Play Piano – Finger Techniques

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.

HOW TO DEVELOP FINGER TECHNIQUE: Hand Positions and Finger Patterns

Almost all piano technique can be reduced down in its simplest form to hand positions and finger patterns. As a beginner, most people learn to play with 5 fingers of each hand over 5 keys. In time this is expanded. Ultimately this is the basis for all piano technique.