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The 3 Worst Piano Practice Habits

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today we’re going to discuss the three worst piano practice habits. These might be things that you do in your piano practice. Maybe you’re scared I’m going to bring something up that you do! Maybe you’re not aware of these destructive habits that are part of your practice routine. But it’s better to find out now than to continue on the wrong path.

1. Hesitating before a tricky passage

Hesitation is a habit that I constantly work with students to eradicate. It’s such a bad habit! You get to a difficult part and you can’t quite get it, so you hesitate just for a moment, then you get it and go on. This is a very bad habit because it ingrains stopping into your playing. The more you do it, the more you will continue to do it. It’s self regenerating. So how do you break that habit? We’re going to get to that, but first I’m just going to list the three habits so you can see how they apply to you.

2. Starting over from the beginning after making a mistake

The second bad habit is, when you make a mistake you get frustrated and you go back to the beginning. I’ve talked about this many times before. This is such a destructive habit. In a performance, if you find yourself having difficulty, what are you going to do? You can’t just go back to the beginning. The audience doesn’t want to listen to all of that again just so you can get past that point.

3. Changing speeds in your performance

Maybe there are some parts of a piece that you can play really well, so you play them at a nice fast tempo. Then you get to the parts that are a little harder and you slow down to accommodate them. Once again, you lose the whole flow of the music. You might think that to play everything slowly is tedious for the audience, so you might as well play fast where you can. But that doesn’t make for a fluid performance.

What can you do in your practice to eradicate these bad habits?

1. Hesitating before a tricky passage: You’re going along and you pause for just a moment, and then you go on. This is incredibly disturbing to the audience. Maybe they are tapping along to the beat and then suddenly it hesitates. It’s off-putting. With something that’s lyrical, anytime there’s a hesitation it just doesn’t feel right. I’m going to tell you what you can do. First of all, make sure you’re choosing the right tempo so you can play through the piece without hesitation. But suppose that just doesn’t cut it. Suppose you’d have to play the piece at half the speed just to avoid a couple of hesitations. That seems like a brutal solution. Indeed there are more effective ways of dealing with hesitations, unless you’re hesitating every bar, in which case you obviously need to choose a much slower tempo. But if it’s just a few key places where you are hesitating, and you can’t quite eradicate it, I have a solution for you.

When you are practicing, get in the habit of stopping whenever there’s a hesitation. Stop immediately and find your place in the score. Find an appropriate place in the score just before that hesitation where you can start to get past the point of hesitation. You might have to start slowly and increase the speed. Maybe even do metronome speeds if you can’t quite get through the hesitation by playing it several times. Then after you’ve played through the trouble section several times in a row perfectly at a comfortable tempo, go back to the beginning of the piece, or the beginning of the section to pass that hesitation.

Interestingly, you may find that even though you can play it many times in a row perfectly starting at the previous phrase before the hesitation, once you go back further, you may still hesitate there. So you may have to go back a little bit further to get it fluid. Then go back to the beginning of the section or the beginning of the movement to finally eradicate that hesitation. You can work all your key hesitations out that way. I sometimes refer to this as the band-aid approach of practicing. It can be very effective, because if you just have three or four places in an entire piece where you’re hesitating, to take the whole piece painfully slowly will feel quite tedious. And it’s not the most productive way to solve the problem. So hopefully this solution works for you!

2. Starting over from the beginning after making a mistake: It’s so tempting when something goes wrong to just start over and try again. Well, the problem with this is if you get in the habit of doing that in your practice, when you get out to perform you’re going to do the same thing. More than that, it doesn’t solve the underlying weakness in your playing. So what you must do is find exactly where you had the problem, and study the score to figure out the solution. Then, much like I described before in avoiding hesitation, start just before the point at which you had the problem, pass that point several times, increase the speed, and use the metronome if necessary. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s a very valuable technique. You may have to go back a little bit further to finally be able to start from the beginning and pass that point without starting over. So the key here is to reference the score and nail down the correction. Be very deliberate with this. Find the specific correction so that you don’t just play on automatic pilot with your tactile memory. You don’t want to rely upon that because obviously, whatever made you miss it that time, will undoubtedly happen again. So you want to really focus on the correction. A lot of people want to know what they did wrong, but that’s of no value. Find the correction! Whatever you focus on is going to be apparent in your playing. If you’re focused on the mistake, you’re going to make the mistake. Focus on the correction and forget the mistake. This is a life lesson too!

3. Changing speeds in your performance: I have a student who’s extremely talented. He likes to play everything really fast and it’s pretty dazzling. He hasn’t been playing very long, and I’m constantly impressed by him. But being able to get through an entire piece or even an entire movement at the speed at which he starts is oftentimes all but impossible. So going faster and slower really isn’t the answer.

Here again, you want to focus on the parts you can’t play up to speed. The answer here is to work with a metronome. Once you get to the part you can’t play up to speed, find a speed you can handle and set your metronome to it. Then start from the beginning and play the whole selection at that speed. If you really want to play a faster tempo, zero in on the parts you can’t play faster and work with progressive metronome speeds and other practicing techniques in order to get them up to speed. Then you will be able to play everything at the tempo you want. But starting off at a tempo faster than you can play the difficult sections won’t work.

So these are three tips for you! You’ve probably noticed there are similarities in the solutions. Focusing in on the correction, going back, speeding things up, working with a metronome, going back a little bit further, then going back to the beginning. These are tremendous practice techniques that come into play in solving these common problems in piano practice. If you can break these bad habits, I promise you, you’re going to take your playing to a higher level! You’ll really have security, and you’ll be able to play through a piece from the beginning to the end at one speed without stopping, without going back, without hesitating, and without changing speeds. I hope this is helpful for you! Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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How Music Creates Emotion

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about how music creates emotion. There are many scientific studies about this. It’s remarkable that you can listen to a tune, a theme, a composition, a symphony, or a song, and it can make you feel something inside! How is this possible? There’s a lot to it. But today I want to talk about two fundamental principles of music that I believe are the primary mechanisms by which we feel emotion in music: repetition and development.

Repetition is such a strong aspect of being able to feel emotion in music.

Repetition helps you to comprehend what’s going on. There’s something very refreshing about returning to a familiar theme, particularly when you transition from something chaotic. That’s why a sonata-allegro form which has repeated sections of themes that develop, then return later, is a magical formula. It feels right. The same sort of formula is used in popular songs. The verse and chorus alternate back and forth. Then the bridge takes you astray. So when the verse or chorus returns, it feels so satisfying!

Development is also vital.

Developing upon a familiar theme can bring out many different emotions. For example, the beautiful theme in the Chopin G Minor Ballade. – how it is first stated, and how it comes back completely differently again and again. And because it’s a familiar theme, it has so much power. In the first repeat of the theme, it has little embellishment. But later in the Ballade, you hear the same theme in a grandiose version. It transcends into a gloriously dramatic theme. But if you hadn’t earlier heard the same theme in that delicate, poetic setting, it wouldn’t have such an impact. That’s just one example. There are limitless examples of repetition and development in music, which are the keys for being able to create emotion in music. There’s much more to it than that, but these are two elements that are intrinsic to virtually all music!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this. Thanks again for joining me! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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What I Learned From Horowitz

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to share with you a personal story about the things I’ve learned from Vladimir Horowitz. Horowitz was a phenomenal pianist and a phenomenon of the 20th century. I remember he used to make comebacks. He would retreat from the concert stage for years and people wondered if he would ever come back. Every time he reemerged it was an exciting event, and his playing was spellbinding!

I had the good fortune of studying with Constance Keene at the Manhattan School of Music. She was good friends with both Vladimir and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz. That’s right, his wife was the daughter of the great conductor Arturo Toscanini! She would visit with them all the time socially. I would hear all kinds of stories and I ended up getting tickets to his concerts! It was a tremendous learning experience for me. So I want to share some of the aspects of his playing that perhaps you can embrace and try to understand what he did that was so unique.

Horowitz gave the illusion of speed using articulation.

 

Aside from his poetic musicianship, Horowitz also had a technique that was mind bending. He would do things that sounded so impossibly hard. You listened to him play, and it sounded so fast. And yet, if you were to compare his performances to other performances of the same pieces, you would discover that indeed his tempos weren’t always faster. They just sounded faster. How is this possible? Horowitz had a way with his technique of creating delineation between notes. You hear each and every note so clearly in his playing. Instead of playing very smoothly, Horowitz punctuated each note. So, while it wasn’t necessarily faster, it gives the illusion of it being faster because of the articulation of all the notes. That’s one of the aspects of his technique. Listen to his performance of Chopin’s C-Sharp Minor Etude Opus 10 And you’ll hear what I’m talking about. The feeling it gives you is pretty spectacular.

Horowitz had a way of tone production and phrasing that no one to this day has been able to duplicate.

Most pianists will try to play a musical line as smoothly as possible. But there’s a property of the piano that when you play notes, they are immediately fading out. Horowitz used this to his advantage. Instead of trying to just force a smooth line, he would strategically listen to how one note would melt into the next and somehow carve out a line with all these angular tonal shadings. I would try to imitate this in my playing because it was such a compelling sound. Ordinarily, if other pianists tried to achieve this, it would have a very mannered approach. But somehow he could get a sense of a composition and create these little gems of beauty. Somehow he would put all these gems together and you’d have this magnificent line. There was a unique character to his musicianship that was unlike anybody else in that respect.

Most pianists have a nice balance from the bottom to the top, with the melody being heard above the other notes. It’s very lovely. It’s very smooth. But Horowitz had a way of bringing out inner lines you wouldn’t expect to be brought out, constantly calling your attention to inner lines that keep the performance interesting. Horowitz paid as much attention to inner lines and baselines as the upper melody, and didn’t just play a static homogeneous performance. With most performers, the soprano is the loudest, the bass is the second loudest, and the inner voices are softest. And that strata of musical lines is maintained throughout. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m not saying that this is better or worse. It’s just different. That’s why when you listen to Horowitz, he doesn’t sound like anybody else! Listen to his G Minor Ballade of Chopin. He recorded it many times, including many live performances. I was fortunate to hear him perform this piece live on more than one occasion. He never played it the same twice, and they are all highly individual interpretations!

Seeing Horowitz live was a revelatory experience for me.

 

One of his many comebacks was in the 1970s. He was playing at the huge Metropolitan Opera House. Can you imagine a piano recital in a hall of that size? Because it was a comeback it was a big event. There were actually 100s of people camping out the night before. I was one of them! While waiting for the tickets to go on sale the following morning I met Horowitz! He came by at about three in the morning with Wanda and handed out donuts and coffee to the people in line. I thought that was really sweet. Finally, I got to the front of the line to purchase tickets, and they only allowed two tickets to each person! So, I got my two tickets and they were in the nosebleed section. It was about as far away as you could get! He was like a little ant on this huge stage. That hall is enormous. Typically not a hall for piano recitals because it’s so large. But it was a cataclysmically beautiful performance. Everything was very refined and smooth.

Just a couple of months after I had camped out to see him, my teacher Constance Keene, who was such good friends with the Horowitz’s said, “Horowitz is playing at Carnegie Hall. How many tickets would you like?” I couldn’t believe it! I got box seats as close as you could get in Carnegie hall! It was unbelievable! What was so fascinating is that I had just heard him in the back of a huge hall and everything sounded very refined and smooth. When I saw him up close, there was an angularity and a grotesque beauty of Horowitz, because things are kind of contorted to stretch a bit. And when you’re up close, you can hear this. For example, when you’re in a big hall and you have a rapid passage and a chord, you need a little space for the reverb of the hall to dissipate. When you’re far away, you don’t even notice any of these things, but up close, you can hear how everything is delineated. Everything is exaggerated. Even in much smaller concert halls, it’s absolutely essential to exaggerate dynamics and to take time in certain places, depending upon the acoustics of the hall. And Horowitz really understood this.

Seeing him up close after seeing him from so far away was enlightening. understanding how he was able to achieve a sound in a large hall where you felt like he was playing just for you. Even if you were way in the back of the balcony, everything came through so clearly. Up close, it was almost like getting close to a painting and seeing all the brush strokes. It was extremely angular and well-defined. I learned a great deal about how he approached the piano. Technically it’s a whole other area. He played the piano like no one else, sitting rather low. And a lot of times it looked almost like he used flat fingers. And his piano was unorthodox. He had it regulated with a very shallow action, very light with super hard hammers. So anytime he put down just a little bit of weight, it was a roar! The magic of his technique was being able to play so lightly that he could control this. So anytime he wanted power, all he had to do was let a little bit of weight down. Because of this, he didn’t have to sit at a height that most people do. Most pianists use the weight of the arms or even the body. If you only weigh 100 pounds you might have to use the weight of your body to get power at the piano.

Horowitz was a one of a kind pianist.

It’s interesting to try to incorporate some of the aspects of his playing, but it’s all but impossible. Horowitz made things work in a way that nobody else could imitate. He could do things that sounded so convincing. But then when you really analyzed it or tried to do it yourself, it would fall flat. How the heck could he do these crazy things and make it sound so perfect? It was the conviction of his playing that pulled it off. What he was doing was rather odd, but somehow the magic of the execution made it all work and made it so fascinating to listen to. I Hope you will listen to some Horowitz recordings to hear the magic for yourself!

Horowitz-Chopin etude op.10 no.4

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Horowitz (1951)

Horowitz at the White House:

Horowitz Plays Scarlatti:

Chopin G Minor Ballade – Horowitz:

Vladimir Horowitz plays Mozart: Concerto No. 23 in A major

These are some facets of what I learned from Vladimir Horowitz. I hope there’s something of value for you here! And I encourage you to go out and listen to some of his discography. I hope you’ve enjoyed this! Thanks again for joining me. I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.|

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Creepy Music: It’s What You Don’t Hear!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s subject is about creepy music. Let’s think about film for a minute. When I think of some of the greatest suspense and creepiness in film, I think of Alfred Hitchcock. Movies like Psycho or The Birds. In these films, it’s not what you’re seeing. It’s not thrusting upon you all this crazy stuff on the screen. Instead, it’s just in your head. You’re wondering what’s going to happen next because of the overtones and undertones. Just like in music, if you throw a bunch of stuff at someone, it might be a little bit jarring. It could even be scary! But slow and simple sounds with dissonance might just make you wonder, “What’s happening next?” Music with too much dissonance gets ugly, and there’s a place for that. Obviously we’ve all seen films that are jarring, but what we’re talking about today is something a little bit different. What I have for you is some original music that explores what this little bit of dissonance can do in music to keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what’s happening next. It’s what you don’t hear! So, I hope you enjoy this and see what you think about this. See Video for Performance

So, that’s an example of music that utilizes dissonance to create a mood.

Not a jarring or scary mood, but creepy and suspenseful. This transcends so many things. If you’re in a conversation with someone, for example, and they stop talking and they’re just looking at you, it’s very creepy after a while. It leaves you wondering, “What the heck are they thinking?” It’s much creepier than anything they could be saying. So, it’s that reserve that builds tension. In cooking it’s the same thing. You could throw a bunch of spice in something, and it could be borderline inedible. But just that little bit of spice can make a dish pop. It’s the same thing with your music. And it’s not just for this particular mood of creepy music. It’s how you parse your words in conversation, and how you delineate music without showing it all, to keep people guessing. What’s beyond? What’s coming next? And that’s one of the secrets of creating moods in music! I hope this is helpful for you! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

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Are Digital Pianos Better Than Acoustic Pianos?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’ll be examining the pros and cons of digital pianos vs. acoustic pianos. You might think that my opinion would automatically be in favor of acoustic pianos, and I kind of feel that way. However, it’s not a matter of which is better, but which is appropriate for the task.

In some situations, a good digital piano is a great choice.

I have a hybrid instrument that I am developing. With this instrument it’s possible to interface with music software. With a piano, you can put MIDI sensors under the keys that can do some of that. But obviously there are benefits to digital pianos: having different piano sounds, orchestrations, or being able to play with headphones. There are many benefits to technology. Digital pianos don’t require the same maintenance, and they are much more easily moved. Taking even an upright piano to gigs isn’t feasible. Having a good digital piano, one you can put under your arm, is a godsend. So it’s not that one is necessarily better than the other.

What if you have a limited budget for a piano and none of the benefits of a digital piano are particularly important to you?

In that case, should you just automatically get an acoustic piano? Even then, not necessarily. Because if you have a limited amount of money to spend on a piano, for way under $3,000 you can get some seriously good digital pianos. Looking at acoustic pianos in the $3,000 price range, your options are severely limited. You will likely be limited to short uprights with slower actions than grand pianos, and they will have an anemic sound in the bass. You’re not going to get much of an acoustic piano at that price point. If you are looking for something closer to $1,000, good luck finding any kind of acoustic piano in the used market that doesn’t require a lot of work. Additionally, you’re going to have to spend hundreds of dollars just to get it moved into your home and tuned. At that price point, a digital piano could be a better choice for you.

It all comes down to your personal preferences and situation.

While I love playing my grand piano, I also love technology and what it affords. There are many benefits to each of these. You have to find what works for you and what’s important to you. How you’re using the instrument, where you’re playing it, and what your goals are are all important things to consider. If you want to have a concert grand bass in an instrument that’s the size of an upright, you’re not going to be able to achieve that with an acoustic piano. There is a lot to consider with finding the right instrument for yourself. I hope this has been helpful for you. If any of you have questions about this, you’re welcome to contact me anytime. This is my passion and I’m happy to share it with you!

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Do You Need to Disinfect the Keys on Your Piano?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s viewer submitted question is, “Do You Need to Disinfect the Keys on Your Piano?” This is a very timely subject with the coronavirus going around. Let’s say you’re a piano teacher with 30 students coming into your studio every week playing your piano. One student after the next, after the next, after the next. What can you do to keep yourself and your students safe?

Can germs live on piano keys?

Absolutely. There’s no reason why they can’t. I would say it’s a very good idea to clean your piano keys. So the question is, how do you disinfect the keys on your piano? What’s important is to not get them wet. Why? Because even though the tops may be ivory or plastic, piano keys are wooden underneath. If they get wet, the wood will absorb the moisture. It could expand the wood, so the key tops could warp or fall off! So you really want to be careful.

The best way to sterilize your piano keys while cleaning them is using a high solution of alcohol.

Alcohol evaporates extremely quickly, much faster than water. So it’s important to find a high concentration of 90% alcohol or higher. Just put a small amount on a paper towel or cotton swab. Then, wipe all the keys of your piano. It shouldn’t be soaked, just slightly damp. The benefit of the alcohol is, it evaporates quickly, so you’re not likely to do any damage to your piano. But of course if you have 30 students you might not have the time to clean your piano keys meticulously between every student. You could just use little Clorox wipes and I’m sure that would do the job for you. Something is certainly better than nothing.


One note of caution is, cleaning ivory keys regularly with alcohol can damage ivory. So, using bleach or white vinegar may be a better choice for pianos with ivory keys.

I would recommend sterilizing your piano keys as a precaution.

Right now it’s a very good idea to avoid the risk of transferring infection, particularly if you have a large teaching studio. This is a very good idea for you. Thanks for the great question!

I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store.
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