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7 Piano Techniques Every Pianist Should Know: Russian, German, French & More!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today, we’re diving into the intriguing world of piano techniques. Over time, various philosophies and methods have emerged, each highlighting unique aspects of piano playing. Let’s explore some of the most renowned schools of piano technique and their distinctive characteristics.

The Russian School

The Russian school of piano technique is renowned for its emphasis on weight transfer, relaxed arm movements, and natural hand positions. This approach encourages pianists to utilize their entire arm, resulting in a rich, powerful tone. Esteemed pianists like Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, and Sviatoslav Richter exemplify the strength and expressiveness that this technique can achieve. My own background is influenced by this tradition, as my father, Morton Estrin, studied with Madame Vera Press, a student of Russian technique. This foundation has greatly shaped my teaching approach.

Rachmaninoff – Prelude in C Sharp Minor: Op. 3: No. 2

The German School

Known for its precision, clarity, and finger independence, the German school of piano technique focuses on firm finger action rather than arm weight. This technique is exemplified by the works of Carl Czerny, Ludwig van Beethoven, Clara Schumann, and more contemporary pianists like Wilhelm Kempff. The German approach is particularly effective for mastering intricate finger work and clear articulation, making it ideal for the contrapuntal works of Bach.

Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata mvt. 3 — Wilhelm Kempff

The French School

The French school is celebrated for its emphasis on lightness, clarity, and finger dexterity. Pianists trained in this tradition often produce a refined, delicate touch, as seen in the ethereal tones of Claude Debussy’s music. Key figures such as Alfred Cortot and Walter Gieseking have demonstrated the shimmering, impressionistic sound characteristic of French pianism. This technique is especially suited for impressionist compositions.

Maurice Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit – Walter Gieseking

The Italian School

Distinct from other schools, the Italian school emphasizes lyricism, expressive phrasing, and a beautiful, singing tone on the piano. This technique, inspired by the operatic tradition, aims to achieve a cantabile style. Notable proponents include Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and his student, Ivan Moravec. Their performances are known for their highly expressive and vocal-quality.

Chopin, Ballade in G minor, Op. 23 – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

The English School

Similar to the French school, the English school often highlights a more rounded, legato style. It focuses on clarity of tone, rhythmic precision, and expressive phrasing. Pianists like Myra Hess and Clifford Curzon have incorporated these elements into their performances, resulting in music that is both fluid and lyrical.

Myra Hess plays Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring

The American School

The American school represents a blend of various European traditions, including Russian, German, and French techniques. This approach creates a versatile and individualized style, allowing for a broad range of interpretive choices. Prominent pianists such as Van Cliburn and Murray Perahia embody this eclectic approach, which reflects a synthesis of different techniques.

Van Cliburn – Liszt: Un sospiro

The Taubman Approach

Although not a traditional school, the Taubman Approach, developed by Dorothy Taubman, focuses on ergonomic, injury-preventive piano playing. This method promotes natural, coordinated movements, aiming to make piano playing easier and free from tension. It’s particularly beneficial for pianists seeking to minimize physical strain and improve overall comfort.

Dorothy Taubman – The Taubman Approach

Conclusion

In summary, there are seven notable schools and approaches to piano technique, each with its own philosophy. Many modern pianists draw from multiple techniques, blending elements to develop a style that suits their individual preferences and repertoire. Which technique resonates most with you? Do you favor a particular school, or do you incorporate elements from various traditions? Share your thoughts in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and on YouTube! I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store. Thanks for joining me!

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Why Can’t You Buy Pianos Online?

I’m Robert Estrin, and today we have an intriguing question: Why can’t you buy a piano online? You might think it’s odd coming from me, given that Living Pianos was the world’s first online piano store, started in 2006. However, for the most part, you really can’t buy a piano online. Let me explain.

Practical Challenges

First, there are practical challenges. How do you ship a piano if you buy one online? If you live in Florida and buy a piano from California, how do you get it there? Who will tune it? These practicalities are significant, but there’s more to it.

Protected Territories in the Piano Industry

The piano industry still operates on an old business model of protected territories. This means you can’t shop for pianos the same way you shop for other items online. For most products, you can easily compare prices and buy from the cheapest source. But with pianos, the agreement between manufacturers, distributors, and dealers limits sales to specific geographical areas.

Unique Aspects of Pianos

Every piano is unique, which adds another layer of complexity. The agreements between manufacturers and dealers mean that dealers can only sell within their designated areas. If you visit a store, they can sell to you, but they can’t quote prices over the phone for out-of-area customers.

Exceptions and Loopholes

There are exceptions. Some large dealers skirt the rules and sell out of their designated areas. If caught, they may have to pay a commission to the local dealer. However, as long as the dealer is significant enough, manufacturers often look the other way.

The Living Pianos Model

Living Pianos has based its business model on selling used pianos. Nobody can restrict the sale of used pianos across the country. High-end brands like Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, and Bechstein are often worth the cost of shipping, making this model feasible. We provide high-quality videos and photos so you know what you’re getting. Experienced pianists are always welcome to visit and try the pianos.

Digital Pianos

Digital pianos are another exception. They can be shipped easily, but some digital pianos fall under the same protected territories as acoustic pianos. There are two categories: MI (Musical Instruments) sold in places like Guitar Center and Sweetwater, and home units with protected territories.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think about protected territories in the piano industry? Is it good to protect dealers who invest in inventory, or should you be able to shop anywhere for the best price? Let’s get a discussion going at LivingPianos.com. We primarily sell used pianos and abide by all rules for new pianos, ensuring the survival of the piano business.

I am Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store. Thanks for joining me! For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin. Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com.

How to Start From Anywhere in Your Music

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today, I’m going to show you how to start anywhere in your music. To have effective practice, you must be able to start anywhere. Let’s say you’re playing a piece of music. You mess up somewhere, and you keep starting at the beginning. Maybe the next time you get it, but you haven’t really solved the underlying weakness that caused that problem in the first place.

Being able to start where the correction is made is vital.

You want to be able to start where the correction is made, but sometimes it’s really hard to even find that place. I want to demonstrate this with a piece that’s difficult to start in the middle because it’s counterpoint. I’m going to use Bach’s Invention No. 1 in C major. Watch the video to see the demonstration! This piece does divide itself into some macro-sections that I can articulate for you. Suppose you have an issue in the middle of a section. So you decide to just start the whole section again. Whether you get it again or not, it doesn’t really matter because you still have the same odds moving forward of getting it or not getting it. Just finding the exact place is a big challenge! You must read your score and identify where it is. Now you know where to start, but you can’t start there. It seems totally foreign.

The reason it’s hard to start in the middle of a section is that you don’t know what fingering to use.

When you’re starting in the middle, it’s hard to figure out what fingering to use. So here’s the tip. Go back to a place you can start from. When you get to where the issue is, stop and pay close attention to what fingers are on what notes in each hand. Then you lock it in, and you can start from there. Now you can make the correction and get it solidified by playing through the passage a number of times. Then you go back to the beginning of that macro section and connect it several times until it is smooth.

To recap: Step one is: Find where the correction is. Step two: Go back to a place you can start from before that place. Step three: Lock in what fingers you use to start in that measure or phrase so you can effectively start there. Without this method, you get there, and it’s almost like you’re reading the music for the first time! It seems totally unfamiliar. Have you ever had that experience where you almost feel like you don’t even know the piece when you try to start in the middle? Your fingers know where to go, but you can’t solve the underlying weakness because you can’t start right at that particular spot. Well, now I’m giving you the tools to start from anywhere in any piece!

This is the way to have effective, productive practice!

Zero in on the places that need work and start from there. Solve those issues first, then correct them with the whole macro section. Try this in your practice! I guarantee that you will have a boost in productivity like you’ve never seen before! Let us know how it works for you in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and on YouTube! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

How to Make Your Melody Float on Water

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to show you how to make your melody float on water. What am I talking about? You want to be able to have your melody soar above a bed of rippling currents. The accompaniment in the left hand is like the rippling waves, with the melody in the right hand floating above. I’m going to tell you how to achieve this!

You must find really great fingering for the left hand in order to achieve a delicate legato.

The way to discover good fingering is by practicing without the pedal. Support the melody in the right hand with a lot of arm weight, so the melody can be above the accompaniment, and then play with a very fluid legato in the left hand. By playing without the pedal, you can hear what’s involved in this process. You’ll hear the fluidity of the left hand. You have to find fingering that enables that kind of legato.

The other side of this is that you must have a buoyant melody that rises above the accompaniment.

Why is this so difficult? For two reasons. First of all, high notes don’t last very long on the piano compared to low notes. And on top of that, you have more notes in the left hand. The left hand is faster than the right hand, so it’s a double whammy. So you must create an angularity in your balance where the melody is much louder than the accompaniment. But how can you achieve it without making it sound harsh?

The secret is to transfer the weight of the arm smoothly from note to note.

Instead of articulating each separate note, use the weight of the arm to smoothly transfer from key to key achieving a fluid line, like the breath of a singer or the bow of a string player, so each note floats to the next. You can never achieve a smooth line by calculating from note to note. It will end up sounding calculated! When you transfer the weight of the arm smoothly from key to key, you get a fluid line. By doing this, you can play with tremendous energy without getting a harsh sound. Remember, the piano is a percussion instrument. When you’re playing a beautiful melody, how can you make it sound smooth? Use the weight of the arm in the right hand and a smooth left hand that’s very beautiful, but underplayed. Find a fingering where you can play that extreme legato.

Practice incessantly without the pedal so you can find the fingering that enables this.

That is the secret! Find great fingering in the left hand, practice without the pedal, and use the weight of the arm in order to get a smooth line. Try it in your playing! Let us know how it works for you in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and on YouTube! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

Why You Must Accept Your Limitations

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about why you must accept your limitations. I don’t want to bring you down. As a matter of fact, it’s quite the opposite! Anybody who’s accomplished anything great, it’s because they accept their own limitations. You look at people who are masters at any craft or art, and you think everything must just come easily to them. What you don’t see is the hard work that goes into it. I can’t tell you how many times I have students who think they’re the only ones for whom piano is so hard. It’s actually really hard for everyone!

Different things are difficult for different people.

Some people excel at some things, and some people excel at other things. But the key to being able to accomplish anything is to accept where you’re at and what it takes to advance. And it takes way more than you think it does. This goes for everything. When you see a beautiful painting that’s absolutely photorealistic, you’re in awe of the quality of the work. You can’t imagine how it’s done. You might think the artist is just a genius and it comes naturally to them. But if you lived with that person, and watched them work, you’d realize the countless hours they spent working and crafting that painting to look like that. It doesn’t just happen. They accepted what it took to create that masterpiece. The same is true in your piano practice.

The learning process takes time and dedication.

It’s very easy to dismiss things and think, “I should be able to get this. Why can’t I get this?”. It’s because you’re human! I have a video that hasn’t come out yet. The editing has been mind-bogglingly difficult because I wanted to put the score in the whole video. I sat down for a while one day and practiced a piece that I had very briefly studied years and years ago. I just showed how I practice. It’s a Mozart fantasie, and there’s a fast section in there. I practiced just that part of it. It’s about a 40-minute practice session. I knew it was too long for anybody to watch.
So I have parts going in fast-motion. It shows how long I take to learn something—to really get it under my fingers and into my head. Just because I can play all this music from memory doesn’t mean that it just comes easily to me, It’s a meticulous process.

You can see for yourself how I learn a new piece of music!

I have a video I did years ago. I flipped open the Chopin Mazurkas randomly, found a mazurka I’d never even heard before, and started memorizing it. You can watch that here. You’ll see what it takes. So don’t beat yourself up! Accept that this is what it takes. Then you decide if it’s worth the effort or not. But to think that it should come easily—you’re not going to get anywhere with that type of thinking. You’ll just get frustrated, and you’ll think less of yourself. Just accept your limitations, and from there, you can accomplish almost anything! That’s the message for today. I hope it’s inspiring for you and not discouraging. Let me know in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and on YouTube! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com

A Piano Convention!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. I’m here at the PIPPA Piano Convention. It’s the first of its kind! I play the French horn, and I always enjoyed going to the French horn convention, the International Horn Workshop. My wife is a flutist. There’s a flute convention; there’s a trumpet convention; there’s a trombone convention; there are conventions for almost every instrument except the piano until now, with PIPPA: Piano Industry Professionals & Producers Affiliated. This piano convention includes pianists, piano teachers, piano technicians and piano manufacturers from all over the world!

I’m really excited to try many pianos including a Hailun 9-foot concert grand piano!

This is the first time I’ve ever played this piano. It is a great opportunity to try so many instruments from around the world. You can check out the accompanying video to hear this 9-foot concert grand from one of China’s premier piano companies, a country with so many piano manufacturers.

Out of hundreds of piano companies in China, Hailun is among the best.

This piano has such a velvety smooth action. It’s really beautifully crafted. With hundreds of piano companies, the competition in China is tremendous because there are tens of millions of piano students there. And this is the pinnacle of what’s coming out of China today. And there are so many other pianos here. There are Petrof pianos from the Czech Republic, which are absolutely exquisite handcrafted instruments. There are pianos, pianists, piano technicians, and piano teachers from all over the world here at PIPPA.

It’s an amazing thing for all of us to be able to get together!

I hope you enjoy this! I think it’s great, and I look forward to visiting PIPPA again! Let me know what you think about the whole idea of a piano convention in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and on YouTube! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

For premium videos and exclusive content, you can join my Living Pianos Patreon channel! www.Patreon.com/RobertEstrin

Contact me if you are interested in private lessons. I have many resources for you! Robert@LivingPianos.com