Tag Archives: used pianos

How to Achieve a Singing Sound with the Pedals

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I’m Robert Estrin, and today I will show you how to achieve a beautiful singing sound using the pedals. This subtle technique can make a significant difference in your piano playing, transforming percussive note transitions into smooth, lyrical lines.

Establishing a Solid Foundation

First, it’s essential to practice with good fingering and without the pedals. This ensures you can connect musical lines with your fingers before relying on the pedals. A solid foundation is crucial for achieving a coherent performance.

Understanding the Sustain Pedal

The sustain pedal, when depressed, creates an echo quality. To avoid a harsh attack, depress the damper pedal slightly after playing the note. This technique enhances sustain without overwhelming the sound. Watch the video to see this technique demonstrated!

Demonstration:

Without Pedal: Play the note without using the pedal.
With Pedal Before Note: Play the note with the pedal already depressed.
With Pedal After Note: Play the note, then depress the pedal after the attack to create a more balanced sound.

Using the Una Corda Pedal

The una corda (soft) pedal shifts the action, making the hammers strike only two strings, resulting in a warmer tone and softer attack. All three strings vibrate sympathetically, enhancing the sustain.

Demonstration:

Without Soft Pedal: Play the note without using the soft pedal.
With Soft Pedal: Engage the soft pedal before playing the note to hear the difference.

Combining Both Techniques

For a richer tonal palette, combine the soft pedal with the sustain pedal. Play the note with the soft pedal engaged and then depress the sustain pedal after the note’s attack.

Demonstration:

No Pedals: Play the note without any pedals.
Soft Pedal Only: Engage the soft pedal before playing the note.
Sustain Pedal After Note: Depress the sustain pedal after the note’s attack.
Both Pedals: Engage the soft pedal before and the sustain pedal after playing the note.

Experiment and Explore

Experiment with these techniques on your grand piano. Upright pianos may not have the same tonal effects, as their left pedal changes the touch rather than the tone. Many digital pianos also model these physical effects, so try them out to see what you can achieve. By using a combination of pedal techniques, you can craft a musical line with a singing quality, enhancing your overall performance.

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.

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 Avoid Destroying Your Piano

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today we have an important topic: How to avoid destroying your piano. While we’ve discussed many things you should do for your piano, today we’ll focus on what to avoid. Some of these tips are common sense, but others might surprise you.

Avoid Hot Air Vents

Placing your grand piano over a hot air vent or near one can cause significant damage in just a few months. The dry air can warp and crack the soundboard, making the piano a total loss unless you opt for expensive repairs. Always ensure that your piano is not in the path of a hot air vent.

Stable Temperature and Humidity

Maintaining a stable environment is crucial for your piano. Extreme temperature swings can affect tuning stability, while high humidity can cause rust and corrosion. Conversely, very low humidity can dry out the pin block and felt parts, leading to a noisy action and other issues. Aim for 45-50% humidity, and use a hygrometer to monitor the levels. Consider using a room humidifier or a piano lifesaver system to keep conditions stable.

Protect from Sunlight

Sunlight can bleach your piano’s finish in a matter of months. It can also affect tuning stability if it shines directly on the soundboard. Even if you use window treatments to block UV light, it can still damage your piano. So protect your piano from direct sunlight to keep the finish looking new.

Regular Tuning

Pianos that haven’t been tuned for years will require multiple tunings to stabilize. Similar to changing the oil in your car, regular maintenance is essential. Neglecting this can lead to pitch issues and unstable tuning.

Avoid Furniture Polish

Using furniture polish on your piano can cause wax build-up that requires professional removal. For satin finishes, use a soft microfiber or cotton cloth. For high gloss finishes, a microfiber cloth with a bit of Windex works well.

Reshape Piano Hammers

Piano hammers can become grooved and hardened over time, leading to a harsh tone. They need to be reshaped periodically, but this should be done by an experienced technician to avoid damage.

Don’t Tune with Pliers

Using pliers to tune your piano can strip the tuning pins, causing severe damage. Invest in a proper tuning wrench or hammer, available on Amazon, and avoid makeshift tools.

Avoid Wood Stoves

Wood stoves can severely dry out a room, damaging your piano’s finish and internal components. If you must have a wood stove in the same room, use a humidifier to add moisture back into the air.

Beach Environments

Living near the beach can expose your piano to high humidity, leading to rust and corrosion. Use a string cover to protect the strings from excessive humidity if you can’t keep windows closed.

Use Correct Parts

Replacing piano parts with incorrect ones, like using Steinway hammers on a non-Steinway piano, can severely affect the instrument’s performance. Always consult an experienced piano technician for the right parts.

Ivory Key Maintenance

Closing the fallboard over ivory keys can cause them to yellow. Keep the fallboard open to maintain the bright, white appearance of the keys. Dusting the keys regularly is sufficient to keep them clean.

Conclusion

These tips will help you maintain your piano in optimal condition. If you enjoyed these tips, consider subscribing to LivingPianos.com for more articles and resources.

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.

Understanding Inversions in Music

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. Robert Estrin here with one of the most fundamental aspects of music and harmony: what is an inversion? In a recent video, I explained triads, the most fundamental chord. I have a future video about seventh chords and expanded chords. But first, let’s delve into inversions.

The Concept of Inversions

In 1722, John Philipp Rameau first articulated that chords can be inverted. But what does this mean? Sometimes you see chords with different intervals, but Rameau stated that all chords are built upon the interval of the third. If it’s not a third, it’s an inversion.

Let’s take a C major triad: C, E, G. What happens if you put the E on the bottom? Now you don’t have thirds. Instead, you have a third (E to G) and a fourth (G to C). This new arrangement is the first inversion.

Identifying Inversions in Music

These inversions are identified differently in harmonic analysis and sheet music. If you invert the chord again, with G on the bottom, you get a fourth (G to C) and a third (C to E), creating a second inversion of the C major triad.

In sheet music, these would be labeled simply:

C major: C
First inversion: C/E
Second inversion: C/G

In harmonic analysis, it’s more detailed:

Root position: C major
First inversion: C major 6 (or 6/3)
Second inversion: C major 6/4

Seventh Chords and Their Inversions

Seventh chords are a bit more complex due to having four notes. For example, a G7 chord (G, B, D, F) in C major:

Root position: G7
First inversion: G7/B
Second inversion: G7/D
Third inversion: G7/F

In harmonic analysis:

Root position: G7 (or 7)
First inversion: G7 6/5
Second inversion: G7 4/3
Third inversion: G7 4/2

Remember, these notations reflect the intervals:

6/5: a sixth and a fifth above the bass note
4/3: a fourth and a third above the bass note
4/2: a fourth and a second above the bass note

Practical Application

Understanding inversions helps in harmonic analysis and playing from lead sheets. For example, a dominant seventh chord, the most popular type, is assumed when you see a notation like G7 without further specification.


Conclusion

Inversions are essential in understanding chord functions. All seventh chords can be inverted and named in the same way, whether they are major, minor, or diminished. You can identify the root of the chord by arranging notes in thirds, giving you insight into chord function and resolution.

I hope you enjoyed this music theory primer. Let us know in the comments if these videos are helpful. This is 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

Which Takes Longer: Becoming a Pianist or a Doctor?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today I’m going to answer a really interesting question from a viewer: Does it take longer to become a concert pianist or a doctor? Both of these fields obviously require many years of study. So I’m going to break it down for you and give you an idea of what each of these career paths entails.

You have to spend many years in school to become a doctor.

To become a doctor, you will first need an undergraduate degree in some field, hopefully related to the medical field, perhaps biology or something. That’s followed by four years of medical school. So there is a big chunk right there. But is that it? Far from it! After that, there’s a residency, which can be anywhere from 3 to 7 years. Now, unless you’re becoming a general practitioner, there’s also a specialization with a fellowship that usually adds another 1 to 3 years. So you have anywhere between 11 and 14 years of studying before becoming a doctor.

What about pianists?

Pianists typically start at a younger age than doctors. In fact, most concert pianists on the scene today started as children between the ages of 4 and 7. There are some outliers outside of that range, but the vast majority are going to be somewhere in there. From the time they’re very young children, they’ve been practicing every day for at least an hour or two a day. As they get older, they’re probably practicing 3 to 5 hours a day. Most of them will go to a conservatory or a university program specializing in piano performance in order to study with the best teachers. If they’re expanding their repertoire, it’s likely that they’re practicing for at least 3 to 5 hours, more likely 6 to 8 hours if they’re entering competitions and things of that nature, because the repertoire requirements are so immense. So altogether, they’re probably going to spend easily 15 to 20 years of private instruction; that’s even more than the 11 to 14 years typical for doctors. It’s a long haul!

What about the continuing studies in each of these fields?

Doctors are always learning from experience. They need to keep abreast of the latest technologies and procedures by reading journals and possibly attending conventions. Pianists, on the other hand, are constantly learning new repertoire. They can’t keep playing the same solo recitals again and again. They have to have new music so people keep wanting to hear their performances. If they’re collaborating with other musicians in chamber music or accompanying, they have to learn the music that people want to collaborate with them on.

Concert pianists are constantly learning new music.

If they have the opportunity to perform concertos, they have to learn new concertos. A lot of pianists will also have original contemporary works commissioned for them, which they have to learn. For example, concert pianist Jeffrey Biegel, who was one of my father, Morton Estrin’s students. He’s carved out a whole career getting works commissioned for him, and he collaborates with orchestras all around the world. He has been doing it for years. This entails a tremendous amount of work, and you don’t even have the benefit of listening to recordings to hear what the pieces that you’re going to be performing sound like first! My sister, Coren Estrin Mino, performs a lot of new works here in the Cleveland area, helping out composers so they can have their works performed.

There are many avenues for both doctors and concert pianists, but concert pianists have a longer haul, starting younger and working longer in order to carve out a career.

Even going through everything I outlined for becoming a concert pianist is no guarantee that you’ll be a touring artist. There are just so many people who are highly skilled at the instrument, and a very limited number of people ever get to do it. Whereas for a doctor, if they go through all those different courses, degrees, and residencies, then chances are they’re going to find some place where they can practice. However, no matter how nerve-wracking performing the piano is, nobody dies. So we have a deep respect for doctors as well as pianists for the rigorous training that’s necessary in both of these fields. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Store

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

What is Living Pianos?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s question is: What is Living Pianos? In a nutshell, it’s my life! And it’s your life too, if you have a passion for the piano the way I do. It’s actually a double entendre. There are two meanings to Living Pianos.

I have a video called What are Living Pianos?

That video tells about the restored American and European pianos that are so rare today, which we sell all over the world and have been doing so since 2006! But it’s much more than that. It’s really about living the piano. As a matter of fact, if you type “living the piano” in your browser, Living Pianos comes up!

I was lucky enough to grow up in a musical household.

My entire family is made up of musicians of one sort or another. Pianos have always been central. My father, Morton Estrin, was a concert pianist. He was my teacher and my sister’s teacher. He taught countless people, from Billy Joel to conductors, composers, and pianists the world over. My sister, Coren Estrin Mino, is also a pianist and a teacher. My uncle was a professional musician. The list goes on and on. My life is centered around teaching, performing, and media. This is what makes me want to get up in the morning!

My mission is to keep the piano alive in the 21st century, in the United States and around the world.

This is no easy task when you consider that the piano has been on a slow decline for over a hundred years. That’s why connecting with people like you who care about the piano is enriching. It makes me feel like there is value to my life. So I thank you all for joining me and encourage you to subscribe to LivingPianos.com and YouTube! You’ll find a treasure trove of content I’ve been putting together for many years! 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