For me, one of your most useful videos. Coincidentally in my lesson yesterday my teacher was encouraging me to concentrate on continuous circular wrist motion, so the examples were so helpful! Thank you!
Thanks for the info, Josh. I always appreciate the information in your videos. As for the microphone setup - it seems to be going in and out. sometimes it will get loud on your voice or the piano for an instant and then it goes back to normal. This is not distracting for me but I can see how it could be for some of your viewers.
Josh, i have other question. Have you ever get very very tired because of the mental stress of piano? I play many hours and my brain gets really exhausted sometimes. Any advice? Thoughts?
Octavio12341000 That is completely normal. Try taking a break every hour. Eat, drink and sleep a lot. Try to be in a very quiet environment. I can also only practice for 3/4 hours because after that my brain just stops working. By the way: You probably know Seongjincho. He said in an interview, that he practices 4 hours a day because more than that is not good for his psychological and physical health.
It's hard mental work. Do the same things you would if you were studying a difficult subject for hours. Take breaks, set reasonable goals and focus on what you are doing, don't just mindlessly work, short bursts with good focus are better than long sessions with no focus, etc. Google advice for studying without mental breakdown and you'll find lots of things that work for practicing piano as well.
Also , dont just play chopin or rach all the time. Some people at the college only play these composers ALL the time , like they dont do anything else. Practice Beethoven or Bach these guys are able to expand your mind w their depths of musical genius. Im serious not making any exaggeration here. The musical ideas to explore and to flesh out are more layers in Beethoven than anything in chopin or rach.
Don’t spend too long on any one type of practice. Break up more difficult “brainy” work with lighter practice like running through an old favorite. Don’t spend too long working hard in one particular way - the brain works better and will get less worn out if you do shorter segments on different types of practice - memorizing, perfecting, review, technique, etc... Work on a hard section for 15min, then reward yourself by playing a section that’s already under your fingers; then go back to the hard work. You can go for much longer periods of time practicing like this.
Another great video, Josh. I have a couple comments/questions: 1) Great job on the ending of Barber's Sonata. It is true that you get more sound with the larger gesture, but I also think the larger gesture is called for musically and visually, keeping in mind that physical movement does translate into sound in our minds. "Distracting" movement are only so because they don't follow the musical intention. Compare Sokolov (large movements that always make musical sense) and Lang Lang (known for his extraneous movements, though to be fair, he is a truly extraordinary talent). 2) I am sure you have mentioned it before, but what is your camera/microphone setup? 3) When did you go to the Babayan Academy? I was there in '05 and '06 (or perhaps '06 and '07). Sergei is an amazing pianist, teacher, and mentor. He is also an incredible human being. I wholeheartedly agree that he is one of the greatest living pianists/musicians. 4) Nice shout out to Kevin Kenner, another incredible artist. Keep up the great work!
Josh wright I request you to make a lesson for worship piano left hand pattern & how to chords use in a background music please write on chord notes "Kundan"
Play a scale very slowly and focus directly on the pinky relax the wrist have correct posture and then go up and down the scale slowly. I used to struggle with that as well
Josh, could you do a video on playing at the far extremes of the keyboard? Thanks to ProPractice, compositions by Liszt that I never dreamed of playing are becoming possible for me, but Liszt sends us up above C7 so often!
Here's a passage in Etude no. 6, by Marc-Andre Hamelin where the left hand goes extremely high on the keyboard, I'm sure there are other examples, but this one serves the purpose as well. Great video by the way! prntscr.com/jgklul
On the other side of the spectrum, how can you incorporate movement for the sake of movement without compromising the sound? I've been told for years that I'm quite stiff while playing and I don't know how to combat this. I can get a feel for the pieces and play with the proper emotion and expression with my hands but it doesn't seem like that translates to the rest of my body. Any tips?
For me, Rubinstein and Gould achieve by far the highest level of 'unity' in their playing. They seem to play entire compositions almost as if they consist of one long phrase. It hadn't occurred to me that Rubinstein's statuesque demeanour at the piano might contribute to this, but that makes sense to me now. I wonder if you have any comments on Gould's rather more extravagant keyboard antics and how they might relate to the integrity of his performances?
On video Gould is radical on idea of ‘performances’ considering the judgmental audience an ‘evil’, rather he says he prefers recording his interpretations of older pieces- that gave few clues how they should be played. My take away from Gould is ‘be in the moment listening with entire brain & body to the beautiful sounds. To me Gould looks to have been channeling ‘chi’ energy.
Many of the greatest pianists move very little: Horowitz (of course!), Michelangeli, Rubinstein, Richter, Cherkassky, Bolet. Same with conductors: Strauss, Toscannini, Reiner, Koussevitsky, Szell, Klemperer, Celibadache, Carlos Kleiber.
volume this way is worse and my latptop volume is on MAX. It was fine the way it was before because now each time you shift your body the volume ebbs and flows...
Who's one of the greatest pianists ever? Horowitz. Does he move like an exhibitionist or play like a statue? Statue. I completely agree that over the top body gestrues really take so much away from the music.
lol at the shade over pianists who are too crazy with body movement. Amen to that! I find that so distracting. I'm gonna name name one: Evgeny Kissin performace of Rach's prelude in C# minor made me so uncomfortable with his face and movements, I had to close my eyes in order to enjoy it.
i Agree. Pianism in our day has no worse affliction than the histrionics put on by the players, some of them very, very gifted with beautiful musical personality and innate ability to produce gorgeous tone. Just don't watch them. It spoils it completely. Good you mention Rubenstein - same is true of Horowitz, Arrau - all the greats, and it DOES show a more reverent attitude to the music.
This is good advice but practice this with a competent teacher. Sometimes you absolutely must move your body. Think of yourself as an athlete...what athlete never loosens up while playing?
Tim Vander Mey maybe try using a pair of headphones. I’ve “normalized” the sound, which means it is as loud as it can get without compressing it (which would mean less dynamic range, which would kill all of the nuance in the demonstrations)
Josh Wright I responded to quickly? As your video progressed I did think that comparatively your audio had improved. Understand fully that you have a unique situatation.
The voice is not that much louder. I had given up on listening to you because your voice was so soft. Everything needs to be considerably louder like when you spoke directly into the microphone phone when you first turned toward the piano in this video. It all needs to be that loud. Very good advice though! I am a subscriber.
Actually Lang lang is the perfect example and even emphasize to another level the purpose of this video. not only Lang lang movements are in perfect accord with what we hear but also his eyes show us in advances where to look in order to hear even better. Lang lang masters the melodies as few do.
No idea what are you talking about. I only suggest you listen carefully to lang lang then see how movements fit the rubatos, the modulations etc. Not everything he does is inspired, but anyway his movements are a good source of learning and understanding music.
7:55 we both thought of Lang Lang lol I know we did! thanks for the vids, helps a lot!
ramon moreno or Trifonov
ramon moreno i actually thought about daniil trifonov, lang lang didn't cross my mind until i saw your comment
He can't say yes cause he's not a random pianist he's a professional maintaining image
GREAT lesson! Thank you.
Beautiful! Thank you!
Thank you for this vid. I've been wondering about choreographing too.
haha that Rubinstein joke, great video as always, I have had this problem for a while
Prophetess Frye keep hearing from God. Thank you for your faithfulness to show us the latest hot off the press news.
For me, one of your most useful videos. Coincidentally in my lesson yesterday my teacher was encouraging me to concentrate on continuous circular wrist motion, so the examples were so helpful! Thank you!
Great points. Great video.
you are a truly good person and it shows from your videos, never have a bad thing to say about another. Great video as always!
Thanks for the tip!
These are wonderful tips even for experienced piano players :)))) Thank You for a wonderful video :)))) Let's keep learning :)
I love this!!!
That advice at 6:30 is amazing. Thanks for sharing the babayan secret sauce :)
The camera quality and sound has gotten so much better since your older videos. Thanks for all the content
I completely agree 👍
Much better balance between your voice & the piano. Thank you for continuing to serve us!
Thanks for the info, Josh. I always appreciate the information in your videos. As for the microphone setup - it seems to be going in and out. sometimes it will get loud on your voice or the piano for an instant and then it goes back to normal. This is not distracting for me but I can see how it could be for some of your viewers.
This is a great concept that never even occurred to me, thanks for sharing Josh!
👍 thank you!
Thank you so much for this orientation, it was super helpful !
This video reminded me how much i love rubenstein's playing.
Very usefull tips, Josh! Thank you so much!
juani videla Thanks Juani!
The spontaneous live examples is a great feature you have as a teacher-virtuoso, not only piano-virtuoso
Vid sounds great! Content is super as well
Josh thanks for tips! I naturally keep my body movement to a minimum. Glad to have your opinion on this.
Elisa marina thanks for the kindness Elisa!
Very useful advice 😯
Josh, i have other question. Have you ever get very very tired because of the mental stress of piano? I play many hours and my brain gets really exhausted sometimes. Any advice? Thoughts?
i feel the same thoughts too!
Octavio12341000 That is completely normal. Try taking a break every hour. Eat, drink and sleep a lot. Try to be in a very quiet environment. I can also only practice for 3/4 hours because after that my brain just stops working. By the way: You probably know Seongjincho. He said in an interview, that he practices 4 hours a day because more than that is not good for his psychological and physical health.
It's hard mental work. Do the same things you would if you were studying a difficult subject for hours. Take breaks, set reasonable goals and focus on what you are doing, don't just mindlessly work, short bursts with good focus are better than long sessions with no focus, etc. Google advice for studying without mental breakdown and you'll find lots of things that work for practicing piano as well.
Also , dont just play chopin or rach all the time. Some people at the college only play these composers ALL the time , like they dont do anything else. Practice Beethoven or Bach these guys are able to expand your mind w their depths of musical genius. Im serious not making any exaggeration here. The musical ideas to explore and to flesh out are more layers in Beethoven than anything in chopin or rach.
Don’t spend too long on any one type of practice. Break up more difficult “brainy” work with lighter practice like running through an old favorite. Don’t spend too long working hard in one particular way - the brain works better and will get less worn out if you do shorter segments on different types of practice - memorizing, perfecting, review, technique, etc... Work on a hard section for 15min, then reward yourself by playing a section that’s already under your fingers; then go back to the hard work. You can go for much longer periods of time practicing like this.
Another great video, Josh. I have a couple comments/questions:
1) Great job on the ending of Barber's Sonata. It is true that you get more sound with the larger gesture, but I also think the larger gesture is called for musically and visually, keeping in mind that physical movement does translate into sound in our minds. "Distracting" movement are only so because they don't follow the musical intention. Compare Sokolov (large movements that always make musical sense) and Lang Lang (known for his extraneous movements, though to be fair, he is a truly extraordinary talent).
2) I am sure you have mentioned it before, but what is your camera/microphone setup?
3) When did you go to the Babayan Academy? I was there in '05 and '06 (or perhaps '06 and '07). Sergei is an amazing pianist, teacher, and mentor. He is also an incredible human being. I wholeheartedly agree that he is one of the greatest living pianists/musicians.
4) Nice shout out to Kevin Kenner, another incredible artist.
Keep up the great work!
Like the audio quality, sounds great!
Rajivrocks Ltd. glad to hear it!
Josh wright I request you to make a lesson for worship piano left hand pattern & how to chords use in a background music please write on chord notes "Kundan"
Audio sounds good. Just increase the gain a _little_ bit.
So use wrist to move indirection of the notes
I just got a josh Wright ad before this video.
Movement should serve the music... great tip.
I’m a beginner/intermediate, how do I avoid my pinky rising? You’re one of the few pianists I’ve seen who is able to keep their pinky down
Play a scale very slowly and focus directly on the pinky relax the wrist have correct posture and then go up and down the scale slowly. I used to struggle with that as well
So it’s basically like playing a violin?
Josh, could you do a video on playing at the far extremes of the keyboard? Thanks to ProPractice, compositions by Liszt that I never dreamed of playing are becoming possible for me, but Liszt sends us up above C7 so often!
Bass Maiasa can you send me an email with specifics? (just take a screenshot or pdf of the places you’re referring to with your question). Thanks!
Here's a passage in Etude no. 6, by Marc-Andre Hamelin where the left hand goes extremely high on the keyboard, I'm sure there are other examples, but this one serves the purpose as well. Great video by the way!
prntscr.com/jgklul
You didn't remember to put the link in the description, lol. 4:40
ruclips.net/video/qfEHEfPpeeA/видео.html
Alan Chapman haha thanks Alan!
Did I predict that or what? Haha. At least I have awesome subscribers that fill in for my forgetfulness :) Thanks Alan!
Josh Wright like
I was just going to mention it haha
keep it up
On the other side of the spectrum, how can you incorporate movement for the sake of movement without compromising the sound? I've been told for years that I'm quite stiff while playing and I don't know how to combat this. I can get a feel for the pieces and play with the proper emotion and expression with my hands but it doesn't seem like that translates to the rest of my body. Any tips?
For me, Rubinstein and Gould achieve by far the highest level of 'unity' in their playing. They seem to play entire compositions almost as if they consist of one long phrase. It hadn't occurred to me that Rubinstein's statuesque demeanour at the piano might contribute to this, but that makes sense to me now. I wonder if you have any comments on Gould's rather more extravagant keyboard antics and how they might relate to the integrity of his performances?
On video Gould is radical on idea of ‘performances’ considering the judgmental audience an ‘evil’, rather he says he prefers recording his interpretations of older pieces- that gave few clues how they should be played. My take away from Gould is ‘be in the moment listening with entire brain & body to the beautiful sounds. To me Gould looks to have been channeling ‘chi’ energy.
The mic is dope
Octavio12341000 thanks Octavio!
Many of the greatest pianists move very little: Horowitz (of course!), Michelangeli, Rubinstein, Richter, Cherkassky, Bolet. Same with conductors: Strauss, Toscannini, Reiner, Koussevitsky, Szell, Klemperer, Celibadache, Carlos Kleiber.
volume this way is worse and my latptop volume is on MAX. It was fine the way it was before because now each time you shift your body the volume ebbs and flows...
Who's one of the greatest pianists ever? Horowitz.
Does he move like an exhibitionist or play like a statue? Statue.
I completely agree that over the top body gestrues really take so much away from the music.
iLoveChopin His hands moves like an exhibitionist though
Lang lang watching this video:
rages in C# minor
lol at the shade over pianists who are too crazy with body movement. Amen to that! I find that so distracting. I'm gonna name name one: Evgeny Kissin performace of Rach's prelude in C# minor made me so uncomfortable with his face and movements, I had to close my eyes in order to enjoy it.
i Agree. Pianism in our day has no worse affliction than the histrionics put on by the players, some of them very, very gifted with beautiful musical personality and innate ability to produce gorgeous tone. Just don't watch them. It spoils it completely. Good you mention Rubenstein - same is true of Horowitz, Arrau - all the greats, and it DOES show a more reverent attitude to the music.
It sound good. But the piano is still louder than your voice and your voice is Kind of low
This is good advice but practice this with a competent teacher. Sometimes you absolutely must move your body. Think of yourself as an athlete...what athlete never loosens up while playing?
Fidel M Flores You're absolutely right. If you look, he's definitely moving, just not more than necessary to produce the sound he wants.
Can NOT HEAR you better. Sorry! Thanks for trying! Try again?
Tim Vander Mey maybe try using a pair of headphones. I’ve “normalized” the sound, which means it is as loud as it can get without compressing it (which would mean less dynamic range, which would kill all of the nuance in the demonstrations)
Josh Wright I responded to quickly? As your video progressed I did think that comparatively your audio had improved. Understand fully that you have a unique situatation.
The voice is not that much louder. I had given up on listening to you because your voice was so soft. Everything needs to be considerably louder like when you spoke directly into the microphone phone when you first turned toward the piano in this video. It all needs to be that loud. Very good advice though! I am a subscriber.
Not naming names? I'll help you. Lang Lang is one of the most annoyingly distracting pianists I've ever seen...
lol see the video I uploaded
Actually Lang lang is the perfect example and even emphasize to another level the purpose of this video. not only Lang lang movements are in perfect accord with what we hear but also his eyes show us in advances where to look in order to hear even better. Lang lang masters the melodies as few do.
Valery here comes the fanbois who accused others for not being professional pianists for criticising Lang Lang for his cringe inducing histrionics...
No idea what are you talking about. I only suggest you listen carefully to lang lang then see how movements fit the rubatos, the modulations etc. Not everything he does is inspired, but anyway his movements are a good source of learning and understanding music.
Keith Jarrett comes to mind