Why Piano Practice is Different from Other Instruments
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
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Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I'm Robert Estrin. The subject today is about how practicing the piano is different from practicing on all other instruments. I majored in both piano and French horn in conservatory. In fact, all through my childhood I was completely obsessed with both instruments. I think what I loved about the French horn and the piano was how completely different they were from each other. And in regards to practicing, it's a completely different experience. Practicing the horn is about tone production, intonation, being able to play at any volume, with any articulation, at any register with control, and getting a beautiful sound.
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I play guitars (28 years) and drums (3 years) and started piano one year ago at 50 years old.
To me, piano is, by far, the most difficult of the instruments bc, for the first time in my life, I found myself having to learn basic music theory (sharps, flats, Circle of Fifths, scale formulas, intervals, octaves, key signatures, etc). I had never looked at this material in my life, I never needed to w guitars or drums.
Also, I’ve always dreamed of playing the simplified beginner versions of legendary composers on piano which means I now have to learn sheet music notation which is also brand new to me.
Finally, on guitar I either play rhythm OR lead but never both simultaneously. Drums is simply about subdividing notes with some level of limb independence but not terribly much for my intermediate level.
However, piano, requires the most independence between left and right hand and it has been and still is an absolute nightmare of epic proportions.
(I’ll also throw reading bass clef into it as honorable mention bc that has proven impossible for many reasons).
So in the end, piano has proven the most challenging (and frustrating) BUT, by far, the most rewarding as I have never felt such powerful emotions when I finally played (the beginner version) of Mozart’s Sonata K.331 First Movement Theme or a beautiful piece by Brahms.
My only regret is that I started piano too late in life and I will never get to advanced levels but it’s still a lifelong journey for me as are my guitars and drums and I feel blessed each evening I sit down to practice.
Thank you for a wonderful video today, this was fun. 👏🙂
So glad you're enjoying your music! Piano is indeed not the easiest instrument out there, given your background, but you should stick to it! It's never too late to start and it's always too early to stop! Enjoy your music and let it drive you forwards
@@alexismandelias Thank you so much for for your wonderful and highly inspirational reply!
I promise I won’t ever give up, piano is most definitely a lifetime journey for me and I just love practicing each evening despite it’s difficulty. Thank you again, on to my Roland FP-90 to practice my friend!
(Now if only my Left hand can be it’s own person & stop wanting to do exactly what my Right hand does, new doors will
open. 🙃)
Me too! I agree with everything you said, spot on! I, too, started late in life to learn the piano, ohhh how I wish I had started much, much younger. I keep going and going with my practicing but I can be so critical of my mini accomplishments. Kudos to your piano adventure, we are in the same boat!
@@kaclark9696 Thank you for the wonderful reply and such an inspirational one at that!
Wishing you so many wonderful years of enjoying your beautiful piano journey, thank you for being such an inspiration to this very old beginner who plays chords with his left hand, melodies with his right hand but loves every moment! 🙃
Bass clef is still non instant for me but I think it helps to just think of it as treble that moved downward by 2 notes. Instead of of E being the bottom line it’s the line below bottom.
“If I don’t practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.” -Jascha Heifetz (violinist)
I've mostly seen it attributed to Horowitz... but I think it's just one of those sayings that gets attributed to various impressive people
"And after four days, the conductor knows it." - an old joke
Legend said they practice 40hours a day
If I see my fingernails have grown even 1/16th of an inch I know I haven’t been practising enough
I heard the quote as, "two days, and my wife knows it."
I chose Saxophone instead of Piano as my “primary” instrument for college because on a wind instrument you only have to read/play one note at a time 🤣
I can't wait to buy it, damn pandemic took my paycheck.
@@Pipun081 It is LOUD! have you got tolerant neighbours?
@@kspades2530 thank you,you too i pray every day, grattitude is happines.
That's my current challenge having spent my entire life as a singer and suddenly learning piano at a very advanced age.
Imagine a soprano trying to read bass clef and learning to read note clusters all at once😅. It's fun and challenging
@@politereminder6284 My grandfather was a tenor and very fond of the piano, I think he was 70 yo
Totally agree, I'd also state that reading music on the piano is an entirely different process to instruments which can only play one note at a time. Apart from the difference in vertical as opposed to just horizontal reading, you also really need to read further ahead, (particularly when playing at sight) to ensure that your hands are ready to move to their next position and that you won't be about to 'run out of fingers' for the next passage
Right as rain. Looking ahead for beginners and waking up the left hand are challenging. Thank you for posting.
Robert, I was a concert saxophonist. A very good one. The Shooshie Mouthpiece Exercises can be found online, which it has taken people decades to realize is the only way to get ALL the techniques necessary. I devoted my life to it, and I performed the Prokofiev Flute Sonata on soprano sax with all the high notes, and they sounded like part of the instrument, musically, not a scream. Double tonguing, circular breathing, pitch control, yadda yadda, all come from the mouthpiece exercise. I spent about an hour a day on reeds alone. But my love was music, and I wanted to hear the whole score. I loved chamber music and played a lot of it professionally. Also played in orchestras. Dallas, Mexico City, and many others. My sounds exist on RCA/Tel-Arc records as a member of the Dallas Symphony.
But saxophone wasn’t enough. I needed the whole thing. I tried MIDI and keyboards and became a MIDI arranger and director on national tours. But it wasn’t enough. When I sat at the piano, the music was there. The sensitivity, the technique, the harmony, the counterpoint, the expression. I loved improvising classically at the piano, but I did not learn any repertoire.
Then I retired. I bought a Boston Grand piano, and for 3 years now I’ve practiced 4 to 6 hours a day (often even 10 hours!) on the world’s greatest music. I play Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Skryabin, Debussy, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and many more every day. My technique has improved in leaps and bounds. After 3 years, I’m playing at about a 10 year level, and sight reading at about a 5 year level. I couldn’t play a two-handed C scale 2 octaves, 3 years ago. Now my scales go the whole keyboard, pretty much any realistic tempo, smooth and clean. Expressive, even.
Piano is the king of instruments. Whatever benefits musicians obtain in their brains, I had received them. But piano opened up so much more. I’m amazed at how it all works. I don’t even KNOW how it works. I play around with some things for a few hours, and after a few days of doing that, I can play them at almost a concert level. My problem? Memory. It takes me thousands of repetitions to get a Bach Allemande (say, the French Suites, 4 or 5) up to the level where I can play them back flawlessly in front of listeners. And these are people I know, who - I think - are on MY side! I doubt that I could get very far in public, though I did at the piano store when I bought my Boston Grand. Let’s just say that I’ve come a long way since then. So yeah, the biggest differences are that you get to have all the music at your fingertips, but you have to develop your memory. And relax. More than you’ve ever relaxed your hands in your life. They have to play that way all the time! I hope that gives you some idea of what it was like for me to switch. I can still play sax, but I’d never go back to that being my primary practice. (Unless a 5 digit sum was involved)
I'm a guitarist however for me piano is the most essential instrument for a myriad of reasons; some of which you brought out!!!🙏🙏🙏
I play flute and Piano, so I know what You have expressed is correct. You are absoluyely correct. Thanks.
As I've progressed with my experience of the piano, I keep reaching levels where I find new nuances and challenges in playing, and I realise just how cumbersome and unaware I was of the mistakes I was making. Then, it happens again a few weeks later, and I realise the time before that, when I thought I was playing better, also seems cumbersome and naive. That's been my learning experience with it; untold levels of realisation of dimensions in playing that I did not even know were there.
Can't help but smile whenever I watch a Robert Estrin video. =D
I play the trombone as well and for the piano I don't get breathless whereas practicing the trombone makes me breathless lol.
Oh, I know. I play trumpet and horn as well as piano and furiously trying to get something down on the piano without having to catch my breath is simply splendid
Thank you, thank you! My adult students are going to LOVE watching this video on my FB group page: Piano to Puccini. Can't thank you enough, Mr. Estrin. I hope they are as energized.
I played the French Horn in junior high and high school. It’s a beautiful instrument. I’m focusing on piano for myself now. I really like all the videos!!!
Beautiful. Thanks for this. Very informative
Bro u everywhere
@@paramsachdeva114 So what? His channel is about music so it's not surprising
@@Butter_Standoff2 ik but he is on almost every video I watch. Music related or not
Playing the piano gives me sooo much joy in my life. I also play the violin, but it's an instrument for tonal quality and control. Very different indeed. Nice video. Thank you!
@Dean Guilberry I don't think this particularly is an advantage. Our current conventional keyboard design, The 7 white, 5 black where the black keys are grouped in sets of 2s and 3s with one space in between each group - first appeared on the third manual of an organ built by Nicholas Faber in Halberstadt, Germany in 1361. This was not designed with 12-tone equally tempered (12-TET) music in mind.
Most likely, it was some kind of Pythagorean tuning or an early meantone temperament. The point being, the keys were not considered to be equally consonant. C major was perhaps the most consonant, F major and G major the next, etc, following the circle of fifths. There were even "wolf fifths" - fifths that were badly out of tune as a compromise to the more consonant thirds.
As music approached the 19th century, the tones became more liberated, with music utilizing more chromaticism and modulations. The western world adopted 12-TET as its tuning standard. While this was hundreds of years in the making, and there are still issues with 12-TET, it became a convenient standard for the Industrial Revolution, where instruments could be build in mass production. However, the keyboard design did not evolve with the music, or society at large. If the music has been liberated from tonal centers, then why hasn't the keyboard? Why must some keys "feel" and "grip" different than others? Surely, each shape could feel and play the same, regardless of key, making modulation and transposition as easy of shifting hands?
Instrument builders have attempted to make symmetrical and isomorphic keyboards for hundreds of years, realizing this challenge.
WE MUST FREE OUR MINDS and HANDS from the "zebra" keyboard
.
Here are a few links and essays on the topic:
tonalsoft.com/enc/h/halberstadt.aspx
www.le-nouveau-clavier.fr/english/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomorphic_keyboard
www.bikexprt.com/music/traditio.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_button_accordion
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicki%E2%80%93Hayden_note_layout
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodeka_keyboard
ruclips.net/video/zVDjD-TesXo/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/Nb_TQpwam54/видео.html
Wonderful Robert. I learn so much from you. I'm a piano student and YES, it's as you describe the piano, so much to know, balance of sound. It makes my head spin, but I do practice every day and it's truly difficult to balance the sound with my fingers!
French horn was my favorite interment as a boy, largely thanks to John Williams scores and his amazing use of french horns. I didn't get to touch one until i was in my final year of high-school after having already spent many years playing the saxophone. At that same time my parents bought me 6 months of jazz piano lessons. What an experience it was to get to learn piano because, more than any other instrument, it broadened my musical knowledge and ear in a way that my other instruments never had. I am forever grateful for those 6 months of lessons. Truly, practicing/ learning piano is unlike any other instrument in terms of its value.
I love my viola for the fact that for example within my grade I can play and read on the fly. With piano sight reading has been so slow to emerge. I loved this video, I really agree about how the experience of different instruments can be wildly different. The other great thing...when you tire of one you can go to the other and it’s like you are fully energised again!
So true. Great post. Many thanks.
Played piano as a child (not very well) and took up lever harp two years ago. In some ways it’s very similar to piano, but you do have the added difficulty of producing a lovely tone. So it’s double trouble for me - trying to pluck the strings near the center and with proper technique, while reading both treble and bass clefs. But the sound speaks to me like the piano never did.
I played clarinet as a kid and now piano only. I still have bad dreams about split reeds, air leaking out of my embouchure, and squeaking. As to the French horn, there is a DVD of Mahler 4 with the Concertgebouw and Haitink. Most marvelous lady French horn player-amazing sound and intonation.
Same here. I still have the old Boosey & Hawkes, but haven't attempted playing it in years. Clarinet requires so much attention to intonation, especially in an ensemble. I love piano for its polyphony and the huge repertoire available for it, and if you have one with nice tone, it's a joy to listen to while playing.
I was in grade school when a family member who loved big band music signed me up for clarinet lessons. I lasted one week, Lloyd. Somehow the clarinet stopped working. I liked classical and popular music, but no one ever asked me. Parents need to ask more Q's.
Yeah this guy is a piano wizard wish I had one 5hr lesson with him 1-1 😂
For advanced piano tecniques, i suggest looking up Graham Fitch, he also helps a lot
@@scottchui9858 i agree luv his accent as well
Robert offers courses online. I'm pretty sure you could have your wishes come true.
His father was a classical pianist so Robert had a great teacher right from the start.
Five hours is very long ... on the joints, lower half of the body. Three hours was my limit in college and that's without ANY interruptions. Afterwards, I could barely get up from the wooden bench in an unheated practice room.Great memories. Many thanks for posting. Keep the faith.
Piano is the king of the instruments ( for me)! You can play the melody and the Harmony, both together ! It's just Wonderful !
Marimba and piano my favorite
Brilliant analysis of the subject! You say it all cogently and passionately. Thank you!
What a great and important video. I would love to know who the artist is, that created that beautiful wooden sculpture in the back.
One of the reasons I switched my main instrument from saxophone to piano is that it enables me to focus on the music, and not so much the actual sound of the instrument. Getting a good saxophone tone, like the one's of my heroes (david sanborn, everette harp, masato honda, bob berg, bob malach, etc) felt somewhat like a futile task, if not an endless task.
I play trumpet and horn and I find that my best sound quality is when I’m actually playing with other people. During covid, that wasn’t an option so I basically stopped with those and dedicated the vast majority of my time to piano
@Louis Tea Enjoyer Thanks! I actually picked up the saxophone again! This time though, I think I have a healthier relationship with tone production, and while I do try to emulate the styles of my heroes, I focus much less on perfectly imitating their sounds.
I still prefer to practice the piano, it's less like singing and more about the instrument itself.
I play classical guitar, piano and Altosaxophone. The tone production on piano is very easy compared to the others, but only on the piano your right hand needs to produce different tones than the left hand at the same moment. With the guitar both hands produce the same tone per time unit, at the piano you must split your attention between both hands in the same time unit. I found that very difficult at first, maybe because I was already 50 years old when I started piano. Now piano is my favorite.
Robert is so right. Learning complex piano scores in combination to your experience and technique(what level it is) is challenging. Great video😀
In all of my years of piano it was all about theory and mental learning matched with learning pieces. Then I started learning the recorder and immediately it is completely different. Now I only care about sound and not sounding horrible. Sight reading is so easy because there is only one note to read at a time and one stave. Yes you have to remember finger combinations but that comes naturally you learn each note one by one. You can spend weeks and even months just trying to play one note. After a year I still can't always get the Soprano high A and am only just able to play high and f. Also rythm is so easy on piano but on recorder you can spend whole lessons trying to get through three bars of a difficult rythm. I love how different they are and one helps the other. Now I am much more aware ofsound and dynamics when I play piano not just on getting the notes right and my higher level of music theory and sight reading helps me to learn the recorder more quickly. I play more piano when it is cold and can't go out and more recorder when it is nice and I can go to the park or during Italy's siesta quiet period between 2and 5pm when I am not allowed to play piano. I love them both and now have a classic upright a dream recorder soprano and alto and a plastic tenor. One day the bass recorder too.
"during Italy's siesta quiet period between 2and 5pm when I am not allowed to play piano"
is that a tradition, or is it a bylaw?
It's right that every instrument has its own difficulties and really easy is none of them. The kazoo maybe, but even for that you need a sense for hitting the right notes.
What they have in common is the way to learn difficult passages by playing them slowly, to repeat them and to increase the speed.
I am a singer who started learning piano 3 months ago at an advanced age.
It is interesting going from a melodic to harmonic instrument. Suddenly you have to read bass clef and process everything in chords at the same time. It is fun though.
Im gonna study my score more carefully and do analysis before my next lesson on Monday.
Thank you.
Thanks for the interesting video. I started with classical music and still love hearing it, but I only play jazz now, mainly trumpet and piano.
I agree wholehearedly with what you said about the differences between the piano and other instruments. I practise piano till my brain is too tired. Then I know I must rest. I don't work much with written music anymore, but I have chord charts from which I must improvise accompaniments, solos and solo performances.
Trumpet is hard, but piano is harder IMO because so much more is expected of pianists, and the role keeps changing. It's definitely the hardest job in a band. I practise much more on piano, so in a sense I'm better on piano (right?) but I think I'll always be more successful with my trumpet.
i feel like piano and guitar practice very similarly. The guitar can emphasize parts of a song through the technic, muting, loundess, sharpness, etc. and a piano can emphasize notes through most of the same practices (of course excluding muting and things like sliding). So, imo, I think that guitar and piano have a unique style because its some of the few instruments where you can play all of a song, including all the parts like the bass, alto, etc.
I could not agree with you more, Isaiah, except for calluses on steel string guitars. Ouch! Thank you for posting.
That was a very interesting video! I particularly liked your reflection about keyboard instruments and the piano needing to learn the texture. Of course, clavichord is exactly the same, but with lighter action and the possibility to play vibrato (and fingering challenges if you play a fretted instrument). But it's true, practicing scales, learning chords, musical theory is only the beginning: you have to learn the piece, really learn it, to be able to interpret it and produce sentiment and immersion in the piece. Learning recorder or Spanish guitar has very different challenges, even if you pick up a classical piece, which are extremely rich and hard to play... The relationship with the instrument is completely different.
Thank you for a great reflection, it's certainly food for thought. Be well, cheers.
Nice post, David, esp. about Spanish guitar. Food 4Thought. Cheers.
Great video lesson!!!🙏🙏🙏
Dual piano and oboe background here. You're right on the money about "skip a few days, EVERYBODY knows it!" Oboists have to deal with making reeds, adjusting them to taste, keeping plenty on hand and tracking their ages, as they wear over time, and having good and reed days as well as good and bad embouchure days, all of which contributes to, or detracts from, TONE, which is a lot less of an issue on the piano.
btw, I've never seen you play a digital piano before!! Let's talk a bit about that grand-action digital piano hybrid you demonstrated so beautifully without mentioning what it was. I know a pianist in Germany who has one of those from Yamaha in her apartment. Any thoughts on the one you have there? Does Living Pianos offer them for sale?
Illuminating as ever , thank you !
Perfect for mental acuity as well as dexterity, I write , delightedly having drifted away from early childhood piano..
love your insights R,
I play violin and piano, so regarding piano there's alot less to think about "playing wise", but with sight-reading and musical knowledge there's alot more going on with the piano...
I play the piano and the ukulele and I feel like the points you mentioned are right on! With the ukulele you have to be mindful of the sound as well, because if you don’t fret right you get a really appalling noise. With the piano the sound is taken care of by the people who craft the instrument but there’s tremendous studying that goes into playing beautifully. I prefer the piano because the mental challenge feels like a game!
Also the act of pressing down on the keys appeals to me a lot too. It’s just fun. For a similar reason I like typing on typewriters too lol whereas with the ukulele I feel like my fingers get bent out of shape sometimes trying to make certain chords and it’s neither fun nor pleasing (the sound is but the fingers look kinda weird lol)
Yes. Therefore, for both motivation and mastery, it would seem that learning and enjoying harmony, counterpoint, and phrasing (especially the audiation) is important. And some piano methods seems to fail at both the theory and the ear-training for this. Perhaps a remedy would be to try learn common harmonic/contrapuntal patterns early (in inversions, thinking/hearing the different melodic lines); and then, as the most common progressions become comfortable, practice (perhaps at first with rolled/arpeggiated realizations) figured bass playing (as in Shumway) and/or SATB chorale (hymn) textures. (This may be similar to the historic partimenti approach.) Harmonic and contrapuntal pieces should not be delayed but encountered soon - so that what makes piano so precious (harmony and counterpoint all by yourself!) begins to reward the pianist's effort. (I say this as a pianist and piano teacher who was taught at CCM to teach theory & musicianship).
While I agree that pianos are easy instruments to get a decent tone out (given that it's tuned properly), learning the scores is maybe not the most difficult or different thing. Getting good sound out of the piano is still a challenge. Especially as the potential is there to be able to need to control 10 different notes at once. This is also why piano is a complex instrument to master: it has the largest range, wide intervals can be problematic, you have to concentrate on 10 different voices at worst over two clefs, and there is more independence between left and right. On a lot of instruments you often use both hands in tandem to get a sound and in most cases that's monophonic (some stringed instruments and chromatic percussion being exceptions). On a piano it can be that different fingers need to play in different rhythmic fashion to get the parts out.
I do however think every musician should learn some piano to broaden their musical vocabulary. It's one of the best instruments to write and orchestrate on I think.
Great post. Many thanks.
Really interesting video, thanks for that
Maybe it's not the best analogy, but I think of a wind player's airstream like a string player's bow.
You are exactly right with this connection! In the piano we use the weight of the arm to create the continuum of the phrase as the breath of the singer or the bow of a string player.
@@LivingPianosVideos I’ve always wondered about how tired string players’ arms get
I have played alto sax for 2 and a half years and have played piano for a year and a half, I started playing piano because it would help me understand music better. I have noticed how different they are. For one, the Alto sax is about getting a good sound and knowing how play in a musical way, but with piano, I learn a little more theory(which is the reason I bought a keyboard) and honestly I like the piano more, there is so much to learn that I was clueless about on alto sax, I have learned about how chord progressions work, chord voicing, bass clef, and started looking into classical after watching some stuff from Barry Harris, I have found 4 part harmony rather fascinating.
this is really helpful thank you!
So, I was playing chess (background listening to this video). 1:10 ".... you just push a key"
Something in mind literally said to me, "E5"
My subconscience was like, "who are you?"
And it replied, "pause the video and check"
I did and it was, indeed, E5! I was taken aback!
My subconscience was like, "So....Für Elise, Beethoven... Everyone knows that...pfft.. this guy"
It replied, "look at the board"
I looked at the board and squinted...rook takes e1 check... Followed by queen to g5 check... And there it was ...Like a hidden cobra ready to strike...
An isolated pawn sitting on E5... The unsuspecting hero delivered the checkmate by moving to e4... I panicked and flipped the board!
My subconscience replied in Stewey's voice, "will you be having steak or lobster tonight? We have wonderful resort here... I'm more of a Chateau guy, myself... But we have a lovely assortment of Cabernets...all vintage of course... How long will you be staying with us?"
Fabulous lesson. Thanks to Robert. My application of these thoughts as a new player of the piano is helping me to understand why when I am mentally tired from the demands of work I cannot make myself practice. My mind and/or body is tired and it resists the intense thought that goes into learning music. I have learned to practice when my mind is rested and calm rather than preoccupied and stressed which is too irregular to make much progress. I wish that I could learn to use piano practicing as a mental recreation and diversion rather than the hard work that is usually is. I have heard piano teachers refer to practicing as fun. Maybe you can share with me how to do that. (I am the typical Type A personality.) How to turn the mental work of piano playing into the fun that you obviously experience. I am eager to hear your thoughts. Thanks
Break up your practice sessions, say one or two times a day - whenever, for 20 minutes each session. No interruptions or distractions. Just you and the instrument. It works.
I used to play piano as well as violin. We had a good Steinway at home, and my teacher’s studio had a really beat-up Steinway. Going back and forth between them, I ended up with a great touch and ability to produce good sound. But it took me forever to learn music. Sight reading? I was very good at that on the violin, but it was not an option on the piano.
I gave that instrument up before high school, and by the time I finished college, even Bach chorales were hard to play. Totally different set of skills.
I play clarinet. One note at a time is much easier, but I'm trying to start learning piano. The initial challenge with clarinet is developing the mouth and lung strength, but now it comes easily. What I love about clarinet is the nice tone, wide note range and its ability to fit well into various kinds of music. When I play, I imagine I'm singing with the notes and I try to place myself into the right sentiment to suit the piece at hand so as to better communicate the song's message, even without words.
One of the reasons piano is difficult to learn is because it has an inefficient design. As a guitarist and electric bass player, one of beautiful things about learning these instruments is the relative ease of transposition and isomorphism. Same chords have the same shape. This is especially true if you tune these instruments in a regular tuning, like perfect fourths. On bass, I just have to learn one shape for a particular voicing of a chord, but piano has SIX DIFFERENT SHAPES FOR THE SAME VOICING, depending on the key. If I want to change keys, I just slide my hands up or down accordingly. Not so with piano/keyboards. This makes learning simple things tedious.
Paul Von Janko developed a solution with his Janko Keyboard in 1882, but it never took off, sadly. Others have developed isomorphic and generalized keyboards as well over the years, but the 700-year-old Halberstadt design still prevails to this day. We can only imagine how the development of music would have been if these designs became mainstream and standard!
Interesting
Janko keyboards are cool. And I've wondered the same thing about 7/8 keyboards, etc. But if the instrument were easier, the repertoire would be even more complex :P
I couldn't understand theory until I could see it on the keyboard.
Also, keyboards have six or more octaves.
Left hand / right hand co-ordination is important on guitar too,
but on keyboards, you have bass/ treble relationships between the two hands.
But without the pattern on piano of three and two accidentals all the keys would sound and feel the same. It's a pain to learn them all but worth it. It's like having a guitar with multiple tunings all on one instrument. If you want to go crazy you play d flat Maj or b flat min. The keys you learn first seem comfortable. If you had alternating black and white keys only all the scales would feel the same. If you've ever played a woodwind you will know the ins and outs of all the workings and how they shapes the music. I played guitar for years and then played the clarinet and all I could think was I see where Charlie Parker was coming from. You would just be spinning your wheels trying to play a woodwind like guitar. They have their own shapes and feels. Nonlinear craziness. The different keys on piano really make a big difference.
@@Deanguilberry Totally agree, but there is a downside in that you can't move patterns around freely. FWIW Janko keyboards usually do have black and white keys (same height, but visually different) and some designs have different textures on the keys, so that you can differentiate black and white keys by feel. There's a video out there of a blind jazz pianist named Terrance Shider playing one masterfully with what seems like very little acclimation to it.
Very good video!
I started playing hamonic by ear then acapela then guitar. When I started learning violin that's when I started learning to read music. Learning the piano I started by ear but knowing about music through choir It made the transition on piano. I also started playing violin by ear. The violin is a little more challenging because I have the bow and no frets to know where to put my fingers
Yes, thats totally right, Diako.
The first years on a cello are very hard and on a piano pretty easy and much more relaxing in any way. Otherwise when you reach grade 7 on the piano it will be really challenging. Probably the reason why the most never reach it. Toneproduction and komplexitivity will be more and more in focus and piano will be never easy for a cellist.
It is a totally different world. But that's the reason why I love both to play cello and piano since so much years. It's like drinking and eating. I can't do just one of it.
I'd love to hear your French horn playing. Have you posted any videos of it?
I have been learning to play a Chinese Zither (Guzheng) that's somewhat similar to a Piano ever so slightly and an ancient Chinese string instrument (win) that is very different. I started the piano 4 months ago. I have learned to read three types of music scores that are very different. Anyway, I like what you said about learning the piano score well is the way to play the piano well, and indeed that's the case in my short experience. Thank you for this interesting topic.
Correction: Chinese qin, not win
practicing Mozart to me is like advanced mathematics
It’s harder than mathematics.
Thanx, Maestro 🌹🌹🌹
Robert, love your videos! Thank you for sharing. Sometimes it helps if a student hears the same thing from another person. 😁 I would be interested in hearing your comparison on the demand of the musician between the pianos grand staff as opposed to most other instruments only reading a single staff, and often a single note.
As a wise man once said, "Piano is easy to learn but hard to master."
I rather say: Piano is easy to understand but hard to learn.
Is your profile picture a Germany reference?
I'm sure liszt said that
@@thomaschan5554 what ? easy to understand or easy to learn ?
@@HelderGriff no. It's supposed to be a dragon I drew when I was 12
Good point!!! Amigo.
I want a digital piano like that
LOL. I was John Phillip Sousa award winner in high school on the horn and gave it up after I graduated. I picked one up in grad school and found I could barely play an F scale and it sounded comparable to someone who has never touched the instrument.
Great video. Very interesting. Thank you.
that photo in the bottom is from piano no mori, right?
Yes I believe so.
I personally think there are more similarities to other instruments than first appears. For example, tone production. Although one can't effect the tone at all of a single note, it takes an *incredible* amount of concentration and practice to be able to match volumes of notes in a phrase to create the feeling of a smooth line. Our minds interpret that as a good tone or a harsh tone if the line is not well-phrased. And I do feel (as a modest amateur pianist) that after a few days, my "tone production" as it were, is affected somewhat by leaving the instrument for a while.
While basic tone production on the piano is arguably far easier than other instruments (like flute or violin), on a high artistic level there are vast differences in sound among pianists.
I was expecting to hear from this video a lot more about piano that makes piano such a great (if not the greatest) instrument. But the video talked so much about other instruments, mainly French horn. I love all other instruments, too. But, I don't think this video did justice in explaining how piano is unique.
I agree ...and am energized nevertheless to share this video with my musical FB friends.
I'm currently learning Rachmaninoff etude tableaux. Talking about spending time learning the score..
Your videos are supercool
Keep it up ❤️🥂
Glad you like them!
I have wanted to play the piano for church for at least 35 years. I first took piano lessons 49 years ago. When our two church pianist moved away last January. I wanted to do it again. I started piano accordion in September. I do have a teacher for the accordion. I have had at a minimum 5 piano teachers (7-12 years old I had three different teachers) All started over again and again. First two moved away, the third I broke my ankle when I was starting to learn to use the peddle. I had one teacher for a year when I was newly married she taught me all she could teach me told me i just needed practice. The day she told me that I learned I was expecting our first child. The fifth was one summer a few years back while I was off for the summer. When I got back in school in the fall I had no time to practice again. Now I am trying to push myself. Both are hard in your fifties!
I think we need to throw the harp into the mix here. It has many of the same issues as the piano (multiple fingers, part store play/read etc) together with tuning all those strings, different plucking techniques and 7pedals! Oh and it needs transporting too...
I love his setup can someone explain that. I can see a grand piano action hooked up with a DAW. How is that possible
F$kin love your channel. Thank you very much.
I don't know if I can express what I mean to say here, but I'll try. I've played clarinet, guitar, and piano. My heart is with piano because I adore how much sound complexity comes from having such range of pitch and dynamics under the fingers. But ultimately, each instrument feels the same in my head. Techniques and tone production are of course different, and each has its own challenge... But once you have trained the muscle memory, the flow feels the same.
@Robert: I've heard it said more that once that the French Horn is the most treacherous (i.e unpredictable) of instruments. I remember reading a comment by a famous conductor -- whose name escapes me right now -- wherein he said that he never looks directly at the horn section for fear of putting them off the note.
May I know what “piano” you’re using in this video?
This is my second prototype modular piano system which provides a virtual concert grand playing experience.
@@LivingPianosVideos is this vst? Can you make video how you setup real hammer action and pedal action to vst?
From what (digital?) piano is that action from?
His two favorite instruments are exactly mine. 😁
1:46 - accidental B
Bonus: In the upper left corner of the RUclips Video behind him on the screen it says "Happy Accidents in Music" ❤️
Most of the comments here sound like they from accomplished musicians. But from my perspective, learning to play piano later in life (played trumpet all through school), just being able to play a song with moderate challenge level is great! It won't sound professional, and it might not be at the right pace in places as I struggle to sight read, but it's better than not having a piano in the home! It's hearing the music that's important. Music theory is not. I'd rather just play the pieces and not worry about the 'why.' I also see it as a mental challenge to keep the brain in shape as I age!
On a very basic, starting level, piano is easier to play. I play piano, and also a couple of string instruments (ukelele and banjo). Ukelele is supposed to be an easy instrument to play, but try playing an E chord on a piano, then try playing it on a ukelele. Or playing the uke, try the very common chord change from D to G, compared to the same thing on a piano. Much easier on the piano. You can do it with no problem the very first time you sit at a piano, while on the uke it took hours of practice to make them sound smooth. However, when it comes to mastery of the instrument, most people could eventually master the uke or banjo but very few can master the piano, especially when it comes to classical music. I've played uke for about 5 years and banjo for two and sound pretty good. Not professional level, but pretty good. I've played piano for 20 years and still sound like crap. I guess I have developed a basic level of competence, but the odd thing is my strongest ability is sight reading. A lot of people play well and say they're terrible at sight reading. Well, I can read pretty well, but when I try to play it, it's terrible, LOL. I just don't have what it takes.
I am a Chromatic Harmonica player and a Acoustic Guitar player too.
Piano is a completely different instrument. Complete in itself. ❤️
I'm aspiring to learn piano soon, as my bankbalance allows me to buy a good piano. 🙊😂
excuse me but do you mean learning and practicing the Scores, mean the SCALES??? I dont know what "scores" mean in piano-language. I have practiced for one year now. I looked it up but find nothing about learning "the scores"....... What does that mean?
That is another name for sheet music.
Robert, play some horn on the channel!
I'm finding this out learning the marxophone and tremoloa both of which are very demanding to play with real expression. Each instrument has its own challenges.
as a guitar player, I think elements of both tone and song knowledge are important for practice. playing on the electric guitar gives even more attention to the tone than acoustic because every movement of the fingers across the strings is amplified. you can easily tell if a player has not really crafted his tone on the electric guitar.
I think he left out the part about how insanely hard it is to get the weak fingers to do the things the piano demands of them. The pinky and ring finger (your weakest fingers) on your weak hand (for me the left) are almost useless when you start and it takes years for them to even have 50% of the facility the strong fingers have. I've played clarinet for years and though the fingerings are very demanding and very confusing/nonlinear it definitely does not have nearly the same demands as the piano on the weak fingers, not even close. Not saying the clarinet is easy. The fingerings the embrasure and the tone are extremely difficult. Violin and guitar beginners will experience much the same as piano with weak fingers. Then there are the leaps. And the leaps or position changes with both hands. And don't forget leaps from chord to chord in one hand with crazy arpeggios in the other, truely insane.
Hey Robert why everybody is talking about the piano and no one talk about the king of musical instruments the pipe organ? Can you make a comparison video is talking the difference(characteristic of the instrument) in between of the piano and organ? I just want to see what the organ can do and the piano can't and something the piano can do and the organ can't. Thank You!
That could possibly make a good video subject!
@@LivingPianosVideos Thank You!
I wonder what kinda interesting Grand Piano you have Mr. Robert?
Seems like no body notice that 😁
I have been getting a lot of comments about my piano. It is the second prototype I have developed. It is a concert grand action that sends MIDI data to a computer running PianoTeq software.
@@LivingPianosVideos Is there any plans to do mass production?
I also own Pianoteq.
Wondering how you connect real hammer action to your vst. Install sensor in the keyboard?
What piano are you playing? I have never seen an action board through the computer. Cool.
Just casually displaying an image from "Piano no Mori" on the TV?
I wonder why he has it there?
People who play violin, tuning is a constant issue. You think you're playing the right notes, the fingerings are right but when a finger is off by a fraction, the note is too sharp or flat. Playing piano you get into intervals & chords in weeks. The best you can do with a violin or cello are broken chords and beginners would be playing 1 note at a time for at least a year before getting into playing "double stops" (2 notes on 2 strings).
People who play single note instruments like flute or French horn have the perception playing 2 or more notes at a time require hand coordination that is not easy to master.
Some people would stay with the instrument they learned for a few years and don't usually pick up a second instrument. Met 2 people at Christmas. The brother plays violin and the sister on piano. They occasionally play together as a duet but the brother wouldn't get into piano or vice versa.
Cello really takes a toll on tone production just like you said. And most of the time when practicing strings, what one is really practicing is micromuscular control, takes a lot of willpower to play a forte or mf note for 2 whole measures quarter=67, that is, without breaking tone and shape. What I love about piano is that you always are singing, it doesn't matter what you play, I've found that each note you play either you are singing or supporting the singing voice, so you always keep moving and have most of the time, a depicted destination. I love it a lot.
Very interesting talk, thank you! What make/brand of piano are you using in this video?
The piano in this video is my own invention! It is the second prototype of a modular concert grand system.
I also studied 2 instruments, piano and flute. Flute is hard on the lips too, but once you got the reading nailed you could just practice the instrument and apply the technique. To me the piano has always been harder to learn music (not the instrument per se), more cerebral but also more enjoyable that the flute and recorder. I love both instruments though! That being said, learning flute being a pianist, was really easier to read the material (only one line, no polyphony, easier to read at first sight).
I also have my kids learning music, one choose the piano and the other choose Violin. The violin is a nasty instrument to learn. The whole body has to adapt to the positions, the hand is all crippled in the bow, and the left pulse has to be in such an unnatural position. It's like torture!!! The kid loves it though, and he has a great ear. That's a thing about the violin, with absolutely 0 references you have to place the fingers in the right spot, and you're constantly adjusting tuning.
I play only the piano, its hard enough to learn one instrument, so i only focus on one. But i like piano, because it is best sounding!
I've only done Piano and Guitar. Guitar started out with chords, Piano started out with notes.
This digital piano transcends the action system realism huehuehue
How do you make sound with the keyboard in front of you? I don't see any strings, I assume its digital somehow, but I have never seen anything like it before.
This is one of two prototype modular piano systems I have developed which provide a virtual concert grand playing experience. The sound I utilize is Modartt Pianoteq physical modeled piano: www.modartt.com/pianoteq
@@LivingPianosVideos fascinating. Is there any more information that you can provide about it? I am specifically interested in how it interfaces with the laptop.
The video Gotham needs!
I don’t know, I think that technique and improvisation is 1000x more important than learning scores. I get a few new ideas every time I learn a score, but it doesn’t translate to as near as many things as technique and improv does.
It seems to me a lot of people get into music to play other people's music.
I want to understand how it works and improvise for myself.
HookPad really helps with chord progressions.
@@smkh2890 exactly, composition and improvisation are in my opinion the end goal of playing an instrument. Improvising is like speaking another language, forming meaningful sentences on the spot. Just get a harmonic progression chart in front of you; that will translate to every key, and you have multiple places you could go at any time (the one with arrows)
I don't know about 1000x more important. That's a lot. It's good to do both.
@@Deanguilberry i’m only just now learning to read scores. One big problem for me is the conventional staff notation is so tiny I need a magnifying glass!
@@Deanguilberry do you know a music theorist theorist called ‘12 tone’ in RUclips? Have a look at his analysis of Hotel California . it’s really quite brilliant.
Also: piano is the best musical instrument to learn and understand music theory.