I think one of the difficult things about playing piano is that it is most commonly a solo instrument (unless you're accompanying someone). As a clarinetist/saxophonist, I have always played in ensembles. The conductor/band/orchestra is not going to stop for you if you make a mistake. You learn to keep going no matter what. My piano teacher is always amazed at how I will keep going when we are playing duets, no matter how many mistakes I make. Sadly, this does not always carry over to my solo playing as well, since there is no one else for me to follow. The answer is, as always, more practice!
You are exactly right. It’s so easy to stop at mistakes and correct them but NOT go back to the beginning like you said. I am guilty of this too often. I would like a video on performing without fear of mistakes. I get tense because I try TOO hard to play the piece perfectly. Thank you.
im just an amateur keyboardist (mostly pipe organ) but for me i dont pay attention to mistakes at all during a performance, i get myself so into the music and feel the music and mistakes are just part of what happens - i tune everything else out, as soon as i sit at the keyboard i forget all about anyone watching me, its just me and the music - i guess im different that way
I appreciate your comments. If I’m improvising there is no tension or worries. I think it comes down to the fact there is too much emphasis on perfection and not enjoyment.
What a great piece of advice. I started to play a piano after 20 years again and made a few compositions. My technique is far from perfect and would love to tidy it up a lot thru piano lessons in future. I've been practicing my pieces thoroughly for about month and still can't play everything perfect. Doing a gig for my family and friends this saturday and I'm a bit nervous about the piano part. I'll be playing both guitar and piano. Gigged with the guitar couple of times already this year. The biggest event was an opening for my neighbours band. What I learned so far is: While being there in front of an audience, remind yourself that you're doing what you practiced for, you're doing it for your own pleasure, joy and good times. People want to see someone enjoing him/her self, not a perfect performance of someone stressed out. They really don't care much about the music, they want to see someone having a good time and sharing it. If you make a mistake, repeat it, or just keep going. It's not a recording people won't play it on repeat and moan about it. I used to be super nervous, almost anxious. I just realised tha music is something I want to do with my time and it should not make me miserable. You can do it!
Thanks to years of figure skating , I understand the importance of practicing performing. I carry this through in regards to music. In skating, we practice our elements, run through parts of our routines that need to be cleaned up and we also have days where the other skaters are the audience while each of us runs through our program in our competition wear. The competition or ice show is my performance. If I fall or make it mistake during a performance or practice performance , I just keep on going without thinking much about it. If I fall or make a mistake, I go over what went wrong afterwards.
Watching several of your videos per day as a part of my regimen. Im back at practicing the piano for a couple of months. My childhood experience is getting back in my brain, but still decided to have in person lessons starting tomorrow at age 47
Great advice! I try to distinguish between practice and rehearsal. (I don’t do scales during rehearsal time. It’s just preparation for a performance of specific music.)
As a beginner, I, of course, make all of these mistakes, but I have to admit, hesitation is a big one. Thanks for the tips. This morning, I was able to play Pretzel’s Minuet in G twice (out of many attempts) hitting all of the correct notes, but the hesitations ruined it. Between the two successful attempts to get the right notes, there were many unsuccessful ones. Some hugely so. For tomorrow’s practice, I’ll work on playing straight through without hesitation. Thanks.
I comfort myself with the wise words of the comedian Eric Morecombe to the conductor Andre Previn when he appeared on his show, “ I AM playing all the right notes…but, not necessarily in the right order!”
Doubleplusgood! And your instruction has given me great encouragement. That is what I do!! I note the difficult area for correction.. I go to the phrase, incorporate the corrected area, then back to beginning and note the area is coming up... Grab it. Over n over. From the beginning grab it. . until there's no hesitation or fumbling thru the difficult spot. Thank you, I have no teacher. I'm working on Bach G Minor #1
GOLDEN! You described habitual hesitation and its tendency to rear its ugly head in performance to a tee! And your straightforward "3-pronged approach" to fixing it is spot-on as well. I find that playing Christmas music during the holiday season is an excellent opportunity for the average student to practice performing because people love to sing along and that not only forces the pianist to keep going no matter what but can also provide some "cover" for little mistakes.
This is such a great video. Clearly speaks to a very common problem and I'm glad not to be alone in making the mistakes you're taking about, Robert. Thank you.
I used to practice my performances in front of my piano teacher’s husband, who was an internationally acclaimed opera singer. He would always critique my playing & give suggestions, which were always helpful. I not only played my pieces, but also practiced approaching the bench, etc. Stage presence was part of the package. And I was NEVER allowed to stop & fix mistakes.
That’s true. I always say this to my students, to practice performing, and to do this in their practice sessions because correcting mistakes on the spot when practising doesn’t really achieve anything in terms of preparing for a musical performance.
I am a church pianist. What I do is practice for performing every time. Since I play shorter pieces (discounting repeats of verses and choruses, of course), I go back after I have played through the song and practice the portion where I made the mistake. I then play that phrase and go back later to play through the entire piece again. I never have the luxury of stopping during a performance; people depend on my playing so they can keep singing. Several years ago I had issues with stopping at mistakes. I was so afraid of making a mistake. I hated making mistakes! But I have learned through constant, consistent repetition to keep playing and now rarely stop at mistakes. The best thing is to get a lot of practice just playing right through them. I still don't really like making mistakes, but they don't phase me as much anymore.
Wrong rhythm is a hard one with Clair de Lune. It switches between duple and triple meter, with notes held over the beat. And you can always cheat by saying you're just using a lot of rubato. But yes, stopping and striking notes again is a bad habit. The problem I have with his method is that a lot of the time a missed note happens in the easiest passages. You could practice it a zillion times and still not be assured that it won't happen again. If anything, you've made yourself so nervous about that passage that you tense up when it comes along, increasing the chances of a mistake. It's just your ear telling your brain that something's wrong and then you're brain telling your hands to correct it. It's very hard to change that, like flinching if someone fakes you out by clenching their fist and quickly raising their hand up to their head, then combs his hair. Psych! The other thing is that very often, I get more nervous as I play, especially if it's going well and I haven't made any mistakes. It's like you're hoping, hoping, hoping for that note-perfect performance and then --- DARN, messed up again. You begin to focus on that rather than the performance itself. So what do I do? Basically, I cheat. I play with a bunch of nonjudgmental friends who don't really care about mistakes, Some of them are very good players, some are amateurish like me. It's just a nice support group that encourages me to work on new repertoire and keep practicing. And since they don't care about mistakes, I've learned not to as well. Beyond that, the other thing I recommend is recording yourself. I find myself getting just as nervous making a recording as performing in front of a group. It's like it's for posterity, so that ratchets up the pressure, even though no one else is likely going to hear it. So you get some practice dealing with that extra pressure. And then the last thing is that I try to focus on what I'm "saying" with the music, i.e., the expression rather than the precise notes. When I learn a piece, it's more than just the notes. I try to give each note meaning and color, and give every phrase a shape. And I try to stay in the moment and not worry that what I just played didn't come out exactly the way I wanted, so long as those colors and shapes and meanings remain true to my intention. I went to a masterclass that the great Leon Fleischer gave, and he said something that stuck with me: There are three things happening as you perform: you're reacting to what you just played, you're playing, and you're preparing to play the next notes. And then he said, "it all catches up to you after awhile and it all falls apart." In other words, mistakes are inevitable. So don't beat yourself up over them. Am I great pianist? Heck no. But I do well enough to make it worth my while to continue with it. I'm satisfied with that.
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thats the best advice i ever got, for a talent show many years ago i was asked to accompany for a hindemith trombone sonata that was way beyond my ability to play, but the trombone player told me the trick is to play like i knew how. without hesitating for mistakes - i made soooo many mistakes but the audience never noticed probably cause i just kept playing, and the fact it was so dissonant nobody there could really tell anyway what it was supposed to sound like :) - from then on i always kept that advice, never hesitate no matter how bad the mistake
I second that, but if I may add a thing or two: I think it's important too to memorize the harmonic progression as well as to memorize the beginning of each phrase. The reason being that when your mind slips and you mess up, you can at least improvise to the next destiny key and continue from the next phrase onwards.
Yeah, this is a great video. Was a little scared it was gonna be a video about not playing with emotion or something (as important as this is, I believe hesitation during playing is a much more common issue with (especially) newer pianists). Love the tip about playing 'as if it was a performance'
Fun, helpful video. When I practice, I have become such a self-critic, it’s like having Gene Siskel sitting beside me while watching a movie-and he won’t shut up. Definitely not ok for a recital.
"Smearing everything with pedal"... sympathetic resonance is a thing to use sparingly but effectively. And yes, if the pedal is pressed constantly, all the notes you're adding start to create chaotic noise instead of having the effect one might think it has. So if you hold pedal for a longer than a bar or so... make sure you have only couple of notes within that pedal. And no... NO CHORDS! only intervals or maybe a single bass note... chords have too much and pedal will just mush everything instead of sounding nice :) And also, there's a thing called "half pedaling" where one can get a bit more resonance and larger sound, but also keep the tails a bit in control... pedal isn't just "on or off" :)
I'm don't play piano but guitar but i'm totaly agree with you. I had both on stage, hésitation and restart (That was à total mess) and make a big mistaque like playing a verse when it was the bridge (in the second case everybody continued , and nobody noticed in the public) 😁. In général when i practice alone i stop to correct the mistaques but xhen i practice with my band whe never stop, to get used to deal with any situation.
When I am performing I am very cognizant of 'the show must go on'. I tend to make 'omission' mistakes (leaving out a note or chord) not 'comission' (playing a wrong note) mistakes but, I very rarely have a 'perfect' performance. I am more interested in having my audience feel something, not keep score!
This is Not Click bait as I initially thought it might be... This is an invaluable piece of information that is applicable to any other musical instrument, practise your performances, and I will add, practise your live and session recording performances.
I heard a performance by Horowitz in his later years and I trended to hear an occasional blue note but he kept on going. I wondered about it but he finished and the audience erupted as usual in any of his performances. Now I know why it didn't matter lol.
Thank you for another great video. I have a question. Is sightreading somewhere in between practicing and performing? Is there any benefit to consider sightreading a performance? I'm generally not strong at memorizing and so generally when I sit down to play something, it's just relying on sightreading. But I'd still like some tips for making my time at the piano sound better for those listening.
Sightreading is much more performing, because the number one rule about it is keeping the pulse and never stopping. In fact a lot of musicians have to just sight read on the spot because they don't have time to practise everything, so it's well worth your while to sightread as if it is a performance. If that's a little hard, it means slowing down the tempo until you can.
Hesitation is bad simply because it interrupts the rhythmic flow of the piece. This is because no matter whether a listener is a musician or not, everyone has a sense of rhythm even if they don't know the composition or realizes there were wrong notes.
Rachmaninoff Prelude in D, played it for 30 years, I loved this juicy chord on the 3rd page. One day I decided that this chord wasn't right, I was playing a low octave G in the bass against some kind of b minor chord in the right hand. Oh man, it was a low octave E after all. I repeated the mistake for 30 years because I thought the chord sounded cool.
A pianist needs to know everything about the piece that they're playing from a musical theory standpoint - if you can improvise the chord sequence and can practice slipping from the written notes to your own improvisation/variation on that theme, then you should be able to recover from most memory slips. In short, don't practice performing - practise improvising.
Nope, the worse mistake in playing a piano is not regularly practicing as it causes all of your listed mistakes🎹I’m a self-taught pianist keyboardist. I am an amateur singer/songwriter and before I record my latest great hit, after I am satisfied with the melody etc., I practice the song for around ten days.🎹🎷🎺🎻🎶🎤🎸
You need an audience. That pressure truly allows one to practice performing. Beginning middle and end. No stopping to fix something. God I'm glad I play jazz Anyway. Buy a battery and inverter for your digital piano and go do your thing in the train station or some other public place. Get over it just do it. If you playing is any good you'll have a few folks most of the time. It's like being paid to practice. I just finished 6yrs of that in Copenhagen Denmark. I also played gigs. But after COVID I was the only cat in Copenhagen performing everyday. Now there's a kind of tempered strengthened quality in my performance. You ever notice the best players just came off the road where they had to play every night or every other night? That's the difference between a pro and a dilettante. Create that sink or swim pressure for yourself.
That's an important point. There is a red line between playing and practicing: When performing, you must NEVER stop. When practicing, you must ALWAYS stop to correct (unless you are practicing performing!)
Brilliance and Magic have built their Castles behind and after the Avenue of Mistakes. It took Michael Jordan SIX YEARS of EXPERIENCE BUILDING to arrive at the DOOR OF GREATNESS!! Michael Jordan: EVERYBODY is talking about MY 12,192 BASKETS; NOBODY'S is talking about the 12 million MISSES along the way! AGAIN: greatness by definition comes AFTER the many errors and many mistakes along the way!! ONE reason more, WHY piano players should NEVER get tide-up before going on stage! Thomas EDISON: "it took me 1000 mistakes to get the LIGHT-SWITCH working." !!
It's VERY enlightening to listen to recordings of Debussy, HIMSELF, playing Claire de lune. He takes MAJOR liberties with the rhythms. MAJOR RUBATO and A PIACERE!!!! So, please don't try to say there are "correctly" played rhythms for THAT particular work.
I'm just at first 2 examples of the video and I want to comment : you're trying to play bad but you can't !! Your wrong harmony is not really horrible neither is your wrong rhythm haha
I think one of the difficult things about playing piano is that it is most commonly a solo instrument (unless you're accompanying someone). As a clarinetist/saxophonist, I have always played in ensembles. The conductor/band/orchestra is not going to stop for you if you make a mistake. You learn to keep going no matter what. My piano teacher is always amazed at how I will keep going when we are playing duets, no matter how many mistakes I make. Sadly, this does not always carry over to my solo playing as well, since there is no one else for me to follow. The answer is, as always, more practice!
Absolutely excellent advise and steps to take toward great performance!!! Thank you!
You are exactly right. It’s so easy to stop at mistakes and correct them but NOT go back to the beginning like you said. I am guilty of this too often. I would like a video on performing without fear of mistakes. I get tense because I try TOO hard to play the piece perfectly. Thank you.
im just an amateur keyboardist (mostly pipe organ) but for me i dont pay attention to mistakes at all during a performance, i get myself so into the music and feel the music and mistakes are just part of what happens - i tune everything else out, as soon as i sit at the keyboard i forget all about anyone watching me, its just me and the music - i guess im different that way
I appreciate your comments. If I’m improvising there is no tension or worries. I think it comes down to the fact there is too much emphasis on perfection and not enjoyment.
What a great piece of advice. I started to play a piano after 20 years again and made a few compositions. My technique is far from perfect and would love to tidy it up a lot thru piano lessons in future. I've been practicing my pieces thoroughly for about month and still can't play everything perfect. Doing a gig for my family and friends this saturday and I'm a bit nervous about the piano part. I'll be playing both guitar and piano. Gigged with the guitar couple of times already this year. The biggest event was an opening for my neighbours band. What I learned so far is: While being there in front of an audience, remind yourself that you're doing what you practiced for, you're doing it for your own pleasure, joy and good times. People want to see someone enjoing him/her self, not a perfect performance of someone stressed out. They really don't care much about the music, they want to see someone having a good time and sharing it. If you make a mistake, repeat it, or just keep going. It's not a recording people won't play it on repeat and moan about it. I used to be super nervous, almost anxious. I just realised tha music is something I want to do with my time and it should not make me miserable. You can do it!
That's a very nice way to think of it. :)
BTW, I love how you create variations of your opening signature music for each video!
Very true!
Cringe
@@MiguelTicona your reply? Yes
Thanks to years of figure skating , I understand the importance of practicing performing.
I carry this through in regards to music.
In skating, we practice our elements, run through parts of our routines that need to be cleaned up and we also have days where the other skaters are the audience while each of us runs through our program in our competition wear. The competition or ice show is my performance.
If I fall or make it mistake during a performance or practice performance , I just keep on going without thinking much about it.
If I fall or make a mistake, I go over what went wrong afterwards.
Watching several of your videos per day as a part of my regimen. Im back at practicing the piano for a couple of months. My childhood experience is getting back in my brain, but still decided to have in person lessons starting tomorrow at age 47
Congratulations!!!!!
Me too, with 48😉😎👍
@@ER-bg9bo ooooo that's awesome. I hope that you will be uploading videos of your progress
Great advice! I try to distinguish between practice and rehearsal. (I don’t do scales during rehearsal time. It’s just preparation for a performance of specific music.)
Playing for other people (or even a recording device) feels about 10x harder than practicing alone. It's crazy.
Fantastic advice, very on point. This practice method is a must for pianists of every level.
Superb lesson. This is what exactly I am experiencing right. Will certainly practice as u advise. ThAnk you very much
My piano teacher is ALWAYS on my back about hesitation. Robert is so, so spot on!
As a beginner, I, of course, make all of these mistakes, but I have to admit, hesitation is a big one. Thanks for the tips. This morning, I was able to play Pretzel’s Minuet in G twice (out of many attempts) hitting all of the correct notes, but the hesitations ruined it. Between the two successful attempts to get the right notes, there were many unsuccessful ones. Some hugely so. For tomorrow’s practice, I’ll work on playing straight through without hesitation. Thanks.
I comfort myself with the wise words of the comedian Eric Morecombe to the conductor Andre Previn when he appeared on his show, “ I AM playing all the right notes…but, not necessarily in the right order!”
Doubleplusgood! And your instruction has given me great encouragement. That is what I do!! I note the difficult area for correction.. I go to the phrase, incorporate the corrected area, then back to beginning and note the area is coming up... Grab it. Over n over. From the beginning grab it. . until there's no hesitation or fumbling thru the difficult spot.
Thank you, I have no teacher. I'm working on
Bach G Minor #1
GOLDEN! You described habitual hesitation and its tendency to rear its ugly head in performance to a tee! And your straightforward "3-pronged approach" to fixing it is spot-on as well. I find that playing Christmas music during the holiday season is an excellent opportunity for the average student to practice performing because people love to sing along and that not only forces the pianist to keep going no matter what but can also provide some "cover" for little mistakes.
This is such a great video. Clearly speaks to a very common problem and I'm glad not to be alone in making the mistakes you're taking about, Robert. Thank you.
Excellent advice. Thank you Robert!
I used to practice my performances in front of my piano teacher’s husband, who was an internationally acclaimed opera singer. He would always critique my playing & give suggestions, which were always helpful.
I not only played my pieces, but also practiced approaching the bench, etc. Stage presence was part of the package.
And I was NEVER allowed to stop & fix mistakes.
That was indeed a precious piece of advice to look at! Wish I had a teacher like you though!
Thank you Robert for your wonderful videos and insight!
Perfect timing; I am trying like mad to work on this recently.
Thank you for your video Robert! I always watch them because there’s always something to take away and apply to my playing
Very useful tips! Thank you.
That’s true. I always say this to my students, to practice performing, and to do this in their practice sessions because correcting mistakes on the spot when practising doesn’t really achieve anything in terms of preparing for a musical performance.
I am a church pianist. What I do is practice for performing every time. Since I play shorter pieces (discounting repeats of verses and choruses, of course), I go back after I have played through the song and practice the portion where I made the mistake. I then play that phrase and go back later to play through the entire piece again. I never have the luxury of stopping during a performance; people depend on my playing so they can keep singing. Several years ago I had issues with stopping at mistakes. I was so afraid of making a mistake. I hated making mistakes! But I have learned through constant, consistent repetition to keep playing and now rarely stop at mistakes.
The best thing is to get a lot of practice just playing right through them. I still don't really like making mistakes, but they don't phase me as much anymore.
Just tell yourself that wasn’t a mistake, it was a leading note lol
Even worse is when the performer says “Sorry” after the hesitation!
That was close to home
Wrong rhythm is a hard one with Clair de Lune. It switches between duple and triple meter, with notes held over the beat. And you can always cheat by saying you're just using a lot of rubato.
But yes, stopping and striking notes again is a bad habit. The problem I have with his method is that a lot of the time a missed note happens in the easiest passages. You could practice it a zillion times and still not be assured that it won't happen again. If anything, you've made yourself so nervous about that passage that you tense up when it comes along, increasing the chances of a mistake. It's just your ear telling your brain that something's wrong and then you're brain telling your hands to correct it. It's very hard to change that, like flinching if someone fakes you out by clenching their fist and quickly raising their hand up to their head, then combs his hair. Psych!
The other thing is that very often, I get more nervous as I play, especially if it's going well and I haven't made any mistakes. It's like you're hoping, hoping, hoping for that note-perfect performance and then --- DARN, messed up again. You begin to focus on that rather than the performance itself.
So what do I do? Basically, I cheat. I play with a bunch of nonjudgmental friends who don't really care about mistakes, Some of them are very good players, some are amateurish like me. It's just a nice support group that encourages me to work on new repertoire and keep practicing. And since they don't care about mistakes, I've learned not to as well.
Beyond that, the other thing I recommend is recording yourself. I find myself getting just as nervous making a recording as performing in front of a group. It's like it's for posterity, so that ratchets up the pressure, even though no one else is likely going to hear it. So you get some practice dealing with that extra pressure.
And then the last thing is that I try to focus on what I'm "saying" with the music, i.e., the expression rather than the precise notes. When I learn a piece, it's more than just the notes. I try to give each note meaning and color, and give every phrase a shape. And I try to stay in the moment and not worry that what I just played didn't come out exactly the way I wanted, so long as those colors and shapes and meanings remain true to my intention.
I went to a masterclass that the great Leon Fleischer gave, and he said something that stuck with me: There are three things happening as you perform: you're reacting to what you just played, you're playing, and you're preparing to play the next notes. And then he said, "it all catches up to you after awhile and it all falls apart." In other words, mistakes are inevitable. So don't beat yourself up over them.
Am I great pianist? Heck no. But I do well enough to make it worth my while to continue with it. I'm satisfied with that.
@gatesurfer~ well said, especially that part about freaking when you're performing with no mistakes but still have a page or so to go! 😄So true!
Omg, that is so me! Encouraging to know I am not the only one. My brain seems to leave me on occasion, yikes!
Thanks for the great insight… this video challenges me in the right way… have great day
What a great teacher !
Couldn’t resist not clicking with a tantalizing thumb nail like that. Well done, you’ve got a new subscriber in me.
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Thanks for a very helpful reminder on how to prepare thoroughly for an upcoming exam performance!
Thank you so much for the advice. I always enjoy the way you explain!
How much lucky to watch this so important lesson! Thank you 🙏🏼
Oh yes indeed. The worst nightmare is not just hesitation. The worst nightmare is totally forgetting what to play.
"So what the heck could possibly be worst than
wrong notes or wrong rhythm?"
A CANDELABRUM ON YOUR PIANO.
Nailed it. Thanks for the reminder! As other have noted, playing with others develops this skill.
My first time, and You Are Terrific! Thank you!
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thats the best advice i ever got, for a talent show many years ago i was asked to accompany for a hindemith trombone sonata that was way beyond my ability to play, but the trombone player told me the trick is to play like i knew how. without hesitating for mistakes - i made soooo many mistakes but the audience never noticed probably cause i just kept playing, and the fact it was so dissonant nobody there could really tell anyway what it was supposed to sound like :) - from then on i always kept that advice, never hesitate no matter how bad the mistake
I second that, but if I may add a thing or two: I think it's important too to memorize the harmonic progression as well as to memorize the beginning of each phrase. The reason being that when your mind slips and you mess up, you can at least improvise to the next destiny key and continue from the next phrase onwards.
Yeah, this is a great video. Was a little scared it was gonna be a video about not playing with emotion or something (as important as this is, I believe hesitation during playing is a much more common issue with (especially) newer pianists).
Love the tip about playing 'as if it was a performance'
Fun, helpful video. When I practice, I have become such a self-critic, it’s like having Gene Siskel sitting beside me while watching a movie-and he won’t shut up. Definitely not ok for a recital.
Excellent advice!
Wonderful advice 👏 👌 👍
I make every mistake on this list😂 . Thank you so much for this , I am really going to work on all of these points . ❤
"Smearing everything with pedal"... sympathetic resonance is a thing to use sparingly but effectively. And yes, if the pedal is pressed constantly, all the notes you're adding start to create chaotic noise instead of having the effect one might think it has. So if you hold pedal for a longer than a bar or so... make sure you have only couple of notes within that pedal. And no... NO CHORDS! only intervals or maybe a single bass note... chords have too much and pedal will just mush everything instead of sounding nice :)
And also, there's a thing called "half pedaling" where one can get a bit more resonance and larger sound, but also keep the tails a bit in control... pedal isn't just "on or off" :)
Wow! Clair de lune can be played at the wrong rythme and still sound wonderful
I'm don't play piano but guitar but i'm totaly agree with you. I had both on stage, hésitation and restart (That was à total mess) and make a big mistaque like playing a verse when it was the bridge (in the second case everybody continued , and nobody noticed in the public) 😁. In général when i practice alone i stop to correct the mistaques but xhen i practice with my band whe never stop, to get used to deal with any situation.
Very good advice!
Really helpful, thanks 🙏
Darn you sir you are right again 🤨, i was thinking what can it possibly be other than what youve mentioned first...
Excellent video
From my perspective, Practicing an unnoticed mistake to the point where it enters muscle memory. Unlearning is difficult.
Very good advice
When I am performing I am very cognizant of 'the show must go on'. I tend to make 'omission' mistakes (leaving out a note or chord) not 'comission' (playing a wrong note) mistakes but, I very rarely have a 'perfect' performance. I am more interested in having my audience feel something, not keep score!
So insightful
Words to live by!!
Great video
Priceless tips!
This is Not Click bait as I initially thought it might be... This is an invaluable piece of information that is applicable to any other musical instrument, practise your performances, and I will add, practise your live and session recording performances.
I heard a performance by Horowitz in his later years and I trended to hear an occasional blue note but he kept on going. I wondered about it but he finished and the audience erupted as usual in any of his performances. Now I know why it didn't matter lol.
Thank you so much! Blessings!
Great guidance here.
Unusually gifted fellow
Thank you for another great video. I have a question. Is sightreading somewhere in between practicing and performing? Is there any benefit to consider sightreading a performance? I'm generally not strong at memorizing and so generally when I sit down to play something, it's just relying on sightreading. But I'd still like some tips for making my time at the piano sound better for those listening.
I believe there is a sightreading video on his channel.
Sightreading is much more performing, because the number one rule about it is keeping the pulse and never stopping. In fact a lot of musicians have to just sight read on the spot because they don't have time to practise everything, so it's well worth your while to sightread as if it is a performance. If that's a little hard, it means slowing down the tempo until you can.
3:35 hey! Thats me!😂😂😂
Thank you!!!!❤
you are 1000 % right !!!! Merry Chistmas
It's such a difference if somebody watch you playing,... So, yes, practice 'til you can play it after wake up at midnight😉😅👍
Hesitation is bad simply because it interrupts the rhythmic flow of the piece. This is because no matter whether a listener is a musician or not, everyone has a sense of rhythm even if they don't know the composition or realizes there were wrong notes.
Rachmaninoff Prelude in D, played it for 30 years, I loved this juicy chord on the 3rd page. One day I decided that this chord wasn't right, I was playing a low octave G in the bass against some kind of b minor chord in the right hand. Oh man, it was a low octave E after all. I repeated the mistake for 30 years because I thought the chord sounded cool.
You were playing Jazz.
It takes a lot of talent to make mistakes and play errors on purpose. Well done!
Sometimes I would purposely play notes that aren’t written
@@ValkyRiver congratulations you are about to become a composer when you do that lol
@@qwincyq6412 Check out my “cursed” music and you’ll see what I mean.
A pianist needs to know everything about the piece that they're playing from a musical theory standpoint - if you can improvise the chord sequence and can practice slipping from the written notes to your own improvisation/variation on that theme, then you should be able to recover from most memory slips.
In short, don't practice performing - practise improvising.
This also massively improves sight reading ability - you can start seeing entire chords rather than individual notes.
Nope, the worse mistake in playing a piano is not regularly practicing as it causes all of your listed mistakes🎹I’m a self-taught pianist keyboardist. I am an amateur singer/songwriter and before I record my latest great hit, after I am satisfied with the melody etc., I practice the song for around ten days.🎹🎷🎺🎻🎶🎤🎸
Thank you
You need an audience. That pressure truly allows one to practice performing. Beginning middle and end. No stopping to fix something. God I'm glad I play jazz Anyway. Buy a battery and inverter for your digital piano and go do your thing in the train station or some other public place. Get over it just do it. If you playing is any good you'll have a few folks most of the time. It's like being paid to practice. I just finished 6yrs of that in Copenhagen Denmark. I also played gigs. But after COVID I was the only cat in Copenhagen performing everyday. Now there's a kind of tempered strengthened quality in my performance. You ever notice the best players just came off the road where they had to play every night or every other night? That's the difference between a pro and a dilettante. Create that sink or swim pressure for yourself.
Thanks sir.
The lion kingdom uses lots of pedaling & reverb to cover up the unevenness. The most popular gootubers apply time stretching to play faster.
I watched this video to gain insight and more knowledge, but instead I got bashed for my piano mistakes
It is true, what you told.
But what about the Hesitation Waltz?
"Hesitation is defeat" Some op Boss
I think I manage to get all these things done in one go
Wise
I've had to learn to keep going when I play for church because the song leader and the congregation do not stop and wait for me to self correct.
That's an important point. There is a red line between playing and practicing: When performing, you must NEVER stop. When practicing, you must ALWAYS stop to correct (unless you are practicing performing!)
Brilliance and Magic have built their Castles behind and after the Avenue of Mistakes. It took Michael Jordan SIX YEARS of EXPERIENCE BUILDING to arrive at the DOOR OF GREATNESS!! Michael Jordan: EVERYBODY is talking about MY 12,192 BASKETS; NOBODY'S is talking about the 12 million MISSES along the way! AGAIN: greatness by definition comes AFTER the many errors and many mistakes along the way!! ONE reason more, WHY piano players should NEVER get tide-up before going on stage! Thomas EDISON: "it took me 1000 mistakes to get the LIGHT-SWITCH working." !!
Liberace - are the Rule!
Wouldn't the worst mistake on piano be...not playing the piano? Can't play the piano if you don't PLAY the piano! lol
Yasser is playing the Piano now?
Ooo the pedal one made my teeth ache. Weird.
It's VERY enlightening to listen to recordings of Debussy, HIMSELF, playing Claire de lune.
He takes MAJOR liberties with the rhythms. MAJOR RUBATO and A PIACERE!!!!
So, please don't try to say there are "correctly" played rhythms for THAT particular work.
What's the worst shirt/pants combo mistake you can make?
The worst mistake is the majority of people who play piano can't.
Is that chuck Mcguill
looool!!
What this was a wrong rhythm? I play it that way :D
Too much sustain pedal.
QR code shirt.
I'm just at first 2 examples of the video and I want to comment : you're trying to play bad but you can't !! Your wrong harmony is not really horrible neither is your wrong rhythm haha
Ugly sound=Thelonius Monk😉👍🏽
Piano needs tuning