Very, very good video about technical exercises. As a slightly advanced amateur I always think why waste time on non-music instead of directly practicing pieces of music, and you can always invent great exercises from and for the difficulties of the piece.
What do you think about daily scales and arpeggios? I would love to hear your views on if it’s beneficial for students to practice them daily? Or if it’s better to only learn the scales you need for the pieces you’re learning? Thanks 🙏
I’m trying to get more lucrative Musical Theatre piano/ keyboard pit work….( I ve already played In Worship and Jazz bands for many years) what would your advice be ?
I think you are slightly missing the point with the liszt exercises. Yes, you will never find music wich requires you to hold down four notes at a time while just pressing down one note over and over but that isn’t the point in these exercises. By holding the additional notes down the finger that is playing learns to move independently, wich is forced since the fingers who aren’t playing aren’t allowed to be raised. If you practice this way WITHOUT tension you will notice that each finger will learn to move more independently. I myself have done these exercises and have noticed HUGE improvement in my playing both in finger independence aswell as in other aspects. Holding down the notes is merely a way to get around the problem of the fingers being dependent of each other and isn’t meant to prepare you for pieces with such patterns (because they don’t exist). Liszt ofc knew what he was doing when he wrote the exercises and taking into account the fact that he was probably the greatest pianist of our lifetime surely he would have the most qualified knowledge and experience to write these exercises to Full-fill the purpose to wich they were intended for. To just dismiss these exercises and to assume that he didn’t know what he was doing is simply being ignorant as-well as not being humble in regard to someone who probably had the highest knowledge of piano technique.
PS from yesterday. The sheet music plus digital score of "Joey Joey Joey" from one of the great works in modern times, from the clear musical genius of Frank Loesser, I had worked up until the last of 6 pages. The flourish at the finale features 3 extended chromatic scales; the first coming down RH for 3 8vas, the second ascending in left hand for 3 8vas; the last a 2 8va RH ascending scale till the final chord. The piece provides a technical challenging and very showy piece worthy of any stage level. Chromatic scales; chromatic chords in sequential 3rds; crossing hands; alternating LH RH accompaniment patterns, not to speak of constant rotation and other efficient modes, it can't be played without it. One of the most robust musical pieces ever written; if one can master this score, one has advanced their playing by orders of magnitude. And it's a tour de force. Till about 3 years ago, I had logged somewhere between 10-12 years of piano study, sporadic as I was a lifelong singer trained in classical mode; clue, I had the training in theory, harmony and musical language and performance experience. My former teachers never talked about something as arcane as technique; it did know it from vocal music. My hands were stiff and stretching which made it impossible for me to progress past late intermediate. I knew what advanced playing was; virtally all my accompanists for years were that. I sustained a painful injury in the hip area from sitting badly. I searched online for help. After vetting several very fine players who had an online reputation and resume, including the Taubman "discipline," I settle on Craig as the person I would trust to transform my technique at piano. I started from the beginning on his lessons on basics: rotation, navigation by forearm lateral movement, supportive posture, very much lacking, knuckle bridge, relaxed and comfortable hand/finger position, all the tips and teachings he relies on today with more basic "how to" practice. I went through every tutorial, as slowly as I needed, in chronological sequence, and repeated many again, and sometimes again, until I mastered the basics of what he was offering; once so with many aspects, I was ready to speed up; per Golandsky/Taubman; "Once you can do it slow, you have it." Since then I have added other mentors, all of whom are and advanced extension of what Craig was doing on the basics. The great value of his teaching, I have more experience than most with it, is that there is nothing where advanced moves can't be built seemlessly off the top of what his basics teach. There is no impediment with his technique to more advanced riffing. They have all been easy as I moved into the earlier stages of advanced. I'm a happy camper. With what he teaches, with a little more advanced training, I can solve all my issues; no longer have to consult a teacher to help me figure out a conundrum. If I stay in it, I can figure it out. A great debt to Craig and my subsequent mentors, the best of which do not conflict with Craig on almost anything but a very fine, mostly inconsequential detail. With Craig's teaching under my money "belt," body, arms and fingers, I had the best basic tech education possible. Nice guy, too. I was diligent, willing to put a rather big ego aside and start over as a kid. It really paid off. I think the world of Craig and his schtick. He prepared me for more advanced playing. This piano attraction and dream was one I had from 8 yo. I had a lot of interruptions and speed bumps over the years but now in my seniority I've my playing together. It's a team effort. Make sure the coach is a good one. There are a lot of poor teachers out there; not that many robust ones; which one tells from the results which should be immediate and accruing noticably over short times.
May I add a critique- Please show the score as you demonstrate thirds, etc. I like your lessons, but want to see the music, for example, Dozen a Day needs a visual in addition to demonstration and verbal explanation. Thank you. 😊
Great great stuff!. Does these however mean we shouldn't pay too much particular attention to scales either, since one can just learn them through pieces (and I'm not being sarcastic). Also It'd be really appreciated if you could include aerial camera views, so we can actually see your hand movements and fingerings better. Thank you for what you're doing.
Great video - maybe stating the obvious, but the ideas you mention such as rotation, in-out, alignment etc are really aligned with the 'taubman' approach
I first started working on "rotation" when I found Craig 3 years ago. I first started with scales and arpeggios at his suggestion. That's all I needed to incorporate smoothly, naturally, now established as 2nd nature, in my technique. It has to do with incorporating it with other coordinated movements which are every bit as important. Rotation is not an isolated pill to take to suddenly play like a world stage artist; however, if you watch them, they will show plenty of it, incorporated smoothly into their sctick.
@@marcomarcola7458 Thought: Another of my mentors, Denis Zdanov, on his channel, is currently featuring a Czerny study. And I believe he might teach a longer series in Czerny studies. Check him out. I love Denis but Czerny is not on my radar. To each his own.
Again, lesson is right on the money. Have done some early exercises at the behest of "old school" teachers; with perspective, I now think they were lazy, give you a book and say, "Go do these," without any sense of why we're doing them, without supervision or review to any detail. I quit Hanon and Czerny and a couple others after quick time. Bored to death. If one figures the time and effort put into tech exercises, could that time and effort be applied to actual music scores, working spots, learning to solve/fix ones' own challenges and issues? The first thing is to acquire a robust technique, in the numerous, complex plural as far as the virtually unlimited variety one encounters in actual scores, by playing musical pieces. I never heard any concert or recital where the player featured technical exercises; can't imagine the ennui. Wouldn't do much business at the gate. The one study I thought was really valuable is Bartok's graded "Mikrokosmos;" wherein he writes short but robust pieces which address some specific play in real music. He throws in some real curveballs for traditional thinkers. He, himself, was out of the box. Nothing trite with that guy. I got something from those but once I knew what repertoire I wanted to play, I just set about solving the issues inherent in those spots, passages and riffs. Mostly arranged jazz, BTW, with lots of blues, related, pop, show tunes, church stuff. So called classical repertoire leaves me lacking, though I was steeped in it by dint of a very fine musical education at an academy styled Uni. Guys like Bartok, Prokofiev, Charles Ives, Ravel, Scriabin,....put out some really exciting stuff that transcends the passage of time. Right now working on "Joey Joey Joey" from Frank Loesser's "Most Happy Fella." Therein we fing long runs of chromatic 3rds sequences. So much of modern stuff is built on scalar 4ths rather than 3rds. I just about go crazy trying to nail down those florid passages of chromatic 3rds for 8-12 + beats; both hands chime in with accompaniment; working it right solves the issues and in the process I progress without deterrence. Nice to see you back with us; you always bring very practical and effective ways of thinking about playing. With your help I retrained my entire basic technique. Would like to hear your Moszkowski when it's ready. Maybe make some studies out of it with specific moves. That would be a real treat for us followers out here in the cheap seats. You have honest character and credibility with a lot of folks. Mortensen's a stud. Keep up the good work.
This is awkward wording. Neither composer wrote their exercises as ‘ego preening’ show-off works. ‘How-to’ technical works are written to guide a student to conquer technique in the manner the composers themselves did. Liszt had no reason to write dry technical exercises to show off what he could do. His entire works bear witness to what HE could do.
I don’t see Czerny on his piano desk…strange…. His stack of exercises examples are so limited. If I were to pile all my exercise books up on the piano that I own and use for teaching, they certainly would not fit on a music desk. His point is well-taken, but he needs to look into other exercise books, including those that are tools for expressive playing
This is definitely not even half of the exercise/technical studies books that I own! These were just a few examples that I thought were worth discussing in the video.
@@PIANO_LAB Ah, I see. Glad to hear you have better books than those ones then. However it is a disservice to tell students not to waste their time on exercises. There are no shortcuts to learning a difficult skill. To your credit, you don't totally discount exercise books. But it would be better IMO to discuss the benefits of certain exercises that are found in books, rather than telling students to just focus on the technical passages in their pieces. What is the result of your advice? The student can play one piece a bit better....but does not have an overall technique nor a grasp of theory. Just IMO.
Wowww bro you definitely have great technique wowww
Very, very good video about technical exercises. As a slightly advanced amateur I always think why waste time on non-music instead of directly practicing pieces of music, and you can always invent great exercises from and for the difficulties of the piece.
What do you think about daily scales and arpeggios? I would love to hear your views on if it’s beneficial for students to practice them daily? Or if it’s better to only learn the scales you need for the pieces you’re learning? Thanks 🙏
I’m trying to get more lucrative Musical Theatre piano/ keyboard pit work….( I ve already played In Worship and Jazz bands for many years) what would your advice be ?
I'm liking every video you upload no matter what the content is!!! Your channel needs and deserves more viewers
I've been saying exactly that for the past 3 years.
@@DavidMiller-bp7et glad to know you're doing the same :)
Great advice, thank you!
You're welcome!
Your videos are amazing
Yes.
I think you are slightly missing the point with the liszt exercises. Yes, you will never find music wich requires you to hold down four notes at a time while just pressing down one note over and over but that isn’t the point in these exercises.
By holding the additional notes down the finger that is playing learns to move independently, wich is forced since the fingers who aren’t playing aren’t allowed to be raised.
If you practice this way WITHOUT tension you will notice that each finger will learn to move more independently. I myself have done these exercises and have noticed HUGE improvement in my playing both in finger independence aswell as in other aspects.
Holding down the notes is merely a way to get around the problem of the fingers being dependent of each other and isn’t meant to prepare you for pieces with such patterns (because they don’t exist).
Liszt ofc knew what he was doing when he wrote the exercises and taking into account the fact that he was probably the greatest pianist of our lifetime surely he would have the most qualified knowledge and experience to write these exercises to Full-fill the purpose to wich they were intended for.
To just dismiss these exercises and to assume that he didn’t know what he was doing is simply being ignorant as-well as not being humble in regard to someone who probably had the highest knowledge of piano technique.
PS from yesterday. The sheet music plus digital score of "Joey Joey Joey" from one of the great works in modern times, from the clear musical genius of Frank Loesser, I had worked up until the last of 6 pages. The flourish at the finale features 3 extended chromatic scales; the first coming down RH for 3 8vas, the second ascending in left hand for 3 8vas; the last a 2 8va RH ascending scale till the final chord. The piece provides a technical challenging and very showy piece worthy of any stage level. Chromatic scales; chromatic chords in sequential 3rds; crossing hands; alternating LH RH accompaniment patterns, not to speak of constant rotation and other efficient modes, it can't be played without it. One of the most robust musical pieces ever written; if one can master this score, one has advanced their playing by orders of magnitude. And it's a tour de force.
Till about 3 years ago, I had logged somewhere between 10-12 years of piano study, sporadic as I was a lifelong singer trained in classical mode; clue, I had the training in theory, harmony and musical language and performance experience. My former teachers never talked about something as arcane as technique; it did know it from vocal music. My hands were stiff and stretching which made it impossible for me to progress past late intermediate. I knew what advanced playing was; virtally all my accompanists for years were that. I sustained a painful injury in the hip area from sitting badly.
I searched online for help. After vetting several very fine players who had an online reputation and resume, including the Taubman "discipline," I settle on Craig as the person I would trust to transform my technique at piano. I started from the beginning on his lessons on basics: rotation, navigation by forearm lateral movement, supportive posture, very much lacking, knuckle bridge, relaxed and comfortable hand/finger position, all the tips and teachings he relies on today with more basic "how to" practice. I went through every tutorial, as slowly as I needed, in chronological sequence, and repeated many again, and sometimes again, until I mastered the basics of what he was offering; once so with many aspects, I was ready to speed up; per Golandsky/Taubman; "Once you can do it slow, you have it."
Since then I have added other mentors, all of whom are and advanced extension of what Craig was doing on the basics. The great value of his teaching, I have more experience than most with it, is that there is nothing where advanced moves can't be built seemlessly off the top of what his basics teach. There is no impediment with his technique to more advanced riffing. They have all been easy as I moved into the earlier stages of advanced. I'm a happy camper. With what he teaches, with a little more advanced training, I can solve all my issues; no longer have to consult a teacher to help me figure out a conundrum. If I stay in it, I can figure it out. A great debt to Craig and my subsequent mentors, the best of which do not conflict with Craig on almost anything but a very fine, mostly inconsequential detail.
With Craig's teaching under my money "belt," body, arms and fingers, I had the best basic tech education possible. Nice guy, too. I was diligent, willing to put a rather big ego aside and start over as a kid. It really paid off. I think the world of Craig and his schtick. He prepared me for more advanced playing. This piano attraction and dream was one I had from 8 yo. I had a lot of interruptions and speed bumps over the years but now in my seniority I've my playing together.
It's a team effort. Make sure the coach is a good one. There are a lot of poor teachers out there; not that many robust ones; which one tells from the results which should be immediate and accruing noticably over short times.
May I add a critique-
Please show the score as you demonstrate thirds, etc. I like your lessons, but want to see the music, for example, Dozen a Day needs a visual in addition to demonstration and verbal explanation. Thank you. 😊
Great great stuff!. Does these however mean we shouldn't pay too much particular attention to scales either, since one can just learn them through pieces (and I'm not being sarcastic). Also It'd be really appreciated if you could include aerial camera views, so we can actually see your hand movements and fingerings better. Thank you for what you're doing.
Great video - maybe stating the obvious, but the ideas you mention such as rotation, in-out, alignment etc are really aligned with the 'taubman' approach
Thanks Craig 🎉
Hi, I'm trying to work on rotation too. Could you tell me which exercise you studied on Czerny's work. Thank you.
I first started working on "rotation" when I found Craig 3 years ago. I first started with scales and arpeggios at his suggestion. That's all I needed to incorporate smoothly, naturally, now established as 2nd nature, in my technique. It has to do with incorporating it with other coordinated movements which are every bit as important. Rotation is not an isolated pill to take to suddenly play like a world stage artist; however, if you watch them, they will show plenty of it, incorporated smoothly into their sctick.
@@DavidMiller-bp7et I thank you @DavidMiller-bp7et for answering me, but my request was different.😃
@@DavidMiller-bp7et Thanks for the reply. Do you know which Czerny study Craig is referring to?
@@marcomarcola7458 No, but you could ask him.
@@marcomarcola7458 Thought: Another of my mentors, Denis Zdanov, on his channel, is currently featuring a Czerny study. And I believe he might teach a longer series in Czerny studies. Check him out. I love Denis but Czerny is not on my radar. To each his own.
Again, lesson is right on the money.
Have done some early exercises at the behest of "old school" teachers; with perspective, I now think they were lazy, give you a book and say, "Go do these," without any sense of why we're doing them, without supervision or review to any detail. I quit Hanon and Czerny and a couple others after quick time. Bored to death. If one figures the time and effort put into tech exercises, could that time and effort be applied to actual music scores, working spots, learning to solve/fix ones' own challenges and issues? The first thing is to acquire a robust technique, in the numerous, complex plural as far as the virtually unlimited variety one encounters in actual scores, by playing musical pieces. I never heard any concert or recital where the player featured technical exercises; can't imagine the ennui. Wouldn't do much business at the gate.
The one study I thought was really valuable is Bartok's graded "Mikrokosmos;" wherein he writes short but robust pieces which address some specific play in real music. He throws in some real curveballs for traditional thinkers. He, himself, was out of the box. Nothing trite with that guy. I got something from those but once I knew what repertoire I wanted to play, I just set about solving the issues inherent in those spots, passages and riffs. Mostly arranged jazz, BTW, with lots of blues, related, pop, show tunes, church stuff. So called classical repertoire leaves me lacking, though I was steeped in it by dint of a very fine musical education at an academy styled Uni. Guys like Bartok, Prokofiev, Charles Ives, Ravel, Scriabin,....put out some really exciting stuff that transcends the passage of time.
Right now working on "Joey Joey Joey" from Frank Loesser's "Most Happy Fella." Therein we fing long runs of chromatic 3rds sequences. So much of modern stuff is built on scalar 4ths rather than 3rds. I just about go crazy trying to nail down those florid passages of chromatic 3rds for 8-12 + beats; both hands chime in with accompaniment; working it right solves the issues and in the process I progress without deterrence.
Nice to see you back with us; you always bring very practical and effective ways of thinking about playing. With your help I retrained my entire basic technique. Would like to hear your Moszkowski when it's ready. Maybe make some studies out of it with specific moves. That would be a real treat for us followers out here in the cheap seats.
You have honest character and credibility with a lot of folks. Mortensen's a stud. Keep up the good work.
Liszt and Brahms wrote "how to" books to show off what _they_ could do, not really to teach others to play _like_ them.
That is certainly the case with Liszt; no doubt Brahms. We can't play "like" anyone and be authentic; that's copying someone else. Superior point.
This is awkward wording. Neither composer wrote their exercises as ‘ego preening’ show-off works. ‘How-to’ technical works are written to guide a student to conquer technique in the manner the composers themselves did. Liszt had no reason to write dry technical exercises to show off what he could do. His entire works bear witness to what HE could do.
I don’t see Czerny on his piano desk…strange…. His stack of exercises examples are so limited. If I were to pile all my exercise books up on the piano that I own and use for teaching, they certainly would not fit on a music desk. His point is well-taken, but he needs to look into other exercise books, including those that are tools for expressive playing
This is definitely not even half of the exercise/technical studies books that I own! These were just a few examples that I thought were worth discussing in the video.
@@PIANO_LAB Ah, I see. Glad to hear you have better books than those ones then. However it is a disservice to tell students not to waste their time on exercises. There are no shortcuts to learning a difficult skill. To your credit, you don't totally discount exercise books. But it would be better IMO to discuss the benefits of certain exercises that are found in books, rather than telling students to just focus on the technical passages in their pieces. What is the result of your advice? The student can play one piece a bit better....but does not have an overall technique nor a grasp of theory. Just IMO.