Music Video Lesson: Musical Solutions to Technical Problems

There are countless ways in which you can discover ways of negotiating scores that are intrinsic to your physiology. Instead of struggling for some preconceived notion of the absolute way a piece should be played, discover what works for you.

Hi, Robert Estrin here with a great subject on LivingPianos.com, which is Musical Solutions to Technical Problems.

You know, I remember hearing an interview with my teacher John Ogden, and John Ogden tied for the first prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition with Vladimir Ashkenazi, two legendary pianists. And I remember John Ogden talking about how he really was taken with Ashkenazi's performance of the famous first Chopin etude in C major, Op. 10, No. 1, and how he had a lightness to it that he thought was really an interesting way of approaching the piece, because so many people play it really strong. And then I remember hearing an interview with Ashkenazi, and Ashkenazi had rather small hands.

And he actually, his approach to that etude is because of the nature of his hands, it just falls under his hands better at that tempo.

Little did John Ogden realize that this was a technical consideration, and he came up with a beautiful solution, a musical solution to a technical challenge. And ultimately, this is what it's all about in piano playing. It's finding what works for you with your physiology and your psyche and your makeup, and finding something that is musical.

So it's not an absolute of how something should be played, it's finding a way that you can accommodate it. It's the same thing with everything in life. Everybody has a different gait, the way you walk, it's not the same as the way I walk. Everybody has a unique way of approaching a myriad of things in life, and piano playing is certainly no exception. So I want to show you a couple of examples. For example, in some student level pieces, like for example the Beethoven Sonata Sonatina, I should say, in G major, it starts off like this.

Now, I sometimes have students who have difficulty with the end of this phrase because there's a crescendo here. And maybe they don't have quite as much strength to be able to pull off that crescendo and they struggle. So what is a great musical solution? Come way down, right at that point, so that you can easily make the crescendo and listen to how musical this is.

It actually, I think, sounds better that way. Coming way down, the crescendo can unfold naturally without having to force anything or having to struggle at all. There's so many examples of this. For example, in Chopin's Military Polonaise, you know, the powerful polonaise, you might wonder how to approach such a thing.

Now, I purposely played that in a very loud, strong manner, took a lot of energy. And you know what? If you take all the repeats in the Chopin Military Polonaise, it is a true tour de force because it goes on and on and on with very, very few places where it really comes down that much. And you know what else? By coming down wherever you possibly can, it gives you a reserve and you'll sound more powerful, not less powerful. Having a reserve is the secret to sounding powerful because if you're ever at the limits of what you can produce, it sounds weak no matter how much energy you're putting into it. But when you have that reserve and you let it go here and there, just little flares of excitement, of power, it leaves you wondering how much is under there, undulating under the surface that could fire up at any time. So, for example, playing the fast chords very delicately, you can get this quality instead.

So notice how I was playing many of the chords very delicately.

And then land on that chord.

So by not trying to play everything strong like this, which takes a tremendous amount of energy and bogs down, you play everything you possibly can play lightly. And then when you land on the strong chords, boy, it gives you a lot of power and you've got tons of reserve and you can play through the whole piece without even breaking a sweat.

Instead of... No, you play those... So it's using selective energy, a musical solution to a technical problem. There are countless ways in which you can discover ways of negotiating scores that are intrinsic to your physiology. Instead of struggling for some preconceived notion of the absolute way a piece should be played, discover what works for you and make a convincing case for it. And that's what a great performance is ultimately all about.

Try in your playing and don't think that because you don't have as much power or as big a reach or whatever your problems are, maybe your fingers are big and clumsy that you can't play lightly, there are tons of ways. My father, for example, who had massive hands, and Rachmaninoff just came right naturally to him. He would play all the preludes in public performance at Lincoln Center. The complete preludes. Can you imagine such a thing? It was like nothing for him. But you know what? Playing a delicate superimpromptu, that was another story with his big, big fat fingers, powerful.

His secret? Delineating the notes by playing them separated. They weren't actually as light as you might have thought, but he created the illusion of light, fast playing by separating them with staccato fingers. So he found a solution that worked absolutely beautifully for fast, light pieces that didn't come naturally to him. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Find your strengths in your music and bring those to the interpretation. And that's ultimately what great performing is all about.

Thanks again for joining me. I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos .com, your online piano resource. Thanks for subscribing. The thumbs up and the ring the bell and you'll find out about new videos coming out on a regular basis for you. See you next time.

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