Piano Video Lesson: How to Play Softly on the Piano

Hello! I'm Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com and VirtualSheetMusic.com with a technique video.

How do you control quiet playing on the piano? There's an artistry to this. Now first of all, your piano must be impeccably regulated and voiced to even attempt a real pianissimo because if the notes don't respond mechanically or sonically, uniform from note to note, how can you possibly get quiet? You can't, because some notes will fall off before others. Now I've had the good fortune of playing absolutely superbly regulated and voiced pianos from the time I was born because my father, Morton Estrin, was a concert pianist. So we always had great pianos at home and whenever he played concerts I'd go and get the chance to try the pianos at his recording sessions and such.

So I'm going to start off by telling you a little bit about what I learned from my father. Well, my father has many recordings of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin and Brahms, and who had a reputation for being able to fill the largest halls with tremendous sound. In fact, smaller concert halls were sometimes not big enough for his massive fortissimos that he could get. Just when you thought everything was as loud as it could be, there were other levels possible. But the other secret about my father's playing is his control of pianissimo which is really unparalleled.

I've heard very few pianists ever who dared to play that quietly because it takes a lot of courage as a performer. When you're in a hall with an audience, if you play that quietly you're demanding their attention because everybody has to sit very still and not even ruffle their feet or anything because to hear, but when you do that the expressive capabilities are just ... they make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up because of the beauty of the tone.

So how do you achieve this? How can you possibly achieve that quiet playing and still get the control, the line, the singing? Well, back to my father and how he described to me, 'cuz I studied with my father until I went away to music conservatory after high school, and he describes the pianissimo playing. Imagine the energy of the sun and you block it all out completely except for one pinhole, the energy that comes through there, that is one description of a pianissimo line on the piano, or any instrument for that matter.

As a French hornist, I was a double major at the Manhattan School of Music in French horn and piano. Playing softly requires actually as much if not more energy on a wind instrument than playing loud because when you're playing loud you take a big breath and you blow it out! When you play softly, you take a big breath and put it under some tension with your diaphragm to support the airflow, and that's how you control it on a wind instrument.

So what is the analog for the piano? That's what I'm about to show you. The secret of the piano, of getting a singing line, is the fact that you have to have something that mimics the breath of a wind instrument or singing or the bow of a violin. Some way to get from note to note with consistency. Now, you might think you can just calculate each note and try to play the same level or gradually a little bit more in each key to get a crescendo or a little bit less in each key to get a decrescendo, but you know what? If you take that approach you'll end up with calculated sounding playing, you will not get a singing line.

So the secret is using the weight of the arm and transferring the weight from finger to finger, and when playing pianissimo, staying close to the keys with a minimal amount of motion. Yes, with arm weight, and it's the arm weight that enables you to control the pianissimo.

So, for example, if I played, let's see, what would be a good example? I'll play the beginning of the Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise and get a sustained pianissimo line on top and see how when I'm playing the notes, even though I've struck the key you'll think "Oh, you're done with it!" No need to have any kind of weight on the key. Just the opposite.

The only way you're going to be able to get a transfer from note to note, particularly in a slow pianissimo melody, is by having that weight on one note so that the weight can transfer to the next finger and still sound at exactly the level that you imagine up here, creating the illusion of line because yes, folks, the piano is strictly, technically not capable of a true singing line because every note is fading away as soon as you play it, even on the finest piano. So it is an illusion and here is how you can achieve it using the arm weight.

I'd love to play the whole piece for you on this wonderful piano. In fact, there is a performance of me playing the complete Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise that you can check out for yourself to hear the subtleties of expression that are possible when you utilize the weight of the arm, keep the fingers close to the keys, use a minimal amount of energy.

Thanks for joining me! Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com and VirtualSheetMusic.com. Thanks for joining me!

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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