Piano Video Lesson: Why Practicing the Piano is Different From Other Instruments

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. Robert Estrin here, with a really interesting subject today, why practicing the piano is different from all other instruments? I actually majored both in piano and French horn in conservatory. In fact, all through my childhood, I was completely obsessed with both instruments, dividing my time. And 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, it's about tone production, intonation, and being able to play at any volume, at any register and control and getting that beautiful sound. It's just all about that.

Now, interestingly on the piano, just getting basic tone production is the easiest of just about any instrument. You push a key and it sounds pretty good. Try that on a flute, just getting a sound out of it is really tough. Just holding a violin is so hard. Other instruments have tremendous challenges. For example, double reed players like bassoonists and oboists spend a tremendous amount of time just crafting reeds, either making their own reeds or refining reeds that they get from others, with meticulous carving with knives, trying to get just the right response out of the reed.

Vocalists have to study languages and diction. Think about the hours spent doing that, yet there is only so much you can practice singing before you will tire your voice. There is a limit to how much you practice, but there is a tremendous amount of research that goes into understanding what you're singing, if you're singing in other languages, and being able to keep everything fluid, staying healthy because you are the instrument. And every instrument has the challenges. What the big challenge on the piano is, is the music because the piano, fundamentally, it's easier to play basic tone production, but the music makes up for it with its great complexity.

The vast majority of time spent on the piano, as a classical musician, is spent learning scores. And that is the process. Now I mentioned French horn. On French horn, there's a tremendous amount of warmups, slow arpeggios. Things like long tones on wind instruments are essential. My wife is a flutist and she doesn't miss a day of doing her long tones. What are long tones? Long tones are swells from very, very soft to very, very loud, back to very, very soft on every single note on the instrument. And this is a way to develop the control so if you have a decrescendo, you can maintain the pitch and the beauty of the sound by practicing each and every note. The piano, of course, we don't have those issues. We don't have those capabilities. It's going to be fading out, pretty much no matter what you do.

A great deal of time is spent on the instrument itself, just developing the physiology of the lips. There's an old saying with French horn that, "Skip a day and you know it. Skip two days, your section players know it. Skip three days, everyone knows it." I know that times that I've gone on vacation and gotten away from the horn and had to come back to it, it can take weeks, weeks, to get into the same shape, because the muscles of the lips are so delicate that you can't just practice and practice until you're back in shape because you'll blow your chops where you can't play anything. Everything gets fatigued so you have to really baby your lips and keep them in great shape.

Now, in the piano there have been times I've gotten away from the piano and coming back to it, at first, my fingers feel kind of sloppy and not very strong, but I just keep playing. Make sure I don't tax myself too much. After a day or two, I'm right back there. Everything kind of comes back pretty easily. But what is it about piano practice? It's learning scores, and it is a meticulous process. One of the reasons I loved practicing French horn so much is that I could just concentrate on pure sound, the beautiful rich tone of the instrument, which becomes a trademark of your own personality. Just the sound you get on one note.

On the piano, this just isn't the case. On the piano, it's very challenging mental work. Practicing on the piano, if you're doing it right, is a tremendous mental challenge, assimilating notes and scores and music, being able to think of complex arrangements that have polyphony and counterpoint and bringing out different lines. Now, it's true that other keyboard instruments have some of the same challenges. As an organist, you even have the pedals. However, what you don't have, is having to play balancing notes and lines within a texture. If you're playing, for example, a four part chorale, bringing out different lines, just playing a simple chord progression. I'll show you what I mean. I can bring out the soprano line, the alto line, the tenor line or baseline. You can do this simply by reaching with your fingers. Obviously, the most obvious is to bring out the top line.

The same exact chord progression can be played bringing out the alto line instead of the top line, the one second to the top.

Played exactly the same notes, but now I called your attention to the alto line. Now for the tenor line, which is the second to the bottom line which, in this particular arrangement, I'm doing it with my right hand, the bottom fingers of my right hand.

And naturally, the base can also be brought out.

Now, that's just extremely basic, because balancing isn't necessarily just bringing out one line, it's being aware of all of them and controlling them. In order to get that kind of control, you have to really know the score. It's studying the music to develop that control. Are there techniques or exercises that can help with that? Somewhat, but there's no substitute for spending the time really learning the score, really knowing it so well that you have control of all the notes, literally under your fingertips. And that's what makes piano practice unique of all instruments. I'm interested in all of you and all of you who play other instruments. Let me know how you feel about practicing those instruments compared to practicing the piano and how it feels different to you.

Once again, I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. There is lots coming your way. Big news for you. I'm glad to have all of you subscribers and my Patreon subscribers. You ask questions. I make videos for you. We'll see you next time. Thanks for joining me.

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