The Single Greatest Challenge of Piano Playing 

Watching this channel is as close as I'll come to having grown up in a musical family.

It's nuts that I can just fire up my web browser and view this for free. Thank you!

That shot of the burning piano really depressed me. Who would do that? 😢

Such a charming person and engaging teacher you are!

Simply said, this “lesson” is one of your best. You clearly demonstrate your musicianship, technical knowledge and ability to communicate as a teacher. Just wonderful … .

The most challenging part? I can only think of one word.... everything!!

0:47 The classic case of that *free piano on Craigslist...* that your Piano Technician did everything in their power to save.... 😅😅🤣🤣🤣

8:05 🤯wow, I've never seen a piano do this! Never knew what that pedal was for, let alone what the mechanical version of its implementation does to the keyboard!

This is one of your most insightful lessons. Please consider more teachings/sharing of dynamics, listening, etc.

This was a gem of a lesson. I'm a beginner (1.5 years) so these tips that may seem rudimentary to a seasoned veteran really help out someone who is still perfecting fundamentals. Thank you!

Hi Robert: I would say the the "Single Great Challenge of Piano Playing" is finding the time to practice every day. I do 45 minutes of scale and review and 30 minutes of working on new stuff. Gary from Detroit. 🚂

I am always singing the melody in my head as I play and very attuned to allowing the music to 'breathe'. This is a more descriptive term for me than 'rubato'. Yes, we know that rubato is stretching the distance between certain notes and making up for it in other places. But when I let the music breathe, it all comes together in a more organic fashion. I love to hear how the notes hover in the air like wet paint (I am also a painter) and then discover how I can interact with those notes with fresh notes. It is all quite magical. The finer the piano, especially the longer the natural sustain of the instrument without the pedal, the more room there is to interact with previously played notes. Thank you, Robert. I appreciate your passion for the instrument and for sharing your knowledge with us. You are generous!

That was excellent lesson thank you

Very useful and informative, thanks so much, Robert!

Very helpful instruction! On the singing tone, Joseph Lhevinne develops in detail (pp. 19-24) your technique in his “Principles of Pianoforte Playing” (Dover, N.Y. 1972). Brilliant little book, based on a lifetime of teaching. “Virtually all his more famous contemporaries regarded him as one of the supreme technicians of his day. Horowitz admired his vast pianist command.” [Wikipedia]

For me, the most difficult aspect of playing the piano is hand independence; The ability to essentially play different melodies with each hand simultaneously. My hands are simply not willing to do this so I play chords w left, melody with right and love it! 😊 (Honorable Mention for difficulty goes to reading 2 staffs simultaneously which is an utter NIGHTMARE for a 50+ year old trying to read sheet music.)

Thanks Robert 🎉

Excellent explanation 👌

Why did I never hear about this before? Thank you!

I've seen lots of your videos and I think this one is the most valuable one, at least to me. Great teaching, great playing and great stuff to learn and practice.

This took me so long to get. It’s like your really playing the piano with your wrists elbows and shoulder. You just place your fingers over the keys you want to play. Anyone else see how you can keep studying and learning piano for the rest of your life.

It becomes involuntary eventually, like how you know how many steps to take before running up to kick a ball. Your brain gets used to the weight of the arms and all the movement necessary to bring out the sound you hear in your head. Like a voice only having sign language youll speak out your piano motions.

Lacking this knowledge and technique, I had virtually given up on the K.332 Adagio, though it is one of my favorites musically. It is hard to know what to try on a modern piano while preserving Mozart's presumed intent given his instruments. I saw in another video that Mr. Estrin took a master's class on playing earlier keyboard music on the modern piano. I personally thought the final product was a little forced; The piano's voice was clearly constrained and the very difficult playing techniques too visible musically. In contrast, the approach presented here by Mr. Estrin strikes me as a great example of how music written on a less capable instrument was not necessarily written for that instrument. Thank you!

Simply amazing what you explain there!!! You Know the real truth about what is important to be able to make music on the piano!

Been teaching myself for a year now , using Alberts books for adults , right now it’s slow going around halfway thru level 2 , 😢

Excellent video, Robert! When I switched from woodwinds to piano, that singing tone was the most important thing to me. Here are 6 things I’ve learned so far about playing lyrically on these hammer-wire boxes. 1st: Horowitz said he never played more than 40% of loudness except when a sudden forte was required, and those sudden fortes were more about preparing quietly than hitting loudly. It was the difference that you heard. 2nd: Let’s say you play at 40% - let’s call it “Velocity” as in MIDI (range 0-127), even though we’re playing acoustic grands. We’re playing in the 40-50 range of velocity, the decline curve of the sustained tone is much shallower and is perceived to last longer than if we start loud. As it turns out, playing loudly to achieve a singing tone backfires and produces instead a perceived rapid decline. Playing softly sings more and the notes are easier to connect. 3rd: follow the decline curve. If you’re playing a line where the first chord/note will be the loudest, play successive notes along the decline curve. As the volume drops from 50 to 30, your velocities on continuing notes will catch the curve going down: 45, 40, 35, 33, 32, 30, 28, 27, 26, 25.... etc. At some point you have to bring it back up, so there’s that to consider. 4th: Play with tricord, because it sounds fuller. Save the unacorda for color changes and background shades. (As opposed to foreground, as in figure and ground) 5th: If you can capture the root with the sostenuto pedal, leaving everything else to finger duration and pedaled melody, it can certainly help the illusion of a sustained sound. 6th: crescendo more in the left hand than in the melody. Getting too loud in the right hand will poke holes in your lines. Getting louder in the left hand will give the illusion of more going on, louder overall, while pushing up the tessitura on the melodic line as they compete for the same margin of sound space. Keeping the right hand at lower velocities will keep the strings singing in that space. And of course all the things you mentioned, Robert (though I use the unacorder differently). Put them all together and you get a lot of control over a singing, “sustained” line.

Hi Robert, what is the connection between breathing and playing a piano?

What is that mysterious action you do with your left hand before you begin playing?

the hardest to play is after having a stroke, and with a broken hand,, me, and had lady fried work after having had burned.

For me it's playing the right notes in the right order...

Your piano needs tuning. The individual notes are "singing."