Piano Video Lesson: Why 99% is Bad in Piano Playing

That's why you have to strive for something much greater than 99%.

And how do you do that? By being organized in your practice. Welcome to LivingPianos.com. Robert Estrin here with what is probably a very controversial subject. Why 99% is bad in piano? You might think I must be a very strict teacher or something like that. How can 99% be bad? That's a valedictorians would be very pleased to have a 99% average. Usually somebody is lauded if they're even 90%. How can 99% be bad in piano? Well think about this. If you were to play even a relatively simple piece of music like Minuet in G of Bach.

Now that's just the first section. And I went ahead and counted up and there's well over a hundred notes just in that much music. But consider this. Each note has a rhythm. So that's over 200 details. Which note, which rhythm the note plays. And each note has a fingering. So now we're up to 300. Each note has a phrasing either slurred or staccato. That's 400. And how about dynamics? So there's over 500 details just in that first section of this short piece. So if you were at 99% and you'd be missing a handful of details just in the, not even half the piece, right? That's why 99% is not a good average for playing classical music. Now we can even talk about other aspects of the music, the real elegance of the balance between the hands, the rise and the fall of the phrase dynamically. And it's almost an infinite number of details that have to be present for the music to sound right. That's why you have to strive for something much greater than 99%. And how do you do that? By being organized in your practice. That's why you can't just simply read the music over and over again and expect to assimilate the thousands of details. Even in a short piece like this, you must be very meticulous in putting together small chunks of music, studying the score carefully, looking at tiny phrases at a time, hands separately, and amassing this information into your head and into your hands, putting things together little by little, and beyond that, going back and checking your work constantly because nobody can remember that many details. When you think about what you're accomplishing, when you play a piece of music on the piano, if you're playing it accurately, you're not missing notes and rhythms, phrasing and fingering and expression all over the place, you are playing at 99 point, who knows, accuracy if you're getting through something without any obvious glitches. So you have a lot to be proud of in the work you're doing. If you're not breaking up all over the place, you are above 99% in your playing. And that is what it takes to be able to play a piece of music on the piano. So remember to be organized in your practice so you can achieve something that is astounding, learning thousands of details that you can perform just like that. What a pleasure. When you put the practice in and you're learning it correctly, then playing can be such a joy for you. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. The thumbs up and subscribing helps the channel so we can get videos to more people. Thanks again, we'll see you next time.

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