Piano Video Lesson: Clair de Lune: How to Create Beautiful Melodies

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, Robert Estrin with how to create beautiful melodies. And what more beautiful melody than Clair de Lune. I'm going to show you how to approach this, but this will actually apply to almost any melodic music you play. What I'm going to show you is one technique. Now there are countless techniques and I have several videos on Clair de Lune that you can reference in the description. But today I'm going to show you something I've learned from living with my wife, Florence Estrin, for many years who is a magnificent flutist. And the way she uses the air in order to capture the phrase and to have a melodic line that carries the listener is something that I've literally lived with for decades and I want to share with you because it translates to piano playing. And honestly, having a background with a wind instrument or singing or even a boat instrument can be enlightening for a pianist because after all, you're playing a percussion instrument and trying to get a melodic line, you have to understand what that really is about on an instrument that's capable of a sustained line. So I'm going to play Clair de Lune for you now, just the beginning part, and then I'm going to explain what I'm doing to create this beautiful singing quality to the melody.

So it's gorgeous writing, the harmonies, the melody.

Of course, being in rhythm on this is vital to capturing the mood.

The worst mistake you can make with Clair de Lune, as I've pointed out in videos in the past, is to take too slow a tempo and not to hold the long notes long enough.

The rhythm is not what you might think it is. If you count it, try to count it with the very slow dotted quarter note.

Once again, check the description for videos that talk about this and will help you with the rhythm because that's a vital part of this. Well, what I'm going to talk about today is that flowing line and it's the idea not just of, as I mentioned in other videos in the past, in creating beautiful melodic lines, giving more energy to higher notes, just like you would naturally with your breath when you're singing or playing a wind instrument, but it's also elongating those top notes just a little bit, a little bit more air, if you will, in the flute or I play French horn and getting to the peak of a melody, having a little bit more time there so you ride over the top of the line. Listen to the difference if I play it without taking any extra time.

I hate to use the word time because it really isn't a rhythmic distortion as much as it is a filling up the sound akin to the air on a wind instrument or when singing. This is what would happen to ride over those top notes without filling them up.

It doesn't give you that same feeling of serenity.

So it's taking those long notes and taking a little bit more time with it. Once again, I'm going to play and I'm going to talk you through so I can show you specifically where I'm doing this.

Even there, just a little bit on the top third.

There again.

All the high notes, a little bit more air, a little bit more support.

It's hard to conduct while playing.

Now listen to this crest.

I hope you can grasp what I'm showing you. It's very subtle because if it's done too much, it would be a rhythmic distortion which would ruin the melodic line. But instead, it's visualizing in your mind the sound that would be created if this was played on a flute or was an aria, sunbe, a great singer to get that flowing line filling up those high notes like you would naturally do if you could sing such a melody.

I want you to try this not just with Clair de Lune.

Try it with all the melodic music you play. Not just getting louder towards the higher notes but making sure you ride over the crest of the phrase and enjoy those high notes a little bit longer so that they can live on and give a nice expansiveness to your musical line.

Let me know in the comments if this resonates with you and if you've discovered this for yourself or as you try it, how it works for you.

Share it with everybody. This is your piano resource. This is LivingPianos.com. Thanks again for joining me. I'm Robert Estrin.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/clair-de-lune-how-to-create-beautiful-melodies/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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