Piano Video Lesson: How to play the Ocean Etude Op. 25 No. 12 by Chopin

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin and this is LivingPianos.com asking the question, how many levels of soft are there? By the end of this video, I'm going to reveal that to you.

I'm going to demonstrate something to you really interesting. So many times you have pieces of music that are written to be played softly or even very softly for example, Clare de Lune.

Clare de Lune is written pianissimo at the beginning and stays pianissimo for a long time and I'm going to play the beginning of Clare de Lune. I'm going to play it all just as quietly as possible. The very end of the little section I'm playing there is a little crescendo de crescendo which I will do but the rest of it I'm going to keep really quiet and listen to the sound this creates.

So, I'm going to play the beginning of Clare de Lune.

So, that was playing it just as it's written in the score, pianissimo for that entire section to the very end with this little crescendo de crescendo.

Now you may wonder, is that the way it's intended to be played? Well, I'm going to give you a little analogy. Just imagine you're with someone who's very dear to you and you're having a tender conversation.

Maybe it's late at night in his home when other people are sleeping and you're whispering and as you're whispering you're telling very, very important things about yourself and you're having a very personal discussion and there's some animation and there's tenderness and yes, it's all quiet but there's different levels of quiet, aren't there? Listen to this. I'm going to play it again and it's all going to be very quiet but there's going to be different levels of quiet.

So, I'm going to give you a little analogy.

So, you can hear it's all very quiet till the end when there's a rise and a fall but there's nuance of expression just as there was or would be in a tender conversation with a loved one.

You must have expression in your playing. So, the question is how many levels of soft are there? And the answer is an infinite number.

Absolutely, there's an infinite number of soft expression.

Just like dividing halfway between two points again and again and again, there's no limit on a well -regulated piano to how much expression you can bring while maintaining a pianissimo context.

I want you to all try this with your music and see how many different levels of soft you can achieve, getting the maximum expression in your music and let us know how it works here at LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. Again, I'm Robert Estrin. Thanks for joining me.

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