Piano Video Lesson: Is there a wrong way to learn piano?

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com with a question: Is there a right way and a wrong way to approach the piano?

Boy, this is kind of a loaded question. You know, it's not such a simple answer. I'm gonna try to address this for you with some intelligence. You know, I've done a lot of teaching and I've had some great teachers and also given piano pedagogy classes, and there are some truths that you'll find are almost universal among teachers. Certain aspects of playing like being able to count your music so you make sure your timing is correct, practicing with the metronome to check your rhythm, certain parts of working out fingering that has fluidity in your technique.

So there are definitely some truths that are somewhat universal. Now I say somewhat, I must qualify, why? Because there is more than one way to approach the piano, and if you look at different pianos, you'll see that there are different techniques.

Now I got to study with my father, Morton Estrin, and he was my only teacher other than master classes at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria in high school. He was my only teacher until I went away to music conservatory to the Manhattan School of Music after high school. And my father's concept of playing the piano is what he would describe as with a quiet hand. That is, a minimal amount of motion. And I was trained to play the piano with just the minimal amount of movement necessary in order to produce the results desired. And that made perfect sense to me.

In other aspects, with wrist technique for staccatos. And other times, it wasn't like being rigid or anything like that, but generally, not to move more than necessary. When I studied with Constance Keene at Manhattan School of Music, I was very surprised when I first started studying with her that she encouraged me to loosen up and allow more movement on the keyboard and on the arms, and get more into the mix. As I described in other videos, there are different approaches that are necessary for different types of physical structures. Different people have more strength and more power, more mass, bigger hands, smaller hands.

So there are many right things that could be done and many wrong things that could be done, but there's also an area between that combines both right and wrong. In some instances, the same techniques may be dismissed by some and embraced by others. So, there's a gray area. And in these techniques of questionable value where some people may embrace them and others may not, it comes down to two aspects: number one, your physical stature and how the techniques work for you, and secondly, the application because one technique that may absolutely perfect for solving one technical or musical challenge may be completely different in a different context, totally inappropriate.

So, knowing the application of a technique makes it valid or invalid depending upon where you're using it. So yes, there are some right techniques and there are some wrong techniques. But, more than that, there are many techniques that can be applicable to different people in different situations and that's a long and short answer to, "Is there a right way and a wrong way to play the piano?"

Thanks very much for joining. Robert Estrin here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com.

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