Which is the Best Musical Instrument?

Which is the Best Musical Instrument?

by | Jun 20, 2015 | 0 comments

In order to appreciate the following article, a good sense of humor is needed…

Well… you guessed right. In my humble and unbiased opinion, the bestest, the beautifulest and the funnest musical instrument of them all, is, well… the piano.

One of the main reasons as to why a piano is so great is because it can be easily noticeable without too much effort. If you played the piccolo, for instance, you need to go out of your way to show it off to your friends, since you will need to remove it from its case and you need to put it on a table or somewhere easily viewable, making it much harder to brag about your musicality, whereas you can’t hide the elephant in the room; piano is always there, sitting in the living room.

Piano is also the greatest instrument to learn because you can use it as furniture replacement; you can’t put a doily or a candlelight on a cello, but you can always place them strategically on top of a piano, depending on the occasion of course. On special occasions you can always add plates with food on top; just make sure you keep the lid closed.

Piano is also the best, because it’s easier to blend in with the rest of your furniture since it comes in many colors and finishes. In my opinion, choice of color can help your interpretation too; you can’t really perform classical composers on a pink piano, for instance.

It’s also better for your social status to say that you play the piano. It doesn’t sound prestigious enough to say that you’re playing the tuba, for example.

Piano is also the best because you cannot feel guilty if not practising when on holidays. Since you cannot take it with you like other smaller instruments, you can always pretend that you had no other choice but to not practise because you were away from home. Just make sure when you are booking a hotel for your holiday to ask if they have a piano. If they say that they do have one, just say that you’re very pleased and never call back again to complete the booking.

Fun aside, the frequently asked question of which is the best musical instrument has no real meaning. Every instrument has its merits. Depending on our needs and on our personalities, every instrument can help our inner need for expression and creativity.

 

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Why Piano is Hard

Why Piano is Hard

by | May 29, 2015 | 0 comments

Even though every instrument has its own difficulties to master, however, I believe that we do have to play one of the hardest instruments, albeit being second hardest to the triangle.

So, here are some of the reasons piano is so hard:

a) One of the usual answers as to why the piano is hard to play (let alone to master) is because we can grow to not like it. To put things into perspective, it’s like liking food; I don’t know of anyone who finds eating ice cream hard. Whereas, I know a few people who find eating broccoli hard, even though it’s healthier than ice cream.

b) Piano is also hard because we can’t be bothered to practise. If you look closely in this website, piano requires practising and in addition to that, a few other qualities such as patience and strategic minds. So, if we don’t want to suffer in the practice room, we must understand from the beginning that piano requires spending a considerable amount of time sitting on a piano stool.

c) Continuing into the hardness twaddle, piano is also hard for a reason that many music thinkers forget to consider: its anatomy. If, for example, you play the violin you have, in essence, more control over the outcome of the sound, because, to cut to the chase, you have a more direct, physical contact with the strings and the bow and so, there are less “mediators” between you and the instrument in order to control it. Whereas, in order to play piano a pianist will face a few more issues, such as

1. Every piano has its own idiosyncrasies; and quite often a pianist will have to perform in a different instrument.

2. Each key can be differently adjusted to the next one.

3. Depth of keys varies from one instrument to another.

4. Response of hammer felt can differ from instrument to instrument and from note to note.

5. Pedaling can be challenging as it is, but having to adjust in a new piano makes producing your desired performance even harder.

6. Keys size and overall response can differ from piano to piano.

By trying to resemble the singing of the human voice and also the polyphony of the orchestra, piano adds unique challenges to the pianist too.

Performing with the piano is like trying to create a sand sculpture not with your hands but with some sticks connected to strings; it’s much harder.

So, keep practising and just see how it goes. Famous expression of the day: No pain, no gain.

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Copyright © by Nikos Kokkinis

 

Inspiring music…

Performance Anxiety in Music

Performance Anxiety in Music

by | May 4, 2015 | 0 comments

Since the beginning of time performance anxiety was the norm in whatever we did as species; from an orator speaking in an ancient agora, to a lutist playing in the local market, humans had always had this issue to address.

Through the centuries, the seeking of musical perfection and the rise of classical music as the “serious” music, as opposed to the “unserious” other musics, has made us talk about performance anxiety more and more in our musical lives, often stopping us from the very thing that a bit of stress is supposed to help: performance. In consequence, recently, literature about performance anxiety has reached heights of enormous gravity.

We need to be concerned about performance anxiety, since many musicians have been discouraged from this condition to even perform live. We need constant scientific progress in defining performance anxiety in musicians and treat it (if possible). Even though I’m not an expert, I strongly believe that, sometimes, having a little “helpful” stress when performing is normal; and, to take it a bit further, somehow, it’s a necessity in our quest of becoming complete musicians.

I, for example, remember sometimes being extremely anxious before an important concert or an exam performance. I had to use all the things from my musical bag-of-tricks to fight this anxiety feeling; and I always came to the same conclusion: I needed deep knowledge of the repertoire I had to perform.  Because, I knew, that if I had sorted out the muscle memory and the finger agility on certain passages, that would have helped me to see the performance through regardless of the intensity of the anxiety.

 

Here are Some Suggestions to Help Us Eliminate Performance Anxiety

First, we have to understand that performance anxiety is different from normal levels of stress that we all experience before performing live.

In order to fight performance anxiety we have to deeply understand one core thing in music: that there are no bad musicians (If you want more details read my related article here). I believe that all musicians are equally “valid”, are equally important and are equally good.

Then, we have to start considering that live performance has always been an adventurous act that entails the element of surprise and the feeling of uncertainty in its outcome; and that’s why performing live is so beautiful.

We also need to realize, that in life nothing is perfect. Similarly, in a live performance there are no perfect people (audience) that judge imperfect ones (us, the performers).

Then, we must appreciate, that as much as we have the urge to judge everything in everyday life, from buying good quality milk, to find a good tennis coach, we also have the inherent right to judge a performance. Judging or evaluating something is a human quality that exists in order to improve us. So, in a way, when we are being judged in a performance, we improve.

Also, we need to develop the “talent” of not caring about trivial things in life; like opinions about our playing. Some people are very good at it. When I was a student at conservatoire level, but even earlier than that, I would experience some not-so-valid performances which were strongly advocated by their own performers, and I was thinking that I wasn’t going to be happy if I had played like that. And then I thought that, likewise, someone else wouldn’t be happy if they played the way I did. So, musical consensus is ever-changing and could be subjective.

Last, make sure you remember this word: preparation. Just make sure you are as prepared pianistically as possible. Play your pieces to your family as a practice, ask for different opinions on your playing, listen to what your friends say about your own playing and keep the good things they say, but not the bad ones.

Remember that there is no perfect performance and keep going.

Play Piano by Ear

Play Piano by Ear

by | Apr 13, 2015 | 0 comments

Playing piano by ear has always been essential in a pianist’s tools-of-the-trade.

I had to play by ear many a times in my pianistic life; for example, a day before a concert when I was requested to accompany two traditional songs for a singer, or when I was asked to accompany a ballet dancer to the music of “Blue Danube” on the spot, or, when a student of mine came in class once and hummed a tune, demanding I should find the left hand accompaniment for it. The examples are plenty.

However, the question is: do we need to play by ear? Is it an essential musical skill? Can it be taught? The answer to all of those questions is of course, yes.

I believe that, in a way, we have an inherent ability to play music by ear; we always did. In order to instill the playing-by-ear skill I use a very simple method with my students. Firstly, I ask them to name a simple tune that they are familiar with; for instance, the “Jingle Bells”. Then, I tell them to hum or whistle it a bit. After that, I ask them if they could clap the rhythm and state the time of the piece, if possible. The next part, is to play the first couple of notes rhythmically with the right hand, assisting them by asking if they think the next note is ascending or descending. Of course, there’s the left hand as well; so after a while, you start by playing simple chords, then moving to broken chords and then slowly learning how to play different patterns and rhythms as well. Gradually, students manage to built confidence and start finding the next part of the piece by themselves. The secret here is to start the training by using a simple piece with a distinct melody.

I think that playing by ear is an indispensable tool in pianism. Composers use it to express their musical ideas on paper, and it has helped pianists to lead a more “complete” pianistic career. Unquestionably, playing by ear should be taught in every stage of a musician’s life, from the elementary lessons to conservatoire level.

Playing by ear can also help a pianist out-of-the-woods in a concert setting; when for instance the muscular, or visual memory of a piece let us down, we can resort to just play along and save an otherwise difficult situation.

Now, can you just play by ear and still be considered a good pianist? Well, I think yes, you can. Play by ear in itself will eventually assist one’s practical side of musical performance. To put it simply, by “understanding” how a melody sounds it will eventually show us the way to physically express it (play it). However, sound knowledge of technique, with the help of a professional piano teacher, will undoubtedly make things much easier and can accelerate one’s musical potential.

So, little by little, start to teach yourself, if no other way is available, to play by ear; anyone can do it, we shouldn’t be intimidated. The benefits of it will show sooner or later.

Pianistically… Legato

Pianistically… Legato

by | Mar 17, 2015 | 0 comments

Since the beginning of time, (um… yes, why not) pianists had one thought and one thought only; how to play legato. Legato-playing became so accustomed to pianistic vocabulary, that, in the course of time, knowing how to play legato, somehow meant, ultimately, knowing how to play the piano altogether.

We all remember our beloved teachers saying to us, “don’t forget the legato on page 473”, or, “play more legato”. Sometimes we knew what they meant, but often we were completely clueless on how to actually physically do that legato.

So, to cut to the chase, here’s what legato is and the main two types, I consider, exist:

Legato is simply when there is no sound-gap between the notes we play on the piano. Legato can be successfully performed in all registers of the instrument and within all dynamic levels. Legato, has also been used by editors and composers as a means of making a musical phrase sounding “rounded off”, or as a method to create smooth or lyrical melodic lines.

The two types of legato are: The “real legato” and the “assisted legato”. However, both, in the everyday piano performance, are equally valid.

 

Real Legato

What is “real legato”: Real legato is when we are able to physically join notes together without a sound-gap. Look at the example below; arguably, most pianists can play the following passage without having to lift the hand before pressing the next note:

In the passage above, you can create your desired results by pedaling, or you can just simply play the notes without a sound-gap, or by using your own dynamics. Bear in mind, that expression marks themselves or tempo changes cannot change the pragmatic nature of legato (for instance, you can play legato equally in fff passages or pp).

 

Assisted  Legato

The equally, musically-valid, “assisted legato” is used when we need to achieve the legato-effect using assisting methods. In the example below you can see that the left hand cannot physically join the notes, however, with careful use of pedal, it can create a legato illusion; this legato illusion is an unavoidable method since the fingers cannot be stretched enough to reach some of the notes, thus, declaring the use of pedal, legitimate.

Note, that it doesn’t necessarily constitute carelessness or negligence when one chooses to pedal passages rather than using real legato.