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.

You are still remembering the day you went to that piano recital and got hooked on the idea that you liked the piano. You thought that you wouldn’t mind expressing yourself with this instrument’s beautiful sounds and that you would love to have a go with this big, black piece of wood.

You happily started piano lessons and before you knew it you were playing piano studies and sonatas meticulously. Piano for you was a very expressive instrument that had endless capabilities. Even your family and your friends loved your playing, your musicality and passion and urged you to keep doing piano for longer.

Then, the day came when you had to do one of the most dreaded things known to mankind. The thing that if you did it, it would have “catapulted” you to become a real pianist. You realised that you had to actually… practise.

You realised that if you wanted to play your beloved virtuosic pieces, you had to suffer, and had to actually do something that you never thought it was needed when you first started your piano adventure; You needed to do this horrible “practising” thing… That meant you had to stay in solitude in a room for hours trying unsuccessfully to play scales, cadenzas and all the things that you loved listening to but weren’t willing to do. You suddenly realised that piano was not as easy as going shopping, dining in exclusive-membership clubs or even having a bob cut in a beauty parlour; it was a bit harder.

Piano wasn’t a happy activity after all; especially if you wanted to play a piece of music not only from start to finish, but also without stopping. You realised that piano and music in general is “boring” when you want to do it sort of seriously. You were saying to yourself: “I thought piano was like going to the gym or having salsa classes. It should be a leisure activity after all, not suffering. And what’s all this “practising” thing about? I doubt piano is as difficult as practising law, or completing a degree in medicine.”

In addition, you had to face the constant moaning for practising from your teacher, since for some reason he insisted on you practising for at least fifteen minutes a week! “And when am I supposed to watch TV?” “How am I going to be able to spend four and a half hours in the local coffee shop if I have to practise?”, you kept asking yourself.

You just had enough. Suddenly, you stopped liking the piano. You just wanted to do something else. But at the back of your mind you were still thinking that there must be a way to become a good pianist, but without all the suffering. In fact, you were convinced that you could still become a good pianist, but without practising seriously.

So can you become a good pianist but without practising? Can you become a pianist that other people consider good but without all the fuss?

Well, yes you can. And here’s how:

1. Make sure you understand that “good pianist” and “bad pianist” in music doesn’t exist. (read here why). All pianists possess the capacity to create beauty with their music. And, at the same time, every pianist has his/her limitations. So, you are not necessarily worst that your favourite pianist, you are just different. Perhaps, for instance, your playing that you consider “clunky” will inspire a composer to write some wonderful music that will later inspire people. Or that your amazing ability to play octaves cleanly will equally inspire your student to become a composer and in return write some fascinating music with lots of octaves that will torment future pianists. So, to recap, what is good is subjective. Sometimes even beginner students can play wonderfully.

2. Remember, that practising a lot or practising very little cannot in itself categorise your musical ability. A lot of famous pianists have said publicly that they don’t like their own performances or that they are not too happy with their musicality; and those were people that have practised for thousands of hours. There is no set amount of hours, despite what some people say, that will make you a good pianist. For example, believing that one million of practising hours will make you a good pianist, is not right. What makes a good musician changes from person to person and that’s why music is beautiful.

3. Good pianists are the ones that play good within themselves; and not necessarily one that plays virtuoso pieces. So, you are a fantastic pianist by only playing pieces beautifully within your own capacities. For instance, if your level of playing is “beginner” but can play your pieces beautifully, then yes, you are a good pianist. Don’t listen to the “musical judges” who say that you need to be able to play this-and-that in order to be considered great. Musical playing is always paramount.

And now, for some fun ways to be considered great:

4. Play only certain repertoire in public and never change it. So, first you need to find pieces that you feel you can play comfortably, and then keep practising them until you have perfected them. At parties never play anything that will give away your real level of pianistic ability, and always have a cadenza ready for after dessert.

5. If you hate practising the piano, set what you personally think is good playing. So, if you think that in order to be considered good you need to play the Cadenza from Rachmaninov’s second concerto or the first page from Chopin’s study op.10 No 4, then all you have to do is study them really hard. Just make sure that you don’t play anything else (even chopsticks…) in the presence of other pianists.

Remember, we choose what is good, acceptable, great, nice, beautiful, fair and so on so forth in life. So, don’t keep comparing yourself with other pianists and just consider yourself great anyway. There’s NO ONE that can prove that you are not a great musician or a musician at the end of the day. Because behind every single coin there’s another side.

How to pass the piano audition

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Since I am a piano teacher, every now and then I get asked from parents and students how to pass a piano audition. Most of students, as expected, are anxious and feel intimidated by the thought of having to face the examiners and their serious faces. They often felt that their playing was insufficient to pass an audition, but also that they had no experience in how to act in an audition-setting.

So, I decided to write this article in order to tell you how to succeed in getting accepted in a music college. If you follow the following rules chances are that you are going to make it.

Before I start, it’s needless to say that you need to be able to play as good as you can; this is the first step and this article, for obvious reasons, cannot tell you how to make your individual pieces ready for an audition.  For this, you have your piano teacher and your personal drive.

So, here’s the things you need to do on the day of your audition:

Prior to the audition:

1. Make sure that you have slept adequately the night before.

2. Eat a good and healthy breakfast and drink plenty of water to keep you going during the day and to avoid fatigue.

3. Warm up; start the day by FIRST playing scales slowly. Don’t “dive into” the pieces straight away. The same applies when you’re given time to warm up prior to your audition.

4. Make sure you are not making last minute changes in your playing, like altering articulations, fingerings, dynamics, etc.; that ship has sailed. On the day of the audition, you mustn’t try to change things.

5. If by any chance you still have any passages that you feel uncomfortable with, practise them slowly but not if full tempo.

6. Finish warming-up (cool-down) with scales again.

In the Audition:

1. Play the piano. Yes, make sure that you play the piano and not any other instrument by mistake, such as the banjo, or the double bass. 🙂

2. Play repertoire that you know the best. Auditions are not the place to experiment or to try untested repertoire that hasn’t matured under your fingers. Don’t play repertoire that you’ve learned, say, three months prior to the audition. Clever pianists know that, and they only play repertoire that has been musically and technically exhausted. Unfortunately, that’s the truth. I say “unfortunately” because after they pass an audition and get into a conservatoire, they can’t learn new music fast enough, since they lack knowledge of different music styles and because their technique is undeveloped; the reason is because they were only practising a certain repertoire for too long and used it to every audition they went. But it got them into the music college, didn’t it? So all’s good I suppose. In addition, have a list of your audition pieces handy to give to the examiners; you look more professional this way.

3. Look smart. It goes without saying, that you should look tidy and not scruffy. Believe it or not, between you and the other pianist who is similarly musically-equipped, examiners are only going to choose you if you have a slight edge in something, even if this thing is your attire. For example, try not to wear fancy clothes and eccentric colours, and if possible hide your tattoos and leave your excessive jewellery at home; even though I’m not against all those four in everyday life. Remember that this is not the “Paris fashion week”; it’s a piano audition. On the other hand, however, even if you wore a silver tiara and a gown made by Donatella Versace and walked down the room like a queen, if you haven’t played acceptably it won’t make any difference, but still, to the eyes of mammals like examiners appropriate dress-code does count I’m afraid. You may disagree with my points here, and you may argue that “looks don’t count, the quality of my music counts, and I can wear whatever I want and I will still pass the audition”. That’s fine by me. However, bear in mind that examiners are not always the greatest when it comes to human psychology and I’m afraid that trivial things like dress codes matter to them subconsciously.

4. Act elegantly. Again, an audition is not the place to show-off your wits or to be a know-it-all; especially in front of examiners who can sniff out inappropriate behaviour from 3 miles away. So, try not to offend or correct or tell-off or raise your voice to examiners. You’ll have plenty of time for that after you have graduated if you still remember the points that you disagreed upon in the audition. Addressing examiners is not like talking to your friends, or your piano teacher, or your parents. They need a special approach and I regret to say that most of us won’t improve this approach until we have played in a respectable number of auditions. Still, act naturally and don’t be “stiff”. Yes, you can be humorous and relaxed but the examiners don’t want to know the latest jokes from “family guy”. Only respond according to their questions to you. For instance, be humorous when there is a sense of humoristic aura in the room or if the examiners expect you to be. Yes, you can correct them if, for instance, they pronounced your city of birth wrongly, but never try to correct them musically; there’s is not need for that. Your best shot is to show them that you respect their opinion, even if you are a thousand percent sure that their musical opinion is wrong and yours is right (are you really so sure?); just to remind you that YOU are the one who wants to pass an audition to become a better musician, not the other way round, so play it cool and keep calm.

5. Be positive; find everything about the audition great. There is no reason for why you should be negative about anything in your audition; it will only make things harder. If for instance, the examiners ask you if you found the piano appropriate, just say that you were very happy with it; avoid going into detail about it being inappropriate for your style or that it messed up your Chopin ballade. First, they couldn’t care less and secondly they would know if you are a good pianist even if you played on an iPad; Do you get my gist? Always try to smile even if you don’t think yourself as a smiley person. So, questions such as, did you like the room temperature, or did you like the piano, or did you like the acoustics of the hall, or did you like the spaghetti bolognese should always be answered with: “Yes, very much indeed!”

6. Be humble. Humbleness never hurt anybody. Being humble is good. And, believe it, it doesn’t show weakness in character; tout au contraire. That doesn’t mean of course that you have to diminish yourself. For instance, if you were asked if you were happy with the way you played Rachmaninov’s second piano sonata, don’t reply: “Oh, it was horrific, I could have done much better, but given the circumstances, I need to apologise if I didn’t please you enough”. Just be positive and always like your own playing, but don’t be arrogantly confident. That means you also don’t say: “I thought my performance was one of the most prolific to have emerged from the first half of the twenty-first century”.

7: Don’t be intimidated. If you go into an audition by thinking that your musical philosophies reflected in your playing are not good enough, you may as well stay at home. You must bully your audience with your views and force them to believe in your potential. As I have said before (read here) there are no bad or good musicians. There are only good musicians. Everyone has something nice to show. So, always believe in yourself and everything is going to find its way.

8: Be honest. Show your real self in the interview and try not to pretend you are someone you are not; leave that for later when you are pretending you are working with your laptop at Starbucks. So, for example, don’t pretend to be humble by saying, “Oh, I’m terribly sorry I played Chopin’s first study in under thirty seconds”. Examiners have “special” talents sometimes and can recognise pretence or lying, even if they choose not to show it.

 Remember that playing itself is not enough to pass an audition. Examiners don’t only look for musical potential, but also for you to possess the whole “package”. You need to understand that conservatoires invest in personalities too, not only in piano machines. It doesn’t matter if you play Feux Follets in double the normal tempo but you are not ready to become part of the community of a serious music establishment.

That’s all for now.

Good luck

© Nikolaos Kokkinis – 5th December 2012. .

Blindly following teacher or doing our own thing? Do we have a say when it comes to interpretation? Could our opinion of how a piece should go have merits?

For Pianists and Other Musicians.

We all wanted to become virtuoso pianists at one point or another in our lives. We couldn’t go to sleep thinking about it, we romantically gazed at the stars in anticipation, we unsuccessfully tried to play the “cadenza” of Chopin’s first Ballade at gatherings, we wept listening to our favorite pianist and we all ate spaghetti Bolognese; sorry, I meant to write we all went to piano recitals; I was thinking about my lunch just then.

We all did things to succeed in becoming a virtuoso. However, we knew that desire wasn’t enough in achieving our goals. We knew that we needed guidance, mentorship and somebody to know more than we did.

First, we needed a good teacher.   So, we went to find a teacher. Some of us found our teacher by luck, for others, the teacher found them, and for others the teacher was introduced to them.

Then, we started piano lessons; we practiced at home and we went and played to the teacher. The teacher listened to us and humbly suggested corrections and improvements to our playing. We agreed with some suggestions and did our own thing in other.

Then, we slowly started forming an opinion of how good we were; we believed in ourselves. We thought that we could taste musical success and at times we considered that we were unique and special. We all secretly idolized our wonderful piano sounds. We liked our passionate chords and fast fingers when we played Richard Clayderman, and before we knew it, music was on the horizon.

This article is about the times that we disagree with our teachers. Since, most of us have disagreed with our instructors at one point or another. We all felt that we were right and our teacher was wrong.

But in music, before showing our concrete musical understanding to the world we need to learn the basics, such as what a teacher is and why we need one. So, first things first, here it goes:

What is a Teacher?

A teacher is an individual that teach us things that we don’t know. So, if you already know something in piano, that’s fine, the teacher just repeated it. But the duties of a teacher do not stop there. A teacher is not only there to repeat things that we already know but also to sense things that we cannot sense at the time. And more importantly to stop us getting ahead of ourselves and teach us the foundations of how to play the things we do. Remember, that it’s natural to not always understand what your teacher is on about; you are not meant to always comprehend things. You might just have to wait for a while until you mature musically and then you can come back and have your say. And, who knows, you might become a great teacher as well.

What is a Good Teacher?

1. A good teacher can teach all levels of pianists; from beginners to the more polished ones.
2. A good teacher allows you to give your own interpretation within the dictated limits of a piece.
3. A good teacher can lie to you in order to push you to achieve more.
4. A good teacher will tell you that you already are a good pianist with potential.
5. A good teacher is not a medium, so he would never discourage you or proclaim your future.
6. A good teacher is a better teacher than you.
7. A good teacher is humble enough to accept defeat.

Regarding 1, very often I hear from students that their teacher cannot reach their low or high level of performance. They believe that some teachers are meant to teach refined pianists who already possess strong technique and some other teachers are to teach pianists that need improvement in their technique. Others students believe that their teacher is good no more for them and they have learned everything from them (how is that even possible?). Well, I am an avid believer that you can always learn new things from a teacher no matter how high or low his experience is; you may learn some negative or some positive things. Have you ever experimented by asking an inferior teacher/pianist to you to give you a piano lesson? Well, I have, and the experience is enlightening. Believe me, you can always learn.

Regarding factor 2, a good teacher is not a dictator and won’t try to make all his students sounding alike. He will strive to understand what you actually want to say with your unique interpretation but will also try to restrain any superfluous musical views and eccentric interpretational choices. He will also try not to strongly propagate his own learned way of playing the piano, because he knows that no teacher’s opinion is the only one that is right; otherwise we would only need one piano teacher forever.

Regarding 3 and 4, yes, a good teacher can be a good liar; but a “white” liar if you may. The last thing you want to face when you desperately want to become a soloist is a reality check from your teacher. The good teacher would definitely know if you can make it in the music business or not, however he would never be negative towards your potentials if he feels that you really want to make it; since he is not a medium.

That’s right. Regarding 5, your teacher is not a medium; nobody can proclaim your future as a pianist. Not even you, I don’t think. So, let’s not let others to put us down.

About 6, a good teacher naturally is a better teacher that you, I’m afraid; otherwise you wouldn’t need to experience the student-phase in your life and you would go straight to becoming a teacher. So, you need to always be alert when in his class. Hopefully you didn’t choose a teacher that is worst a teacher than you, did you?

And of course, in 7, a good teacher would be humble enough to accept that he was wrong, to accept responsibility and grant that he made wrong judgements and that you were right; he is human after all.

Are We Allowed to Disagree with Our Teachers?

To a certain extent, yes; you are allowed to disagree with your teacher but only if you possess the information to identify “why” your teacher is wrong. But before you disagree, you need to ask yourself a few questions, such as:

1. Are you sure you are absolutely right and your teacher is utterly wrong?
2. Is your musical knowledge strong enough so as to prove that your teacher’s opinion is wrong?
3. Does your teacher had many years of studies and experience or do you have more?
4. Did you choose an instructor with more knowledge than you to teach you, or did you choose an instructor with less knowledge than you to teach you?
5. Are you a student that went to learn from the teacher or went to teach the teacher?

If some of those “tactful” questions above make you feel uncomfortable and cranky then perhaps it’s time to think carefully before strongly disagreeing with your teacher. You need perhaps to evaluate how much you know. It’s great if we are challenging everything and all in life before we accept things, but sometimes we just have to be patient in order to understand things that are beyond our current capacities. Sometimes we have to say “yes, I agree” and “yes, I understand”, even if you don’t fully, because sometimes in life we are just not yet ready to evaluate things. So, let’s be patient. And more importantly let’s not always be a spirit of contradiction. A child, for instance, doesn’t know what is right or wrong sometimes, because it doesn’t have the knowledge and the experience to sense and to assess; so, the parent must be bold sometimes and just say, “don’t fall over”, “don’t walk on the edge of the cliff”, “don’t poke your brother in the eye”, “don’t ask “WHY” all the time”.

Can We be Right and Our Teacher Wrong in His Musical Judgement?

Unlikely, but yes, it could happen. For instance, here are some juvenile reasons:

1. When you played a note or a chord correctly that your teacher thought is a different one.
2. When you played a rhythmical passage neatly when your teacher suggested the wrong rhythm.
3. Generally, when the composer indicated something and your teacher thought it was something else.
4. When you played the Hammerklavier and your teacher thought you played the “jingle bells”.

Reasons like the above are mostly trivial and can be corrected even from a non-musician. You have to appreciate that music is a subjective art to a certain extent, so you must avoid dogmatic views. That’s why every pianist is unique; because his personal view of a piece will shine through at the end. You may understand that it’s very difficult to say if your teacher is 100% wrong and you are 100% right; except in very clear cases, such as when the composer wrote that you must play pianissimo and your teacher insisted that you must hit the piano with baseball bat. But when it comes to things like:

1. How loud is loud?
2. How fast is fast enough?
3. How slow is too slow?
4. How piano or mezzo piano a certain passage is?
5. How should you build momentum in a passage?
6. How to deliver a climactic sequence?
7. How to articulate a passage?
8. How to project your sound in a certain concert hall?

Or, how this and that, then I’m afraid it comes down to your uniqueness, to your personal taste and to your teacher to try and explain all those subjective things. That’s why artists like the legendary Horowitz came so close to our hearts, because they proved that there were no musts and absolutisms in musical interpretation. They also showed to us that a composer can be reflected and even championed on any pianist’s individual views.

So: Stop becoming a teacher in a teacher’s class if you are not one just yet, and start using your ears more.

Is your teacher right or wrong sometimes, it doesn’t really matter. In life, everything is going to balance out at the end. So, carry on practising and don’t stop learning, because one day you may realize how little you know after all.

© Nikolaos Kokkinis – 8th May 2012