Mastering Rubato: How To Sound Like a Pro - Josh Wright Piano TV

[@nubidubi]

Josh Wright is always right

[@astroed5599]

Well Its in his surname man just take out the W

[@itseme4779]

@@astroed5599 Josh always takes the W Never the L

[@SinanAkkoyun]

One time he performed the moderator said "Josh Wrong" xD

[@Kref3]

Mozart and Chopin actually were pretty famous for playing Rubato only in the right hand while the left hand continued perfectly in time. They always gave the stolen time back after a few seconds and left and right hand met again in perfect synchronization. Sadly nobody plays this original style of Rubato anymore. I wonder why.

[@mikekeyes6102]

Thanks; that's a very interesting piece of information.

[@hilenshyu6982]

Thank you so much!!!!!! My appreciation is fortissimo!!!

[@shivankmenon4722]

Because it is extremely difficult to achieve. The hands need complete independence.

[@colingrey3306]

You are quite correct. I don't understand why modern pianists seem to think it means speeding up and slowing down the pulse of the piece in both hands equally. That's not at all what tempo rubato meant. As Chopin's instructions make quite clear, the left hand is to be metronomic while the right hand varies around that pulse, while never losing or gaining time overall.

[@SeanMathes]

Hi Colin - Can you share what you mean by Chopin's instructions? what are you referring to? Thanks

[@지은-s3x1x]

when i only saw the title popped up on my phone i was thinking, real pianists don't try to sound like a pro, they try to create their own music! but then I watched your whole video and now understand why you posted this kind of video. such video will be very helpful for those who need more technical skills. I really enjoyed watching this video! I would like to see your playing too, sometimes. thank you for the good video :) !!

[@joshwrightpiano]

Thank you for your kindness

[@KlausPercussion]

I am playing the piano since 10 years already as an ambitious hobby pianist....and I still get a lot from videos...thank you for your work! it's really amazing! Beside from that you are super sympathic person and it's calm listening to you :)

[@donutwiggle7767]

Excellent as always Josh. Whenever I actually watch a video of yours I end up feeling like I've learned yet another thing about this instrument. Keep doing what you're doing, really appreciate the quality content.

[@lisasexammusicoriginalcomp5861]

Hi I've just discovered u on here after searching for rubato ! I had my grade 5 piano exam on Friday and the examiner said I had a natural feeling for rubato and to be honest I didn't know what rubato was, I will continue to watch your videos! I think I know what it is now, until I get my exam result I'm starting Chopin nocturnes, he suggested that I would love them as I already had the sheets for it too :)

[@thegreenpianist7683]

I needed this so bad , thank you so much

[@joshwrightpiano]

Thanks Grini. I hope you are well!

[@thegreenpianist7683]

Im doing great , im so happy to see that you're close to 30k subs , im so happy for you , people should really know your name you are one of a kind !!!

[@BarnieSnyman]

I love your cake/sauce analogy! For me the questions of whether, where and how much rubato comes down to questions like: Does it create "bumps" in the overall flow of the music, or does it enhance the flow? Does it make the whole piece easier or more difficult to "comprehend" for the listener? What is the effect on the bigger (musical) picture? The lassan of Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody is a great example where these questions apply. I commonly hear rubato used quite liberally. Yet I personally prefer rubato to be used sparingly for the sake of maintaining the overall slow marching rhythm throughout the piece. For me, maintaining the slow marching character binds the lassan into a single consistent "musical unit" instead of sounding like a train of several separate short sections (in the case of more rubato).

[@pedrokoury1352]

Thank you very much! You're very passionate with what you do and that positively affects how you teach

[@sathvika6639]

Thanks! It really gives a piece some personality of your own! I've never heard of Rubato until here and I am sure to apply it further in my performances. Thanks again!

[@tagonminmyatpianistandproducer]

Extremely valuable explaination, Mr Josh. Thanks so much!

[@metteholm4833]

Again - a very valuable lesson. Thank you, Josh Wright.

[@tonih3433]

I learn so much from you, sir, and I don't even know you. thank you!🙏

[@dennisdooley7610]

Wonderful advice in this video. It makes me think about I want to achieve in my pieces. Thanks for this. And by the way, the scenery where you live is breathtaking!

[@jonl2008]

Awesome intro josh, would love to see more about your environment etc

[@gerardo4104]

Beatutiful snowy mountains!

[@anahitagolzad]

Very useful tnx 🌷🙏 could you please make a video about grace notes?

[@johnlegend3081]

Amazing pianist 👏👏👏

[@padraigf76]

Great Josh, I like the food and tree analogies.

[@TheMadO13]

Very famous teacher that you had...luck you!!!!

[@hakomiaustria]

op. 69 no. 2 in b minor

[@huh5399]

hakomiaustria nice

[@Strawberryfreak]

Help An apple get 1000 subs to rest in its fridge no its B Natural minor

[@RonN448]

As you can see by my picture, I'm an organist. But, I still love listening to piano works that are played well. For many years, I have listened to several pianists that I have really liked. Rudolf Serkin had always been one of my favorites since I was in my late teens. But, I'm fascinated by listening to Lang Lang, too. The passion and expression that he puts into his playing, and watching his facial expressions allows me to see the feeling that his puts into his performances. I watch his face, and it makes me wonder what he's thinking and feeling. I'm curious to find out your thoughts on these people. Aside from those two masters, I also enjoyed Victor Borge. Of course his comedic routines where hilarious; but he was also a great pianist when he played something serious. For example, I heard him in concert in Chicago back in the 1980s; and, toward the end, he played Lizst's "Un Sospiro." I was so captivated by that piece, that I went to the record store and bought a couple performances of it played by different artists, and neither one could compare to the way Borge played at his concert that I attended. Thanks!

[@joshuakruel2943]

Thanks man this was helpful.

[@nandoflorestan]

As a rule of thumb in Romantic music I believe one will play the beginnings of phrases with more vitality and play the (very) ends of phrases ritardando. Punctuation will often require a breath between phrases as if they were being sung. Listen to Bach chorales: there really are extra tempi between phrases which the music needs and a robotic rendition would make the music pedestrian if not incomprehensible. But there’s more to agogics than this - much more. Rubinstein is recommended in the video; look also at Krystian Zimerman at the piano, and Leonard Bernstein even in front of an orchestra, for musicians who really know what they are doing. If you want to play Chopin’s Polonaises, Adam Harasiewicz should be the benchmark!

[@katalinkincses5931]

Didn't Chopin said that the rhythm should be kept steady within the rubato? And why not composers write in accelerandos, etc.?

[@gdmoore]

Great video as always. Any chance for a Beethoven Concerto No. 5 instruction video? Those double triplets are so difficult...

[@salmix-8896]

Thank you!

[@williamhill2221]

Rubato was Latino word Rub in music terms, which Latino word Rub translated into english word was Rob.

[@ec35317]

That's beautiful. What is the name of the Chopin piece you were playing?

[@foobargorch]

Barry Harris likes to say there's no chords, just movement... I think n jazz, these concepts can be applied to harmony and melody too, but in a group setting you actually have to drop the degree of freedom afforded to classical musicians with respect to tempo, in order to coordinate the other stuff. I think there's a common theme underlying - it's all about managing intensity - for example higher pitched notes are more intense, and usually the balance is maintained by controlling dynamics, which can also modulate harmonic content (too much and it's dissonance, but if you set it up right you can get away with things). Intensity builds up tension, but also releases it, and music is all about tension and release, and the different degrees of freedom, the different elements of music can work sometimes to simultaneously build and release tension in layers

[@harrisonrichter9414]

foobargorch Great concepts here. Barry Harris is a mad genius and can PLAY. He's definitely a master.

[@foobargorch]

indeed =) I've been watching and rewatching various videos of him for years... It's very dense stuff and I really struggle trying to figure it out, especially when he's talking to students and showing them stuff it's too fast for me to follow what they're doing off camera, but every time I learn something that keeps me busy for months!

[@joshwrightpiano]

Thank you for your comments. I'll check out his stuff

[@JeffreySaxophoneTallNewton]

Barry Harris is from DETROIT, and Detroit makes the best Jazz musicians! The list of historically important Jazz pianists from Detroit is truly astounding. As to crap, firewood pianos, the first time I saw the great Johnny O'Neal (he did the Tatum in "Ray" and, of course, from Detroit), I saw standing right next to him with my tenor at the old Bert's on Jefferson. Some of the notes were nonfunctional, cigarette burns everywhere, totally out of tune, etc. But his genius immediately transcended it, proving once again that it's "90% operator, 10% equipment."

[@foobargorch]

that reminds me of seeing a Professor Longhair interview, where he explained how he started playing (fixing derelict pianos I believe), and Aston Barret talking about his first bass, and how the lack of quality instruments is perhaps responsible for some of the unique qualities of blues harmony, especially delta blues...

[@MusicalMissCapri]

Not enough rubato is like a lot of synthesized speech. Flat, and what expression is there, seems unnatural. Too much rubato is like over-acting, which also comes off as unnatural and unconvincing.

[@patrickwhiting4831]

Hi everyone this is josh from josh wright piano

[@gankness]

Hey Josh, when I am playing alone, I feel like I can get this one right, but as soon as I am in front of people (even my teacher) I turn into this flat and boring monster with no refinement at all -__- ... And it is a bit annoying because it is like I am turning into the "guy who is quite good when listened to at the door but AVERAGE when entering the room" if you know what I mean. And of course when I try to pull the "I SWEAR I CAN DO THIS AT HOME MASTER" to my teacher it's a nono :)

[@slothlovechunk]

Xtazic record yourself?

[@kimphan3551]

Please tell me what is this waltz?

[@dagmarintreble]

waltz op 69 no 2

[@incendior]

Hello Josh, I am a new adult learner. Would the ProPractice series be a good start point for someone like me?

[@wardborders5484]

What is the name of the waltz at 1:27?

[@TopgamesMafia]

That's Chopin's waltz op 69 no 2

[@wardborders5484]

Thanks

[@loskar777]

un tiempo "robado" es algo muy sutil, ... que nadie se de cuenta... ja ja! ... pero al final el ladrón devuelve lo "robado"

[@מעייןכפרי]

hry gr8 video whats the name of the song you played?

[@ColinEditz]

Waltz in B minor Op. 69, No. 2

[@BillyJeen]

What piano is that?

[@joshwrightpiano]

Hamburg Steinway O

[@patrickwhiting4831]

Uuuuuuuuuu steinway is hot

[@waggawaggaful]

Rubato works well in almost everything Chopin composed whereas I don't see as much room for it in earlier composers like Mozart and Bach. Rubato seems more common in the romantic era and onwards where styles became more impressionistic and less mathematically precise. Am I onto something, or just not hearing the rubato in early pre-Romantic composers?

[@MusicalMissCapri]

I remember some recording where someone put way too much rubato in the C sharp minor waltz, to the point where it sounded like a polka. Ugh. Definitely too much sauce, or, spice, there.

[@williamhill2221]

Borrowed beats to return beats back about tempo rubato we can also understand.

[@RacoonEvil]

I need to go eat now

[@cisium1184]

Less is more. Rubato should be almost not noticeable. Like (normal) breathing, it should vary slightly at times but always return to the beat of the heart. Especially with dance music like waltzes, rubato should not be so extreme that the people waltzing get thrown off the beat. Nobody should have to think about where the music is.

[@Delectatio]

I seems to me that the best way to play is to play all exactly as it is written in the scores. If Chopin didn't mark particular measures with "rubato" - you shouldn't play rubato. Unless you consider yourself to be better composer than Chopin.

[@gankness]

"interpreter" -> dictionnary

[@Delectatio]

Decision to refuse of any changes in tempo etc. is a kind of interpretation too.

[@gankness]

Of course, I just had a problem with your last sentence "Unless you consider yourself to be better composer than Chopin." To me it sounded like you were condemning interpreting anything at all because it would be arrogant to do so. On the contrary, I feel like the one claiming to play a piece "exactly" as intended is arrogant himself because he's claiming to be good enough to know what was the composer's mindset, or way of playing just by following the little "hints" written here and there. In the end I don't see how we would take anything from the original composer while playing his notes anyway so... To each his own I guess !

[@nandoflorestan]

People who say these things often haven’t realized how unaware composers usually are of how they play their own pieces, or how much they might welcome good ideas on interpretation from good interpreters. Especially composers who said “just play what I wrote”, when playing the thing themselves, do anything but. Look no further than Stravinsky for a typical example.