Piano Basics: How to produce different tone colors

As the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung Heidelberger described, “Shijun Wang is a fascinating, serious and sensitive musician” As a solo pianist and orchestral soloist, Shijun Wang has performed in California, New York, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, Utah, Connecticut, New Jersey, Indiana, Idaho, as well as Germany, Spain, France, Norway, China, Mexico, and Japan. Under one of the most prestigious artists management, 100 arte, he plays concerts in most of the major cities in China each summer, and he also gave masterclasses, lectures, and recitals in more than half of the major Chinese conservatories include Shenyang Conservatory, Xi’an Conservatory, Harbin Conservatory, Sichuan Conservatory and Jilin College of Arts. He was appointed as the youngest ever visiting professor of Xi’an Conservatory where he would give concerts and masterclasses for two months each summer. He serves as piano faculty in the East/West International Piano Festival in South Korea and piano faculty at The Puigcerda Music Festival in Spain each summer.
Dr. Wang currently teaches as an Assistant Professor of Piano at Weber State University. He received the Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music degrees at The Juilliard School studied with Oxana Yablonskaya and Joseph Kalichstein and a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at Eastman school of music studied with Nelita True. His mentors have included Thomas Schumacher, Dan-Wen Wei, Alfred Brendel, Emanuel Ax, and Richard Goode.

[@mellanyboulle737]

Very informative and helpful for me. Thank you.

[@gauepic2962]

Thank you so much sir!

[@andypan4936]

When I learned about attacking the keys "sideways", I always made the analogy to the angle of attack of aircraft engines or wind turbines - it is adjusted to optimize performance under various conditions, just like making the richest sound out of the piano in different pieces.

[@juliannadoyle7171]

This is such good teaching. Body language is beautiful bringing out the fullness of the music. Thank you God bless you

[@azurelleb]

I was thinking back to my childhood piano lessons and remembered being told to make a beautiful sound or a sound that “comes out of the piano”. As a child I had no idea what that meant. It wasn’t until I learned from a concert pianist later that I learned how to execute it physically. (I learned from someone trained in Russia and was told to play everything by “travelling along the keys” like your described, basically like a grabbing motion). Not that I am a professional or any good, but what I realized as an adult is that you can’t press the keys harshly straight down and kept applying force but there needs to be a bit of a “give” right after the attack to relieve some force in order to make a beautiful sound.

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

exactly. We need to know what to do but more importantly, how to achieve the what.

[@krizju]

Wow amazing video, not many videos like this on KZbin

[@Ghotsi34YT]

EL mejor maestro de piano!!! Thanks

[@charlesjazz3224]

Many have said these ideas before but few as concisely said these ideas before.

[@ellenhuo7338]

I love the way you teach and your demo, thank you so so much 😊

[@morphologix6452]

Thank you so much for this lesson Dr. Wang! It's very helpful.

[@edwardwang744]

Can you illustrate how to use different parts of body weight, speed and depth of touch to achieve different tone color?

[@derekwang2215]

I second this

[@PsychNautics]

You can’t cuz it’s not possible. This is pseudo science

[@hello_person_wathing_beatSaber]

I third this

[@matthewclarke5008]

I fourth this.

[@rebeccachan3144]

Thank you so much Dr Wang

[@fredkron001]

Interesting perspective. I think you may mean consistency rather than accuracy for production of tone color. Also, I when you say that the singing voice comes from using the arm, could you perhaps mean that more force is transmitted from the upper torso through the relaxed arm? In any case, thank you for this lesson!

[@peterelliott5720]

Thank you for another fantastic lesson Dr. Wang!

[@Anonymous-dh4fl]

great video!! , you gave loads a of gems and valuable information that will surely improve anyone instantly.

[@tia904]

Well done, Mr. Wang. It is surprising how little many music professors focus on the physics of playing, yet, it is a critical component. You are the only one, besides a Polish pianist, who has done this on yt. Worst, many use poetic or vague notions, which is incredibly frustrating and confusing to the student, such as what you said, the directive to 'produce a beautiful sound'. As if any student intentionally produces or wishes to produce an ugly sound. Being passionate about music, and having developed an ear early on with different languages, an ugly sound was always unbearable for me. Why some of us play very softly at first, even producing 'ghost' notes, so we don't have to listen to the harshness.

[@miquelsola828]

Who's the Polish pianist, Aleksander Woroniecki?

[@yybridge]

王老师讲的太好了。一直支持！

[@yglaotuhhjj2738]

终于明白了其原理。讲解很科学而不玄幻。赞👍！

[@XiaochenChenUSA]

Great video Dr Wang, any exercise or drill you’d recommend for quick/light touch practice? Thanks!

[@TheOurple]

very useful video. Can't believe I got this knowledge for free! thank you!

[@mikaschmidt2110]

Thank you so much, your video was very interesting and helpful also :D

[@ellayu99]

Great lesson👍

[@leonardodelyrarodrigues3752]

Eu gostei muito do vídeo

[@musicsdarkangel]

Thank you! You are an excellent musician and teacher. For some reason, I work on arm weight and everything, but my tone is always dull. Every once in a while, it clicks and I get a deep tone, but most of the time, it leaves the music lifeless. Would you have any advice on what this could be? I've tried many things; firming knuckles usually hurts, while relaxing lacks precision as well.

[@tia904]

Dynamics makes a huge difference. In one phrase, the tone needs to vary.

[@melaniethomas3458]

Wow！！！！I really appreciate it！！！！That is so much useful！！！

[@juliannadoyle7171]

You make the piano sing.

[@BjornHegstad]

Singers use computer software to analyse the overtone spectrum (which determines sound quality) produced by their voices. It is about time pianists start to use this as well when discussing tone color.

[@cziffra1980]

You raise great points here. A lot of people have reduced volume to key speed alone, thinking they are being extremely scientific and objective. However they have grossly simplified. A sharp strike at the surface can release the hammer before the key gets to escapement. The key can be accelerated over less distance, without creating so much hammer speed. Most likely the key still coasts after the finger slows and still bounces off the keybed. However, what matters is that it can decouple from the hammer and finger if you decelerate sharply, without continuing to accelerate the hammer. A longer acceleration actively accelerates the hammer all the way through to escapement level, so a smaller absolute key speed can generate more hammer speed than a sharp and faster surface blow. Whether these could generate any kind of absolute tone or merely a hammer speed, they are incredibly important distinctions for use in different contexts. So many people who think they are being the most scientific reduce volume to key speed alone (with no consideration of whether the hammer is accelerated all the way to the escapement level). They end up neither being practical nor scientifically accurate about the true possibility.

[@kelinzhang7601]

王老师什么时候来达拉斯希望联系我一下、我想请你吃个中国饭，看你的视频很久了、

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

哈哈！好呀。 到了问你哪家中餐好吃。

[@rothschildianum]

There are people who do produce ugly sound, and they totally do not aware that their sound is ugly. It make people's ears bleed.

[@mohammadbayazid5064]

This was a very unclear lesson

[@lydiabrindley1944]

Too much waffle