The One Skill Chopin Said Every Pianist Must Master

[@bh5606]

Sinatra wanted the members of his orchestra to know the lyrics of his songs so they could understand what he was doing dynamically.

[@brian106699]

Ok, give them the lyrics on paper. Or actually, we (musicians) just write the dynamics on the sheet music. Because pencils 😂.

[@PastPerspectives11]

@@brian106699he’s getting at something for more subtle than what you’re responding to

[@michellemonet4358]

❤❤perfect

[@michellemonet4358]

Sinatras a great example

[@leespivey6444]

Thank you ❤️

[@j.davidtaylor2565]

I definitely believe that spending time in voice lessons and working with singing experts has helped me as a pianist to really make music

[@peter5.056]

I was assistant university chorus director while I was a piano performance major. I was tasked (quite daunting for a 17-year-old) with conducting and teaching the notes and lyrics, to the chorus for Mozart-Sussmayr's Requiem in Dm. That ability to create dynamical flow, the timing of breathing, the luft pauses, the voicing between SATB, the whole artistic choreography, was refined within me as well as my singlers, which stayed with me for life, helping my piano playing immensely. To this day, I approach piano music as if I were directing that chorus, or conducting an orchestra.

[@Steinweg100]

What better way to approach playing but as voices...., yeh, they pushed me into conducting, too! Started w Beethoven eight, the Eroica, never did get the last movement right LOL I managed to sound better as a pianist ho :) I hope you are doing well :)

[@peter5.056]

@@Steinweg100 I'm about to start uploading my piano playing in a few weeks. I hope you join me.

[@Steinweg100]

@@peter5.056 pleasant to hear from you :) It would be a pleasure to hear you :) Thank you :) I hope you and yours have a lovely weekend!

[@sskuk1095]

My music teacher often times explains to me that I should imagine playing a short passage like a violinist would so that I don't just "throw it out of my hand". This is also a great insight!

[@LogioTek]

Ingenius advice. Also applies to all genres and instruments too.

[@michellemonet4358]

Thanks. Im a vocalist. Taught myself piano 3 years ago at age 59. This was interesting.

[@Steinweg100]

You have everything to look forwards to! :) All the best :) Jon

[@Steinweg100]

@@michellemonet4358 The late great pianist Byron Janis, also wrote musicals! You are in good company :) My playing days are long gone, but I enjoyed playing for singers of any genre! I wish you all the very best :) Keep going! Onwards and Upwards!

[@Nunofurdambiznez]

I took opera/voice lessons along with my piano lessons for YEARS when I was a teenager - helped me IMMENSELY when I started playing with the Columbus Symphony and then singing in the Columbus Opera chorus!! Your advice is absolutely SPOT ON!

[@user-nu9on5pg3c]

I love the songs without words at the intro

[@marcussmithtenor]

The ocean and the voice.

[@grahamcmusic]

Many good points. I studied and taught both singing and piano in college . He is not the first teacher or performer to recommend instrumentalists take singing lessons. Yes it so much about the vocal line which singing focusses on, and indeed has the mechanism to be able to express itself in ways that cover all the dynamics, articulation, phrasing and changing tone colour where that changing tone colour is beneficial.

[@norwalltino]

So true, among millions of tones the melody is the master. I was brought up with Chopin, and listened to and played his music a lot, so I didn't learn about his real method by my teachers rather 'consumed' it😍 directly from listening. I know it when I make and perform music, especially my numerous piano pieces on this platform. I tend to play millions of tones so the only way of musically survive is to hold on to the melody line

[@M_SC]

Deduce is the word you need there

[@Joshua-levin]

This looks super professional, great job!

[@christopherellis2663]

The side-blown trump is excellent for understanding the connection between music 🎶 and breath.

[@dorefromDetroit]

As an oft maligned tonsil jock, hat tip! Well said and i cant do what i do without y'all. True collaborative co-creation. ❤🎉

[@santamariajorge]

Excellent idea. I definitively will try it

[@Steinweg100]

Invaluable! You have a beautiful sound, and I love your choice of music, Thank You!

[@j-dub8399]

Video aside, you have an amazing voice!

[@AMusic369]

GOLD!Thank you!!

[@michellemonet4358]

I just saw Tori Amos interviewed. She is someone I learn so much from.

[@nicoleaube4729]

Good example, she has great musicianship.

[@fittalk]

Thank you. This was very helpful and well explained .

[@pikupikuseru]

one interesting thing i've found is that the sustain pedal is really nice for creating a sense of rhythm, which is really nice for giving a performance expression it occurred to me when someone explained the use of a drum kit's hi-hats to me. the hi-hats have a pedal that you use to press them together, muting the sound, or to keep open, letting the sound ring out. it was explained to me that it's important when you decide to "close" the hi-hat letting the sound end, because when you hear an open hi-hat, you're waiting for the moment it closes. you're waiting for that moment that it ends. sustain pedals very much feel like this to me, a held sustain pedal "wants" to be let go. so when i improv, a lot of times (as long as there isn't too much dissonance in my note choice), in moments of high anticipation, maybe i'm trying to be rhythmically ambitious or the harmony is in a really unstable place, i'll be more liberal with the sustain pedal's use, letting the noise build up for a more it doesn't always sound good, but as a pianist i really crave for ways to be expressive (because i'm to lazy to be expressive in technically challenging ways)

[@dianagendova]

Verry interesting and exaly verry logical.

[@pianoplaynight]

Looking back on 12 years ago, how satisfied are you of the path you took, Charlie?

[@anjalialaniz]

Yes indeed. Cantabile!

[@stevenponte6655]

Great video. I know when I play jazz ballads you try and do the same ie bring out the melody like a singer, over the complex harmonies. You end up playing the melody with mostly 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers in the right hand. Can you recommend some exercises/techniques so strengthen those fingers to bring out the melody?

[@tammylaronde8593]

I've been singing for years before I started learning how to play the piano. I started singing in school choirs. I do sing or hum at times while playing the piano or when l listen to classical pieces.

[@Pi_melody]

thank you ❤

[@fredphipps9452]

Very useful, thanks for posting. I'm usually unable to transcend the piano's mechanics

[@bassmaiasa1312]

Kayaking on the river influenced my playing. Feeling the river underneath me, all the crosscurents. When I feel the piano keys under my hands like the river, I think I play better. Ironically, I guess, the water moves the boat but my hands move the keys, but the sensation is the same.

[@KarlRKaiser]

I started singing AFTER playing the piano for many years and the percussive aspects of piano playing made my singing less musical at first, until I focused on phrasing.

[@M_SC]

Less musical than what

[@enkrid]

@@M_SC Less musical at first than his singing after he started focusing on phrasing.

[@stevenponte6655]

I started playing piano in my teens just to accompany myself singing. I started to get quite good at it, and soon had all these singers asking me to accompany them. I couldn’t work it out at the time as there were so many amazing pianists in my area.

[@anngrogan6343]

I sure wish that someone had given me your video when I started piano lessons 2.5 yrs ago. One teacher at about 2 yrs in, told me to listen to lieds but never gave me the details of WHAT to listen for IN THE DETAIL YOU OFFER. Thank you so much. I’m relistening to this 100 times! It might have been better to break this video into two- you talk so fast.

[@ray-piano9326]

Clever dude

[@Jerbrown]

what model of yamaha piano is that? Sounds lovely. Great playing.

[@pianistic]

Thanks for the comment! It’s a rather bright Yamaha C5!!

[@curtpiazza1688]

INTERESTING! 😊

[@nicoleaube4729]

I like your sweater! Subscribed.

[@pianogus]

At the end of the day, playing music, in general terms, has to be an act of simple expression. As such, one must be always completely natural, and that's what a lot of pianists lack, because of technical difficulties, awareness of their own sound, and myriad of other aspects that have to do with lack of emotional connection and/or poor concentration. Playing something with a unaffected musical sense is not something that can be explained, but only pointed to as a sign or a metaphor.🙏🏼

[@petersnell3128]

What's the title of the first piece used for illustration here, and is it by Chopin? Can anyone help, please? Thank you.

[@pianistic]

Thanks for the comment! 'Song Without Words, F major, Op. 85 No. 1' - Mendelssohn

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I should have paid more attention to the question. I thought you asked what did Ronald Reagan always keep on his piano, and I answered a bowl of Jelly Beans. I've just started to take singing seriously, and it is very helpful. I had trouble hearing innver voices, and often made the comment to my piano teacher when I'd play certain pieces. It's starting to get easier. (A little bit easier, still a long way to go)

[@anngrogan6343]

Me too!

[@matthewjohnson1035]

Ronald Reagan's head was full of jelly beans

[@john9675]

​@@matthewjohnson1035Ron was THE Real jelly bean kid. No competition. Gave geriatrics a good name too. You go, Ron !

[@VictoriaB834]

Thank you very much, it sounds very logical. But perhaps I have a silly question: in the most peaces there is no next, so I cant't sing it . And the notes I cant't sing, too (do- re- me- fa - sol? ). What can I do instead? I am playing piano for two years now as an adult. Sorry for my unprofessional question (and my german english 😊)

[@historicalpiano]

Either solmisation or simply a la-la... OR, the best advise, write a text for your melody! Keep it for your own. It can be simple and childish, too, the point is that the text is uneven, and if you are thinking about this text when playing (singing in soul...) your phrasing will be inegal as well - do have a hidden text for a speak-like or sing-like instrumental playing! It is so well known that we do know that Bartók used this verse for phrasing the Evening in Transilvania: Felmegyek a magas hegyre Onnan nézek le a völgybe Látom az egész vidéket Fekete gyászba öltözve Or in the Concerto, the Elegia theme: "Sirass engem, édesanyám..." In a nutshell, adding a hidden text is super useful.

[@siegfriedfaust6195]

My piano teacher used to tell me to make the note sing.

[@jakklovediablo6293]

I can imagine how music should perform but the problem is how to perform like something that in my head it feel like you are drawing , in the head you have the beautiful picture but when you draw it come out like stick man This piece i already play the struggle is how to make left hand shut up and blurry and make the melody come out with soft and louder than accom but also have to shape it 😅

[@TPhunkay]

Explains why it sounds like so many of his pieces sound like someone singing!

[@keescanalfp5143]

yeah as is well known , chopin was an enormous admirer of the sicilian V. Bellini, living and composing in Paris too, about eight years older but died at not even 34 yrs. in 1835 .

[@belindared3389]

Yes nice 😂 think of the sound itself

[@willmapointon3210]

What is that piece

[@sherylbegby]

I think Van Cliburn's (pianist) mother always taught him to sing the melody of any piece he was learning to give it that singing tone. It seems to have worked. Obviously it wasn't such a success with Glenn Gould.

[@wardropper]

Very good advice. But did we notice how all the breaths have been cut out of the speaking parts of the video? Modern technology really hates silence - a tragedy. It seems our current manipulators have decided that 0.2 of a second is the maximum allowable break between sentences… I’d add to what Chopin said that every musician must wake up and learn to hear the disruptive influences in our environment, since they are getting worse and worse with every year that passes.

[@marthagrazioli9173]

Great piano advice. By the way, you said this advice would be another string in your bow. I'm a violinist. Bows have horse hair, not strings. ❤

[@Higgon]

Archer's bows have strings. Another string to your bow is useful if one breaks. Another hair to your bow wouldn't make much difference 😂

[@diplamatikjuan3595]

Anyone recognize the score at 1:39? For some reason it looks familiar to me like it's in my repertoire, but might just be my brain playing tricks on me...

[@nimaafsari87]

i think it’s a taylor swift song

[@diplamatikjuan3595]

@@nimaafsari87 That would be impressive if it was...

[@jamesfortune243]

He also had a bust of Peanuts' Schroeder on his piano. 😊

[@parrisworld7837]

4:47

[@dorefromDetroit]

And for all the tonsil jocks struggling with keyboard skills, it will help you hear and understand the music soooooo much more holisitically. I still strive to be a better musician; not singer.

[@everfooty209]

the pot with Polish soil

[@Franz_Liszt_Korean]

La campanella

[@dwacheopus]

Ok

[@galicjuszpostrzyzynski4041]

per ben suonare bisogna ben cantare…

[@Exposetheluciferianagenda]

This is why Artur Rubinstein is the best Chopin interpreter that ever lived

[@carlhopkinson]

metronome

[@anngrogan6343]

Does not help with musicality, phrasing, shaping and nothing other than mechanical exatitude. THEN you move in to musicality.

[@g.d.c12]

​@@anngrogan6343I think he was answering the guy's Chopin trivia question "What was the object that never left Chopin's piano". Which was indeed the metronome

[@republiccooper]

Metrónomo! Nunca salió la tapa del piano..

[@richpeeps515]

The answer to that question is the metronome, it never left his piano

[@MNorbert89]

To play the piano? 💀

[@noobisnotoveratedidk1409]

Yes