Tips for playing piano beautifully.
 
Concert artists have dedicated years learning to play the piano beautifully. They have studied and mastered all the elements of their craft: repertoire, technique, aural skills, sightreading, performance practice, historical awareness, idiomatic knowledge, and more. However, they all had to start somewhere. So here is a starting point for beginners and intermediate pianists looking to elevate their interpretive skills.

1. Playing the score accurately is the obvious first step.
2. Observe the dynamic markings from your first reading of the work.
3. Where the melody rises in pitch, play a gentle crescendo.
4. Where the melody falls play in pitch, a gentle diminuendo.
5. Locate any tempo changes.
6. Take a breath at a repeat sign.
7. Generally, the last note under a slur is played softer, unless the score indicates otherwise.
8. Practice with a metronome with pieces that are based on dances like minuets, gigue etc. Many contemporary pieces written in the last few decades work as well with metronome practice. However, most Romantic era music does not. Therefore, this excludes most of Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy.
9. Translate directly into the score any text you find in languages you don’t understand. These terms will always tell you how to play the piece.
10. Most of these points can be overridden by markings in the score. 

 
This is a starting point for expressive playing. To develop a more sophisticated understanding one must transcribe the performance practice of professionals from different eras performing your pieces and compare the results. For example, when comparing performances of the first 8 measures of Scarlatti’s Sonata in E K380 over decades of recordings you will discover the diverse ways the musicians interpret the trills.  Most start above the principle note, but not everyone. The intensity, tempi, and dynamics vary as well.
If I can help you further, call me.
 
David

​How to comp chords in swing jazz.
 

1. The chords can be played long or short.
2. The chords can be played on the beat, before the beat, or after the beat.
3. Both hands play the same rhythm except if you are soloing in the right.
4. Don’t overdo it if you are playing with a drummer or guitarists, they are comping too.
5. If there are a lot of chords you don’t need to play each chord. However, you must stay in place with the band.

Here are the examples. 

Keywords: Comping, comp, playing chords

How to use Play Along Tracks
 
Play along tracks are band recordings of jazz, blues, and pop songs minus the melody. You supply the melody when playing along. Here are some tips to get the most from the experience.

1. Play hands separately. When you play the melody alone, do not pedal.
2. When playing the left-hand chords alone use the pedal if the song is slow, otherwise don’t.
3. If the track is too fast, slow it down in the app. YouTube videos can be slowed in settings.  To access settings, click on the “star” or “gear” on the screen. See the illustration below.
4. Once you can play comfortably with the track, begin playing with full recordings on YouTube. It will be you and Louis Armstrong. Begin to mimic what you hear. Especially, the melody.
5. If the recording is in another key, transpose your piano. Or, even better, play by ear in the new key.
6. In the app iReal Pro, change the style of accompaniment.

 
Apps for playing along.

YouTube: (126) misty play along - YouTube
iReal Pro: iReal Pro - Practice Made Perfect
Band in the box: PG Music - Band-in-a-Box.com (bandinabox.com)
 
If I can help you further, call me.
 
David

​Sightreading is high speed pattern recognition. Pattern recognition comes from knowledge of rudiments and theory, piano technique, aural training, a deep knowledge of music history and stylistic performance practices and playing experience. A trained musician does not see a series of notes, they see patterns and relationships. For example, Mozart Minuet in G K 1e.

• It is in ¾ time. 
• It is attributed to Mozart. However, Mozart had a stage dad who, it is alleged, ghost wrote a few of the early works of his son.
• It is in the key of G and modulates to the dominant key of D and back with a short visit to A minor.
• It is in a two-period form of AA and BA1. 
• It is a dance. 
• It is homophonic.
• It is played elegantly and playfully because it is a dance and dancing is fun.
•  It starts with a short motive in the tonic key which is repeated down a step in the dominant key. Then it races to the cadence in measure 7-8.
• The B section starts in the relative minor of A minor. The motive from the first part is inverted. The running part is partially inverted as it races to cadence in the tonic key.

It goes on and on. Here is further advice from a professional sight reader. Do not neglect theory, aural training, piano technique, music history and performance practice. This combined with daily sightreading practice will take you closer to your goal and reading at full tempo.
If I can help you, call me.
 
David 

Tips.

1. Count aloud throughout.
2. Count one measure before you begin.
3. Practice counting and clapping first.
4. Record yourself clapping and listen back to evaluate your success or lack thereof.
5. Play one hand and count aloud. Record yourself playing and listen back to evaluate your success or lack thereof.
6. Play two hands and count aloud. Record yourself playing and listen back to evaluate your success or lack thereof.
7. Do this and similar exercises for the rest of your piano career.

If I can help you, call me. 

David

How to prepare to attend a classical music concert.

1. Review the concert program.
2. Choose one piece to study.
3. Search out background information on the composer and the piece. (On YouTube you will find experts speaking on well-known pieces. They may be worth a listen.)
4. If the piece is in the public domain, you can download the score here: IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download
5. Play a few of the themes of the piece. Violin I is a good place to find these themes.
6. Watching the score scroll, on YouTube, as the music plays is fun. 

Below is an example.
Revised 2024

Short explanation

This goes deeper

The score and parts are at the bottom of this page. 

I recently returned from Scotland where I attended, Mostly Audio 2023, an audio/music/Ai workshop and conference. This video summarizes all that's wrong with Ai generated music while missing the creative possibilities of Ai. 

My take aways from this video. 

• It presents a new way to sound conventional. Whereas the old way of producing banal music took time and effort, this is much quicker. 
• This is to music composition what paint by numbers is to art. 
• The part I enjoyed the most was the human generated vocabulary of the introduction. It was dope!
• The part I didn't enjoy was the voice over telling me what my reaction was supposed to be. A variation on a leading question. 
• The latest con, that you too can be a musician without time or much effort. 
• Thank goodness, the output of these musical geniuses will remain buried on YouTube. 

Musical skill, vision, and creativity will be paramount to overcome the limitations of this new medium. To succeed as a musician in the future, you will have to be better than this. As "this" will flood the market.  

However, this video does raise interesting questions for music education. The structure, delivery methods, and content of musical education will need to quickly evolve to stay relevant. But I have a few questions. 

Relevant to whom?
Do all students want to be creators or producers?
What will be the nature of musical collaboration?
Who will have time to listen to all this easily generated music?
Who will care?
Is the joy of making music in the work or the output?
How will this be monetized?
Did the "creators or producers" of this video have licenses to use the likenesses of John Coltrane?

David

I wish these apps had been available when I started playing piano as I was not a gifted ear player. In fact, I struggled. On top of this my teachers didn't stress aural development either because they were readers first. So, my development was glacial. Thankfully, things have changed. 

How did I develop my aural skills? In college I was given proper ear training. Later, I took up the drums, learned countless tunes by ear, and wrote them down. For the last decade I've been teaching online where I don't always see students' hands clearly. My ear has learned to hear individual notes out of place. 

If I can help you, call me. 

​David
revised 2024

What an exciting time of learning. I was able to experience live coding, VR sound, Ai developments in musical education and more under the direction of young and exciting researchers. It was just what an old goat needed, some fresh ideas. 

One thing that did strike me was how dated the synthesizer music was. The young musicians were in the thrall of the 1990s. That took me by surprise. 

The walk from downtown to Napier University was lovely and peaceful. 

I've been attending concerts for over half a century. That's a lot of concerts. Many have been completely forgotten, a few others can be recalled with some sort of prompt, and a small number remained seared in my mind. I counted seven concerts that changed me in some significant way. Here's the story of those concerts. 

1. Cecil Taylor, Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, late 1978. He brought his unit. I remember a drummer and a saxophonist. Again, a packed club. I had tickets to both shows. I retreated to a coffee shop after the first show, unable to go on. I was overwhelmed. It was my first experience with musical greatness.
2. Bill Evans, Jazz Workshop, Boston, 1978. I saw Evans twice. Both times I arrived early and got the seat closest to the piano. It was of course wonderful. I still have the autographs of the band in my copy of the Bill Evans songbook. It took decades to overcome the influence of those two shows on my piano playing. Lesson? Who we listen to will determine how we will play.
3. Steve Reich, Bottom Line, New York City, 1979. The club was packed with enthusiastic supporters. I didn’t have the foggiest notion of who he was, what the music was going to sound like, in fact, I can’t remember how I even ended up there. But there I was. Nexus, the percussion ensemble was set up and ready to go. Reich came out, the festivities began. I was completely and totally baffled. People were going nuts; it was like a rock show except the music was 1970s era New York City loft music. I remember being angry. This was my first experience with my limitations as a listener. I was criticizing art I didn’t understand. Yes, I was a teenage philistine.
4. Vladimir Horowitz, Symphony Hall, Boston, 1980s. Electric is the only word to describe it. It was beautiful, people cried, he played and played and played. He shaped every single note. Years later I earned my ARCT in piano pedagogy with the sound of that experience still ringing in my ears.
5. Miles Davis, Kix club, Boston early 1981. Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Ron Carter, and Wynton Marcellas sat in the front row. Miles came out with Bill Evans (sax of course), Mike Stern, Al Foster, and a bassist I don’t remember. Miles played trumpet and synthesizer. The place lost its mind. I was screaming like a 12-year-old at a Sky dome show.
6. Canadian Opera Company, "Wozzeck", Hummingbird Centre, Toronto, 2006. I went with a group of fellow artists. At the end of the performance, we sat in stunned silence. It was the saddest, cruelest, most pathetic story ever put to song. Horowitz taught me the limits of beauty, Berg, the other side. It was devastating.
7. Berlin Philharmonic, Roy Thompson Hall, 2016. Sir Simon Rattle at the baton. The first half was a mélange of Schonberg, Webern, and Berg. The second half was a Brahms symphony. During the 12-tone half, the guy beside me was humming along. If you know the music, you’ll understand how remarkable that is, and how funny. During the Brahms there was a pizzicato section. It sounded like a giant classical guitar. What did I learn? I’m not the only one who likes 12 tone music. Second, I fully appreciate why this orchestra is considered the best in the world.

David

Spend 15 minutes playing along with a recording. 

• Comp the chords
• Play the melody
• Play the melody and chords
  
• Steal licks

​Spend 15 minutes of one of the following activities. 

1. Practice the scales, chords, and arpeggios for the tune you will be jamming with. 
2. ​Transcriptions. “Stealing licks” or as Harry Pickins says, collect sounds.
3. Practice sight reading chords from the fake book.
4. ​Practice writing out the chords in the following ways. The photo below comes from a recent lesson. 

• Voice leading chords
• Sonny’s thumbs
• Rootless voicings
• Guide tones

     5. Spend 15 minutes listening and analyzing a recording and ask: “What is going on here? How many times do they play the form in any recording you are listening to?” What instruments do you hear? Is the music played swing or straight? From which era does the music come from or mimic? And so on. 

Have fun. 

​David

How to maintain your jazz repertoire.

I recently attended a Q&A with Lynn Seaton, bassist, and Regents Professor from North Texas State University. My question to him was on how he maintains his repertoire when jazz gigs are no longer 6 nights a week.

His answer.

1. I have a list of memorized pieces to work from.
2. At the end of every practice session, I play a 45 minute “set” from the list by playing with play along recordings of Jamie Aebersold or iReal pro phone app.
3. I cycle through this repertoire in a methodical way, by focusing on difficult tunes, not the simple tunes. I don't waste my time.
4. I consider a tune memorized when I can write out a chord chart from memory. 

​What a great answer. After he practices, he rehearses from his list. How simple is that?  My plan is to follow his lead for a year and see what happens. I'm going to use the list below as a goal for revitalizing my repertoire on the mallets. 

Happy practicing. 


David

     "I have been a student with David for the past couple of years. While my primary instrument is Trumpet, I decided to take piano to broaden my knowledge. I have never had music theory, either in school or private lessons. David is taking me there through the piano. He assured me that all the skills I would learn through theory and practice on the piano were transferable to other instruments. David has a way of simplifying theory concepts, making them easier to understand. 
     I had an opportunity to play Trumpet at a private service recently. Playing completely solo - no other musicians. One piece happened to be the one David and I were working on. Everything we had done came into “play” and those skills I have learned completely transferred to my Trumpet and I played the best I have ever played. 
     When you ask yourself, “Do I really need to know this?” I can honestly say, Yes! and it pays off in performance quality."

Barb

Thank you, Barb. 

A New Student's Profile
 
The new student is a young professional with a keen interest in learning to play jazz piano. They took piano and trumpet lessons in high school. They have a basic understanding of music theory. Aural skills are excellent.

Their program will include the following components:

1. Learning several simple jazz melodies by ear. This will give them something to work with as they learn to improvise. And they won’t be simultaneously working on a tune and trying to improvise at the same time. Using their ears to learn the melodies from YouTube recordings will teach them to articulate the melodies in an idiomatic way because reading melodies from the fakebook never does. Jazz is an aural art form not a visual one. Come to think of it, so is Classical piano.
2. They have started learning, by rote, the sixty jazz chords: Major 7th, Dominant 7th, minor 7th, minor 7b5, and diminished 7th chords. These are the basis of jazz harmony and jazz improvisation.
3. I recommended that they revisit written piano music to keep their piano skills sharp because jazz piano is notorious for “killing” the left hand of pianists.
4. First tune up is C jam Blues. (You can view this part of the lesson for free. No strings attached.) They began learning the different interpretations of that famous melody. Along the way they heard simple licks the pianists put in the music. These licks, learned by ear, are the beginning of their library of idiomatic phrases for later use.

If I can help you, call me.
 
David 

This is a perennial favorite of music students. Let's look at a few key terms and concepts. 

Canon is a melody that accompanies itself at a staggered interval. Row, row, row your boat is a well-known example. In this canon the melody, played by the violinists, follows itself in two measure intervals. 
Ground Bass is the violoncello melody that repeats its 8 note pattern throughout the piece.
Cembalo or continuo is the chordal accompaniment that is improvised behind the violins. In this video it is played by the organ and the lute. Notice that the cembalo left hand outlines the ground bass. 

Other notable orchestral canons can be found in J.S. Bach’s Musical Offering. The canons in that suite of pieces feature 2 violins chasing each other around accompanied by the continuo.

Have Fun. 

David

1. Take a short break from piano to refresh and recommit to the project. 
2. Go to a piano concert. 
3. Practice more. 
4. Review your favorite pieces from the past. (You will quickly notice how you have improved.)
5. Teach yourself, using YouTube, how to make dance music tracks on Garage band.
6. Try learning a new genre of music. If you play jazz, pick a classical piece and vice versa. 
7. On your walks listen to the best pianists play the style of music you like. 
8. Catch up on your theory.
9. Find some new friends to make music with. 
10. Go to music camp. 

Have a great summer. 
​
If you would like to meet in the summer, call me. I have some limited availability. 

Cheers, 

david

This is a lesson given to a student this week.

Louis Armstrong, on the topic of how to improvise, said something to the effect, "memorize the melody, mess with the melody, and then mess with the mess." For beginners, this is the best advice I've ever come across. It is truly the shortest distance between A and B. Or jazz newbie to intermediate jazz student and beyond. 

Prerequisites:
The student can already play. Therefore, it is a question of what to play and less of how to play it.  
Warmup:
Two octave scales: C, F, Db, Bb, Eb
Four note broken chords: C, F, Db, Bb, Eb 
Two octave arpeggios: C, F, Bb, Db, Eb
Please use a metronome and practice different tempi, dynamics, and articulations.
Etude
Being able to play the broken chords is an important starting point in improvisation. 

A selection of whiteboard Zoom notes from the past week or so. It gives a good snapshot of what goes on in students' classes. 

If you would like to join us, please contact me. 

​David

Years ago, while adjudicating piano exams in Aurora Ontario, I heard a young child came in to sit for her grade 2 piano exam. The performance was so beautiful, it took my breath away. Could you learn to play as well as her? Yes, with patient work. Thankfully to play the piano competently only requires you to follow a well-worn path. A path that has evolved over the last two hundred years beginning with CPE Bach's 1787 "Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments," to today's Adult Piano Adventures by Nancy and Randell Faber. I invite you to follow the links for more information. 

However, you will need to plan to succeed; so please consider the following conditions that you will need to meet: 

1. Time to practice. 
2. Resources to pay for lessons.
3. Realistic expectations.
4. Patience.
5. Trusting the process. 

If I can help you, please call me. 

David
text: 905-330-1349

This guy explains how to correctly sit on the piano bench. As he says, sitting correctly will help us play easier and avoid injury. 

Enjoy.

David
Authors note: This page was rewritten in 2024

Before you begin, consider the following elements:

Title: The title often hints at the nature of the piece. For instance, 'Avalanche' versus 'Minuet in D' suggests a dramatic, fast-paced piece as opposed to one that is refined and graceful.
Composer: Different composers like Mozart, Bach, or Gershwin require unique musical approaches and touches.
Key Signature: Determine if the piece is in a major or minor key and practice the corresponding scale.
Time Signature: Be aware of any changes throughout the piece.
Tempo: While musicality ultimately takes precedence, ensure you can play within the indicated tempo range.
Dynamics: Don't overlook these, as they are crucial to the performance.
Rhythm: If you are having difficulties understanding the rhythm clap it out while counting aloud, using a metronome for guidance.
Repeat Signs: Failing to observe these can lead to mistakes and embarrassment.
Articulations: Techniques like legato and staccato add expression to the music.
Watch for surprises such as clef changes, hand crossings, key signature shifts, and tempo variations that may not be immediately apparent.
Practice each hand separately, focusing on fingering. Remember, slow, methodical practice leads to faster progress.

Best of luck.

This African rhythm permeates the popular music across the Americas, often utilized within a jazz framework. It features in the introductions of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," Green Hill's "The Charleston," and Teddy Wilson's "Chinatown." Jelly Roll Morton referred to it as the "Spanish tinge," audible in his piece "The Crave." Additionally, it's known as the Habanera Rhythm, as showcased in the introduction of "St. Louis Blues."This rhythm continues to resonate today, blaring from the vehicles of the youth. 

Mastering the melodies of jazz standards can greatly reduce time and frustration. The principle is simple: you'll be able to play with the correct rhythm and articulation right from the start. As your understanding of jazz theory deepens, having these tunes memorized provides a practical framework for application, since grappling with theoretical concepts is challenging when also struggling with the piece itself.

David

I'm finishing my first year with the Toronto Concert Band and what a thrill it has been. From drum set to piano, xylophone to tympani it has been a journey of intense rehearsal, thrilling concerts, private practice, and fellowship.

At the upcoming concert I will be playing: 

1. Vibraphone
2. Finger cymbals
3. Xylophone
4. Tympani
5. Crash cymbal
6. Triangle
7. Sharker
8. Drum kit
9. Glockenspiel
10. And... cowbell, lots of cowbell

Come join us and say hi after the concert. 
​
When: June 10, 2023 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Where: Glenn Gould Studio, 250 Front Street West

Tickets: 2023 Spring Concert - Toronto Concert Band 

You can vary the tempi, dynamics, articulations, and keys of the following warmup etude. 
​David