Classical Piano

Download

I consider this piece the reason for my recent desire to learn to play the piano and my rediscovery of classical music.  I’m primarily a guitarist and have been for the last 20 plus years, but when I came across this YouTube video I wanted to take a crack at learning it myself.  I learned a fair amount of it for guitar, but the challenge I had was that I’m not a classically trained guitarist.  I enjoy playing rock music for the guitar, so learning a classical piece was much different than what I’m accustomed to.  From that point on my obsession with classical music and learning to play the piano grew.  Once I finally had a piano at home, I decided this would be the first piece I would learn how to play.

An interesting bit of history regarding this piece were Beethoven’s instructions on how to play it.  Basically,  Beethoven wanted the performer to depress the damper pedal on the piano for the entire first movement while playing.  Due to the level of sustain modern pianos have, playing this piece per Beethoven’s original instructions would not sound very well.  I’m sure if a piano from Beethoven’s time could be used, the piece could be performed in that manner.

-Tim

Classical Piano

Download

With a newly tuned piano, I decided to record one of my favorite of Chopin’s preludes.  Prelude No. 4 in E minor, also know as “Suffocation,” is also one of his more well know preludes.  Chopin did not name his works and in fact would probably disapprove of them being name in such a manner.  Like all of the Op. 28 preludes, No. 4 is a very short piece.  Being only 26 measures in length, it easily fits on a single page of sheet music.  I recorded this piece on a Kawai GM-10K (pictured in the album artwork) I purchased last October.  I tried to accurately portray the true sound of the piano so I did little editing once the recording was complete.  At some point in the future, I’ll write about the equipment I used and how I used it to create the recording.  Believe me, there is a lot write about on the topic of how to record an acoustic piano and I must say I learned a lot in during the recording process.

-Tim

Keyboard and Action

While getting my piano tuned recently, I had the ability to get some pictures of the keyboard and action components.  The gentleman who did the tuning was very knowledgeable and answered all my questions regarding most aspects of pianos.  What I’m sure would have taken him an hour or so to do ended up taking a bit longer mostly due to my questioning.  At one point I thought I was getting on his nerves and ask if I should leave him to his work, but he was more than happy to share knowledge.

Since my piano is still very new ( I bought it in October of last year) it is good maintenance practice to have a new piano tuned between 3 to 4 times during the first year as new strings will stretch.  I have experienced this time and again after having put new strings on one of my guitars.  After the first year, most tuners will recommend having your piano tuned at least twice a year.  Since temperature and humidity are the primary

Action Component

factors that affect a piano’s intonation, I imagine those two tunings would occur in the spring and fall.  In addition to temperature and humidity, the frequency in which a piano is play will also factor into how often a piano will need to be tuned.  I tend to play several hours over the course of a week so I expect to have to have it tuned again in the next few months.  Maybe even more so when my children begin there musical studies.

So now, I have all the recording gear I want at the moment(more on that later) and a newly tuned piano!  I’m sure you know where I’m going with this…

-Tim

Claude Debussy

In my last music related post, I shared with you my learning of Chopin’s Prelude in E minor No. 4, Op. 28.   Now, I get to write about one of (if not the most) famous pieces written by the French composer Claude Debussy.   I have been working on Debussy’s “Clair de lune” for just over 4 months now.   With much pride, I can finally say: “I have finally learned to play it!”   Am I any good at playing it?   Well, there is always room for improvement.   I can execute the long left hand runs with out problem, but I need to work on making the melody clearer.   I also, at times, have a tendency to play faster than needed, which from my understanding, is common with fledgling pianists.   I certainly learned a lot and am looking forward to tackling a new piece of music, but not before I polish “Clair de lune” a bit more.

I also need to give some serious credit, and thanks, to Hugh Sung for posting the extremely instructive video lessons: Clair de lune from Scratch.   I began learning this piece very shortly after learning Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 movement 1.   I was able to play the first several measures of “Clair de lune” just by reading the sheet music, but quickly came to the realization that I was in over my head as a beginner.   In an effort to gauge how difficult the piece was by watching others on YouTube, I came across Hugh’s piano lessons.   Hugh breaks the music down into very digestible pieces for beginners.   He also covers basic music notation as well, which helped me sharpen my music notation reading ability.   What I liked most is that he gives alternate fingerings for complex sections of the piece.   Although I have found a more “traditional” fingering for “Clair de lune” easier in some sections,   Hugh gave me the ability to select what felt most comfortable while trying to learn to play “Clair de lune.”   So, if you are an interested beginner, visit the link above and check it out for yourself, but I have to tell you that as of this posting, only up through measure 42 is covered.   Even still, there is a lot of great information in those lessons.   You won’t be disappointed.

-Tim

Fryderyk Chopin

I’ve been playing piano for about 5 months now and it has been a lot of fun as well as rewarding even though I’m not taking formal lessons.   I really enjoy classical music, especially works by Chopin.   My goal is to be able to play some or all of his nocturnes,  but I still have a ways to go.   That being said, I still wanted to play at least something he wrote.   So, I decide to try Prelude in E minor No. 4, Op. 28.   The first time I heard it, I thought it was a piece I could learn relatively quickly and I was right.     However, I will say that it is much more difficult to play than it sounds.   While I can play the entire piece, which isn’t long, I still need to practice.   There are a couple complex cords in the left hand I’m still not able to form as quickly as I would like, but I’ve got all the right hand parts down pretty well.   Eventually, I want to record my playing, but until I get the equipment I want to record my piano with, I’ll keep practicing.

-Tim