Some very good tips here how to practise and overcome certain problems in rhythm, touch & articulation. You sure have the ability to analyse, to break the problem down into smaller parts and then invent ways to fix it!
very smart and creative methods, and that's really how you solve problems in technique, and not by draining yourself with the metronome going slow to fast for ages, great video!!
Thank you for all your instructional video. I began the piano again, after a 15 year absence. Like most people who quit……why did I waster 15 years of practice? I downsized house and my grand piano wouldn’t fit…or so we thought. But I now have a new grand piano, that fits in my smaller space, and I practice every day.
It seems like such a “doy” moment, but thank you so much for stressing the importance of not just the attack into the keys, but the release as well! I struggle with unequal fingers all the time and this will be something else to keep an eye out for during practice.
Agreed! I’ve hardly ever focused on release but will now do so thanks to this video. By the way, I haven’t heard “doy” in a long time😂! So cool-a total blast from the past moment...🙂
really helpful video ，thank you so much ！！ I remember when I was kid ，speed eveness was ok for me BUT sound uneveness（sound quaility ） was a problem and I struggled almost 3 months and I hate myself for let my teacher feel disappointed and I hate that sonata……so I practiced an practiced that 2 bars and suddenly one day it fixed，I felt soooo happy and I didn't hate that sonata anymore。 now I still get uneveness sometime and struggle some bars but I know finally I will get there I will conquer that as long as I don't give up
I was working on Mozart's Sonata K 545 and I couldn't figure out why my hands were stuck, felt too tensed up, and were slow. After watching this video I think it might have to do with the releases. I also played the big scales rather uneven as soon as I played faster. This might just mean that I need to practice more, but this vid's great. Thanks Josh :)
Man Josh, you are getting better and better as a pedagogue and I have followed you for years. Even though I'm accordionist, I use a lot of your stuff with my accordion students. Thanks and keep up the good work
THANKS @Josh Wright for imparting any musical Knowledge onto us mere learners: I cannot believe how addicted I am to Piano after almost 6 weeks: All my life I played Guitar ~ Ukelele ~ Banjo and all other stringed instruments to an almost mastered degree [soloist] But Piano is my ultimate escapism: I have never been so happy just to sit down and learn and learn then step away to return and see the progress: I love the way the process pushes the ego aside and forces one to confront the fact that SLOW Learning through true patience is the way forward: There are NO shortcuts: Granted I bought a Roland Fantom X8 [88 Keys :-) ] and a pair of Rokit 5 G3 Powered Studio Monitor Speakers for now; but down the line I want a grand Piano: I will get there: Baby steps:
My teachers always knew how uneven I play. My brain self corrects tho... so I had no idea until I tried making a recording as Christmas present. Big eye opener 🤷♂️
Railway Quilt Studio exactly the same with me! I had been playing without a teacher for a year and then one afternoon I randomly decided to make a recording. Oh my what an eye opener it was playing the recording back to myself. I got myself a teacher the next week.
Thank you for sharing this... concentrating on sound as a way to escape momentary discouragement. Technique, yes but good sound production is probably more important in the overall delivery. Great advice!
Thank you Josh, everytime you release a new video, it's perfectly what I need at the moment! I'm currently struggling with unevenness on a fast run, I'll try your advice!
¡Thanks a lot for teh advice! It is great to know that no matter how advanced you are, those things need to be polished to achieve a better sound. Humble and inspiring :D. Cheers!
I tried playing the 3rd movement of the appassionata sonata but I was too allegro for me. I practiced it hard but was a little too advanced for me. Chopin is more where it was at for me I could nail the revolutionary etude
Hi +joshwrightpiano Firstly, I am quite the fan. Secondly, I'd like to ask the following: I am not the biggest fan of Preludes. Unless the composer is Rachmaninov, of course. With reference to the most beautiful Prelude ever, Rach Prelude in G Major, Opus 32 no 5, my concern is with evenness of awkward polyrhythms, in this case pentuplets over triplets, pentuplets over semiquavers and even pentuplets over demisemiquavers. What in your view is the best approach to get those even? Do you practice them single hands first and then jointly, or is it more effective to immediately go both hands? I believe there is an 8 over 7 part in the Grieg A Minor Concerto as well. 🤤
I'm no teacher, and certainly not a piano teacher, so take what I say with a grain of salt Polyrythyms are tricky, even for drummers and other percussionists, whose specialty is obviously rythym (ignoring for a moment that the piano is technically a percussion instrument itself). It takes practice to develop the necessary limb independence, yet on piano trying to just jump in and play a polyrythymic is to try to hit all the right notes and in the process hopefully achieve the correct rythym by feel/sound at the same time That being said, I think it would be much more beneficial to start at the fundamental level, as a drummer might too, and practice banging out some polyrythyms on your lap by tapping your hands. Start with a good ol' 4/3 until you really get the feel for it (a 4/3 repeats every twelve beats, so if you continue the pattern for a while you're brain will probably start to chunk those measures together into one bigger piece) and can feel it's groove. Focus on accentuating the four, then let the four fall into the background and accent the three. Switch back and forth, really exploring the feel of the rythym. Then switch hands and try to do the same thing in reverse to really work on that limb independence. Once you get down 4/3, try learning a piece that uses it. For example, Fantasie-Impromptu. After developing the limb independence, it needs to be taken one step further for piano to finger independence. The overall rythym obviously stays the same, but certain fingers need to strike certain keys to it now instead of just tapping. Of course, that much is obvious. Since 4/3 repeats every 3 bars in 4/4 time (or 4 bars in 3/4 time), I'd say practice the piece in three or four bar chunks. Playing the triplets in one hand and the quadruplets in the other separately to learn the notes and how each hand should move, them set them against each other with hands together, trying to feel out their rythyms through exploration and dynamics, not unlike feeling it out through the tapping on your legs, then tying the 3 or 4 bar chunks together. All of this should help you internalize the basics of polyrythyms Then practice a couple other polyrythyms. Preferably start with a couple simpler ones and build up to formulate a sort of pattern between different polyrythyms, but music is ultimately about making the sounds you want so don't force yourself too much to struggle through it to the point of burning yourself out. That'd be counterproductive. So you may wanna just jump on up to try working on whatever polyrythym you need for your purposes. If the notes are how music sings, then the rythym is how it dances, so respecting the rythym and internalizing its feel and its soul in its own right first as a distinct component of the music (and a tricky one at that! even for drummers and other percussionists), as well as breaking the task up into chunks instead of trying to take everything on at once and relying solely on musical intuition to bring it all together, should really help. And of course, once you do internalize it and then apply it, you're musical intuition won't have gone anywhere, so it should be much easier to weave together all the pieces neatly and cohesively after you've practiced them all independently But that's easier said than done. Hey, nobody ever said being a musician was easy! But if it was, I don't suppose it'd be as rewarding. After all, what were you more proud of yourself for? Learning something like Mary Had a Little Lamb, or something like Für Elise? So how much more rewarding would it be to go from Für Elise to Hungarian Dances, continuing farther and farther upward and onward from there! Again, I'm not really qualified to be saying this, but I at least hope I could help give you some fresh ideas or ways to think about/approach the problem to get you out of the rut you seem to find yourself in and inspire you to achieve what you set out for yourself to do as you make new goals for yourself :)
By the way, Grieg's A Minor Concerto is a masterpiece! One of my favorites, for sure. I'd heard it was technically unfinished as Grieg never felt fully satisfied with it, iirc. C'est la vie for a perfectionist, I suppose
UPDATE: So I know I commented a couple weeks ago trying to help, but much of what I said was incomplete and in certain parts the way I talked about it was confusing or even just wrong. Like I said, I'm not qualified! lol. Anyway, I was looking into polyrythyms a little more recently and I found some videos that said what I was trying to say much, much better than I could say it by someone much more qualified to teach and more knowledgeable about music, and he teaches it with a piano keyboard to boot and gives good tips about taking this stuff to the keys! He also very specifically answers your question of how to keep polyrythyms even, as well as addressing which notes tend to slip around in what directions and why Intro to polyrythyms video {pt 1}: th-cam.com/video/sGxFRUIO7BA/w-d-xo.html 3 against 4 (and figuring out any polyrythym) video {pt 2}: th-cam.com/video/rbvox-tFyXc/w-d-xo.html Extra info on practicing and free online polyrythym practice tool for the keyboard: th-cam.com/video/eCSxzV9ByZc/w-d-xo.html This info is incredible, sure to help you out. I also highly recommend subscribing to this channel, as I have. He apparently hasn't uploaded a video in a little while, but his content is top-notch stuff, and he covers quite a bit of music theory with clarity, insight, and practicality
All the recordings of Rachs op23 No 7 the fast c minor prelude (?) i know are to loud. To you have thoughs on that? Are the pianists afraid of beeing judged by the light touch "as weakness"? Cause of course its also probably weak when you start the piece...
Why i never think about it When practice slow i hold down a key for too long When come to speed up it's the opposite I have to practice staccato too omg
You don't mention so much what role the arm and wrist has to do with evenness. But if the arms and wrists are doing it wrong, then the fingers can't do the little work they are supposed to do.
The finger staccato exercise was enormously helpful in overcoming the speed wall in my scales.
h time
Some very good tips here how to practise and overcome certain problems in rhythm, touch & articulation. You sure have the ability to analyse, to break the problem down into smaller parts and then invent ways to fix it!
Thank you. I just began these exact motions to fix my problem.
very smart and creative methods, and that's really how you solve problems in technique, and not by draining yourself with the metronome going slow to fast for ages, great video!!
We meet once again
Thank you for all your instructional video. I began the piano again, after a 15 year absence. Like most people who quit……why did I waster 15 years of practice? I downsized house and my grand piano wouldn’t fit…or so we thought. But I now have a new grand piano, that fits in my smaller space, and I practice every day.
It seems like such a “doy” moment, but thank you so much for stressing the importance of not just the attack into the keys, but the release as well! I struggle with unequal fingers all the time and this will be something else to keep an eye out for during practice.
Agreed! I’ve hardly ever focused on release but will now do so thanks to this video. By the way, I haven’t heard “doy” in a long time😂! So cool-a total blast from the past moment...🙂
This was SOOOO helpful. I have scoured youtube for tips with Chopins fioritura and this was by far and beyond the most helpful.
Thank you very very much for this video. The staccato exercise helps a lot!❤
really helpful video ，thank you so much ！！ I remember when I was kid ，speed eveness was ok for me BUT sound uneveness（sound quaility ） was a problem and I struggled almost 3 months and I hate myself for let my teacher feel disappointed and I hate that sonata……so I practiced an practiced that 2 bars and suddenly one day it fixed，I felt soooo happy and I didn't hate that sonata anymore。 now I still get uneveness sometime and struggle some bars but I know finally I will get there I will conquer that as long as I don't give up
This guy is incredible! I really love his method of teaching! I’m very thankful to find you! I’ve taken so much advantage of your Videos 🙏🙏🙏
This is exactly what I need to learn! Thank you, Josh.
I was working on Mozart's Sonata K 545 and I couldn't figure out why my hands were stuck, felt too tensed up, and were slow. After watching this video I think it might have to do with the releases. I also played the big scales rather uneven as soon as I played faster. This might just mean that I need to practice more, but this vid's great. Thanks Josh :)
Man Josh, you are getting better and better as a pedagogue and I have followed you for years. Even though I'm accordionist, I use a lot of your stuff with my accordion students. Thanks and keep up the good work
THANKS @Josh Wright for imparting any musical Knowledge onto us mere learners:
I cannot believe how addicted I am to Piano after almost 6 weeks:
All my life I played Guitar ~ Ukelele ~ Banjo and all other stringed instruments to an almost mastered degree [soloist] But Piano is my ultimate escapism:
I have never been so happy just to sit down and learn and learn then step away to return and see the progress: I love the way the process pushes the ego aside and forces one to confront the fact that SLOW Learning through true patience is the way forward: There are NO shortcuts:
Granted I bought a Roland Fantom X8 [88 Keys :-) ] and a pair of Rokit 5 G3 Powered Studio Monitor Speakers for now; but down the line I want a grand Piano: I will get there: Baby steps:
My teachers always knew how uneven I play. My brain self corrects tho... so I had no idea until I tried making a recording as Christmas present. Big eye opener 🤷♂️
Railway Quilt Studio exactly the same with me! I had been playing without a teacher for a year and then one afternoon I randomly decided to make a recording. Oh my what an eye opener it was playing the recording back to myself. I got myself a teacher the next week.
I agree. Recording oneself which I do frequently is really illuminating!
You’re an incredible teacher. Thank you.
Love your teaching method. I hope you are still doing new videos. It’s 2022 now
Excellent!🎉🎉🎉
Thank you for sharing this... concentrating on sound as a way to escape momentary discouragement. Technique, yes but good sound production is probably more important in the overall delivery. Great advice!
This is the issue I have been having. Thank you so very much for this tutorial.
Thank you Josh, everytime you release a new video, it's perfectly what I need at the moment! I'm currently struggling with unevenness on a fast run, I'll try your advice!
I really enjoyed your "light touches" section and K482 demo of Murray Perahia!!!
Thanks ! Im working too on 25/2 Chopin ! Hope can transpose advices here... Josh, maybe can be so great to do a vids on 25/2 !!! Pierre frm Paris
It's really a helpful lesson thank you so much.
Fascinating, I'm sure I'm heavy handling the keys. I'll start practicing releasing tension and light staccato. Thank you
Great insight! This really helps my thinking about what I'm doing!
2:02 that face long pause tho lmao
This guy is pretty good, why are there only 69k subscribers :(
¡Thanks a lot for teh advice! It is great to know that no matter how advanced you are, those things need to be polished to achieve a better sound. Humble and inspiring :D. Cheers!
You're a frickin genius, man.
This is GOLD! Thanks Josh.
I always tell my students to pull the sound instead of pushing the sound out of the piano.
You are a great teacher and pianist! Thank you.
Practicing that light touch, such good advice, thanks muchly.
your method helps. Thank you
1. Play all loud and release the tension after your press, PRESS-RELEASE
2. Find out exactly where is uneven
Super session! Thanks, it helps so much to be able to focus in on these details
You are an amazing teacher thank you for sharing and making videos.
This is exactly the video I needed right now!
Exactly what I needed! 👍🏻
thanks for the video josh! i have many rythmic problems on the fantaisie impromptu in the right hand. that'll help
I´m really battling unevenness in scales. It seems to go wrong around crossing. Perhaps a slight adjustment of the hand position could help.
Great video Josh!
a great teacher
I tried playing the 3rd movement of the appassionata sonata but I was too allegro for me. I practiced it hard but was a little too advanced for me. Chopin is more where it was at for me I could nail the revolutionary etude
A definite a-ha moment at 4:20, thanks Josh!!!!! :)
Ohh thanks a lot for this video! This is really what I wanted!
This is so helpful!!! Thank you Josh!!
This is a good idea! Thanks for sharing!
very good advice, thank you!
Thank you!
This is so helpful!!!! Thanks a lot!!!!
Hi +joshwrightpiano
Firstly, I am quite the fan.
Secondly, I'd like to ask the following:
I am not the biggest fan of Preludes. Unless the composer is Rachmaninov, of course. With reference to the most beautiful Prelude ever, Rach Prelude in G Major, Opus 32 no 5, my concern is with evenness of awkward polyrhythms, in this case pentuplets over triplets, pentuplets over semiquavers and even pentuplets over demisemiquavers.
What in your view is the best approach to get those even? Do you practice them single hands first and then jointly, or is it more effective to immediately go both hands? I believe there is an 8 over 7 part in the Grieg A Minor Concerto as well. 🤤
Henry Denner wow Ur serious about piano!
I'm no teacher, and certainly not a piano teacher, so take what I say with a grain of salt
Polyrythyms are tricky, even for drummers and other percussionists, whose specialty is obviously rythym (ignoring for a moment that the piano is technically a percussion instrument itself). It takes practice to develop the necessary limb independence, yet on piano trying to just jump in and play a polyrythymic is to try to hit all the right notes and in the process hopefully achieve the correct rythym by feel/sound at the same time
That being said, I think it would be much more beneficial to start at the fundamental level, as a drummer might too, and practice banging out some polyrythyms on your lap by tapping your hands. Start with a good ol' 4/3 until you really get the feel for it (a 4/3 repeats every twelve beats, so if you continue the pattern for a while you're brain will probably start to chunk those measures together into one bigger piece) and can feel it's groove. Focus on accentuating the four, then let the four fall into the background and accent the three. Switch back and forth, really exploring the feel of the rythym. Then switch hands and try to do the same thing in reverse to really work on that limb independence. Once you get down 4/3, try learning a piece that uses it. For example, Fantasie-Impromptu. After developing the limb independence, it needs to be taken one step further for piano to finger independence. The overall rythym obviously stays the same, but certain fingers need to strike certain keys to it now instead of just tapping. Of course, that much is obvious. Since 4/3 repeats every 3 bars in 4/4 time (or 4 bars in 3/4 time), I'd say practice the piece in three or four bar chunks. Playing the triplets in one hand and the quadruplets in the other separately to learn the notes and how each hand should move, them set them against each other with hands together, trying to feel out their rythyms through exploration and dynamics, not unlike feeling it out through the tapping on your legs, then tying the 3 or 4 bar chunks together. All of this should help you internalize the basics of polyrythyms
Then practice a couple other polyrythyms. Preferably start with a couple simpler ones and build up to formulate a sort of pattern between different polyrythyms, but music is ultimately about making the sounds you want so don't force yourself too much to struggle through it to the point of burning yourself out. That'd be counterproductive. So you may wanna just jump on up to try working on whatever polyrythym you need for your purposes. If the notes are how music sings, then the rythym is how it dances, so respecting the rythym and internalizing its feel and its soul in its own right first as a distinct component of the music (and a tricky one at that! even for drummers and other percussionists), as well as breaking the task up into chunks instead of trying to take everything on at once and relying solely on musical intuition to bring it all together, should really help. And of course, once you do internalize it and then apply it, you're musical intuition won't have gone anywhere, so it should be much easier to weave together all the pieces neatly and cohesively after you've practiced them all independently
But that's easier said than done. Hey, nobody ever said being a musician was easy! But if it was, I don't suppose it'd be as rewarding. After all, what were you more proud of yourself for? Learning something like Mary Had a Little Lamb, or something like Für Elise? So how much more rewarding would it be to go from Für Elise to Hungarian Dances, continuing farther and farther upward and onward from there!
Again, I'm not really qualified to be saying this, but I at least hope I could help give you some fresh ideas or ways to think about/approach the problem to get you out of the rut you seem to find yourself in and inspire you to achieve what you set out for yourself to do as you make new goals for yourself :)
By the way, Grieg's A Minor Concerto is a masterpiece! One of my favorites, for sure. I'd heard it was technically unfinished as Grieg never felt fully satisfied with it, iirc. C'est la vie for a perfectionist, I suppose
UPDATE:
So I know I commented a couple weeks ago trying to help, but much of what I said was incomplete and in certain parts the way I talked about it was confusing or even just wrong. Like I said, I'm not qualified! lol. Anyway, I was looking into polyrythyms a little more recently and I found some videos that said what I was trying to say much, much better than I could say it by someone much more qualified to teach and more knowledgeable about music, and he teaches it with a piano keyboard to boot and gives good tips about taking this stuff to the keys! He also very specifically answers your question of how to keep polyrythyms even, as well as addressing which notes tend to slip around in what directions and why
Intro to polyrythyms video {pt 1}:
th-cam.com/video/sGxFRUIO7BA/w-d-xo.html
3 against 4 (and figuring out any polyrythym) video {pt 2}:
th-cam.com/video/rbvox-tFyXc/w-d-xo.html
Extra info on practicing and free online polyrythym practice tool for the keyboard:
th-cam.com/video/eCSxzV9ByZc/w-d-xo.html
This info is incredible, sure to help you out. I also highly recommend subscribing to this channel, as I have. He apparently hasn't uploaded a video in a little while, but his content is top-notch stuff, and he covers quite a bit of music theory with clarity, insight, and practicality
Op32 no5 is in G minor, isn’t it?
Every time I watch this video I learn something new!!! Thank you so much, Josh!!
thank you, super information every time, thank you for sharing your time and knowledge :)
Etude op 10 no 2!!!!
Really liked this one, thanks Josh!
To resume here, the principal major tips is CLEAN RELEASE !
Very very helpful. THANK YOU
3:09 Jeunehomme rocks !
The metronome sounded like a Geiger Counter at first
Brilliant! Superbly helpful, thanks :D
Very helpful!!
Oooooofff, this is the only vid of your I liked. Idk y. But i did rly like this vid
Great tips!
All the recordings of Rachs op23 No 7 the fast c minor prelude (?) i know are to loud. To you have thoughs on that? Are the pianists afraid of beeing judged by the light touch "as weakness"? Cause of course its also probably weak when you start the piece...
Why i never think about it
When practice slow i hold down a key for too long
When come to speed up it's the opposite
I have to practice staccato too omg
Killer advice, brotha! Rock on 🤘🏻
I wish, I could develop this light, loose touch - with speed.
you certainly can! ;)
Does this work for other pieces?
My scales are like: C d e F g a b C d e F g a b C
Ugh can you be my new piano teacher thanks bye.
I got a josh wright commercial on this
im gonna cry I need a piano teacher
My piano teacher usually cries when I am playing =P
@@SwePianoholic lmao
Great video. Always trying to get over the technical hump. One question: When are you going to get your piano tuned?
The way you phrased that was really annoying
You don't mention so much what role the arm and wrist has to do with evenness. But if the arms and wrists are doing it wrong, then the fingers can't do the little work they are supposed to do.
That audio desync though
I want you as my teacher
..And now with better speaking sound :D
Its difficult.
Why r all ur students professors ?
What of you are playing really fast and quiet tho
4th comment
Can you wear a tie too? I like to see a man in a tie, especially a piano-playing one.
Thank you!
Great tips!