What is Voicing on the Piano?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มี.ค. 2024
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Dr. John Mortensen explains what piano voicing is, and why it is essential for producing good sound at the instrument. - เพลง
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I am thanking TH-cam's algorithm. I don't even play a piano, but a saxophone. It is so illuminating to me what takes to make music!. Not only the algorithm, I must thank the lecturer in the first place.
He’s terrific!
Excellent lesson. I love how the "bigger picture" is explained with how composers write music!
If you play Bach properly, you will learn this intuitively. His music emphasizes counterpoint, with multiple voices interacting with each other. The amazing thing is that it works so well harmonically as well.
As a largely self-taught pianist, this is absolutely THE most useful tutorial I have come across. I have long had in the back of my mind somewhere, the assumption that every note in a chord is supposed to be voiced equally, it's never really occurred to me that one could deliberately choose to voice one note above another (though I've probably done so spontaneously).
However, it also helps explain something I find quite irritating about many classical pianists, which is that they often play the bass part so softly one can scarcely hear it. I suspect now that they do this because they have had voicing drilled into them to such an extent that they just do it almost automatically. But by doing so, they also often lose much of the richness of the piece. There is, I think, a happy medium between emphasizing the melody and effectively losing the bass accompaniment altogether. But thank you once again for this extremely informative lesson Mr. Mortensen!
Mr. Mortensen - you are amazing! You idea about movements on piano: refined motion rather restricted - is golden. Thank you for sharing with us your ideas and experience - from the bottom of my heart. ❤❤❤❤❤
Even though I am just a low intermediate piano learner, this lesson is absolutely crucial! I have recently become more aware of voicing when I play. One year ago, someone commented that how odd that my left and right hand were playing at different volume. I thought I was doing something wrong, but I felt I might not be so wrong. Thank you for this lesson. Now I know what “voicing” is.
9:22 ok WOW😂
Thanks indeed sir!🙏🏻 Great lesson!
Very nice!! Thank you for posting. I like your tempo on the "better"
one!
Clear and organized thoughts well spoken, thank you, Mr. Mortensen!
Valuable tutorial on a seminal topic in piano technique. Figuring out ways to bring out intended notes. Your stuff is always top shelf.
Thank you John, I am using these principles and techniques in my piano adventures Level 2 pieces 😊
Great to hear your insightful observations on how piano score composers are thinking ‘music’ and instrumental sounds generally.
This lesson is so helpful! Thank you so very much! 🩷
Thank you! Great info
Very helpful, freeing, consideration on slurred staccato; comfort in playing hands on different staff, sometimes better.
For most jazz pianists, "voicing" is a noun, not a verb. A voicing is a particular combination of notes that make up a chord, often without much regard for bringing out one particular note within that chord. I.e. they play a "voicing" without voicing it. This is one area in which I think jazz pianists would benefit from a bit of classical training.
Do professional pianists voice chords like classical pianists do? Or were you just referring to amateur jazz pianists?
Do at least professional jazz pianists voice chords like classical pianists do? Or were you just referring to amateur jazz pianists?
@@haasee1443 On further reflection, I think that my complaint has more to do with the nature of certain styles of jazz music than with the way in which jazz pianists play. In much of jazz piano, there is essentially only one voice, usually played in the right hand, with the left hand playing a series of chords whose purpose is to provide a kind of harmonic environment for the melody to swim around in. Since none of the notes of the chords are thought of as individual voices, co-equal with the right hand melody, there's no point in emphasizing one over the other. The chords are thought of as "voicings"--FMaj13#11 for example--with no particular note being more important than any other. It's the overall effect that matters. Thus no need for voicing the chord in the sense that Dr. Mortensen is discussing. Since I prefer polyphonic music, I find this type of jazz unsatisfying. So to answer your question, some do and some don't. It all depends on what they are trying to accomplish.
Musicians' vocabulary and word choices is effed up. Constantly overloading words and misusing terminology. Especially in jazz.
Love it.Thanks. Beautiful song
Wow! Amazing!
What a usefull lesson!
An excllent presentation! Are you using the una corda in either example? Or are you using it in your "preferred" example but not in the "struggling student" example? Certainly its use is legitimate in any case regarding its use in voicing, but is in additional to the voicing that is obtained from articulation alone.
Also -- I'd love to hear an example of slurred staccato played by strings -- can you think of one to recommend?
Very interesting lecture. Concerning the "bowing" slurred staccato, my understanding has always been that the slurred notes should be one "episode", distinct from the preceding and following. Just using a slur would tell the pianist to play the notes legato. The staccato dots clarify that the notes should not be legato, still the whole group should be treated as one single `word' as the slur prescribes. Am I very far off?
Good example.
If you want killer voicing on the piano, go attend an Elton John concert! That man has pipes!
im unemployed i miss my old life
This is a great introduction to voicing, very well demonstrated too! One useful tip I would add, which I learned from Boris Berman, is that voicing can also help with the perception of dynamics. If you need to play pianissimo, you should place less emphasis on the top voice and balance the voices more equally. Debussy sometimes even writes over the melody, "lointain," or far away, to ask for this effect.
Conversely, a big fortissimo chord sounds more fortissimo if the top and bass voices are very prominently brought out. The usual tendency, to just play every voice as strongly as possible, sounds not only ugly but not as loud.
One other thing: I am glad you said what you did about portato (slurred staccato). I have heard so much contradictory nonsense about this, including at masterclasses where certain professors swore that it HAD to be played one way or the other.
Fantastic video. as usual. Your channel is really one of a kind. Very interesting the Bowing topic. ( 10:40 ) I was taught that that staccato with the slur marking meant "portato", an intermediate articulation between staccato and legato, thing that also string players do. You mention that this is nonsense. That in fact is a "very specific delicate sound". I would love to know what do you meant. Again, thanks for your videos. I invite to anyone to leave your thoughts.
Great lesson, thanks! Voicing makes such a huge difference.
I'm still struggling to figure out voice leading, especially so in Bach pieces where the melody keeps alternating between right and left hands. It really boils down to hand control and being able to play fortissimo, pianissimo and everything in between which is not easy for me even after 4 years of playing. I wonder how other students are coping with this challenge - for me there isn't enough of a distinction in the dynamic range. Being able to start the piece at the correct dynamic level is also an issue for me, because once you start playing, everything is relative to the first sounds played (BTW, this relative nature is also true for tempo). Also, my piannisimo often results in ghost sounds because sometimes I try so hard to play the softest sound possible that I end up not making any sound at all.
I'd love to hear people's takes on these issues and ways to remedy them.
Another question: Is the staccato slurs not a form of non-legato notation?
For starting a piece at the correct dynamic level: Place hands in starting position. Make sure your fingers are connected to the keys. Play the FIRST note only. Listen to the dynamic level and determine if it is correct. Then repeat and drill, with FIRST note only. No other notes. Adjust until you can play that first note consistently. Notice that your dynamic level has a certain kinisthetic feel. Some dynamics you will need to sink into the keys, some will require a specific articulation, some will need a firm touch, some a lighter touch. Once this is consistent, the other notes flow much easier with the correct dynamic level. Drill daily until rock solid.
One of the reasons I’m still self-taught is that I can’t find a local teacher even remotely as good.
And I’ve tried.
Thank you, John.
So... how do you play slur-staccato ?
Close to non legato, notes still separate but held back a little bit depending on the notated duration.
Dr. Mortensen, can I become an affiliate of your Thinkific courses? Would be glad.
Later in life Debussy said that Reverie was "a work of no consequence and...absolutely no good" and regretted that it had ever been published. From: _The Piano Works of Claude Debussy_ by E. Robert Schmitz.
❤what is the name of the piece it is lovely.
Debussy - Rêverie
One thing I am really good at. I realise this why people liked my playing whatever other faults I have.
Like singing the tenor 'tune' then he did it. 😊
Is that Debussy Reverie?
Indeed
s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/9/97/IMSLP14012-Debussy_-_R%C3%AAverie_(piano).pdf
Is your "struggling student" version representative of some of your university students? Because I'd assume that even a beginning college student majoring would have worked on voicing before.
Most pre college teachers don’t know what voicing is, so professors get to introduce it.
@@carolpdx7That's shocking! I'm self taught, mostly through some method books and a lot of TH-cam piano teachers, but the ones I've followed have stressed voicing, dynamics, phrasing, because these are techniques that benefit from good, early habits. That's crazy to me that taught students might reach college-level without them!
The worst dynamics I ever heard in my life was from a college student who aced thus bypassed all of music theory and was chosen as 1st piano player in jazz ensemble yet had zero expressionistic playing ability. She must have had many years of dedicated piano tutoring in hs years but had zero musicality to her playing, her entire 1st year of college, not sure what happened after that, hope she improved, otherwise ...it just was not "music" being played.
@@Stupoider thought the same! I've been playing for one year and know about it (but am doing it ofc not very well yet haha)
It depends on the teacher and the student. Most students, if they started at a very young age, will probably quit by the time they reach intermediate, or high school anyway. Then you have students who enjoy playing, maybe accompanying their friends or playing a little recital. Their teachers will probably emphasize learning a wide variety of music, going from era to era, in which case a student might learn very basic voicing. You always get taught to “ bring out the melody,” for example. But if you have a prodigy, a student who is going to practice 40 hours a day and love every minute of it, their teachers will notice that, and move into more advanced areas, such as voicing. Such students often don’t wind up in a regular college music program, they will end up at a music conservatory. And they will wind up competing, where voicing becomes very important. Often the way pianists distinguish themselves is by the choices they make in terms of voicing. Audiences love to hear familiar pieces; they also love to hear new things in those familiar pieces, and if a pianist can bring out a new voice, essentially a new melody, in a piece that’s been heard 100 times, that’s kind of exciting.
Good points and thanks on voicing.
But the very concept of bowing is alien to a pianist. Was Debussy not aware that he was writing for the piano . . . but how does 'bowing' even make sense on a piano?
Most of the famous composers lived in a world of music, surrounded at all times by many musicians playing all instruments, going to concerts and operas frequently, and writing for a variety of ensembles every day. It would not occur to them that anyone would play the piano and not know about scoring for other instruments.
Super content. Thank you.
I thought this would be called Velocity or Expression? Whereas Voicing is choosing order and spacing of notes in a sonority.
Great demo with real example and bowing on piano. No right foot pedal discussion though? Use of pedal would be interpreted by performer I assume, sounds like it.
I am, of course, disabled (paresis of the hands), on my left hand I have “lost motor skills” in the third finger (like paralysis). This finger falls out due to “muscle memory”. And only actively can I play a note with the third finger.It sounds to me like you showed case 2 🤷🏻♀️. I try to change fingers (without the third left).
Maybe try writing and playing your own music, which is possible to perform as you desire, rather than playing other peoples music, if it is not physically possible... many artists have excelled at their own unique sound, in that way.