Relaxed hand position. Playing with your arms, shoulders, and wrist. SLOW practice. Think about one note at a time. If one were to follow these priniciples and practices you laid out in just under 11 minutes, they would have a proper foundation to play anything they truly WANT to play.
Yep, I started when I was 5 and I’ve had 4 teachers and all of them emphasised slow practice but only the fourth (who was a former concert pianist) ever emphasised relaxed natural hand position, using gravity and natural weight from the arms and bigger muscles rather than pressing from the wrists and fingers so my technique was garbage until I was about 18 and couldn’t really play anything decently above the level of the middle movement from Beethoven’s Pathetique sonata and Mozart Turkish March. Now i am playing Chopin and Liszt etudes a few years later. My fourth teacher as well as PIANOLAB (who also teaches and emphasises this sort of natural relaxed technique) and closely observing concert pianists on TH-cam has transformed my playing. This guy is bang on the money.
@@sacrilegiousboi978 - what a great success story! There is a rich treasure trove of knowledge on TH-cam videos. Things I might never have known about or explored arrive on my home page. I’m not usually enterprising enough to go to the library, but I will click a video that looks interesting.
As a piano teacher the "telling them to slow down" is spot on. I feel like sometimes I am getting paid to just repeat and repeat "slow down!" I blame the anxiety and speed in today's society standards, where everything has to be immediate or it is discarded. Playing the piano should feel easy and effortless, as the excellent Kenny Werner advised in his book "Effortless Mastery".
ahaha. Let me change your mind a little bit. Younger students (15 below) are always very excited to perform music, as they should. Every kid is typically very curious and excited about everything. To them, practicing slowly seems like it kills the creativity and the art of music. So basically, it kills the fun for them. While I am yet to find an effective method of getting younger students to practice slower, I don't really think that our society is the MAIN reason for their impatience.
As a self taught, making sure I’m actually effectively using what you are discussing, is kinda hard for me to gauge. However, it is videos like these that have helped me develop my technique thus far. So thank you for sharing your piano expiration and wisdom!
MMilr L "Self-taught" is a misnomer, as no one is really self-taught. "Self-directed" is a more accurate term. If you've read books or watched videos to learn how to play, those people who wrote the books and made the videos are your teachers.
I started playing piano at age 18. I have had 4 piano teachers in 30 years and not one of them taught me about had position like you just did. Thank you! I will continue to follow or videos
especially the first one, which is very close to swing. haven't seen or be thought the second one though. I mean the rhythm exists for sure, but I have not practiced scales or arpeggios with it.
Jazz can get pretty fast at 200bpm you don't have time to really count it out you have to feel it. Think about improvisations over a jazz scale at that speed. Applied application of the exercise
@@danieljohnson411 At faster speeds in jazz you're not really playing the swing rhythm at all, just accenting in a certain way. Also this wouldn't be for jazz swing feel in general, because it's more of a triplet-based feel than dotted quaver
YES! THANK YOU. This is precisely the reason why I made this video. I didn't know this either until I was like 17 years old. So I'm so glad that I could be of help.
Honestly lad, respect the confidence in your abilities. Also, yeah, as someone who's been studying music for longer than a decade, from my pre-teen years to mid-way through my 20's, with something so often open to different interpretations and explanations, having a stream of different reasonings by a variety of teachers can be a fucking nightmare. Also, as a former guitarist turned pianist looking to get back to his teacher, this video is so relevant to me it's scary. I'd looked into Taubman, rotation, circling, releasing the hand, bouncing the wrist etc. and was still struggling with tension, particularly when circling and rotating. I realised I wasn't keeping the natural hand position. I was allowing the knuckles to decompress rather than keep that natural arch, where they're slightly raised. And pulling the muscles and tendons because of it. Subbed instantly. Your humour is on point and I would love to see as many insights as possible. Also the algorithm clearly stalks me as I've been saturating my TH-cam time with the Chopin Institute.
I like the bluntness of the title. The video got a little off topic from the title, but it’s nice to just see the honesty of “here’s why I’m better than you- I do things that you don’t. If you want to play like me, do some of these things.” I feel like that attitude is rare in the piano community because it’s not “proper” or “nice”, but not all piano students respond well to the same instruction. Personally, I find more direct, blunt, honest advice more helpful and challenging to me than just kind encouragement from a piano teacher who never pushes me to progress. Keep up the good work with the good videos, I have no doubt your channel will grow significantly. You got a subscribe from me.
I knew a lot of this stuff already from my research but I think this is all really great advice and stuff that like you said: will dramatically change how good you become. Awesome vid!
Sean Kim, thank you very much for this video. I was never taught to use gravity. I can play a Chopin scherzo but never had the passages at concert standard tempo. I just had a practice session and I can feel how the legato comes easy and I get the sound I want with little regulations from the bicep and forearm, but avoiding pushing forward as I did before and remembering to go down to the key using natural gravity, thanks again I'll follow you right now.
I JUST started playing piano 3 days ago(21 year old) and your videos are like the only ones that actually make perfect sense to me. Can't wait to tryout your advice tomorrow. Thanks bro🙏🏿🙌🏿
It takes real courage to drop the weight of your whole arm and hand into the respective key. But it's worth learning and practicing! With this technique you can skip years of relatively fruitless practice. By the way, this is also the basis of the Russian piano school. Some of the greatest pianists have come out of it.
It's so true There's absolutely no point of gate keeping on the piano. The amount of work it takes to become great is a barriy to entry, it becomes your whole life. No way around it. If you don't dedicate the time, it will never happen !
Practice is 1 thing. I've seen some people who don't like music from the beginning. Their parents got them enrolled in a music program or with a private teacher. After a year or 2 they quit. Learning pieces at home is 1 thing. Many people practice pieces for a week and only play in front of a teacher. They need to be playing in front of relatives, friends & other people. Otherwise learning music turn into exercises and people don't enjoy the experience.
I'm studying Chopin 10/4. It's stupidly annoying. Especially the left hand runs I've spent countless hours on to make even and audible, trying to bring out the articulated tonality within the piece. This video opened up a new dimension for me. Thanks Sean!
Chopin 10 no. 4 is Chopin's take of Cznery's finger excercises! He purposely wrote it like that so that you can develop good left-hand fingers! So keep practicing 😂
That’s actually so cool. I did suspect that it would apply to most instruments that require finger dexterity. But its awesome to hear some good feedback from a harpist!
I always tell people that if the Piano were to come alive and play something, what it would play would sound like Chopin. No one's captured the heart and soul of the instrument like that man.
This was an almost random seeming suggestion to me - I usually watch Chess and just plain music theory content, or acoustic guitar stuff. This is really great advice for any musician, though, and you paced your video really well. I bet this helps a lot of people. Doing my +1 to get this circulating to more aspiring musicians. PRACTICE SLOW. This is true of other instruments and vocals as well, folks!
Do you also practice trills, tremolos etc. this way? See, I find it very difficult to rely mainly on weight if that weight needs to be rapidly alternated between two fingers. Three is fine, but two just confuses me and I always end up playing trills mainly with finger strength
Yes. I didn't get to quite cover this in this video. But trills, staccatos and scales (played fast) are played with the finger strength mainly because there isn't enough time for you to put your full weight into each note. I didn't really want to talk about this in the video as I will confuse most people. But that's kind of the next step of all of this. However, this doesn't discredit the value of using your weight to play. You need utilise your hand weight THEN use finger strength.
Thanks for the tips! I've been working on keeping my hands relaxed as much as possible and I notice it actually helps with speed (which almost seems counterintuitive to me). One thing that I notice now that I'm getting a little bit further in my piano studies is that my hands are much more tense when I'm playing chords vs individual notes (Especially anything that is an octave or higher). Is there anything you recommend to help with keeping my hands/body more relaxed when playing chords?
yes definitely! that happens from the inevitable stretching of your hand to be able to reach the chord. I would suggest to hold the chord down (make sure all of the notes are fully played), and while you're holding the keys, you practice relaxing. Do this with every chord. SLOWLY. Relax ur wrists, elbows and shoulders. I hope this helps.
I’m sorry to hear that. I find that teaching something to someone else is one of the most effective ways to make that idea your own though. Maybe you could have a go at teaching the points I made to your son yourself? 😊
Subscribed! You mean to tell me you didn't just wake up one day and get good at piano? I thought it was a "gift" 😅 The "gift" is being able to have the internal motivation to succeed at the instrument as well as having both the desire and time to practice the right things, consistently, for years and being able to give yourself permission to suck for a while until you get good. Joe Rogan said this in one of his podcasts when asked how he got good at comedy: give yourself the permission to suck for a while! Digital pianos and headphones are great for this reason. Your neighbors and roomates probably don't want to hear you messing up "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" because you eventually want to learn to play Chopin or become the next Elton John.
Liszt understood the piano better, he literally brought out so many techniques of the piano, that even Chopin could not. Chopin may have been the king of arpeggios, but Liszt made thematic transformation. His hands were so long and big he could make chords other composers could not. He played so compassionately to the point he broke strings during his performances.
Great Advice!! Do you always practice at the same slow speed? Do you increase the speed at which you practice? For example in the etude that you showed, the practice tempo and target tempo are very different, how do you go from slow practice to the fast tempo that you are targetting? Thanks!
The "don't play with your fingers" kinda confused me. My teacher kept telling me to play with my back and not my fingers and I was like what the heck am I supposed to do. This helps a bit lol
I've been told this before as well. What they mean is: use your arm weight to play, but your fingers must be strong enough to support the entire weight of you arm. ps. if you keep your back loose and round, you will find that your 3,4,5 fingers gain more dexterity instantly.
So curious to listen in, but kids around here so I will circle back so they don't colour the playground with some f*** bombs! Looks like you've got some great advice to offer.
As a self-taught guitarist i can tell you that "proper techniques" can be achieved by, yeah, just practicing long enough... I doubt most of the "shredders" got more out of someone watching over their practice sessions, than woodshedding for years with patterns all over the fretboard, working all the fingerings imaginable to man. Legato/staccato playing is the result of imitating the sound you like by transcribing.
Maybe he mentions the specific dotted rhythm just by 2 notes. Doing groups of 4 or 6 and stopping at different notes is a different thing in my opinion and that is useful
So where do i begin? For now I’ve just been learning to read sheet music and then practicing my favorite songs by sight reading. I don’t have much time to practice, when i go back to uni i only play an hour a week. What is the most important thing to practice so that I say a year or so, i’ll be 10x better? Should i just look up legato and staccato and do those?
People think music is linear and it has one right path/ one right answer to everything. I can't answer this question because you have to be good at everything 😭. if you just practice songs, technicality will come and bite you someday. if you just practice romantic music, Bach will be come and haunt you in your dreams. My point is that your practice should consist of a balance of all these things. This is why there are no such things as shortcuts in classical music. If you want the best results, practice the fundamentals: scales, etudes, Mozart sonatas, Bach inventions etc. And play them super slowly. It'll feel like you're getting nowhere but later on, your progression will become exponential because you'll have a solid foundation.
,.,., 2.6k-6d "If you don't do this you won't be able to play Flight of the Bumblebee faster than a kid with Cerebral Palsy" This is the kind of humour that gets me on the floor, one of the best piano related videos I've ever seen. Keep it up.
Every bad habit develops by you neglecting that specific part (whether conscious or unconscious). So although it’s very daunting, you have to force yourself to read the notes one by one. Do this enough times and you’ll be able to fix the problem. Ofc this is much easier said than done.
Great video! Even after playing for like 20 years and having taking lessons, I have a hard time following the slow advice which ends up biting me in the ass later. Too tempting to just produce nice sounding music right away. 😆
Though I have been playing piano for the past 7 years im still in grade 3 as i lost a lot of years switching teachers :( So I'm between beginner and intermediate and I only have 3 years left until i graduate :( So what should I really focus on to become advanced in piano in little time ? I practice everyday but im improving quite slowly.. what should I do?
Should my arm/shoulder be sore if ii am playing it right? Like as if it’s more of a shoulder and ii am controlling my shoulder to hit the notes of the keys?
Im 59 years old... I've been learning the keboard for one year. Since time is of the essence are there any short cuts to becoming a very well player.... self-taught by a teacher off TH-cam...Mangold
Good keyboards do their best to mimic the touch of grand pianos. I think very cheap (relative to grand pianos) keyboards are so bad to develop your technique on. Cos there’s virtually zero resistance to the fingers when pressed. But mid to high ranged keyboards are essentially just what you make of it until you reach a certain point.
@@seankimmmmmm yeah, my friend at conservatoire often has to practice on his own tiny portable electric keyboard with zero resistance in his dorm because the practice rooms at our conservatoire are often taken (there’s so few that we have to book them more than a week in advance to get a chance and we are limited to 2 hours a day!) many musicians practice in the bathroom/hallway lol… anyways, luckily I have a decent electric with lots of resistance at home (so much so that Scarlatti k141 repeated notes are almost impossible lmao…), when I played on a Steinway D once I was blown away how easy it was because the action was so light in comparison!
@@sacrilegiousboi978 wow I can’t believe that there are musicians that practice in bathrooms. That level of dedication is really inspiring. I’ve gotten in trouble so much, so many times for using the Steinways at my uni for my personal practice 😂 I’ll pray for the day that each and one of us has a Steinway D and a stradivarius to practice on 🙏
mmm i don't think much of up and down with my wrists to play a note unless i need additional force to put into it, i think much of shifting the weight of the arm from a finger to another
actually thats accurate. The way I explained it in the video is catered down for the 7, 8 year olds I teach on a weekly basis. It's not easy trying to explain this to a general audience.
what about the ending of op 2 no 1 by beethoven it is marked ff and the notes are staccato, how would you play those staying on keys and using fingers and lfiting up very fast?
You have to involve your core and back and shoulders in many instances of playing dynamical piano. Lot of players don't learn the tool of fast twitch with their core.
For example, if you’re playing a chord: try to relax while you’re still holding the notes down. If you feel your shoulders, elbows and wrists going down, that means you weren’t fully relaxed when you first played the note.
I have done 3 years of piano with a good teacher, but never reached any chopin piano etudes ( i was doing the First trascendental of liszt if i m not mistaken, the raindrop prelude of Chopin and an allemande by Bach) What do i Need to do in order to start practicing an etude by myself? Can i do It? It s reasonable to do It? I want to Better my playing, It has stopped becoming Better since i left music school
Believe it or not, sometimes ambition and ego are the two biggest downfall for an intermediate level musician. Of course you have to be ambitious to improve, but it should be in the right context. I would highly recommend that you start your first Chopin etude with a teacher. I want to be as encouraging as possible but I’ve seen too many people trying to run before they can barely walk. So just be cautious and mindful of this!
How do you play these advanced long pieces of classical music live or recording them in a studio without making any mistakes is what always confuses me, let’s take the ballad no.4 by Chopin you performed, even with years and years practice you can’t foresee slip ups and mistakes surely, nerves etc.. playing perfectly for 10 mins straight and then having to hold your nerve in the final minute which also happens to be the hardest part… it’s a nightmare performing piano flawlessly.
yes I agree completely. Those slip ups are inevitable even for professional concert pianists. It happens once every now and then. but my experience was that if you mess up enough times, you eventually learn through experience. I feel like taking a probiotic tablet whenever I reflect back on my past performance horrors because I cringe so hard that I get indigestion. I lose sleep over those memories. So frankly, I'm just very determined and motivated to never experience that again. But jokes aside, your mental and emotional control is the most important thing. So I tend to practice self composure/self control even during my practice sessions leading up to a performance. To be honest, I'm just glad that someone appreciates that nightmare of a coda I have to prepare. So thank you. 😂
Ofc start off with reading separate hands. But in terms if fluency, I really can’t tell you much except practice until you get there. (Which means practice a lot) ahaha
Hi Sean, when you mentioned staccato starting at key surface, does that apply to trills? I see people doing a sort of trampoline in an out of trills. I keep struggling with trills.
Same thing! You have to use ur arm and body weight to play but your fingers should be strong enough to support the weight on the keys. That means always having curved fingers without collapsing under the pressure of the arm weight.
10:11 this is interesting. you slowed down on the descent, which means it's possible that you struggle with the descent more than the ascent. it's the opposite for me, my descent is really even and comfortable but my ascent is all messed up
It may seem like I slowed down, but I was actually making sure that I had my 5th finger anchored down. Having a strong 5th finger is the key to playing Chopin op. 10 no. 1!
THE MOST important advice........ PRACTICE. Sub'd. 😁 There are no "tricks" or "hacks." It's all about practice. Knowledge doesn't help you at ALL if you can't execute it.
tbh, I think the Taubman is the exact same approach just phrase differently 😂 Although everyone's hand is different and you can't make generalised assumptions in music, it seems like we have figured out the most optimal way of playing the piano.
Yep. Your teacher is 100% correct. I didn’t have time to explain it in the video, but slow practice should include every nuances such as rhythm, dynamics, articulation etc. The notes itself are only small one aspect of the whole painting.
Insuring that: 1. you can play the correct notes when played slowly. 2. When you do play slowly, you make sure that you're actually putting the full weight of your hand into that note. Practice like this 9/10 and you'll be able to play the correct notes on your 10th run-through.
For some reason my left hand has significant struggle to alternate between the index and middle finger. I’ve picked the piano back this year, so I don’t know if my absence of practice is the cause :/ Edit: to be specific, it’s like they’re shaking ever so slightly even if they’re relaxed and I try to move slowly
There are several causes for this, here are the most common: 1. Lack of dexterity while forcing the hands to carry out tasks they aren't ready for. 1.A. Simply look into physical therapy exercises that work well for your hands. 2.Overwhelming adrenaline taxing your hands too much. 2.A. Work on breathing exercises, promote healthy circulation in the hands. 2.B. Practice and think slowly until you figure out how to nip it internally. 3. Pattern confusion. 3.A. If your conscious is interpretting something differently than how you are teaching the hands, the result is a big mess. All-in-all you need to practice your scales/arpeggios in all 4 physical motions, but that is just what a "teacher perspective" would suggest. The truth is, individuals must develop a relationship with their piano. The hands must learn to flow with each other (Something bach makes an extreme point of promoting.) Like using a right handed mouse with your left hand, you typically have to view the left hands middle finger as an equal to the right hands index finger. The same applies to piano, it doesn't just "happen" but we have to absolutely train it into a feeling in which does not require conscious thought anymore. A lot of people try to jump into piano with rather lackluster base dexterity. Not many people are just "born with great dexterous hands" In fact maybe 1 in billions truly are. Most work very hard for said dexterity by starting with baby steps, snail paces, and MANY self-made obstacles. The number one key to getting yourself motivated? Do what you want to do within reason, not what people suggest that you do. The more fun you have when learning, the more you can dedicate to it more often.
@@lowfpsgamer1237 wow thanks a lot for this information! I think for this week I’ll just work on my finger dexterity like scales/arpeggios so it can catch up with my right hand (also gonna be using the tips mentioned in the video).
Relaxed hand position. Playing with your arms, shoulders, and wrist. SLOW practice. Think about one note at a time. If one were to follow these priniciples and practices you laid out in just under 11 minutes, they would have a proper foundation to play anything they truly WANT to play.
Yep, I started when I was 5 and I’ve had 4 teachers and all of them emphasised slow practice but only the fourth (who was a former concert pianist) ever emphasised relaxed natural hand position, using gravity and natural weight from the arms and bigger muscles rather than pressing from the wrists and fingers so my technique was garbage until I was about 18 and couldn’t really play anything decently above the level of the middle movement from Beethoven’s Pathetique sonata and Mozart Turkish March. Now i am playing Chopin and Liszt etudes a few years later. My fourth teacher as well as PIANOLAB (who also teaches and emphasises this sort of natural relaxed technique) and closely observing concert pianists on TH-cam has transformed my playing. This guy is bang on the money.
@@sacrilegiousboi978 - what a great success story! There is a rich treasure trove of knowledge on TH-cam videos. Things I might never have known about or explored arrive on my home page. I’m not usually enterprising enough to go to the library, but I will click a video that looks interesting.
Maybe not 1 note at a time for sight reading
Thinking about one note at a time is a lot less efficient and practical than grouping. This is coming from someone actively learning piano.
Outstanding. Very solid and detailed information. Thank you.
As a piano teacher the "telling them to slow down" is spot on. I feel like sometimes I am getting paid to just repeat and repeat "slow down!" I blame the anxiety and speed in today's society standards, where everything has to be immediate or it is discarded. Playing the piano should feel easy and effortless, as the excellent Kenny Werner advised in his book "Effortless Mastery".
ahaha. Let me change your mind a little bit. Younger students (15 below) are always very excited to perform music, as they should. Every kid is typically very curious and excited about everything. To them, practicing slowly seems like it kills the creativity and the art of music. So basically, it kills the fun for them. While I am yet to find an effective method of getting younger students to practice slower, I don't really think that our society is the MAIN reason for their impatience.
As a self taught, making sure I’m actually effectively using what you are discussing, is kinda hard for me to gauge. However, it is videos like these that have helped me develop my technique thus far. So thank you for sharing your piano expiration and wisdom!
MMilr L "Self-taught" is a misnomer, as no one is really self-taught. "Self-directed" is a more accurate term. If you've read books or watched videos to learn how to play, those people
who wrote the books and made the videos are your teachers.
@@victoza9232 I agree, but it’s easier to say self-taught because everyone just understands it as you did.
I started playing piano at age 18. I have had 4 piano teachers in 30 years and not one of them taught me about had position like you just did. Thank you! I will continue to follow or videos
Two dotted rythyms do have a purpose. Helps with feeling those rhythms especially in jazz type music.
Fair point
especially the first one, which is very close to swing. haven't seen or be thought the second one though. I mean the rhythm exists for sure, but I have not practiced scales or arpeggios with it.
I thought it was about training quicker movements, while still in small chunks that you can take slowly
Jazz can get pretty fast at 200bpm you don't have time to really count it out you have to feel it. Think about improvisations over a jazz scale at that speed. Applied application of the exercise
@@danieljohnson411 At faster speeds in jazz you're not really playing the swing rhythm at all, just accenting in a certain way.
Also this wouldn't be for jazz swing feel in general, because it's more of a triplet-based feel than dotted quaver
Starting at 36 just out of love ❤thank you
I didn't realize how tense my fingers were till I started watching this video. Now I got to learn the Chopin method.
YES! THANK YOU. This is precisely the reason why I made this video. I didn't know this either until I was like 17 years old. So I'm so glad that I could be of help.
What pieces did you play when you were 15? Would be really interesting
@@S1st3 I remember that my biggest pieces from when I was 15 were: Brahms sonata no. 3 and Chopin etude no. 25 no. 12
Honestly lad, respect the confidence in your abilities. Also, yeah, as someone who's been studying music for longer than a decade, from my pre-teen years to mid-way through my 20's, with something so often open to different interpretations and explanations, having a stream of different reasonings by a variety of teachers can be a fucking nightmare. Also, as a former guitarist turned pianist looking to get back to his teacher, this video is so relevant to me it's scary. I'd looked into Taubman, rotation, circling, releasing the hand, bouncing the wrist etc. and was still struggling with tension, particularly when circling and rotating. I realised I wasn't keeping the natural hand position. I was allowing the knuckles to decompress rather than keep that natural arch, where they're slightly raised. And pulling the muscles and tendons because of it. Subbed instantly. Your humour is on point and I would love to see as many insights as possible.
Also the algorithm clearly stalks me as I've been saturating my TH-cam time with the Chopin Institute.
thank you for your support. I really appreciate it.
@@seankimmmmmm Thank you for the content!
What did you think of Taubman and Zhdanov?
I like the bluntness of the title. The video got a little off topic from the title, but it’s nice to just see the honesty of “here’s why I’m better than you- I do things that you don’t. If you want to play like me, do some of these things.”
I feel like that attitude is rare in the piano community because it’s not “proper” or “nice”, but not all piano students respond well to the same instruction. Personally, I find more direct, blunt, honest advice more helpful and challenging to me than just kind encouragement from a piano teacher who never pushes me to progress.
Keep up the good work with the good videos, I have no doubt your channel will grow significantly. You got a subscribe from me.
I knew a lot of this stuff already from my research but I think this is all really great advice and stuff that like you said: will dramatically change how good you become. Awesome vid!
I am here for this unencumbered confidence and energy. Keep it up king.
INCREDIBLE tips. Thanks for your great pedagogy and super good energy in this video !
I just played piano in my 40s. I agree >>> we have to practice. ^_^ I enjoyed watching your TH-cam.
Sean Kim, thank you very much for this video. I was never taught to use gravity. I can play a Chopin scherzo but never had the passages at concert standard tempo. I just had a practice session and I can feel how the legato comes easy and I get the sound I want with little regulations from the bicep and forearm, but avoiding pushing forward as I did before and remembering to go down to the key using natural gravity, thanks again I'll follow you right now.
I JUST started playing piano 3 days ago(21 year old) and your videos are like the only ones that actually make perfect sense to me. Can't wait to tryout your advice tomorrow. Thanks bro🙏🏿🙌🏿
I’m excited for you 👏
It takes real courage to drop the weight of your whole arm and hand into the respective key. But it's worth learning and practicing! With this technique you can skip years of relatively fruitless practice. By the way, this is also the basis of the Russian piano school. Some of the greatest pianists have come out of it.
@@peterstadler6217 very true
Yes, yes, yes to everything you say here. A jewel of a Video, rare on TH-cam nowadays.
As a fellow piano teacher, this ^^
Everything you said is spot on. (Except the bit about the dotted eight-sixteenth rhythm being useless) :-)
Thank You :)
First time I see you .subscribed
Thank you for advice
I will try it thanks
Love the honest tips! keep the videos coming. i need all the motivation and tips i can get while learning piano :D
I knew all those hours in rise of kingdoms would pay off!!
It's so true
There's absolutely no point of gate keeping on the piano. The amount of work it takes to become great is a barriy to entry, it becomes your whole life. No way around it. If you don't dedicate the time, it will never happen !
So you’re the Asian guy everyone in the world talks about. No matter how hard we try, Asian guy is always better
im pre much a pro pianist after this tutorial!
bahahaha thats good to hear! 😂
Bro keep making vids your persona is amazing your channel will grow very fast I promise
thank you, I appreciate it
I play the guitar can this be applied to the guitar to?
kinda yeah. having the right hand in its natural position is good
Yes. This translates very well to guitar.
yup, follow the leadership, be proactive, be an entrepreneur, monetize music, and sure you will be fine
this comment is meant to be sarcastic
@@winterheat Then what's your point?
thank you very much for this content, pretty useful
Practice is 1 thing. I've seen some people who don't like music from the beginning. Their parents got them enrolled in a music program or with a private teacher. After a year or 2 they quit. Learning pieces at home is 1 thing. Many people practice pieces for a week and only play in front of a teacher. They need to be playing in front of relatives, friends & other people. Otherwise learning music turn into exercises and people don't enjoy the experience.
I'm studying Chopin 10/4. It's stupidly annoying. Especially the left hand runs I've spent countless hours on to make even and audible, trying to bring out the articulated tonality within the piece. This video opened up a new dimension for me. Thanks Sean!
you might not be ready for it yet, which is totally okay
Chopin 10 no. 4 is Chopin's take of Cznery's finger excercises! He purposely wrote it like that so that you can develop good left-hand fingers! So keep practicing 😂
@@seankimmmmmm Ofc man every day! Thanks for putting out good content :)
Practice practice practice!
yessir. practice like your life depends on it. cos it will for me.. 🥲
this is great. I'm going to steal some ideas for my own teaching studio lol
Omg fanchen 😳😳
No way its you 😂😂 I remember watching your rush e video and thinking “this guy has insane technique”. What an honour 🙏
No way I found you 💀
thanks 👍🏽🤝🏽
no, thank you
Great lesson. Thank you!
Thank you! I'm learning harp and some much of what you said about practice transfers to harp. Really appreciate your sharing.
That’s actually so cool. I did suspect that it would apply to most instruments that require finger dexterity. But its awesome to hear some good feedback from a harpist!
I always tell people that if the Piano were to come alive and play something, what it would play would sound like Chopin. No one's captured the heart and soul of the instrument like that man.
Great advice. You definitively deserve a broader audience!
I want to support you so I subscribed! :)
Cmon pastor 🙌
This was an almost random seeming suggestion to me - I usually watch Chess and just plain music theory content, or acoustic guitar stuff.
This is really great advice for any musician, though, and you paced your video really well. I bet this helps a lot of people. Doing my +1 to get this circulating to more aspiring musicians.
PRACTICE SLOW. This is true of other instruments and vocals as well, folks!
Yoo i watch chess too! I recommend watching Daniel Naroditsky he has very useful advice and profound opening theory tips
Thank you sir! My main repertoire is the caro kann
Oh interesting, i use Sicilian defense. Hopefully we match up one day and fight til Death!
Teach me senpai 🙏😎
great video man keep it up
Do you also practice trills, tremolos etc. this way? See, I find it very difficult to rely mainly on weight if that weight needs to be rapidly alternated between two fingers. Three is fine, but two just confuses me and I always end up playing trills mainly with finger strength
Yes. I didn't get to quite cover this in this video. But trills, staccatos and scales (played fast) are played with the finger strength mainly because there isn't enough time for you to put your full weight into each note. I didn't really want to talk about this in the video as I will confuse most people. But that's kind of the next step of all of this.
However, this doesn't discredit the value of using your weight to play. You need utilise your hand weight THEN use finger strength.
Thanks for the tips! I've been working on keeping my hands relaxed as much as possible and I notice it actually helps with speed (which almost seems counterintuitive to me). One thing that I notice now that I'm getting a little bit further in my piano studies is that my hands are much more tense when I'm playing chords vs individual notes (Especially anything that is an octave or higher). Is there anything you recommend to help with keeping my hands/body more relaxed when playing chords?
yes definitely! that happens from the inevitable stretching of your hand to be able to reach the chord. I would suggest to hold the chord down (make sure all of the notes are fully played), and while you're holding the keys, you practice relaxing. Do this with every chord. SLOWLY. Relax ur wrists, elbows and shoulders. I hope this helps.
@@seankimmmmmm Thanks!
Good pointers! I would have shared your video with my son (especially the part about practice) but can't due to the languarge.
I’m sorry to hear that. I find that teaching something to someone else is one of the most effective ways to make that idea your own though. Maybe you could have a go at teaching the points I made to your son yourself? 😊
Subscribed! You mean to tell me you didn't just wake up one day and get good at piano? I thought it was a "gift" 😅 The "gift" is being able to have the internal motivation to succeed at the instrument as well as having both the desire and time to practice the right things, consistently, for years and being able to give yourself permission to suck for a while until you get good. Joe Rogan said this in one of his podcasts when asked how he got good at comedy: give yourself the permission to suck for a while! Digital pianos and headphones are great for this reason. Your neighbors and roomates probably don't want to hear you messing up "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" because you eventually want to learn to play Chopin or become the next Elton John.
Mr Sean Kim do you love playing ? As long as you love it play from your ❤ and just play .
Bro should’ve hidden his eyes for the thumbnail, it gave it all away
Dotted rhythm practice can help with position change problems
Just bought a piano, haven't played since I was a kid (decades ago) so this was very timely and great information. Hope I can do it correctly.
Thats good to hear you’re giving it another go. Good luck!
Liszt understood the piano better, he literally brought out so many techniques of the piano, that even Chopin could not. Chopin may have been the king of arpeggios, but Liszt made thematic transformation. His hands were so long and big he could make chords other composers could not. He played so compassionately to the point he broke strings during his performances.
I disagree on the dotted rhythms though. I find them very useful for smoothing out uneven playing.
Great Advice!! Do you always practice at the same slow speed? Do you increase the speed at which you practice? For example in the etude that you showed, the practice tempo and target tempo are very different, how do you go from slow practice to the fast tempo that you are targetting? Thanks!
The "don't play with your fingers" kinda confused me. My teacher kept telling me to play with my back and not my fingers and I was like what the heck am I supposed to do.
This helps a bit lol
I've been told this before as well. What they mean is: use your arm weight to play, but your fingers must be strong enough to support the entire weight of you arm. ps. if you keep your back loose and round, you will find that your 3,4,5 fingers gain more dexterity instantly.
I agree, except for the rythms, they help a lot to increase the tempo
So curious to listen in, but kids around here so I will circle back so they don't colour the playground with some f*** bombs! Looks like you've got some great advice to offer.
Aw, love Chopin too!
Edgy, but awesome. Great video.
YES. Love hearing about arm weight here and know lots of aspiring pianists will listen up when they hear it from you!
This title really spoke to me haha very good!
Great no nonsens video!
As a self-taught guitarist i can tell you that "proper techniques" can be achieved by, yeah, just practicing long enough... I doubt most of the "shredders" got more out of someone watching over their practice sessions, than woodshedding for years with patterns all over the fretboard, working all the fingerings imaginable to man. Legato/staccato playing is the result of imitating the sound you like by transcribing.
Wild title
Practice dotted rhythm is very useful in achieving even running notes! I am surprised why you say it's useless.
Maybe he mentions the specific dotted rhythm just by 2 notes. Doing groups of 4 or 6 and stopping at different notes is a different thing in my opinion and that is useful
if i relax my fingers and arm while holding a note the weight of the other fingers press the other notes
So where do i begin? For now I’ve just been learning to read sheet music and then practicing my favorite songs by sight reading. I don’t have much time to practice, when i go back to uni i only play an hour a week. What is the most important thing to practice so that I say a year or so, i’ll be 10x better? Should i just look up legato and staccato and do those?
People think music is linear and it has one right path/ one right answer to everything. I can't answer this question because you have to be good at everything 😭. if you just practice songs, technicality will come and bite you someday. if you just practice romantic music, Bach will be come and haunt you in your dreams. My point is that your practice should consist of a balance of all these things. This is why there are no such things as shortcuts in classical music.
If you want the best results, practice the fundamentals: scales, etudes, Mozart sonatas, Bach inventions etc. And play them super slowly. It'll feel like you're getting nowhere but later on, your progression will become exponential because you'll have a solid foundation.
Very good video.
,.,., 2.6k-6d
"If you don't do this you won't be able to play Flight of the Bumblebee faster than a kid with Cerebral Palsy"
This is the kind of humour that gets me on the floor, one of the best piano related videos I've ever seen. Keep it up.
I like your sense of humour.
Please help with keeping your eyes on the music and don't rely on memorizing the piece (reading music faster).
Every bad habit develops by you neglecting that specific part (whether conscious or unconscious). So although it’s very daunting, you have to force yourself to read the notes one by one. Do this enough times and you’ll be able to fix the problem. Ofc this is much easier said than done.
Great video! Even after playing for like 20 years and having taking lessons, I have a hard time following the slow advice which ends up biting me in the ass later. Too tempting to just produce nice sounding music right away. 😆
All of us struggle with that ahaha 😂 unfortunately there’s no such thing as short cuts in classical music
Hey bro, great vid. I d like you to be more thorough about staccato technique, that shit makes my wrists hurt a little (while legato doesn’t anymore)
Though I have been playing piano for the past 7 years im still in grade 3 as i lost a lot of years switching teachers :(
So I'm between beginner and intermediate and I only have 3 years left until i graduate :(
So what should I really focus on to become advanced in piano in little time ? I practice everyday but im improving quite slowly.. what should I do?
I made another video on this: th-cam.com/video/33qZYTEsHag/w-d-xo.htmlsi=A1rQ_odx6FU3kqVM
I’m sorry for the late reply, but I hope this will help
Should my arm/shoulder be sore if ii am playing it right? Like as if it’s more of a shoulder and ii am controlling my shoulder to hit the notes of the keys?
Im 59 years old... I've been learning the keboard for one year. Since time is of the essence are there any short cuts to becoming a very well player.... self-taught by a teacher off TH-cam...Mangold
Wow this is super useful. What a great video! Super clear instructions. +1 subscribe
What’s your opinion on practicing on electric pianos like Yamaha clavinovas? Do you think this is detrimental to developing one’s technique?
Good keyboards do their best to mimic the touch of grand pianos. I think very cheap (relative to grand pianos) keyboards are so bad to develop your technique on. Cos there’s virtually zero resistance to the fingers when pressed. But mid to high ranged keyboards are essentially just what you make of it until you reach a certain point.
@@seankimmmmmm yeah, my friend at conservatoire often has to practice on his own tiny portable electric keyboard with zero resistance in his dorm because the practice rooms at our conservatoire are often taken (there’s so few that we have to book them more than a week in advance to get a chance and we are limited to 2 hours a day!) many musicians practice in the bathroom/hallway lol… anyways, luckily I have a decent electric with lots of resistance at home (so much so that Scarlatti k141 repeated notes are almost impossible lmao…), when I played on a Steinway D once I was blown away how easy it was because the action was so light in comparison!
@@sacrilegiousboi978 wow I can’t believe that there are musicians that practice in bathrooms. That level of dedication is really inspiring. I’ve gotten in trouble so much, so many times for using the Steinways at my uni for my personal practice 😂 I’ll pray for the day that each and one of us has a Steinway D and a stradivarius to practice on 🙏
mmm i don't think much of up and down with my wrists to play a note unless i need additional force to put into it, i think much of shifting the weight of the arm from a finger to another
actually thats accurate. The way I explained it in the video is catered down for the 7, 8 year olds I teach on a weekly basis. It's not easy trying to explain this to a general audience.
what about the ending of op 2 no 1 by beethoven it is marked ff and the notes are staccato, how would you play those staying on keys and using fingers and lfiting up very fast?
You have to involve your core and back and shoulders in many instances of playing dynamical piano. Lot of players don't learn the tool of fast twitch with their core.
This is a good question. You need to involve all your weight while simultaneously having strong finger tips. Russian pianists are the master of this.
how do I know if I'm using the weight of my palm correctly to strike the keys?
For example, if you’re playing a chord: try to relax while you’re still holding the notes down. If you feel your shoulders, elbows and wrists going down, that means you weren’t fully relaxed when you first played the note.
wheres lesson 3
Neither Liszt nor Chopin: RACHMANINOFF
I don't completely disagree there. But Chopin understood the piano better than anyone in history.
I have done 3 years of piano with a good teacher, but never reached any chopin piano etudes ( i was doing the First trascendental of liszt if i m not mistaken, the raindrop prelude of Chopin and an allemande by Bach)
What do i Need to do in order to start practicing an etude by myself? Can i do It? It s reasonable to do It? I want to Better my playing, It has stopped becoming Better since i left music school
Believe it or not, sometimes ambition and ego are the two biggest downfall for an intermediate level musician. Of course you have to be ambitious to improve, but it should be in the right context. I would highly recommend that you start your first Chopin etude with a teacher. I want to be as encouraging as possible but I’ve seen too many people trying to run before they can barely walk. So just be cautious and mindful of this!
@@seankimmmmmm yeah i was of the same idea, Guess I ll have to find a teacher... Thx for answering
How do you play these advanced long pieces of classical music live or recording them in a studio without making any mistakes is what always confuses me, let’s take the ballad no.4 by Chopin you performed, even with years and years practice you can’t foresee slip ups and mistakes surely, nerves etc.. playing perfectly for 10 mins straight and then having to hold your nerve in the final minute which also happens to be the hardest part… it’s a nightmare performing piano flawlessly.
yes I agree completely. Those slip ups are inevitable even for professional concert pianists. It happens once every now and then. but my experience was that if you mess up enough times, you eventually learn through experience. I feel like taking a probiotic tablet whenever I reflect back on my past performance horrors because I cringe so hard that I get indigestion. I lose sleep over those memories. So frankly, I'm just very determined and motivated to never experience that again.
But jokes aside, your mental and emotional control is the most important thing. So I tend to practice self composure/self control even during my practice sessions leading up to a performance.
To be honest, I'm just glad that someone appreciates that nightmare of a coda I have to prepare. So thank you. 😂
Hi, what technique can you recommend for both reading the bass and melody(i meant reading the music sheets)? Appreciate it
Ofc start off with reading separate hands. But in terms if fluency, I really can’t tell you much except practice until you get there. (Which means practice a lot) ahaha
Hi Sean, when you mentioned staccato starting at key surface, does that apply to trills? I see people doing a sort of trampoline in an out of trills. I keep struggling with trills.
🙏
I want to play op25 no5 but idk if I'm ever ready
anything is possible with slow practice 😉
Thank you very much, Sean. Very interesting. Do you also practice Op 10 no 1 in soft light staccato as well?
No unfortunately not. But now that you bring it up, I think I'll need to have a go at it!
how can you play loud choruses with relaxed hand? should i never use finger strength at all or only sometimes?
Same thing! You have to use ur arm and body weight to play but your fingers should be strong enough to support the weight on the keys. That means always having curved fingers without collapsing under the pressure of the arm weight.
@@seankimmmmmm Thank you, my runs feel easier and more fluid
10:11 this is interesting. you slowed down on the descent, which means it's possible that you struggle with the descent more than the ascent. it's the opposite for me, my descent is really even and comfortable but my ascent is all messed up
It may seem like I slowed down, but I was actually making sure that I had my 5th finger anchored down. Having a strong 5th finger is the key to playing Chopin op. 10 no. 1!
I agree, Chopin is the greatest composer of all time for the piano. No one beats Chopin.
THE MOST important advice........ PRACTICE. Sub'd. 😁 There are no "tricks" or "hacks." It's all about practice. Knowledge doesn't help you at ALL if you can't execute it.
How long would be a typical practice session? Assuming if you're an intermediate player.
These days I try to aim for 4-6 hours a day. Even though I could be more consistent 🫢😆
My $40 used casio salutes you
What do you think about the Taubman method? To me, it seems to support your ideas about practicing,.
tbh, I think the Taubman is the exact same approach just phrase differently 😂 Although everyone's hand is different and you can't make generalised assumptions in music, it seems like we have figured out the most optimal way of playing the piano.
During slow practice should you apply dynamics right away? Cause some teacher said you have to.
Yep. Your teacher is 100% correct. I didn’t have time to explain it in the video, but slow practice should include every nuances such as rhythm, dynamics, articulation etc. The notes itself are only small one aspect of the whole painting.
Hi, what is the tips not to hit the wrong note when speed up?
Insuring that:
1. you can play the correct notes when played slowly.
2. When you do play slowly, you make sure that you're actually putting the full weight of your hand into that note.
Practice like this 9/10 and you'll be able to play the correct notes on your 10th run-through.
@@seankimmmmmm Thanks Sean.
Hahaha those random kids pictures 🤣🤣
I'm learning chopins op 25 no 1, any tips?
Keep you hands and wrists as close to the keys as possible. Especially for the jumps! Good luck 😃
@@seankimmmmmm alright. Thank you!
How many hours do you practice per day?
I try to get around 4-6 hours in for a day.
Lang Lang enters the chat
For some reason my left hand has significant struggle to alternate between the index and middle finger. I’ve picked the piano back this year, so I don’t know if my absence of practice is the cause :/
Edit: to be specific, it’s like they’re shaking ever so slightly even if they’re relaxed and I try to move slowly
That might just be from lack of finger strength. If you can't fix it at all, I suggest you go and ask an established piano teacher in your community.
There are several causes for this, here are the most common:
1. Lack of dexterity while forcing the hands to carry out tasks they aren't ready for.
1.A. Simply look into physical therapy exercises that work well for your hands.
2.Overwhelming adrenaline taxing your hands too much.
2.A. Work on breathing exercises, promote healthy circulation in the hands.
2.B. Practice and think slowly until you figure out how to nip it internally.
3. Pattern confusion.
3.A. If your conscious is interpretting something differently than how you are teaching the hands, the result is a big mess.
All-in-all you need to practice your scales/arpeggios in all 4 physical motions, but that is just what a "teacher perspective" would suggest. The truth is, individuals must develop a relationship with their piano. The hands must learn to flow with each other (Something bach makes an extreme point of promoting.)
Like using a right handed mouse with your left hand, you typically have to view the left hands middle finger as an equal to the right hands index finger. The same applies to piano, it doesn't just "happen" but we have to absolutely train it into a feeling in which does not require conscious thought anymore.
A lot of people try to jump into piano with rather lackluster base dexterity.
Not many people are just "born with great dexterous hands"
In fact maybe 1 in billions truly are. Most work very hard for said dexterity by starting with baby steps, snail paces, and MANY self-made obstacles. The number one key to getting yourself motivated? Do what you want to do within reason, not what people suggest that you do. The more fun you have when learning, the more you can dedicate to it more often.
@@lowfpsgamer1237 wow thanks a lot for this information! I think for this week I’ll just work on my finger dexterity like scales/arpeggios so it can catch up with my right hand (also gonna be using the tips mentioned in the video).
@@seankimmmmmm I do think that is the issue as well, how much time would you recommend me to train scales/arpeggios per day? 20-30 minutes?
@@ReianoMusic back when i was in highschool, out of 4 hours, I would dedicate the first hour just for scales and exercises etc
Are non-Asians able to practice 40hrs/day just like Ling Ling?
ofc they can. Ling Ling represents us as a whole, as musicians. Not just Asian musicians.