Josh you truly are an inspiration as a pianist and a human being. Free of any kind of ego or insecurities and just honest with yourself and us as well. Thank you for sharing all these tips with us!
A beautiful soul with a generous heart to share such valuable knowledge with us, in such detail ❤️ a great pianist and tutor, so grateful to be able to watch your videos on here. Thank you very much 🤗🙏🏻
A human being who shares openly his invaluable knowledge, but is also not afraid to expose his own weaknesses to the viewer. Maybe I learned more from his humanity than about playing octaves, and I learned a lot about octaves from him. THANK YOU, SIR!
Interesting thing about octaves. The two "giants" of octave technique in the past were Josef Lhevinne and Rachmaninoff. Reportedly, whenever Rachmaninoff was in New York City, he would visit Josef and Rosina Lhevinne at their home which had two pianos. Josef and Rachmaninoff would sit at the two pianos and have octave-playing contests just for fun.
Useful tips and wonderful playing! Thank you for sharing:) I also find myself holding breath during technically challenging passages, and having tense facial muscle is a problem a lot of pianists share. Funny that we seldom think about those issues, but we definitely should practice on breathing and letting go the muscle tension under pressure. Relaxation is the key to a successful performance. Thanks again!
My teacher (Nancy Weir - student of Tobias Matthey and Artur Schnabel) used to make me practice the Raphael Joseffy octave scale studies.Not just as octaves, but also playing as broken octaves (lower note to higher note & higher note to lower note), maintaining a good "tripod" posture, wth bottom forward on the seat and legs spread, relaxed back shoulders and arms and (very important) smiling at all times, with the tip of the tongue touching the hard palate, to help generate energy. It worked for me and many of her students including Piers Lane among others.
Came here to try and learn Der Erlkönig and its repeated octaves, and your first suggestion is a fantastic performance of that same piece and how she practiced for it! :)
I can't thank you enough for these videos. It is very hard and unfortunately expensive to get so high quality lessons especially in countries like mine (Turkey). These help us a lot as teachers as well. Best wishes, sincerely
Thank you, Josh. Lots of time for my students to study your videos since they are not allowed to leave their homes.due to coronavirus. I finally have some time to watch and learn as well.
Thank you for sharing these insights. I learned this piece over 40 years ago and few of these teachings were available to me, other than working slow to fast. You've inspired me to try to resurrect this rhapsody, but it is helpful in many other pieces. I sincerely enjoy all of your videos!
I had a session with a fellow musician trained in Alexander technique. She pointed out the fact that I gritted my teeth and/or tightened my facial muscles while playing certain passages. Her recommendation was to stick my tongue out with my lips closed in a relaxed manner while playing, thus making it impossible to bite down. That helped me to relax while playing. It also helped me to look like a doggy who wanted to be petted, which is why this sort of thing only happens in the practice room and not on stage. BTW I play the double bass and I enjoy watching your videos to see if I can create analogies to ways I can improve my technique. Thank you for these wonderful videos.
I can't thank you enough!I just tried for the first time this tips and my octaves have suddenly improved!I know I have to practice this everyday for a long period of time but still the fact I can already see some results is amazing,tysm!! ❤️🎶
Totally agree about sharing secrets. If you are better than others because you know stuff they don't, are you actually better than others? If I was "among the best" and I felt threatened by the thought of sharing my "secrets", then I wouldn't feel like I actually deserve any recognition at all.
loved your advice josh. I share your relax face tip. I would extend that tip to relax your body and a tip i am working now on my piano is smiling. Smiling while reading at first sight, scales, arpeggios, etc and try to the play not close to the piano with the body. Something i visualize Errol Garner or Fats Waller doing. That smile i think is the extra on the practice. Then on stage there are different things going on, smiling in certain passages could be weird or distraccting. But on the practice ground i think it helps to improve speed and relaxation. Thanks for the videos! cheers!
Graheme Fitch has some great thoughts about playing octaves on TH-cam including not playing repeated octaves in the same place on the key. The taubman approach advocates ensuring support of the forearm behind octaves which has helped me too.
I’m glad I found this since I just cannot play octaves. I always hit one key short of the octave. I kept think maybe it’s because my hands are small. But then I see little kids do it.
Josh, as the organist for my church, I have found your techniques translate to the Organ beautifully. It's funny though...my people actually enjoy my piano playing more! Love your work and passion for what you do...(your lessons have helped me relax my face too!). God bless.
Sharing secrets has been my pet peeve for a long number of years. Once told a builder that sharing his knowledge will only pay off positively as his mastery of the technique takes years to catch up on. As a computer scientist I have shared freely too. Anybody who manage to catch up has the potential to allow me an earlier retirement :-)
I am sure this will come in useful for me… sometimes in the future (I’m still in the piano foothills). I admire your candour and generosity of spirit to us and your peers
Thank you Josh, you’ve made so many awesome videos I’m learning a lot. I was also holding my breath watching you play that! Also thanks for the tip about tension in the face I’ve started recording my practice and noticed I hold tension in my jaw too.
Hello Mr. Wright! I can't help but to tell you with my heartful thanks of your kind ,honest sharings of your videos. Your videos are so helpful for us Stay healthy & may Gof bless in what you have been doing for us.
Some tips to expand on that is to also play thumb in legato in 8ths (as possible) and pinky staccato in 16ths (doubling) and then switch the roles so 4/5th finger legato and thumb double 16ths staccato. Also alternating or "breaking up" the octave can be helpful and adding accents/holding down like (accent in CAPS) "THUMB-pinky....etc" or "PINKY-thumb" or "thumb-PINKY" or "pinky-THUMB". Helps with light and smooth legato octaves when you play normally. I can relate to getting getting out of breath at harder and more physical parts haha, I used to do that too but I acknowledged that when I was a youngling. Can't remember how I fixed it I think I just focused on detaching my breath completely from whatever I'm playing and never it bothered me since again.
nothing more defeating than watching Elizabeth Schumann playing Der Erlkönig a montth after playing my first octave, haha. Thanks for the videos Josh, you are very inspiring!
Josh, if I may, a tip: have the thumbs aim the line corresponding to the tip of the black keys, hence you won't have the big shoulder+arm drawing movements and you'll stay more relaxed.
Just found this. Thank you so much and I’ll definitely be using these tips. So true about sharing, the more you give, the more room there is to receive more insights to once again share. Keeping it all to yourself just doesn’t make sense. Thanks for being so giving! I’ll be sure to pass on too.
I'm learning Sposalizio by Franz Liszt. Because octaves have never been my strong point, I'm focusing on learning that part first because the rest of the piece is pretty straightforward.
Like the 4 dots idea. Something that helped my cantabile playing has been dragging my fingers within the key and trying to feel the squish of the felt. :)
Josh you truly are an inspiration as a pianist and a human being. Free of any kind of ego or insecurities and just honest with yourself and us as well. Thank you for sharing all these tips with us!
And graciously complimentary of other pianists
A beautiful soul with a generous heart to share such valuable knowledge with us, in such detail ❤️ a great pianist and tutor, so grateful to be able to watch your videos on here.
Thank you very much 🤗🙏🏻
Any tips for managing octaves with small hands? Other than “avoid” or “cheat”!!!
@@isabellefisher8790 yes Taubman method 😊
A human being who shares openly his invaluable knowledge, but is also not afraid to expose his own weaknesses to the viewer. Maybe I learned more from his humanity than about playing octaves, and I learned a lot about octaves from him. THANK YOU, SIR!
how does this video not have a single ad, it's 24 minutes! thank you Josh!
Sono stupefatto dalla sua bravura , dalla sua capacità didattica e dalla sua incredibile onestà e generosità, Maestro. Grazie , lei e un esempio!
I can easily play this whenever i want....... the video I mean.
😂
you're so funny dude :|
no without data
👌🏾👌🏾👌🏾😎
hah.... chuckled :/
All great tips, Josh. You have wonderful octaves, and great presentation skills. Bravo!
OMG!!! It works. I got an instant result from the very first exercise that Josh did of slightly reducing the bounce gradually. Thanks Josh!!!
Interesting thing about octaves. The two "giants" of octave technique in the past were Josef Lhevinne and Rachmaninoff. Reportedly, whenever Rachmaninoff was in New York City, he would visit Josef and Rosina Lhevinne at their home which had two pianos. Josef and Rachmaninoff would sit at the two pianos and have octave-playing contests just for fun.
Fun. Horowitz is also another giant for octaves.
they call it fun, i call it pain
Liszt tho
Lhevinne's playing of the czerny octave etude is simply mind-blowing
i thought liszt was also one of them lmao
so much info in one video. this channel is a gem, thank you once again!
This video is gold! Thank so much for your advices and tips!
Useful tips and wonderful playing! Thank you for sharing:)
I also find myself holding breath during technically challenging passages, and having tense facial muscle is a problem a lot of pianists share. Funny that we seldom think about those issues, but we definitely should practice on breathing and letting go the muscle tension under pressure. Relaxation is the key to a successful performance. Thanks again!
You are so right! It is great to share tips! If you are helping others to progress, the world is a richer place.
My teacher (Nancy Weir - student of Tobias Matthey and Artur Schnabel) used to make me practice the Raphael Joseffy octave scale studies.Not just as octaves, but also playing as broken octaves (lower note to higher note & higher note to lower note), maintaining a good "tripod" posture, wth bottom forward on the seat and legs spread, relaxed back shoulders and arms and (very important) smiling at all times, with the tip of the tongue touching the hard palate, to help generate energy. It worked for me and many of her students including Piers Lane among others.
Thank you so much ! 🙏 your videos will help prevent injury for so many people 😊
the dedication you put in even in advicing us, I am enraged that you don't have a million subscribers! Great job Josh, Sir.!!!
I AM SO MIND BLOWN. Thank you so much! super helpful tips!!!
Came here to try and learn Der Erlkönig and its repeated octaves, and your first suggestion is a fantastic performance of that same piece and how she practiced for it! :)
I can't thank you enough for these videos. It is very hard and unfortunately expensive to get so high quality lessons especially in countries like mine (Turkey). These help us a lot as teachers as well. Best wishes, sincerely
Thank you, Josh. Lots of time for my students to study your videos since they are not allowed to leave their homes.due to coronavirus. I finally have some time to watch and learn as well.
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 is the reason I came to this video. Thank you
I sooo want to learn this piece now! So beautiful
Great video Josh! This will be useful in my teaching and in my own practicing. I really appreciate how in-depth you took the topic.
You are humble and honest. I love that!
Thank you for sharing these insights. I learned this piece over 40 years ago and few of these teachings were available to me, other than working slow to fast. You've inspired me to try to resurrect this rhapsody, but it is helpful in many other pieces. I sincerely enjoy all of your videos!
I had a session with a fellow musician trained in Alexander technique. She pointed out the fact that I gritted my teeth and/or tightened my facial muscles while playing certain passages. Her recommendation was to stick my tongue out with my lips closed in a relaxed manner while playing, thus making it impossible to bite down. That helped me to relax while playing. It also helped me to look like a doggy who wanted to be petted, which is why this sort of thing only happens in the practice room and not on stage.
BTW I play the double bass and I enjoy watching your videos to see if I can create analogies to ways I can improve my technique.
Thank you for these wonderful videos.
What a gift to have all this info here. Thanks Josh.
Such a great video! I can only imagine what wonders it would have made for my piano playing if I had had access to videos like this 20 years ago!
I really like listening to you! You're explaining everything in such a friendly positive light way.
Thank you for the videos! 😊 🌻
I can't thank you enough!I just tried for the first time this tips and my octaves have suddenly improved!I know I have to practice this everyday for a long period of time but still the fact I can already see some results is amazing,tysm!! ❤️🎶
Totally agree about sharing secrets. If you are better than others because you know stuff they don't, are you actually better than others? If I was "among the best" and I felt threatened by the thought of sharing my "secrets", then I wouldn't feel like I actually deserve any recognition at all.
Merci.
0:38 haha this is the exact reason I’m watching this video for
Me too
Imagine being good my hands are too small and can’t even play Turkish march chorus 😭😭
@@Franz_Liszt_Korean You Are The King Of Octaves Liszt... Hope You Are Resting In Peace (RIP)
@@Franz_Liszt_Korean ok
loved your advice josh. I share your relax face tip. I would extend that tip to relax your body and a tip i am working now on my piano is smiling. Smiling while reading at first sight, scales, arpeggios, etc and try to the play not close to the piano with the body. Something i visualize Errol Garner or Fats Waller doing. That smile i think is the extra on the practice. Then on stage there are different things going on, smiling in certain passages could be weird or distraccting. But on the practice ground i think it helps to improve speed and relaxation. Thanks for the videos! cheers!
Graheme Fitch has some great thoughts about playing octaves on TH-cam including not playing repeated octaves in the same place on the key. The taubman approach advocates ensuring support of the forearm behind octaves which has helped me too.
I’m glad I found this since I just cannot play octaves. I always hit one key short of the octave. I kept think maybe it’s because my hands are small. But then I see little kids do it.
I enjoy all of your videos but this one is so special I didn't imagine to see you practicing my favorite piece when I saw the video title. Thank you!!
Josh, as the organist for my church, I have found your techniques translate to the Organ beautifully. It's funny though...my people actually enjoy my piano playing more! Love your work and passion for what you do...(your lessons have helped me relax my face too!). God bless.
Geniusssss!!!! You are one of the best teachers of the XXI century!!
i was literally about to comment about how to not tension up during hr6. thank you!!!
My hands are kinda small so it already is kinda a challange to master octaves but Im getting there! Your videos are helpful!!
You’re just amazing 🤍 Thank you so much for all these valuable lessons 🙏🏻
oh wow that actually helped a lot in being more relaxed
This video is incredibly helpful. Thank you for being so generous in sharing the many ways to develop strong and beautiful technique!
Sharing secrets has been my pet peeve for a long number of years. Once told a builder that sharing his knowledge will only pay off positively as his mastery of the technique takes years to catch up on. As a computer scientist I have shared freely too.
Anybody who manage to catch up has the potential to allow me an earlier retirement :-)
Super appreciated for your videos! You have no idea how long time I have been looking for the skills to improve the accuracy of octaves!
I loooove octaves, for me the best player ever is Argerich on that technique. She is incredible!
Me too !!!!
I am sure this will come in useful for me… sometimes in the future (I’m still in the piano foothills). I admire your candour and generosity of spirit to us and your peers
Great content, Josh! Can't wait to start implementing your tips.
Man, you are simply an awesome human being, and I’m not only talking about the piano technique. Thanks a lot!
Love to Josh for all his sharing!
Thank you so much for sharing these tips! Im playing Liszt Rigoletto paraphrase next week and i really need this
Thank you Josh, you’ve made so many awesome videos I’m learning a lot. I was also holding my breath watching you play that! Also thanks for the tip about tension in the face I’ve started recording my practice and noticed I hold tension in my jaw too.
Thanks Josh. Just one of these techniques has created new possibilities in only 20 minutes. Thank you!
Hello Mr. Wright! I can't help but to tell you with my heartful thanks of your kind ,honest sharings of your videos. Your videos are so helpful for us Stay healthy & may Gof bless in what you have been doing for us.
Some tips to expand on that is to also play thumb in legato in 8ths (as possible) and pinky staccato in 16ths (doubling) and then switch the roles so 4/5th finger legato and thumb double 16ths staccato. Also alternating or "breaking up" the octave can be helpful and adding accents/holding down like (accent in CAPS) "THUMB-pinky....etc" or "PINKY-thumb" or "thumb-PINKY" or "pinky-THUMB". Helps with light and smooth legato octaves when you play normally.
I can relate to getting getting out of breath at harder and more physical parts haha, I used to do that too but I acknowledged that when I was a youngling. Can't remember how I fixed it I think I just focused on detaching my breath completely from whatever I'm playing and never it bothered me since again.
Holy damn! The power in the demonstration part!
Thank you for these amazing tips they are very helpful also in the Saint Saens no.2 !!
Thank you sir 😊
Good info, thanks much--please record with higher volume!
Radically helpful. Can’t wait to use this strategy!
It’s been four years, do you still find this regimen useful and incorporate it regularly into your active practice? Thanks for all your giving!
Thank you so much for sharing.... excellent demonstrations!!
you are really a very capable pianist, very inspiring. thanks for your content
Thanks a lot Josh, you will never know how important is what you are doing by sharing these videos.
Thank you so much! ❤❤❤
I'm really inspired by your playing & lessons!!;🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
lol im in the process of practicing the 6th and this is awesome! we'll see how that works out!
Must be a funny piece to play, once you've mastered it
It is really useful and helps a lot thank you very much 😊
Thanks so much for this!
Thank you. These tips and the tutorials on the Chopin g minor Ballade have been very helpful.
Thanks, Josh for the bit about sharing information! Right on!!!
Thank you for your generosity!! I love your videos and am learning SO much
nothing more defeating than watching Elizabeth Schumann playing Der Erlkönig a montth after playing my first octave, haha. Thanks for the videos Josh, you are very inspiring!
Very interesting and informative. I can't wait to try these techniques.
Josh, if I may, a tip: have the thumbs aim the line corresponding to the tip of the black keys, hence you won't have the big shoulder+arm drawing movements and you'll stay more relaxed.
Good call - Thank You
Hey Josh, just wanted to say thank you for all your tutorial videos. They truly help take one's skill to the next level and beyond!
Just found this. Thank you so much and I’ll definitely be using these tips. So true about sharing, the more you give, the more room there is to receive more insights to once again share. Keeping it all to yourself just doesn’t make sense. Thanks for being so giving! I’ll be sure to pass on too.
This was really helpful!
you are amazing! Thank you very much!
9:05 lol
Old video...but very helpful-- thank you-- do be careful with your health, Professor Wright.
Brilliant video, thanks so much.
It’s so useful to me from Taiwan ! Many Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing this!
The tips will be very useful for me thank u. Thank u sir
Thank you very much for the video! It is great!
Thanks for so much great advice. Really got stuck with the octaves in Alla Rondo March for days... Gonna try your advice to improve my technique
Great tips Josh. Your playing is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Amazing tips, as always! ❤️
amazing. You have earned my respect. I subbed
This was tremendously helpful, both in terms of what I'm doing and what I need to do. I never use my 4th fingers for octaves, either.
Brilliant!!
Thank You!!
This is great help, thanks so much :)
I'm learning Sposalizio by Franz Liszt. Because octaves have never been my strong point, I'm focusing on learning that part first because the rest of the piece is pretty straightforward.
Thank you Josh. I laughed when you said you were holding your breath... I became cross with myself earlier today for doing this!!!!
This made me smile too 🥰
Thanks for this helpful video! I'm working on the Grieg PC atm, and I'm not used to playing octaves so fast...
To say that these tips are "fucking great" is an understatement. Thanks! :D
This is a great lesson. Top marks!
Amazing tips. Thanks a lot! All the best.
Like the 4 dots idea. Something that helped my cantabile playing has been dragging my fingers within the key and trying to feel the squish of the felt. :)
Great advice! Thanks for sharing :)