Here is another online piano lesson on how to play the octaves ; learn new techniques and tips for playing piano better. I now come to Octave Technique for which every sort of studies have been and continue to be written. Now the real octave wrist, combining great strength with high nervous tension and suppleness, is a gift of nature, like the capacity for playing staccato bowing on the violin.

How to play piano octaves : online piano lesson

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The fingering given in the C major example is similar in the keys of D, E, F, G, A, and B. For the E flat and B flat scales the fingering is the same as that given below.

Piano scales in B flat and Arpeggio Right hand.

Scales in B flat and Arpeggi. Left hand.

Tips about how to use the pedal on a piano

The piano pedal can also be used in passages to give a more sustaining quality to the tone, though here care must be taken not to impair distinctness, but a great deal more pedal can be applied without causing any blur if an accent is given on the bass note on which the passage is built. The pedal may be applied in a greater degree in the higher than in the lower registers of the instrument, as the higher tones can stand, and also need, more sustaining than the lower ones, whilst these last possess of themselves a certain sustenance of tone, and therefore blur more quickly. When applying the pedal it should never be banged on, but pressed down gently and gradually.

It is essential to possess a good knowledge of harmony in order to be able to apply the pedal correctly, for it is necessary when using it to understand something about the structure of chords. All blurring over of tone by the pedal produces a most unpleasant impression upon the ear, and must be rigorously guarded against, except when, in some particular passage, a special effect is required. such as in the F minor Ballade of Chopin, in the example given below. But this is only an outlying instance which really appertains to the most elaborate study of tone-color. The general elementary

FIG. 33. Prelude in D flat (Chopin). Read more

This acquiring of the cup-like position of the hand will be found enormously useful later on, in the playing of scales and arpeggios , as it allows easy passage of the thumb under the other fingers. In connection with the striking of the keys by the fingers, I would further say that merely putting down the finger and letting it strike with its own weight, is no good, as the sound produced thereby is inadequate and uncontrolled. My idea is that when lifted, the finger must be brought down with a certain amount of pressure upon the note which is struck.

This pressure should be produced from the forearm and transmitted through the fingers to the key, the wrist being all the time absolutely relaxed. Later on, as the student arrives at a higher development of finger technique, the articulation can be exercised purely from Read more

The artists who have really great command of means are the ones who, no matter how hard or elaborate in musical writing the passages are which they have to play, manage to make those passages sound so beautiful and full of expression that the listener will never notice whether the music that is being performed is difficult or not, so absorbed will he be in the delight the playing gives him.

Playing piano with music expression

How much consummate technique is there sometimes expended upon the execution of a quite simple melody, slow, soft and melting, the tones flowing into each other, so that no one who listens can realize that the piano which is being played is only a mechanical instrument with hammers that strike upon copper strings. What patience and study, too, is needed to develop the deep sonority of touch in massive chords, and the light brilliancy of rippling progressions. All this is impossible without technical command, and it is only when mastery of every kind of vehicle for expression has been acquired that interpretation can be approached with confidence. There is no greater suffering to the artist than to have in his mind a certain impression which the music has created in it, and not to be able to reproduce the picture on his piano, because he has shortcomings in technique which deter him.

Technical limits to reproduce music expression on piano

On the other hand, what joy it is to a pianist to resume the playing of some great masterpiece, which he had studied diligently in former years, and at that time had never succeeded in giving to it the rendering that he sought, owing to insufficient mastery of means. But upon starting upon it again after this long period during which he had doubtless been developing gradually, and probably unconsciously, he finds that now he can at last do with ease what he wants in the piece, and which he never could arrive at before. To attain such a reward is worth all the labours of Hercules!