even though in the style of piano that I teach we don't read traditional
Grandstaff notation it's still helpful to have some understanding in this quick
video we're going to talk about three reasons it's good to know how to
understand Grandstaff notation and I'm going to do it with a special guest my
good friend Robert Estrin from living pianos calm
you know what I'm pretty excited about this video today because I'm going to
bring in a guest of mine a good colleague and friend that I've known for
years through the music industry his name is Robert Estrin Robert
actually comes from a great traditional classical background he's a concert
pianist he's the the owner of living pianos it's the first online piano store
he also does a lot of videos like this on YouTube I think he's had he told me
is that over 11 million views on YouTube at a living pianos calm is his website
so I'd like to bring in Robert destron hi everyone it's a pleasure to be here
and thanks so much Scott for letting me join you today yeah well I'll tell you
what we're going to do gang is and the reason I wanted Robert to join us and he
and I are doing a little series of these back and forth to really talk about the
difference and he and I both get questions from from opposite sides all
the time about well gee Scott you always talk about playing four chords and
reading from lead sheets and and you know Robert side says gee I'm a
classical piano player I've had nothing but traditional classical lessons you
know what about that strange voodoo world of jazz and and you know all the
other things right and so the reality isn't and I think we both shouted it
from the mountaintops from day one is that there's nothing better or worse
about either side or either world they're just they're they're very
different but there's huge advantages you know to knowing into into
experiencing both sides I think so that's what I wanted to explore a little
and no one better to explore it with in an expert in not only pianos and one of
the foremost you know biggest knowledge people I've ever known about the
physical characteristics of the piano but he's also a great classical piano
player so anyway Robert the first thing I want to talk about is we're gonna talk
about three reasons that it is helpful even if you do nothing but play in the
styles that I espouse all the time and the piano and a flash stuff and reading
from lead sheets three reasons why it really is it's a good thing to
understand and learn how to read the Grandstaff now the first one is I think
a pretty it's kind of obvious but at the same time I think it's important and
that is to just to be able to to learn some classical pieces if that's
something you'd like to do right absolutely you know I know some people
who painstakingly learn P is on YouTube videos that it's almost
like Guitar Hero where you see their little the dots dropping and you hit the
keys of the right ones or they light up and you know and I all the power to
people who can actually learn music that way but it's important to understand
that a musical score is much more than that think of it this way analogy is a
play or a screen play it's not just the words it's the direction the mood the
lighting the costuming there's so much that makes a play come to live or a
motion picture the same thing with a musical score do you know that it's more
than just the notes and the timing there's the nuance of expression not
just the Louds and the softs sometimes will be words describing the mood you
know agitated or getting softer and suddenly surprised and there's all sorts
of things in the score that are intrinsic to the value that bring it to
life other than the notes the other thing is a lot of classical scores are
incredibly complex and to try to figure it out with anything other than the
musical score is so difficult you know trying to for example learn even a piece
of Mozart much less Beethoven Chopin or list by ear good luck with that you know
it's so complicated that the score just gives you a handle on it and at first
you might think oh man it's so hard just like anything else the first time you
try to read English of course you have to sound at each letter but before you
know it you're you're reading words and it's the same thing with music and well
worth the effort that will help you no matter what style of music you play yeah
agreed and those are all very good points and I think that's a great segue
into this the second point I want to make a really hands-on you know
practical reason pragmatic reason may be to to get your reading you know together
a little bit if you even if you say well I'm never going to play classical tunes
the reality is even in a lot of non classical genres there are times when
you're doing nothing but playing chords and kind of playing background or you're
accompanying someone but there are also a few tunes particularly piano based
Tunes or or tunes that are really written by you know piano players that
there are some what I like to call signature licks that really even though
you knew the chord changes to it if you play really what that signature lick is
you really you know the people won't really want to be listening to I mean
one example that comes to mind is a is a tune called a 100 years and there's like
a lick at the beginning that goes
right whatever it is that kind of thing and you know there are you think of some
old Billy Joel things you think some old Elton John licks and the reality is that
it really will save you some time you know if you become a decent reader to be
able to just to just find find those and get them and then you can kind of break
in and out of hey here's a signature like I have to play versus the rest of
the tune we'll do kind of what we more traditionally do when we're reading lead
sheets what are your thoughts on that well you know the whole sight reading
thing you know it took me a long time to get good at sight reading even when I
was playing advanced music Beethoven sonatas Chopin ballads and such my
reading was on a really elementary level and it's kind of like a catch-22 because
the only way to become a good sight reader is to read a lot but it's
painstaking to read music when you're bad at it so I just never did it as a
kid you know eventually I did get into it and then it's just a total joy
because you can explore all kinds of new music without having to painstakingly
learn it you can just kind of read through it to see what you like and then
as you said if you're playing a popular piece you know maybe our Billy Joel two
and you want to get the riffs just the way they're supposed to be and instead
of listening to it and trying to you know piece it out by ear it could save
you vast amounts of time which is actually the next point we're gonna get
to but sigh reading also is something that's invaluable playing with other
musicians because after all like if a singer comes oh I'd love to sing this
can you play the piano part well if you had to say well yeah give me the CD here
let me let me get this on my iTunes uh-huh we'll meet up again in next month
otherwise they just give you the music and boom you can you can just do it
right there and it's a tremendously rewarding thing not just for yourself
but for other musicians to take advantage of your skills and sight
reading now let's flush that out just a little bit - Robert if you would in the
case of someone handing you a piece of sheet music like that it's like a singer
came up and said it was a tune you didn't know at all would you be trying
to read that thing verbatim or would you be reading the chord changes from that
that you know I would I'd be concerned about it
sounding a little you know stilted if you will
it depends what it is now if it's a piece of sheet music and the the part is
we discussed in a previous video was written with all the melody notes hey
that's not gonna work and and sometimes I'll read the chord symbols sometimes
I'll read the notes and just change it to make it sound good
but other times there might be something that is you know or like a piece that's
by Leonard Bernstein you know or what you know where every note really just
works because it's it's written it's composed music or a Schubert Aria you
don't want to jam on that because hey every note is crafted so beautifully you
really want to play what's written to the best of your ability how to think
about sight reading on the piano is there so many notes on there that
sometimes you have to kind of feel your way and get as many of the notes and the
feel of the music where you might not be able to play perfectly but you can kind
of get the feel of it and here's the big surprise that I found early on in my
reading when I just started to get you know decent at it is that players really
appreciate your playing even if you're not playing perfectly because you know
if you're a trombonist or clarinetist or a singer or violinist they're always
looking for a pianist to play with because they're playing solo music that
isn't complete without the piano part and as long as you keep with their
timing and the nuance and the balance even if you're not getting every note in
the score but you keep it moving and keep the mood they are so grateful and
it's enriching to be able to do that to play with other musicians as well as to
play solo music that maybe you don't have the time to learn but you can enjoy
reading through a variety of music so it's a great thing and for those of you
out there who are not good at reading just try to play with other musicians
that's what did it for me because it's almost impossible to keep going when
you're by yourself and you mess up you want to go back and correct it but when
you're playing with somebody else you just got to keep moving and that's the
secret of sight reading keep your eyes moving keep your hands moving and over
time you'll get more and more of the notes hot tip hot tip and good advice
now to lead to the one last topic on this and this is kind of again kind of a
and cousin to this but I've also found that it's very helpful in times when you
are really sometimes you're presented with something and again I'm talking
about non classical genres here you're presented with something that is just
traditional you know like a piano vocal guitar type of sheet music and it
doesn't have any court symbols on it so you're really trying not to sound kind
of hokey in plays you know some kind of an arrangement you want to know the
chord symbols but they're not they're having the ability to read a little bit
and particularly in the bass clef to be able to read you know typically in a
Ranger's left hand part kind of arpeggiate over a chord or it will do
it'll do something that very easily identifies what the chord changes really
are just by what notes you're playing and I know that's a little bit more
advanced for most people probably watching this video but that's another
point I was going to make is it it can really help you figure out the chord
changes to a tune if none are available by kind of looking at the written
notation if it's all there and that's all you have and kind of parsing out
what chords are being spelled out by the written notation that's a great point as
a matter of fact if you're kind of somewhat new to reading lead sheets and
you look at those chord symbols and maybe you'll CD and you know well that's
easy or d7 you know you can you can handle that but here's the thing you
might have something like D 13 sharp 11 you go what the heck is that right and
you try to you try to play it doesn't make any sense but you go to the sheet
music go oh now I get it it can be tremendous in that regard now I'm gonna
tell you personally back in the 80s I got the synthesizer bug in a big way the
technology was exploding and I put together you know a computer music
system and all that and I just absolutely fell in love with the
possibilities and to support my habit I played it all kinds of bands for the
first time my life I was playing at rock bands country bands you whatever anybody
would have me and I was gigging everywhere now here's what would happen
typically most bands most of the people didn't read music now I didn't have some
where everybody read the music and here was the difference you go to a band that
nobody reads music and back then they handout cassette tapes to everybody then
everybody would go home and you know a week or two later or more you come back
and people would be struggling trying to play through things I would just take
the setlist and I transcribe it and write out the lead sheets and essential
melody lines or or certain riffs or motifs and I could come into the you
know after you know the next rehearsal even if it was just a few days later you
know I could have a forty song set ready to go on stage because boom being able
to read that lead seat man being able to craft it and read it and when I finally
got to play with some bands where everybody read it was like then we were
doing Genesis and more complex music and everybody could just handle it and it
was a huge time-saver yeah yeah it is it's amazing the the connection really
between you know lead sheets and or you know written notation I think that's
what we're kind of delving into in these conversations so listen I really
appreciate your insights on that this is fun - fun - quack about this a little
bit and for everyone watching again please check out a Robert site at living
pianos com we'll put links down in the description
to for all the contact information and whatnot but Robert I appreciate your
time let's continue this you got it Scott it's a real pleasure and we'll
it'll be more of these come in so thanks everybody for joining us
all right thanks gang we'll see you in the next video