Chances are, if you’re a piano student, you have spent at least some of your time grumbling about learning your scales. They’re boring. And they’re hard. What an awful combination, right?

Actually, if you can look at them the right way, scales are anything but boring. Hard, yes; they can be hard, especially when you are learning a new one. But anything worth doing is hard at first. And learning your scales is definitely worth doing. Scales provide a necessary foundation for improving your skills.

Why piano students need to learn scales:
(1) Scales are a good way to practice using correct posture and form.
(2) Learning your scales helps your fingers gain speed and agility on the keyboard.
(3) Scales also help you warm up your finger and hand muscles before you start on a more challenging piece.
(4) Familiarity with a scale can also help you “warm up” your ear and your mind to the key, which will help you learn a piece written in that key.
(5) Having your scales “in your fingers” will help you with transposition, sight-reading, and improvisation as well.

How to practice scales:
- Gently stretch the muscles of your fingers and hands before you begin. These muscles are small, but they are about to get a pretty intense work-out!
- Sit up straight; don’t slouch. Always practice good posture at the keyboard.
- Adjust your seat height so that your forearms are parallel to the floor, while your fingertips are in contact with the keyboard. If necessary, sit on a telephone book!
- Curl your fingers into a gentle curve.
- Keep your fingers close to the keys. This may not seem important at first, when you are starting out slowly, but you’ll find this increasingly valuable as you gain speed with your scales.
- Relax. This can be hard, especially for beginners, who tend to tense up when confronted with a new scale. But your muscles will actually perform better if they are loose and relaxed.
- Take it slow. Don’t be in a hurry for your fingers to fly up and down the keyboard like those of professionals! They achieved that after many hours of practice, and that’s what you need to do now.
- Start with one hand at a time. Don’t try to play them together until you can run through the scale accurately with each hand separately.
- Don’t look! Once you have gained initial familiarity with a scale, try to keep from looking at your hands. Your fingers should learn to run their scales entirely by touch.
- Use a metronome. Playing your scales evenly is an important form of self-discipline, and the metronome can help. This tool can also help you speed up once you have mastered the scale at a slow tempo.
- Master one scale before moving on to another. Take at least 1 week per scale. If your piano lessons follow the local school calendar, this will take most of a school year, just to master the 24 major and minor scales! But at the end of that year, you’ll have these scales “in your fingers” for life.
- Keep your skills fresh. Revisit the scales you have mastered even while you are learning a new one.

Once there was a piano teacher whose students practiced at least half an hour every day, never complained about doing scales or theory, and were always on time for their lessons.

And then the teacher woke up.

Kidding aside, there is a reason behind everything your teacher wants you to do. And it isn’t just to make your life hard. From daily practice to scales and theory, your teacher wants you to do these things in order to help you reach your musical goals. Here’s why:

Regular Daily Practice: Quite simply, if you have goals you want to meet for your performance at the piano, there is no substitute for regular daily practice. During your weekly lessons, your teacher can give you some valuable ideas on how to improve your playing. But unless you put those ideas into practice, you will never see any improvement in your skills. Effective practice is the only thing that will help piano students improve their skills and meet their goals. (See my earlier article on How To Practice.) And the foundation of effective practice is regular practice.

Music Theory: Many students become reconciled to regular practice, but still resist completing their theory assignments. How can learning the Circle of Fifths and other silly things like that help one become a better musician? Well, as with many things in life, true mastery of a subject cannot be attained without understanding leading theories behind it.

If you understand about enharmonic equivalents, that will help you learn to transpose. If you understand about different musical modes, you’ll come to recognize a piece that has been written in a particular mode. And this can help you sight-read or learn it more effectively. If you understand the basic structure of a typical musical form (a sonatina, for example), you’ll know what to expect when you encounter one. And so on.

Scales: Oh, those tedious scales! There must be very few piano students on Earth who have never complained about learning their scales. Why do piano teachers insist on this torture system for their students? Several reasons.

For one thing, scales are a very basic means of developing proper form and nimbleness with your fingers. For another thing, familiarity with a scale will help you when you encounter a work written in that key, especially one with lots of accidentals. And this will also help you learn to transpose pieces from one key to another. Having your scales “in your fingers” will also help you in learning to sight-read, and to improvise as well.

Sight Reading: And speaking of sight-reading, why do you need to do it? If practice makes perfect, then why develop the skill of sitting down and playing effectively without practicing? Because, although you should always strive to practice a piece to perfection, there will be occasions when you’ll be called upon to play with little or no advance notice. If you are already accustomed to doing this in your lessons, you won’t be intimidated by such a request.

Improvisation: The same is true of improvisation, or the related practice of playing “by ear.” Especially if you begin playing jazz or rock or related styles, the ability to improvise or play by ear will be crucial to your success. If you have already been accustomed to doing this from your early piano-playing days, you’ll be ready to meet this challenge.

Recitals: Some students are terrified of performing at recitals. They go to lessons all year, they practice uncomplainingly, they make good progress… But they wish they could avoid proving it to all their friends and family members! Why does their teacher insist upon a public performance?

Answer: To give them a chance to overcome this very fear. While one can certainly play for one’s own enjoyment, the ultimate goal of learning to play piano is to share the joy of music with others. Again, if one is accustomed to performing in a recital from the earliest days of lessons, this will become a regular part of life, and the fear can be overcome before it grows overwhelming.

Yes, your teacher asks you to do all sorts of things that aren’t very much fun — at least not at first. But the only reason to do so is to help you meet your own musical goals. So work with your teacher. Surprise her! Come to your next lesson on time, with all your assigned pieces well-rehearsed, and a couple of extra scales under your fingers! Your teacher will be delighted, but the real person to benefit — will be yourself.

This well-known piano work was completed in 1801 when the composer Ludwig van Beethoven was 31. With the lengthy official handle of Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor “Quasi una fantasia,” Op. 27, No. 2, it’s not surprising that pianists over the years have preferred to call it by the much shorter nickname of “Moonlight Sonata.” This is perhaps the best-known and most frequently recorded of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. But did you know that it is not, in fact, a “pure” sonata in form?

The Moonlight Sonata departs from conventional sonata form, whose 3 or 4 movements are characterized by a structure of fast-slow-(fast)-fast. In the Moonlight Sonata, by contrast, Beethoven opens with an Adagio (slow) movement, a quite deliberate break with tradition. Beethoven was experimenting during the time of this work’s composition, and one of his experiments was to place the most important movement of a sonata last instead of first.

The second movement of the piece, Allegretto, is a fairly conventional scherzo, but the third movement, the Presto Agitato, is highly emotional, even stormy, and quite different from a more conventional sonata ending. While the more contemplative first movement may be attempted by an intermediate student, the last movement requires vigorous and energetic — and expert — playing.

The Moonlight Sonata is believed to have been dedicated to the Countess Giuliana Guicciardi, one of Beethoven’s pupils at the time he composed it. The musician and the young Countess fell in love after only a few lessons, and he is even supposed to have proposed marriage to her. By all accounts, she was amenable to the marriage, but because of her aristocratic station, her family forbade the match.

While this romantic mishap is historically accurate, some discount it as an inspiration for the Moonlight Sonata. This school of thought believes instead that the piece captures Beethoven’s reflections on the death of a friend. One of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, Edwin Fischer, pointed to areas where the Moonlight Sonata’s first movement bears a striking resemblance to Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, from the first act where the Commendatore is murdered. Thus the melancholy atmosphere created by Beethoven in the Moonlight Sonata’s first movement is associated with the idea of impending death, rather than thwarted love.

Whatever its inspiration, the nickname “Moonlight Sonata” was attached to the piece only after the composer’s death. In 1832, several years after Beethoven’s demise, the poet Ludwig Rellstab described the piano work as reminding him of “a boat visiting the wild places on Lake Lucerne by moonlight.” The name has stuck fast in the nearly two hundred years since.

If you have been taking piano for some time and have mastered popular sonatinas and sonatas by the likes of Clementi and Scarlatti, you may be ready to tackle the Moonlight Sonata, at least the first movement. Any serious student of the keyboard must become familiar with this work. Find a good recording — perhaps by Edwin Fischer or Andras Schiff — and take in the work of this master composer. Then, like Ludwig Rellstab and countless others the world over, you too may be deeply moved by Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

One of the most widely-recognized piano works in the world, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fur Elise has moved and inspired countless pianists for two centuries. Yet it was not published until after the composer’s death, nearly 50 years after it was written. And to this day, Beethoven historians still do not know who Elise was — or even if she was a specific woman.

The piece’s official name is Bagatelle in A Minor woO 59. A bagatelle is a short work, usually with a light or whimsical nature; the abbreviation woO stands for the German term Werke ohne Opuszahl, which simply means Work without Opus Number. Beethoven reserved the system of giving an Opus Number to what he considered his major works, such as symphonies and concerti; this short piece didn’t qualify. The woO number for this piece was assigned by musicologists in 1955.

The words Fur Elise (which in German means “for Elise”) are actually the dedication of the piece, not the title –although that is what most people use as a title for this work today. But to whom was this piece dedicated? Beethoven historians only wish they knew!

One leading theory relates the date of the piece to what is known about Beethoven’s life at that time. Wouldn’t it be easy if he had been courting a woman whose first name was Elise? Alas, he was not.

At that time Beethoven wished to marry a woman named Therese Malfatti, a student of his. And sadly for the 40-year-old Ludwig, Therese rejected his suit, later marrying a local nobleman. The leading theory is that the rediscoverer of this work in the 1860’s, Ludwig Nohl, misread Beethoven’s atrocious handwriting. This theory assumes that Beethoven meant to dedicate the work to “Therese” but Nohl read this (and transcribed it) as “Elise.” Beethoven’s original manuscript copy has been lost, so there is no way to verify or debunk this theory.

A closely related alternative theory is that Beethoven intentionally dedicated it to someone other than Therese in retribution for her snubbing of his marriage proposal. His passionate and irascible nature makes this theory somewhat believable.

Yet another theory is that “Elise” may have been used as a generic term for “sweetheart” at this time, and thus Beethoven was merely dedicating it to young loves everywhere — though there isn’t much actual data supporting this notion.

Perhaps a less romantic possibility is simply that the piece was a commissioned work, and dedicated to someone the buyer knew, rather than someone Beethoven himself knew. This would have been in line with practices of the day — but doesn’t inspire as much fun speculation!

In any case, Ludwig van Beethoven was a passionate and moody person who did not enjoy a happy love life. Even in as small a work as Fur Elise, this emotional complexity and hint of poignancy shines through. Perhaps it is most fitting that we many never know which specific woman inspired its creation. That way, it can remain the emotional property of all who hear or play it.

Influential German composer Ludwig van Beethoven was a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras. Indeed, his stormy, emotional music set the tone for Romantic composers to follow.

Born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, young Ludwig was educated by his extensive musical family, beginning with his father Johann van Beethoven. He showed early promise of being a piano prodigy, and Dad Johann had high hopes of cashing in on his own little Mozart. However, it was not to be. Despite his prodigious talents, Ludwig did not attract the same kind of attention in childhood that Mozart did. His first composition was published in his early teen years, with the help of his teacher at the time, the influential Court Organist in Bonn, Christian Gotlob Neefe.

In his late teens, in 1787, it appeared that Ludwig Van Beethoven was to study under the famous Mozart in Vienna, an indication of his own musical promise. However, he was soon called back home from Vienna when his mother took ill. The death of his mother and his father’s subsequent descent into alcoholism left young Ludwig responsible for the care of his younger siblings, and he did not return to Vienna until five years later. By that time Mozart had himself succumbed to an untimely death.

In Vienna, Beethoven established himself by 1793 as a premier pianist, and was especially well-known for his improvising. He was a regular attendee at fashionable salons, where his reputation grew. Beethoven established a pattern of supporting himself which was quite unusual for top-caliber musicians of his day. He did not seek positions as Court Organist or Kapellmeister in the Church, but supported himself entirely on stipends and gifts from aristocratic patrons, professional fees from his performances, teaching (though he had relatively few students), and proceeds from the sale of his works.

During his lifetime, Beethoven composed numerous works for piano, along with string quartets, symphonies, and a wide variety of other instrumental combinations. His style shows clear influence from Mozart (whom he admired) and Haydn (with whom he studied), but also his own unique flair from an early age.

Beethoven’s career as a composer is usually divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods. The Early period shows the most influence from Mozart and Haydn. This period ended in Beethoven’s early thirties, in about 1801, as his condition of tinnitus (ringing in the ears) began to grow into deafness. Famous piano works from this period include “Fur Elise” and the “Passionata” sonata.

Beethoven’s Middle period is characterized by his struggle to accept and compensate for his growing deafness, and contains many stormy works evocative of the theme of heroic struggle. Famous piano works of this period include his last 3 piano concertos and the “Moonlight” Sonata. Towards the end of his Middle period, Beethoven’s popularity with the public reached its highest point and he was considered by many to be the “greatest living composer” of the time. The end of the Middle period coincided with Beethoven’s mid-forties, in about 1814.

There followed an unproductive time in which some observers began to wonder if Beethoven’s creation of major works was behind him. This idle period has been attributed by some musicologists to depression, perhaps at the acknowledgement that he would never marry. Others attribute it to the death of his younger brother and a prolonged and nasty battle for custody of his nephew Karl. However, by about 1816 the composer appears to have shaken off whatever crisis had struck him, and began producing again.

Beethoven’s Late period, from about 1816 to 1826 when he ceased composing, is known for formality and intellectualism, and includes his mighty Ninth Symphony. Famous piano works of this period, during which Beethoven was completely deaf, include his last five piano sonatas.

In his personal life, Ludwig van Beethoven was passionate and irascible, often feuding with relatives. He also showed little regard for authority or rank. One of Beethoven’s most important patrons, Archduke Rudolf, the youngest son of Emperor Leopold II, eventually gave the composer dispensation from observing court etiquette, as he seemed incapable of or uninterested in doing so. Beethoven never married and had no known children, despite infatuations with several women. Often the ladies in question were aristocratic or already married, and thus beyond his reach.

Today, Ludwig van Beethoven remains one of the most popular and revered composers, and his influence on later music was profound. Stormy, brilliant, and emotional, Beethoven’s life and his work were of a piece.

Have you wondered about the career prospects for a pianist? Maybe your child has taken lessons for a few years and has expressed interest in playing professionally. Or maybe you’re the one who has that interest. But you know that only a few extremely gifted — and lucky — performers can make a living as professional piano soloists. What are some other piano careers?

Pianists can work as studio performers, recording their work for use in movies or TV or advertising. Others can become teachers or professors of piano. Still others become composers, or move into another role in music that doesn’t involve piano performance, such as band or choir conductor. And some pianists become performers in ensembles such as orchestras, jazz ensembles, or rock bands.

But one niche that you may have overlooked is choir accompanist.

This often-unsung hero is a crucial part of any good choir. Without the accompanist, rehearsals are much less effective, and performances would lack a certain texture and depth. And it takes a special kind of person to succeed in this role.

Here are some of the traits that a choir director might look for in an accompanist:

- A good choir accompanist must, of course, possess technical excellence at the keyboard.
- He or she must be an excellent sight reader and improviser, and must be able to transpose a given piece into any other key at a moment’s notice.
- The accompanist must know both the piano part and all the choir parts to a piece, and must be able to play any combination of the vocal parts at any time.
- Accuracy in playing is extraordinarily important. If the singers learn a line incorrectly, it can take many practice repetitions to correct.
- The choir accompanist must be able to play in whatever style is appropriate for a given piece.
- Despite this high skill level, the accompanist’s performance must never call attention to itself; the accompanist’s role is to support the choir, not supplant it.
- The accompanist must always defer to the conductor during rehearsals; never argue or disagree with the conductor in front of the choir.
- The accompanist must pay close attention during the rehearsal, even when not actually playing; he or she must become almost a mind-reader of the conductor’s intentions. The accompanist should always understand why the conductor stopped during rehearsal, and should never have to be told where to start up again.
- A good choir accompanist also listens carefully to the needs of the vocalists, and stands ready to support a part if those singers are struggling. Knowing when to emphasize the alto line or hit that F-sharp the sopranos keep missing will save hours of rehearsal time.
- Flexibility and adaptability are crucial in an accompanist. When a soloist skips a line, the good accompanist skips with her — and makes it look as if the mistake was his!

In short, a good choir accompanist possesses many special qualities beyond technical excellence at the keyboard — although that is a necessary prerequisite. Not least among these is a light touch and a sense of humor! If you have these qualities, you might have what it takes for a piano career as a choir accompanist.

You know you need to get your piano tuned, not only for a more pleasant sound but for the instrument’s proper care. How do you find a good piano tuner?

(1) If you’ve purchased your piano second-hand, ask the previous owners who they used to tune it. If they’ve kept it in good shape, chances are they have a regular tuner (technician) whom they’ll be happy to recommend.

But suppose you purchased your piano at a sale, or drove an hour or two to get it? It won’t do you much good to get a recommendation for a tuner who doesn’t live in your town. In that case, try Step (2).

(2) Ask a piano teacher. Piano teachers must take good care of their own instruments and keep them in tune. They most likely have a regular piano tuner whom they can recommend to you.

But often these excellent technicians are not taking new clients. In that case, keep trying.

(3) Ask a piano store, or local churches and schools, for recommendations. Again, like the piano teacher, these organizations must keep their instruments well in tune and probably have a regular technician whom they can recommend.

(4) You may wish to check with the Piano Technicians Guild. Membership in this guild is only granted after passing a rigorous test to ensure expertise.

(5) Once you have identified a likely prospect or two, check out their websites to learn about their experience and credentials. If they don’t have websites, call them up and ask. Call any references they provide.

Remember, your piano should be tuned at least twice a year. It will also need periodic minor maintenance and cleaning, which the technician can perform as well. Your piano tuner will be a regular part of your life, so you need to find someone you like and whose work you trust. After all, you’ve invested a lot in your piano, and you want to find a technician who will help you treat it right.

If you own an acoustic piano (i.e., not an electronic one), you know that it was an expensive purchase of at least several thousand dollars.

Some high-end pianos (even for home use) can approach the purchase price of a new car. Would you drive your new car without checking — or changing — the oil? No! You realize an investment at this level requires on-going maintenance and proper use. If you try to penny-pinch on these necessary maintenance expenses, you risk damage that will waste your initial investment.

The same is true of your acoustic piano.

Here are some tips that will help you take proper care of your piano:

1. Put some thought into where you will place your piano. Ideal conditions for the piano are at about 72 degrees F and 40% humidity.

You’ll want to avoid direct sunlight, close proximity to any heating or cooling vents, and direct placement against an exterior wall. If you must place your piano near an exterior wall, try to move it out about 2 feet away from the wall. This is important because the piano’s wood is sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity. In fact, changes in humidity that are too severe or abrupt can cause warping and cracking of the wood. Less damaging changes in temperature and humidity can cause the instrument to go out of tune. Direct sunlight can also damage the finish.

If your environment’s temperature and humidity are too difficult to control, consider installing a climate control device within the instrument itself.

2. Your piano tuner is your friend. Get your piano tuned at least once or twice a year.

Ideally, the piano should be tuned every 4 – 6 months, after a major change in the weather. For example, once you begin turning on your air conditioning in the spring or summer, wait a few weeks for the piano to adjust, and then schedule a tuning. Do the same again in the fall after you’ve turned on your heat.

If you try to wait too long between tunings, it will take the tuner (technician) longer to bring your piano up to pitch and to make any necessary minor repairs or adjustments. This will make the tuner’s visit more costly. In some cases, pianos that are severely out of tune will need to be brought up to pitch in several steps, since a change that is too drastic is bad for the strings. This will, of course, require several visits from the tuner, raising the cost.

3. Avoid trying to repair any part of the piano yourself.

Remember, the wooden parts of your piano were selected, shaped and placed with great care to contribute to the sound quality of your instrument. Also, your piano’s strings are under enormous tension, and the cast-iron frame contains those forces. Unless you are a qualified piano technician, an attempt to fix anything yourself could cause more damage that will cost more to repair in the long run — and could even be dangerous to you.

4. Never, ever, ever place liquids on top of the piano! In fact, try not to allow liquids anywhere near it.

If liquid spills on the keyboard, quickly mop up any excess, trying not to press any keys down while doing so. Liquid that gets between the keys requires a call to a qualified technician (tuner) for proper cleaning. Do not attempt to remove keys yourself to clean between them (see #3 above).

5. To keep your keyboard in good shape, consider washing your hands (or asking others to do so) before playing. Also, consider removing any rings before playing.

This is especially important if you know children will be playing your piano regularly. You don’t want to get sticky food residue or dirt from outside play on your keyboard. And for you adults, rings could scratch the finish on your keys, especially rings with stones in them.

6. If you are moving to a different home, or wish to move the piano to another room of your current home, hire expert piano movers to do the heavy lifting.

Trained, experienced, and insured, piano movers know what they are doing and can move your instrument with minimal chance of damaging it — or anything else. This is especially important if you have a grand or baby grand piano, as the process of moving these instruments is more complicated than moving an upright. Moving a grand piano requires the removal of one leg and the pedal lyre, then tipping the instrument on its side. This is not a do-it-yourself project.

7. And finally — play your piano. It doesn’t want to sit there, just a pretty piece of furniture. Regular use will help avoid dust build-up.

Help your investment to last. With proper care, your piano’s lifetime can be measured in decades.

We’ve talked about how the piano got its name — short for pianoforte, referring to the instrument’s dynamic versatility. This characteristic — the ability to play both loudly and softly depending on the player’s handling of the keyboard — was what distinguished the piano from its immediate predecessors, the harpsichord and clavichord.

So let’s talk about these two venerable ancestors of today’s piano. Someday you may find yourself called upon to play them, or perhaps you would like to try them out of your own interest in the subject. In any case, it’s good practice for the keyboard artist to be aware of some important keyboard instruments besides the familiar piano.

The harpsichord in particular is still played today. Some of the most enthusiastic players are those who prefer to perform on instruments authentic to the era of a given composition. Such performances on “period” instruments, they feel, are more true to the composer’s intentions.

Many contemporary popular artists also like to use these instruments to add a unique timbre to their pieces. The harpsichord has been played in the works of pop performers from the Beatles to Elton John to Tori Amos. These artists and others such as Cece Winans and Annie Lennox have also used the clavinet, an electrically-amplified form of the clavichord.

Let’s visit the harpsichord first.

Like the piano, the harpsichord can be produced in a range of shapes and sizes. In general, also like the piano, the harpsichord consists of a large wooden chamber or case containing the tuned strings, along with a keyboard to control the sounds produced.

However, the harpsichord differs from the piano in the way in which those sounds are produced. Whereas the piano produces sound by striking the strings with small hammers, the harpsichord produces sound by plucking the strings with a plectrum or quill. (In the harpsichord’s heyday, these were often made from the quills of bird feathers, hence the name, although today they are usually made of plastic.) In this way, the harpsichord is related to plucked stringed instruments such as the harp and guitar. The harpsichord’s strings are plucked with the same force no matter how forcefully the player’s fingers strike the keyboard, and therefore the instrument does not have a wide dynamic range.

In contrast to the harpsichord, the clavichord’s strings are not plucked but rather struck by a small metal blade called a tangent. This is shaped something like the end of a small flat-headed screwdriver. In this way the clavichord is similar to the piano, whose strings are also struck. However, the clavichord has some important differences from the piano as well.

For example, since the piano’s hammers fall away from the strings once struck, the tone is not damped unless the pianist chooses to do so. By contrast, the clavichord’s tangent remains in contact with the string after it is struck, thus both producing the sound and damping it at the same time. Because of this, the clavichord’s sound is rather quiet. This makes the clavichord best suited to intimate chamber music, since it would be drowned out if accompanied by a full orchestra, as in a concerto performance. This is why contemporary pop musicians who add the clavichord’s sound to their songs use the electrically-amplified version, the clavinet.

So as you can see, although all of these instruments are played on a familiar keyboard, they all have distinct characteristics to their tone and timbre, which make them more suitable for some venues and less so for others. Once you look beyond the familiar piano, you’ll discover there’s a surprising variety in the world of keyboard instruments.