Question: Hello Albert,
Firstly, thanks for the lessons and advice coming in regularly, it certainly is a great help and also scary to realize how much I still need to learn.
As a retired citizen, having being a tradesperson all my life, my hands and fingers have certainly been worked hard and a
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Question: Hi Albert,
My question relates to staccato double notes played softly. Is finger staccato the best technique for this?
– Tony (England)
Albert’s reply: It’s not possible to prescribe a “one size fits all” touch. That said, in general staccato double notes are best performed not with...
Question: I’ve read a few times on your site about how everyone has a limit to how fast they can play. This really bothers me. Like I know it’s about playing everything musically first and foremost, but… I’m very ambitious. I have a goal to have a very wide repertoire of my favourite pieces – some
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Question: I am a senior citizen who has dreamed of learning to play the piano since childhood. I have learned a lot on my own, and started taking lessons two years ago. I am very frustrated and feel like giving up as I cannot seem to master a fluid sound. It always sounds so choppy and mechanical
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Question: As I depress the piano key using the 5th finger, the 2nd knuckle (middle knuckle) collapses and the first knuckle (nail knuckle) over-curls to compensate for it. (See the above picture.)
Could you please suggest what I should do to rectify this? Thank you.
– Emmanuel
Albert’s reply:...
Question: My technique goes just so far and then I get stuck. What can you offer in the way of determining fingerings, being able to move about the keyboard freely and easily with precision, release of excess tension, the invisible and visible motions and parts to playing the piano, ways to break
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Question: Hi, I am a pianist and also a student, and I wonder every day in my life, why don’t I “get there”? I mean, I play the pieces, I play recitals and concerts, but I don’t know, maybe because I know myself and I watch “the pianist” from inside not outside, other pianists seem to be a lot mor
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Question: Hi Albert,
What are the chords that I really, really need to know as an intermediate piano player? Here’s my guess: Major, minor, diminished, augmented, major and minor 6th, major and minor dominant 7th, and Major 7th. Not sure about sus chords. What say you? Thanks.
– Willard Crawford...
Question: I had been formally trained in piano quite a long ago for a short duration of time. I have not been so much in touch with it since then, but I have always been into music.
Recently I have gotten interested (very much) in music theory and will pursue it if I get a chance to do so. In the
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Question: How can I transpose a hymn in any key into the key of C? My friend plays the organ by ear and can only play in the key of C, so I need to know how to transpose to the key of C… thank you!
Albert’s reply: It’s essential to be able to play in all keys! It’s actually not that difficult i...
Question: I was wondering how to transpose C major into the key of F major, on scales.
– Alana (Dubai)
Albert’s reply: Scales are the way to transpose! You have to make sure you know all your piano scales as well as you know your own name, as the great pianist Josef Lhévhinne once wrote.
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Question: Hello Albert. Thanks a lot for putting together this helpful website.
My question regards transposing music. Would you say it is best to memorize a piece of music in its original key before attempting transposition? Lately I have been playing Chopin’s Prelude in E minor (Op. 28, No. 4).
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