Garrick Ohlsson on how to practice 26 min.

[mikehalloran]

Long story short. After three months, our piano is back together—the action arrived and initial setup, regulation, tuning etc. is done. The tech we used was recommended by Yamaha/Bösendorfer and we are very happy with the work. He was done in April but with the current situation...

Among the many things we learned was that the piano in Garrick Olhsson's San Francisco apartment is a hundred year old Model 200 like ours — give or take. Neither piano has a serial number but otherwise, they're identical. Ok, that's cool.

While doing a little web surfing, I came across the following video on how to practice. Although he's playing a piano, most of the tips can be applied to any instrument. You have to give an email address to view the lesson but there's no verification link so input what you want.

https://tb.media/OhlssonFreeLesson

My wife is over the moon about how our piano sounds and plays. We consider the money very well spent and wish we'd been able to do it 10 years ago. The last time it had been done was when we bought it in 1979.

[mhschmieder]

I looked it up and it's 6'7", which I think matches my parents' Mason & Hamlin BB dimensions.

My recollection is that Ohlsson was the first pianist I heard in concert using a Bösendorfer ; I was in music school at Indiana University at the time, when he came as part of the annual guest artist performance series (and I believe did a clinic, but I wasn't majoring in piano). He, along with the piano, made an indelible impression on me that has lasted to this day.

[stubbsonic]

While doing a little web surfing, I came across the following video on how to practice. Although he's playing a piano, most of the tips can be applied to any instrument. You have to give an email address to view the lesson but there's no verification link so input what you want.

That was interesting and useful. His playing is so masterful, you get that his advice is backed up by serious experience and hard work.

I noticed that his description of approaching two chords in rapid succession is comparable to drumming stick-control methods. It also hints at the ubiquitous "economy of motion" advice that is part of most instrumental technique tutelage.

The camera angle didn't allow me to see what he was doing with that cool thumb technique toward the end of the lesson. It was apparently an intriguing way to help make some phrases smoother-- even if not fully doing the kind of wormy thumb-crawly thingy. But I did want to see it on the keys more clearly. His left-hand demo wasn't very obvious to me.

[bdr]

Thanks for the link to the video Mike. I enjoyed it a lot, and I was really interested that his first few minutes was spent on something I try to get into my students...practice what you can’t do, not what you can. Seems simple but is often a revelation.

I have a couple of other places I like to go for practicing and playing tips. Graeme Fitch’s blog
https://practisingthepiano.com/blog/ is great, there’s an ‘academy’ with a monthly charge, but the blog itself is free and chock full of wonderful advice. Reading his series of ebooks was a total revelation on learning and practicing to me...which maybe means I didn’t have the greatest piano teachers in the past.

The other resource I like is Josh Wright’s you tube channel...I just find his approach and ideas stimulating and so helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/user/joshwrightpiano

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Hmmm... won't validate my email so can't watch. Bummer.

[cuttime]

Hmmm... won't validate my email so can't watch. Bummer.

Same here. Tried several different addresses.

[mikehalloran]

Hmmm... won't validate my email so can't watch. Bummer.

Weird. It didn't try to validate mine. I just tried a few including some that I was making up.

Could it be a browser issue? I'm using Chrome.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Good point. I’ll try Chrome and FireFux.

[cuttime]

Not working in Chrome or Firefox here...

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I’ll try Netscape. Lol

[cuttime]

...and Brave and Opera. Must be regional or DNS related.