Mizue's Blog
How to relax your wrists while playing the piano
Mizue Murakami
A few days ago, I wrote a blog about "How to avoid developing tendinitis in your wrists playing the piano." But I couldn't get into "How to relax your wrists practicing piano" in that blog. The blog wasn't about that. Today, I would like to talk about that so that you won't develop stiffness, inflammation, or even tendinitis in your wrists.
Again, it's the same philosophy that I keep saying. Use your entire body! If you have to shake your wrists time to time because you feel stiffness in your...
Avoid developing tendinitis in your wrist playing piano.
Mizue Murakami
While practicing, if you feel like you need to shake your wrists, you need to stop what you are doing. If you continue practicing the way you are doing, you will develop tendinitis in your wrist(s). Often the situation happens when you are playing a lot of octaves, tonic 4-note chords, and wide arpeggios. It never happened to my wrists in my entire life. But then, why some intermediate students, advanced students, or even professional players get tendinitis? It's because they don't have a proper technique to relax to play...
Become the great keyboard player, not keyboard operator
Mizue Murakami
There are two types of keyboard (music, not typing) players. One is who can play well with fewer patches (sound sources). The other one is who can make what he/she is playing very nice with sophisticated sound sources and pre-planed automation. Both are great. But if you are trying to be a good keyboard player, real musician, I would recommend you to be the former first. Then, try also to learn how to operate your fancy musical equipment.
Why should you do the former first? Because if you do the latter...
Difference on the emotional effects between Baroque and Romantic music
Mizue Murakami
Today, just for fun, I would like to compare the emotional side of Baroque music with music from the Romantic period. There are a lot of music pieces composed by various composers from both the Baroque and Romantic eras. For example, there are Bach, Petzold, Pachebel, Vivaldi, etc. from the Baroque period and Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Borodin, Grieg, Mussorgsky, Verdi, Bizet, Brahms and many others from Romantic era. Most of them move and trigger human emotions in many ways, but differently when you compare them between the Baroque music and Romantic music in general.
Some...
How to make Mozart's pieces sound good on piano
Mizue Murakami
Piano compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the classical era are really challenging, more so than other composers' pieces in some ways. The scores look easy. It sounds easy when you hear someone playing his compositions. Often, a section repeats a lot in different keys or the same key. So, why is it so hard to make his pieces sound good?
When you play his pieces, you can't disguise your skill by anything. These are why:
- You can't hide behind something (notes, pedal, dynamics)
- His piano compositions...