How To Play Piano Expressively

  • Have you ever felt emotion while playing piano, only to realize that it didn’t really affect the sound at all?
  • Have you ever received lukewarm responses from people about your playing, even though you were really trying to be expressive?

This was the predicament I was in during my undergraduate studies until I met instrument maker Keith Hill and pianist/conductor/educator Marianne Ploger who opened my eyes to a whole new world of musical expression – which turns out, isn’t so “new” after all.

In my introductory video, How To Play Piano Expressively, I show techniques that were historically used to play expressively, show how they were commonly used, and describe what some of them are.

Future videos in this series will demonstrate 11 specific ways of playing that you can incorporate into your pieces at any level that will make your playing more clear to listeners, and more engaging to yourself.

As a side benefit, these techniques also help with performance anxiety, because you are focusing on what you’re trying to say and not simply on playing things “right”.