# How does a pianist play with emotion?



## Rach Man (Aug 2, 2016)

How does a pianist play with emotion? I am a non-musician. I am not trying to be flippant. I am truly curious. When a violinist plays, she/he holds the strings in her/his hand. I can somewhat understand that caressing the strings can bring emotion into the music. But a pianist hits a key. The key allows the hammer to strike the string. So, how does one performer strike the keys and it is emotional, and when another strikes the keys, there is no passion. Please explain to me how a pianist generates emotion, passion, expression.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Lang Lang - Debussy: Suite bergamasque, L.75: III. Clair de lune
2,119,000 views (I viewed it exactly on the 2,119,000th)


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Mostly by varying the loudness (velocity, dynamics) and speed (tempo, rubato) of the keys played. They do this to create what is known as phrasing. It's the same as speaking a phrase in English. You can state it flatly and unemotionally, or you can speak it with great affect, by varying the loudness/stress and pacing of certain words and syllables.

Most pianists today play with lots of rubato, especially for Romantic repertoire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_rubato


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

By caressing the keys with dainty, poetic movements of your fingers and having your hands hovering about like doves in flight as if that has some sort of effect on the sound that comes out.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

dissident said:


> By caressing the keys with dainty, poetic movements of your fingers and having your hands hovering about like doves in flight as if that has some sort of effect on the sound that comes out.


:lol::lol: that's funny!!


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

I posted this on another thread about interpretations. I think it's applicable to this thread.

I find the piano to be perhaps the most difficult instrument to convey emotion from due to the fact that outside percussion (Yes, it is a percussive instrument). It's the only instrument that you don't embrace with your body, nor moves with your body. The violin tucks under your chin and is surrounded by your arms and can move WITH your body. The Cello is embraced. Even wind and horn instruments are embraced by arms and hands, and can certainly move with the rhythms of one's body . It's much easier to convey emotion in those instruments than the piano. One must learn to convey emotion from your body through fingertips without the advantage of embrace or a synchronizing body movement.

To Couchie's point, those can help convey emotion but those are more under the category of techniques. To someone who has the ability to convey emotion from their body and more importantly from their soul/spirit, those techniques can add tremendous effect. However, I have heard people play with varying degrees of loudness and softness (fortissimo and pianissimo), pauses, velocity, etc., and perform all those techniques very well, but still didn't convey emotion through their playing resulting in a rather flat performance. I believe there it takes an almost ethereal ability to convey great emotion through music and particularly through the piano.

V


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## lnjng (Dec 24, 2021)

The way the pianist plays the key is of utmost importance. The wrist movements, finger strength, arm, etc. all have an effect on the sound produced out of the piano. A crescendo played one way will sound different played another way.

Use of the sustain and soft pedals, dynamics, facial expressions are also a part of this. Couchie mentioned rubato, which is a big part of Romantic pieces, but I find some pianists even introduce it into some Beethoven sonatas (which I'm not a huge fan of).


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Rach Man said:


> How does a pianist play with emotion? I am a non-musician. I am not trying to be flippant. I am truly curious. When a violinist plays, she/he holds the strings in her/his hand. I can somewhat understand that caressing the strings can bring emotion into the music. But a pianist hits a key. The key allows the hammer to strike the string. So, how does one performer strike the keys and it is emotional, and when another strikes the keys, there is no passion. Please explain to me how a pianist generates emotion, passion, expression.


You're right, and you have exposed the big lie about pianists. Because of limitations of the instrument, it is practically _impossible_ to play with emotion since as you have cleverly deduced, there is no _direct connection_ between the hand and the production of the sound. Hence performances by a pianist are devoid of any emotional expression and are nothing more than a mechanical trick, i.e. sleight of hand.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Rach Man said:


> How does a pianist play with emotion? I am a non-musician. I am not trying to be flippant. I am truly curious. When a violinist plays, she/he holds the strings in her/his hand. I can somewhat understand that caressing the strings can bring emotion into the music. But a pianist hits a key. The key allows the hammer to strike the string. So, how does one performer strike the keys and it is emotional, and when another strikes the keys, there is no passion. Please explain to me how a pianist generates emotion, passion, expression.


It's true the violinist is forming the note by close contact with the string, and for the piano player there's a big machine between him and the place where the note is formed. But the piano player may be able to do enough to colour and make phrases from the sounds - a skilled pianist can drive the piano just like a skilled racing car driver can drive a Jag. The pianist can strike the keys in different ways creating different attacks and decays, he can keep adjacent strings open creating partials, he can use pedal, he can play the notes in a chord with different weights, he can use different types of liaison and so on. Those choices make the music expressive. We really need a conversation between a violinist and a pianist to happen in this thread.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*How does a pianist play with emotion?*



Rach Man said:


> How does a pianist play with emotion? ... Please explain to me how a pianist generates emotion, passion, expression.


That's what the middle pedal on the piano is for. It's called a sostenuto pedal, which is another word for emotionifier pedal. When the pianist presses it, a static electrical charge (a _sosten_, in technical language) is sent up the sural and sciatic nerves, from the foot to the brain, stimulating the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex of the brain, centers of emotional response. Of course, the amount of stimulation depends upon the level of serotonin in the pianist's body. Physical activity is known to raise brain serotonin levels, which explains why the most emotional pianists are those most prone to moving about at the piano bench: swaying, rocking, gyrating and contorting, and sometimes even vocalizing.

The serotonin changes the static charge into a kinetic charge in the brain and runs down the peripheral radial nerves to the fingers, producing an emotional energy which is then transferred into the keys, positive energy filtering into the white keys, negative energy reacting upon the black keys. The more energy the pianist has in his fingers, and the whiter and the blacker are the keys, the more emotion the player is able to generate into the strings of the piano.

There are more technical issues involved, of course, or at least that's what I learned in my Musical Anatomy class in college. But I didn't pass the course (and thus failed to become either a physician or a pianist), so I may be in error on a detail or two here. But I believe I'm essentially correct. I generally am. Or at least I've been told so.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Couchie said:


> Mostly by varying the loudness (velocity, dynamics) and speed (tempo, rubato) of the keys played. They do this to create what is known as phrasing. It's the same as speaking a phrase in English. You can state it flatly and unemotionally, or you can speak it with great affect, by varying the loudness/stress and pacing of certain words and syllables.
> 
> Most pianists today play with lots of rubato, especially for Romantic repertoire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_rubato


Perfect.

I have an affectation when I play; occasionally on sustained notes I'll use what LOOKS like vibrato, and if it were a stringed instrument it WOULD be, but, of course, on a piano, it isn't. But to me, when I play, I can hear the difference.

There ARE now keyboard instruments that this would work on.

Like this . . .


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Varick said:


> I posted this on another thread about interpretations. I think it's applicable to this thread.
> 
> I find the piano to be perhaps the most difficult instrument to convey emotion from due to the fact that outside percussion (Yes, it is a percussive instrument). It's the only instrument that you don't embrace with your body, nor moves with your body. The violin tucks under your chin and is surrounded by your arms and can move WITH your body. The Cello is embraced. Even wind and horn instruments are embraced by arms and hands, and can certainly move with the rhythms of one's body . It's much easier to convey emotion in those instruments than the piano.
> V


I don't understand how embracing the instrument conveys emotion to the audience except visually, which doesn't count in recordings. Facial expressions don't count either.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I once played for this conductor who insisted that his orchestra musicians must display emotion and intensity on stage!! In fact, he actually tried to post this on the audition page for aspiring members: that applicants must appear convincing on stage, they must present an image of intense involvement with the music...:lol: IOW - he wanted lots of bobbing around, weaving, rocking and rolling, swaying about - this, according to this pretentious jackass, represented "emotional involvement" with the music...
He once told me that I should watch videos of the "world's greatest bassoonists", and imitate their expressiveness and emotional commitment...gawd - so I went to this Youtube sight, it was some bassoonist from a European regional orchestra - the guy was rocking and rolling, deking and jiving, like he was going to fall off the chair - looked very "committed". Of course, the sound produced was this rather pathetic, poopy little squeak that wouldn't project 10 feet....

I told this "conductor" what I thought of his recommendation - and that excessive movement, bobbing around, swaying back and forth is really detrimental to one's performance - breathing, posture, embouchure, technique are all adversely affected by excessive movement....didn't matter - he still wanted all the musicians to be swaying about "passionately" - "emotionally committed".

This jerk actually told the percussion section that he wanted them to look like the "Blue Man Group"** in Boston!! When the orchestra unionized, all this crap went right down the drain...totally dismissed.

**Blue Man Group = Comic musical & artistic show featuring lots of audience interaction with the blue-painted cast.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

That would be a more apt question for the harpsichord. An instrument on which dynamics are impossible.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

dissident said:


> By caressing the keys with dainty, poetic movements of your fingers and having your hands hovering about like doves in flight as if that has some sort of effect on the sound that comes out.


Here's a masterful example:


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Open Book said:


> I don't understand how embracing the instrument conveys emotion to the audience except visually, which doesn't count in recordings. Facial expressions don't count either.


I think it's the matter of tone production. On string and woodwind instruments you're more intimately involved with that while on a piano it's more mechanical.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

dissident said:


> I think it's the matter of tone production. On string and woodwind instruments you're more intimately involved with that while on a piano it's more mechanical.


With percussive instruments, like piano or plucked like harpsichord, the tone once struck will only decay, get softer....wind and string instruments can initiate a tone, and change the volume, it can get louder, softer, remain constant for an indefinitely long period of time, air speed, bow pressure and speed may be altered to produce crescendo, diminuendo, sostenuto....the musician may add and subtract vibrato, and alter the attack, the initiation of the tone....all of these features may be applied to affect expression into the performance.


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## verandai (Dec 10, 2021)

There's some aspects in tone production which can't be done with a piano - but also some aspects which are hard to achieve with other instruments - like simultaneously generating multiple tones (like a chord), but with different volumes.

I mean playing with an "upper voice" - I don't know if that's the correct technical term in English (playing a melody slightly louder than the other accompanying notes).

Also there are two dimensions the piano player can vary to create a different sound: The depth and the velocity of the keystroke.


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## Holden4th (Jul 14, 2017)

Couchie said:


> Mostly by varying the loudness (velocity, dynamics) and speed (tempo, rubato) of the keys played. They do this to create what is known as phrasing. It's the same as speaking a phrase in English. You can state it flatly and unemotionally, or you can speak it with great affect, by varying the loudness/stress and pacing of certain words and syllables.


This rather simple explanation sums it up almost perfectly and I'd like to expand on it.

The first thing Couchie mentions is dynamics - how soft or loud you can go. Now with two hands and by varying the pressure on the keyboard the dynamics can be precisely controlled if the pianist is good enough. On top of that, one hand can play at a different dynamic than the other.

The next thing referred to is tone control. With eight fingers and two thumbs you can vary the dynamics between individual notes. This can bring out various inner voices and the choice of what to emphasise is up to the pianist.

Phrasing is possibly the most important element and I really like Couchie's reference to spoken language. I can change the emotional intent of a simple spoken sentence by placing more or less emphasis on certain words and also by speeding up and slowing down my words in that sentence. The same can be done with the notes on a piano. We are looking at what's called colour and rubato.

One thing not mentioned is tonality. Most piano strings up to a certain register are a combination of three strings. This produces amazing harmonics and once again, when the pianist decides to highlight inner voices, say, the harmonics can be used to create different effects.

Finally, Heck's comments about the mad conductor. I find Lang Lang like this. Yes, this may be his way of trying to communicate the music to himself first (and the audience second) but it's very off putting to watch.


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

Holden4th said:


> Phrasing is possibly the most important element and I really like Couchie's reference to spoken language. I can change the emotional intent of a simple spoken sentence by placing more or less emphasis on certain words and also by speeding up and slowing down my words in that sentence. The same can be done with the notes on a piano.


I would say that the reason a bowed string instrument is extremely expressive of emotion is that it actually *can* imitate the human voice while a piano can't. You can't play true legato on a piano, or apply vibrato. The piano can't "sing" in the way that a violin, viola or cello can. The only area to me in which a keyboard is untouchable (no pun) is harmonic richness. In other words most of the emotion is going to reside in the music itself.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Holden4th said:


> Phrasing is possibly the most important element and I really like Couchie's reference to spoken language. I can change the emotional intent of a simple spoken sentence by placing more or less emphasis on certain words and also by speeding up and slowing down my words in that sentence


Exactly, musical phrasing is very much like spoken language...there is emphasis, rhythm, accent...punctuation....spoken language can be absolutely dead boring - a flat, monotone delivery, no inflection, with no punctuation is quickly soporific...."robot-speak"...the listener needs a break, needs the phrases marked....I often think of the great orators we've heard in our time - ML King, JFK, Barack Obama [who studied MLK, JFK]...listening to ML King was like listening to a great singer delivering an aria - the phrasing, the crescendi, diminuendi, reaching a climax - the guy was an artist...he could have been reading a grocery list, or a telephone book, and it would be thrilling....
Great musicians do the same thing....



> Finally, Heck's comments about the mad conductor. I find Lang Lang like this. Yes, this may be his way of trying to communicate the music to himself first (and the audience second) but it's very off putting to watch.


It's really distracting to other musicians in the ensemble as well...the signals between musicians can be very subtle, invisible to the audience, but the "body English" is there...great sections always use this - a breath, a nod, instrument motion...there's a whole chemistry, a "sixth sense" that develops over time.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I believe by varying tempo, rhythm, dynamics.


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## Chibi Ubu (11 mo ago)

It comes from the artist living the music, and playing from the soul, no matter what that soul can be. I once saw two different drummers play two different tunes with the same professional big band on the same drum set. The drum set sounded like 2 different drum sets. It was the damnedest thing I ever heard/saw!


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## That Guy Mick (May 31, 2020)

The pianist's emotional playing is unworthy of note. Why would it be? Lol!


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Varying speed and volume, basically.


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