Arie Vardi On Legato & Cantabile | tonebase Tips

Watch Arie Vardi teach the music of Debussy, exclusively on tonebase!

Legendary pianist and professor Arie Vardi speaks about how to achieve a beautiful cantabile, the "#1 goal in piano playing."

Arie's legato tips:
- Overlap successive notes
- Play on finger cushions
- Slow finger penetration
- Listen to note decay
- Play in between the notes

Arie's cantabile tips:
- Adjust balance between hands
- Don't play two consecutive notes in the same dynamic
- Give character to intervals

Musical excerpts:
00:11 Chopin Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 - III. March funèbre: Lento
00:36 Bach Prelude in B Minor, BWV 869
02:49 Schubert Sonata in B-flat, D. 960 - I. Molto moderato, II. Andante sostenuto

---

[alesash]

אני מתגעגע לתוכניות שלך אריה.
אני מאכל לך הרבה בריאות ועריכות ימים

[jordanstephens]

Can't wait for the launch! As an adult piano learner this will be so helpful!

[r.i.p.volodya]

I would add one thing to this: the balance between the hands. Your right hand can be a legato & cantabile as you like but, if the left hand notes are too prominent, you simply will not hear the right hand notes ringing through. Listen to Horowitz: the success of his legato is achieved by everything in this vid AND the huge difference in volume between accompaniment and melody.

[vorufusan]

Just watching so I don’t disappoint Chopin 😀

[knittysong]

What is the first piece he is playing- I can't think of the name even though I've played it!

[fryderyckchopin]

Why not singing with the heart while playing with the hands?

[christopherczajasager]

" even in Bach"....that s quite amusing

[iloveisrael]

the most perfect sophisticated ideas about piano yet his own playing sounds terrible. The idea of creating legato by overlapping notes comes from Horowitz, yet Vardi tries to make his own without understanding how it works. The Horowitz overlap is a combination of touch, instrument, the acoustics of the room and most importantly the clever use of the pedal. No one can imitate this. Horowitz had his piano moved on the stage to different spots until he found the right acoustics and had that spot marked. After this many other pianists asked to position their piano in that same spot. Useless for them!

[frankfeldman]

Go on and on about the perfectly obvious, why don't you.