IMPROVE YOUR PIANO SOUND in Kabalevsky’s Magical “Lullaby”

In this video, we’re going to do from Dimitri Kabalevsky’s “Lullaby.” This lullaby is like a dream. It’s a very dreamy atmosphere. It’s like a little story in a dream. That’s how it should be played and performed. And it’s a nice piece to work on, to have this esoteric sound quality and a ‘Cantabile’ melody. Also, we learn the independence of left and right, the switching of the melody between, first, the right hand, and then it comes back in the left hand. The notes are not very complex. In previous videos, I did a few other pieces of Kabalevsky: Etude in A minor from the children’s album and ‘A Little Story.’ Dimitri Kabalevsky wrote not only children’s pieces. He wrote beautiful piano sonatas. Vladimir Horowitz recorded a few of them. Brilliant pieces, and they certainly are no less genius than the Prokofiev Sonatas. I would certainly check them out, and I would certainly not dismiss this album. Each of those pieces has some elements in them to learn for not only beginners but also intermediate. Those are really very rewarding pieces. In the link in the description, I have a PDF of the pieces. Make sure to download them. In those PDFs, I write my fingerings, I write pedaling, and I write the arm movements. So make sure to download them, and then you can follow along with my remarks for educational purposes. So let’s listen a little bit. The character and the way the piece is written could be a little prelude to Shostakovich. It’s a little bit in that style. Dreamy… dreamy atmosphere in this left… So I would really work to make these little movements here, little arm movements to make it nice, supple, and smooth. And take the weight out of the keys. Concentrated fingers. See, and I have this beautiful circle. and then Mezzo Piano, which is for the melody. Moderato cantabile is a moderate tempo with a singing tone, particularly in the melody, this cantabile. It’s a nice melody! Search for the sound, deep, this one. it’s a Portato Mark here. And see… and the arm movement is: go up and down, and up, and then up, one movement. See, I will write the movement in the score, so when you download it, you can nicely see the arm movements the fingerings, and the pedaling, of course. The pedal is one pedal at the beginning and 1/2 pedal here, half. So per bar, and some bars, where the harmony doesn’t change, and the melody doesn’t require it, we use a half pedal, and for other bars, we use a whole pedal. When the harmony changes, it needs a whole pedal for sure, so… and here ‘Più Forte’ Deeper, ‘Più Forte’ a little bit deeper. With a weight. Crescendo. And here, the melody takes over in the left hand. Forte! Crescendo! And here is the pedal per quarter note, where we have this… So the pedal follows here the left hand. Più Forte! ‘Poco ritenuto’ and ‘Piano’ again. Piano and then Mezzo Forte ending with a Diminuendo. It’s a beautiful piece to work on. The smooth smoothness of broken 7th chords. To have this beautiful smooth sound, and at the same time have a ‘Cantabile’ melody, which changes in the different hands. So let’s play that whole piece from the beginning: Make sure to watch the other videos with Kabalevsky pieces that I recorded. Maybe I will record a few more in the future. It’s a really beautiful album for beginners; all study pieces are real music, and all have elements to learn some new stuff. So check the description. There, I also put the links to the other videos that I have of Kabalevsky. Or watch it on my channel. If you like this video, give me a thumbs up to let other people know that this is a good video and they will watch it and benefit from it as well. If you didn’t subscribe, hit the subscribe button so that you will not miss out. Weekly, I post new videos like this and about other subjects on piano playing to help people like you learn the instrument better. So make sure to hit the subscribe button! And then I see you the next time!