Robert Blocker on why you shouldn’t race to the finish
The former Yale School of Music dean on choosing a tempo you can control and leaving room for silence.
Robert Blocker is the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Piano at the Yale School of Music, where he served as dean from 1995 to 2023. He performs internationally in recital, chamber music and with orchestras.
Here are thirteen of his best tips, taken from feedback he gave young pianists after live performances, with a link to each moment on video.
1. Choose a tempo you can control
Don’t try to play the coda so fast that you can’t control it. It’s much more effective to take a tempo where you can show your virtuosity, but also your musicianship and your musicality.
Robert Blocker
2. Silence is part of the music
On the harmonic passages late in Chopin’s Second Ballade:
Decide where you want to give some emphasis, where you want to pull back. You don’t have to rush through those moments. You can take some time. And silence is part of the music.
Robert Blocker
3. Let the audience breathe with you
You don’t want to end it too slowly, but take your time. Let us breathe with you there at the end.
Robert Blocker
4. Keep the long line unbroken
In the long lines, take special care that your lyricism and the warmth of your tone don’t get interrupted by more emphasis on a note that’s not on a primary beat of the phrase.
Robert Blocker
5. Go back to the score
On the first movement of Beethoven’s “Les Adieux” Sonata, Op. 81a:
Beethoven was meticulous in his markings. When a piece is in your fingers, what often benefits us most is to go back and look at the score very carefully, and consider where we might want to give a little more attention to those details.
Robert Blocker
6. Keep expressive playing in tempo
You want to make certain that you are taking care to keep your expressive playing in tempo, and to align it with the intentions Beethoven marks in the score.
Robert Blocker
7. Fast notes still need direction
You obviously have the fingers to play very fast, but sometimes fast notes can lack clarity and direction. Keep that clarity and that intensity as you move through the piece.
Robert Blocker
8. Secure technique is freedom
When the technique is this secure, you can take the time to think about what you want to say musically, and how each piece is shaped by the craftsmanship of two great composers.
Robert Blocker
9. Great pieces grow with you
To a finalist playing Brahms’s Intermezzi, Op. 118:
You’re going to find that they grow with you, and they change with your life as you evolve as a young artist and musician. These are two great pieces that will travel with you for the rest of your life.
Robert Blocker
10. Don’t make staccato too short
Be careful about making staccato notes too short. It can become percussive and one-dimensional, and you want it to have a kind of direction all the time. Where is this phrase going? Where is it moving?
Robert Blocker
11. Take a risk
On one of the hardest Liszt etudes, he praised the control and then asked for more.
You accepted the challenge and scaled the cliffs exceedingly well. At times it was almost too well. It was really beautiful the way you played it, but I never felt that you really took a risk.
Robert Blocker
12. Know what story you are telling
What is the story that you’re telling in this music? Think of it not as a series of phrases but as one long, overriding umbrella of phrases and sounds.
Robert Blocker
13. Rubato: take time, then give it back
You might take a little off the time in one measure and make it up in the next one. But you don’t want to repeat that several times. The listener should always know where the beat is.
Robert Blocker
Quotes are lightly edited for length and clarity. They come from Mr. Blocker’s comments as a judge at the 2025 Piano Star International Competition. You can watch the full performances and feedback on the Piano League YouTube channel.
Quick question
Which of these is hardest for you?
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