Archive for the ‘Technique (Discussions)’ Category
A Closer Look At The “Gravity Drop”
October 9th, 2009
Don't Fight Gravity!
In my last post, I talked about something called the “gravity drop.” I think it’s important to take a closer look at it for you to really see how physics can work with you or against you when you play the piano. Try this exercise to see how the gravity drop works with your own hands and your own piano:
1. Place your right hand on the piano and your fingers (1, 3, and 5) in the correct position to play the chord, C-E-G.
2. Remember to keep your entire arm and body relaxed.
3. Keep your wrists flexible, and begin to lift your hand about 5 to 20 centimeters above the keys.
4. Allow gravity to let your hand drop, and let your hand and fingers drop as one entire unit, without moving the fingers.
5. Your hands should be completely relaxed during the entire drop, and then as your fingers come to impact the keys, you need to “set” your fingers and wrists to take the shock of landing and depressing those keys (remember to keep flexibility in your wrists).
You are now letting gravity lower your hand, therefore referencing your strength or sensitivity to a completely constant force. Maybe it doesn’t seem that interesting right now, but to really dig deep into piano playing, it’s necessary to look at how physics compliments the structure of the human body to create, you guessed it, music.
Did you know that an underweight 6 year-old and an enormous sumo wrestler dropping their hands from the exact same height onto the piano will produce sounds of equal loudness?
Why does this happen? This happens because the speed of gravitational fall is actually independent of weight or mass and the piano hammer will be launched into free flight as soon as the knuckles are taken off the jack, which are the last few millimeters before striking the strings.
If you majored in physics, you might say, “Ok, what about kinetic energy? Kinetic energy is conserved so the above statements are not precisely true.”
Piano keys do not have the mechanical structure to physically act like an “elastic collision.” In an elastic collision, the piano key would fly off the fingertip at a high velocity, sort of like when you play staccato. However, because the fingers are kept relaxed and fingertips soft, inelastic collisions are produced and kinetic energy is not conserved. The smaller mass, which are the piano keys, can stay with the larger mass, which are your fingers/arm/hands, which results in a controlled key drop.
Now, the sumo wrester will probably create a slightly louder sound because of his arm being 20 times heavier (momentum conservation), but the difference between his sound and the sound of the 6 year-old will be relatively small.
So, what’s so great about practicing YOUR gravity drop?
Using gravity to lower your hands allows you to rid yourself of all forces and all tenseness that cause some of your fingers to land before others. And most importantly, using the gravity drop allows you to practice relaxation.
Gravity is the perfect force for playing the piano, and it’s no coincidence. Human beings have evolved under the complete influence of gravity; walking, running, jumping, and of course, playing the piano. Just remember that you only need the amount of force that is relatively equal to that supplied by gravity. You don’t need to bang the keys or keep your hands tense. This will be detrimental to your practicing. It’s a great idea to practice the gravity drop for a number of weeks or even months, every time you practice. Once you are truly relaxed, you’ll be able to feel the gravitational effect on your hands as you play.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
At the time of impacting the keys, stiffening your hand will ensure that your entire weight of your arm will transfer to the key drop. However, make sure not to add force during the stiffening. This takes practice. A pure gravity drop becomes more difficult as you increase the height of your hand. That’s why I recommended a height of 5 to 20 centimeters from the keys. Choosing a height of 5 centimeters will be easier because you will have a better chance of not adding your own forceful impact in combination to gravity.
Posted in Piano Playing Physics, Technique (Discussions), The Practice Routine | 
Tags: Arm, Chords, Energy, Fingers, Force, Gravity, Hands, Key Drop, Momentum, Relax, Relaxation, Wrists | 
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How To Relax When Playing Piano
October 7th, 2009
Relax!
As you build up your speed in your piano playing, it becomes more and more important to learn how to relax at the same time. Generally, this means that you should only be using the muscles that are needed to play. You can achieve relaxation much easier by practicing your pieces hands separately. Here are a couple pieces of advice that I follow during my practice routines:
It is better not to practice at all than it is to practice with even the slightest bit of tension. It’s much more efficient to relax and play a single note, and then advance carefully; only playing those easy materials that can be played relaxed.
Do not forget to relax all areas of the body, including breathing and periodic swallowing. You thought hands and arms and fingers were the only parts of the body needing relaxation? Well, think again. Some students will stop breathing when they find themselves playing very demanding pieces because the muscles are anchored at the chest. If you’re throat is dry after playing, it means that you also stopped swallowing. My piano teacher told me a horror story of her younger years when she had been playing for an audience at a recital, when all of a sudden she started choking on her own breath right in the middle of her playing.
To fully relax, you must find the proper energy and momentum balance as well as arm, hand, and finger positions and motions that allow you to play with the right amount of energy. This may seem complicated, and it can be. Relaxing can require a lot of experimentation. If you have been concentrating on relaxing on a regular basis during your practice routines, then you should be able to quickly execute this. For those who haven’t been practicing their relaxation, you can try practicing an easy piece until you build up stress, and then try to relax. For this, you’ll need to find different motions and positions of the arms, wrists, and body. When you find them, you’ll feel the stress gradually drain away from you.
The most important element of relaxation is energy conservation. There are at least two different ways to conserve energy. Firstly, do not use unnecessary muscles, and secondly, turn off those muscles as soon as their jobs are done. Again, this is easier said than done. You can experiment with this using the gravity drop, During a gravity drop, you allow gravity to pull the arm down, but at the end of the key drop, you need to add tension to the finger for a moment to stop the hand. Then you need to quickly relax all of your muscles, but do not lift the hand. Just rest it comfortably on the piano with just enough force to support the weight of your arm. This is a lot harder than you would assume, because the elbow is practically floating in mid air. You can test whether or not you are pressing down by taking the arm off the keys and resting your forearm on your legs, completely relaxed. Then you can carry over that same feeling to the end of your gravity drop.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
Without relaxation, neither music nor technique could be possible. Technique comes from the brain. Non-musical playing actually violates so many aspects of nature that it interferes with the human brain’s natural processes for controlling the mechanisms of playing. Basically, if you spend your practice sessions doing mindless repetitions, you will find yourself going through a long, roundabout way of learning piano.
Posted in Technique (Discussions), The Practice Routine, Tips For Beginners |
Tags: Brain, Energy, Fingers, Hands, Muscles, Practice, Relax, Relaxation, Technique, Tension |
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Some Of The Greatest Pianists Could Never Teach Piano
October 5th, 2009
Analytics Vs. Artistry
It’s true, there were very few great pianists who could master the art of teaching piano, as they spent their entire lives mastering their own training and artistry. Learning and teaching are essential parts of exploring science. However, some of the most well-known pianists who had not received sufficient teaching training were actually pushed into teaching.
By human nature and throughout history, we have looked up to these great composers and pianists for guidance and piece of mind in how we relate to learning piano. If they can do it, they should be able to show us how, right? If you asked a famous pianist how to play a certain piece, he or she would sit down at the piano and play it. Notice that the language of the pianist is spoken by the hand and the piano, as opposed to the mouth.
Not only that, but that pianist may also be completely unaware about how exactly the fingers are moving in the right way to manipulate the piano keys. It literally takes the ability to control thousands of muscles and nerves in the fingers, hands, and forearms to learn how to manipulate the keys the proper way.
Acquiring technical skills can come from two different extremes. The first is the analytical extreme, where every movement and muscle is analyzed. The other is the artistic extreme, where the piano player discovers his or her own way of expressing musicality through body motions and feelings, thus acquiring the correct movements to execute proper piano playing.
And so, technique through the artistic extreme is difficult to communicate to students, because it’s acquired through completely personal and nonlinear musical aspects. Still, even knowing the proper and analytical practice methods is not enough. The correct explanations as to why they work are needed, which usually lies outside the expertise of the pianist.
There seems to be a gap in the development of proper teaching tools. The artist or the piano teachers lack training to develop these tools, but scientists and engineers who may have such training lack piano experience and artistry for teaching piano.
We can’t deny that some of the most well-known pianists of all time were indeed geniuses. Many discovered and theorized new ways of incorporating mathematics and physics to improve piano playing, so we can’t say that absolutely no analytical aspects were combined with artistry in piano playing.
These long-developed and even re-invented technical piano playing aspects have actually never been documented historically in a systematic way as they have evolved over the years. Piano teachers struggle to teach because it’s very difficult to hold the artistic approach while trying to identify what correct theoretical explanations work for teaching practice methods. And unfortunately, without a sound explanation for why these work can cause the teacher and the student to misuse or misunderstand the right practice methods.
This is why no other piano practice methods have been developed throughout history. Learning and understanding why a certain practice method works, is just as important as the method itself.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
Do you ever see a really great piano player and just think that they have been blessed with pure, amazing talent? Well, don’t. Most conservatories do not accept students unless they are of advanced levels, yet without proper conservatory training, many students are unable to attain the skills required to be accepted. A grey area has been created by the lack of good piano teaching methods, directly translating into a “lack of talent.” When this is all taken into account, it becomes more evident to see why some of the greatest pianists of all time could not teach piano.
Introduction to Piano Fingers
October 4th, 2009
Piano Hands
Where do I place my fingers on the keys? How do I know if I’m doing it right? What’s the best position? Curled or flat fingers?
These are just a few of the common questions that many piano players wonder when they find themselves struggling to make sense of a piece and position their hands and fingers to play the notes. In most beginner books, the fingering is shown in each piece to help guide students for later levels and also to help improve finger/muscle dexterity and motions.
Since everyone has their own idea about finger positions, there are no real “rules” about where and how to use them to play the piano keys. Different people have large hands, small hands, short fingers, long fingers… and so even these physical characteristics create differences in finger positioning.
One overall rule you can follow: The fingers should be in the most relaxed and powerful positions possible. Here’s a small exercise you can follow to test this:
1. Make a tight first.
2. Open your fingers and stretch them as far out as you can.
3. Relax your fingers (still stretched outward but without your forced stretching).
4. Place your hand on a flat surface with all of your fingertips resting on the surface, with your wrist being at the same height as your knuckles.
5. Notice anything? Your hand should be forming a dome-like shape. Because your fingers are relaxed and not stretched, they tend to curve a little bit.
6. Your thumb should be pointing slightly downward and bending just slightly toward your fingers so your thumb is parallel to your other fingers.
7. Many people don’t notice, but they tend to position their thumb slightly outward, away from the other fingers. It’s very important to keep the thumb parallel to the other fingers when playing chords and wide spans because you are less likely to hit adjacent keys. It also positions the thumb so the right muscles are used to raise and lower your thumb.
8. Your fingers should be slightly curled downward and meeting the piano keys at angle (approximately 45 degrees). This is very important, because it allows your fingers to play the black keys.
9. Look at all of your fingertips in this position. They should trace an approximate semi circle, from your pinky to your thumb.
10. This is an ideal starting position for playing the piano. Obviously, as you gain more experience and advance to higher levels, you can modify it to suit your own playing style.
11. When you place both hands in this position, side by side, your thumbnails should be facing each other. You can use the part of the thumb directly below the thumbnail to press the keys (as opposed to the joint).
12. Your other fingers contain a bone that comes very close to the outer skin of your fingertips. Inside the fingertip (away from the fingernail), your flesh will be slightly thicker. This fleshy part of your fingers should come in contact with the piano keys, not the fingertip itself.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
This exercise is just a really simple one to familiarize yourself with the mechanisms of your own hands. They are just suggested starting positions, but as you begin to play, these rules will most definitely change and even fly right out the window after some time. Depending on a lot of things (speed, dynamics, key combinations, and so on) you may need to stretch your fingers straighter or curl them even more. Again, this all depends on your personal style and what you are playing.
Playing Scales On The Piano Using Thumb Under and Thumb Over Methods
September 25th, 2009
Piano Keys
I used to hate practicing scales. I didn’t think they sounded as nice as a playing song would, so I avoided practicing scales as much as possible. Scales are actually a very important part of acquiring piano technique and thus improving your ability to learn and play music quickly.
Scales and arpeggios are the most basic of piano passages. Despite their importance, the most important method for playing them are usually not taught at all.
There are two main ways to play a scale. The first is the very well-known “thumb under” method and the second is of course the “thumb over” method. With the thumb under method, the thumb is brought under the hand to pass the third or fourth finger. The thumb over method treats the fingers like the four other fingers, making the motion much simpler. Both of these methods are required to effectively play a scale, but each is needed differently. Using the thumb over method helps facilitate fast, technically difficult passages, while the thumb under method uses slow, legato passages, or when certain notes need to be held while others are being played.
Throughout history, several piano teachers had no idea about the thumb over method. This caused a lot of problems as long as students did not progress to advanced levels. With the right amount of effort and work, it’s actually possible to play fairly difficult passages using the thumb under method. Even some very accomplished pianists think that the thumb under method is optimal. This is because they have subconsciously learned how to effectively use the thumb under method in such a way that it works as well as the thumb over method.
This modification is very important because it is physically impossible to play such rapid scales using the thumb under method. And so, it is very important for students to begin to learn the thumb over method as soon as they have achieved the novice stage and before the thumb under habit becomes ingrained in too many passages that should be played using the thumb over method.
A lot of students begin playing slowly and then ramping up their speed. They can get by using the thumb under method at slow speeds while consequently acquiring the thumb under habit. They then find out that as the get up to speed, they need to use the thumb over method.
This change can be difficult, frustrating, and time consuming to master because of the strong, developed habit of using thumb under. In fact, the thumb under motion is one of the most common causes of speed walls and flubs. Once the thumb over method has been learned, the student should always become used to playing runs except when the thumb under method presents better results.
The main muscles for the thumb lie in the forearm, just the same as with the other four fingers, but the thumb has other muscles in the hand that are used for moving the thumb sideways with the thumb under method. Therefore, using those extra muscles for the thumb under method makes it a much more complicated motion, which can in turn result in more mistakes.
Teachers who teach the thumb over method claim that for those who exclusively use the thumb under method, 90% of their mistakes actually originate from the thumb under method.
Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:
You can actually demonstrate the disadvantage of the thumb under method by experiencing the loss of thumb motion with its “tucked-in” position. To do this, first stretch your fingers out. All of your fingers, including the thumb should have mobility up an downward. Wiggle your thumb up and down rapidly. You’ll notice that the thumb can move about 3 or 4 centimeters vertically quite easily and without rotating your forearm. Now, gradually move your thumb underneath your hand while keeping up the rapid wiggling motion. As it goes under your hand, it loses much vertical motion until it actually becomes immobile and almost paralyzed as it likes underneath the middle finger. The muscles that are used when your thumb is underneath your hand are much more clumsy in mobility, which is making mistakes with the thumb under method is very common.
