In the early years of the actual eighteenth century, the Italian language instrument maker Bartolemo Cristofori developed the pianoforte, which, thanks to its hammer-upon-strings action, could create a range of tone colors as well as dynamics. In the centuries which followed, hundreds of thousands of people discovered to play the piano. The actual distillation of their wisdom, as well as ideas, has become a standard means for developing piano technique, the basics of which are considered here.
What exactly is piano technique?
The word “technique” comes from the Greek function tekne which means art. Costly art comes from inside, and cannot be taught, therefore, but must rather become self-discovered. A performance offers musical flair not because it is note-perfect and follows powerful, metronome and other markings, but, because it feels easy and water. Such a performance exists exterior and beyond the player, who may be, nonetheless and paradoxically, submerged in it.
The technique is cumulative: as the playing improves, this artwork starts to reveal itself. It’s present when you are not contemplating technique much at all, for instance when you rattle off a basic piece, which, at a past stage in your pianistic growth, you found difficult.
Basic principles
Awareness of how the piano performs, and how to hold your body, underpins technique.
1 . How a guitar sound is made
Making a be aware is mechanically easier about the piano that it is on, claims, the guitar or clarinet. For that reason, the mechanics of making a strong on the piano are almost never discussed. It may help to imagine the piano in terms of timpani. The finger action about the key triggers a claw to hit the string. Maintaining this strike to the guitar key is crucial to the sound generated. Just as wrist action can determine the tone of a drum skin area, so it influences the sound of the piano.
2 . Body along with seat position
Common healthy posture mistakes include:
• Resting too close to the keyboard, or even slumping over the keys, so the spine is curved. This could result in flat-fingered playing (we don’t mention that the excellent Horowitz was flat-fingered! ), and even persistent stylish, shoulder, or back problems.
• Shuffling on the chair in order to access the outer limitations of the keyboard.
• Utilizing an unsuitable seat, or position when playing. This can location strain on the wrist as well as result in RSI. Choir frontrunners and music directors coping with large corps of entertainers often fall into the bad routine of standing while actively playing.
What is comfortable – elevation of stool, or even the choice for a chair – will be different from player to the gamer. However, the seat should be of a height that causes none an arching of the arms, nor the settling from the palms against the front from the piano as the fingers shift over the keys.
Shoulders ought to be soft, and back directly at the piano – this is particularly important in order to free the actual arms and hands. Cupped palms and curved palms make dexterity on taking some time.
Five crucial aspects of fine piano technique
Improving along with maintaining the facility in the pursuing areas will mean your guitar playing has a greater innovative tone, fluency and accuracy, and reliability.
1 . Touch
Generally speaking, typically the finger should move with the metacarpal (knuckle) joint, but not at the other, lesser little finger joints. In addition, the palms should tend towards the side.
Legato and cantabile models require the player to follow the fingering weight – also to stay with it as it is applied. Intended for wrist and finger staccato, abruptness is required, with more or maybe less weight applied depending on the dynamic desired (piano and sotto voce want less weight).
Staccato means detached, and the fingers need to be light, supple and pivoted by the knuckle – not necessarily floppy or raised, which will result in a loud and twisted line.
Finger legato can be an indispensable tool in the techie armory. Organists use it continuously because there is no sustained borrachera. Finger legato, without the retain pedal, is an excellent way of having a smooth, commanding playing fashion. A good starting point is Chopin’s little Prelude in Age minor.
2 . Rhythm
It is stated that Mozart famously as soon as remarked that music is not within the notes but in the stop between them. Rhythm is described by these intervals associated with silence.
Collaborative performance along with singers and other instrumentalists, particularly (competent) percussionists, is a good method of developing rhythmic awareness. Superior scale/technical practice can be vital by playing various tempos – triplets, fives, fournil, and even cross-rhythms. Cross-rhythm suggestions include triplet triads within the left hand, while the right performs running fours in quavers. Chopin Etude No. three from Trois Nouvelles Etudes is a good cross-rhythm study for your advanced player.
3. Fingering
At the heart of effective active playing is a solid fingering method. Scales and technical function, and related studies, perform a vital role in building awareness of harmony, melody as well as form. Unfortunately, scale as well as technical work is less attractive than pieces to most individuals. Studies of the Czerny, Hanon, Tankard & Harrison kinds can provide some intermediate-to-advanced curves.
Longer, but nonetheless less strong, than finger 5, hand 4 is a good marker intended for scale and arpeggio habits, and thinking about its location helps memorization. The most obvious benefit of memorization is that you can give full attention to technique – fingering, connection, phrasing, and dynamic distinction – rather than reading since you play.
4. Dynamics
Typically the pianoforte is named after the element which revolutionized the keyboard participating – the capacity to be tender or loud. Dynamics (how soft/loud) are created by altering weight control from shoulder for you to forearm to wrist for you to fingertip.
From the start of understanding how to play, it is important to think about dynamic subtlety and distinction. This guards against unpleasant, clanking tones characteristic of the inexperienced player.
5. Pedalling
Rubinstein called the pedal typically the soul of the piano. Almost all piano repertoire, and especially cantabile/romantic styles, can be enhanced noticeably by the judicious use of borrachera.
The pedal moves typically the dampers from the wires, being a peek inside the case can verify. The fundamental principles involving successful pedaling are how the heel must remain on the bottom, and the foot on the borrachera, throughout the whole action.
Various chord progressions need syncopated pedaling, whereby the blend is struck and then the actual pedal comes down. A good physical exercise for this is Chopin’s Preface, prologue Op 28 No twenty.
Simple tips for improving your keyboard technique
Touch, rhythm, fingering, pedaling and dynamics determine good technique. Improvement in these areas comes with regular:
• Face-to-face contact with a good instructor
• Listening to piano along with other music
• Copying great practitioners
• Participation in choirs and bands
• Diligent practice.
Doing all this will turn combinations of your notes into music, and develop in you the art associated with piano playing.
Charlotte Pickering – – is a Uk writer of fiction as well as nonfiction. A regular contributor in order to magazines and newspapers, the girl’s interest includes social (especially women and children topics), songs and the arts, and present affairs. Her affinity for your Merseyside and surrounding regions of the UK is evident within much of her work.
Charlotte now Pickering’s debut novel, Hildi’s Games, a dark emotional thriller, and the first of the trilogy, was published in March 2013 and is on Amazon.
