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Mastering Piano Technique with Seymour Fink
American pianist and pedagogue Seymour Fink has written a fine book on piano technique with a series of exercises designed to activate each part of the piano playing mechanism in turn, from the shoulders on down to the fingertips, facilitating a truly whole-body involvement with the instrument. The video version of Mastering Piano Technique provides even more graphic help than the book in implementing the practices the lead to a piano technique that is not only healthy but also virtuosic.
Prof. Fink has commented that his book combined with my own The Craft of Piano Playing offers a truly comprehensive approach to piano technique, and I heartily concur. My view of certain aspects of the thumb’s relationship to the hand have been influenced by Prof. Fink’s work, and these new understandings have been incorporated in my new book, Honing the Pianistic Self-Image, as well as into the 2nd Edition of The Craft of Piano Playing.
Here I list a few of the concordances between the material of Mastering Piano Technique and The Craft of Piano Playing.
Mastering Piano Technique
The opening chapters of Mastering Piano Technique deal with the whole body and the arms, something that I don’t really get into in depth until Honing the Pianistic Self-Image. These provide a valuable way of training the body to respond well to the exigencies of the fingers’ myriad actions on the keyboard, supporting their action that must be both powerful and sensitive.
Later on Prof. Fink does zero in on the hand and fingers, and here the correspondences between his work and my own become very clear.
Chapter 11
This chapter which focuses on the special role of the thumb offers an excellent series of exercises that will help you experience your thumb as you never have before, and to really understand through sensation its crucial role in empowering the whole hand on the keyboard.
Chapter 12A #1
… corresponds with Chapter 1 section 10 of my own DVD The Craft of Piano Playing, which deals with the action of the lumbrical (The Grasping Function, 16:50-17:15).
Chapter 12A #2, 3
… corresponds with Chapter 8, section 6 of the Craft DVD, which focuses on the action of the deep and superficial flexors (Out the Back Door, 1:24:20-1:25:20).
Chapter 12B #1
… corresponds with Chapter 4 section 1 from Craft, consolidating the fifth finger’s arch (Fifth Finger Pull-ups, 41:20-41:55),
Chapter 12B #2
This following section on lateral strength for the fifth finger is highly empowering.Chapter 12C #1
… deals with true legato touch, and corresponds very well to the sections on legato from the Craft DVD (Chapter 2 section 3, Legato, as well as Chapter 5, section 3, Phrasing & Orientation).
Article researched and written for PianoTechnique.org by Alan Fraser
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