Technical Evaluation... & My Story

Greetings Alan... and all... I just found your web site after google searching on the words 'piano technique avoiding injury'... Your work looks fascinating and I have a strong feeling that I may be buying your DVD as I believe it might be exactly what I am seeking! I would like to share my story - as it is unusual and I believe it may be of some value - also I wonder if you would be willing to give a very brief evaluation of my technique / hand position etc? I have a youtube video; I will place the link at the end of this post with a little explanation. So... my story. I started playing classical piano when I was 6... by age 13, I had grade 7 in piano and grade 8 in music theory (English grade system). However, my development as a musician took some strange turns. The teachers of the school in which I was enrolled, had some very strong opinions about music and about musicians. It was a pedagogical system, in a staunch, disciplinarian private school. From an early age, I had an absolute fascination with the music of Liszt. However, my interest in the music of this composer was derided by the school teachers, I was told that it was "typical of an arrogant child", and that besides, I really ought to forget ambitions of being a pianist because I wasn't good enough, wasn't dedicated enough anyway. As a result of this I never actually heard more than about four of Liszt's compositions until a couple of years ago... having abandoned classical music for almost 20 years. I haven't had a piano lesson since I was 16! I am now 36. At age 19 I found myself invited to perform in a small concert. Before the event I had access to the hall and I practiced for many hours - Chopin's Ballade no.1, revolutionary etude and a nocturne. However, the piano had a *very* stiff action and during the course of this work I injured my right hand somewhat. It was not so severe that I could not play, yet I found that if I sat on the ground for example, it hurt to rest any weight on my hands as was my habit. This condition persisted for a few months and gradually subsided - as did my work at the piano. I let the whole thing slide and ended up getting into the field of electronic music and working as a record producer, hardly playing piano for many years. Anyway, long story short, about a year and a half ago - I decided out of sheer curiosity to go online and listen to some Liszt piano music. I heard the transcendental etudes, Harmonies Poetiques et religieuses, annees de pelerinage, "the rest" of the rhapsodies, mephisto waltzes and many more... Cziffra, Volodos, Gekic, etc... all for the first time. I was electrified. I had never heard such music. It was everything that I had ever hoped piano music could be. Long story short... I have been playing like a madman ever since - and making some great progress with a couple of Liszt studies, the tarantella, the 1st piano concerto and a few others. However, I have been getting pain in my hands - mostly the right (I am left handed). It is rarely so severe that I have to stop playing.... but it is there - just the same condition that I had years ago - and I am greatly concerned about it. I have come to realize that I have great tension in my hands when I play. No-one ever told me to play otherwise: and I failed to see how I could possibly play the great virtuosic pieces without "attacking" them for many hours per day. I also do an incredible amount of typing (I have written a book over the winter!) and I think that this may be at least partly to blame. After my experiences at the hands of my school teachers, who terrified and appalled me, I have been ever wary of going to see a piano teacher. Yet I fully realize that it is something that I must do. I believe that in addition to "just keeping the hands relaxed" it might be absolutely critical for me to find someone who can help me re-train my technique and correct bad technical habits. Nothing about the mechanics of the body etc was ever mentioned to me when I was studying. I was told to sit up straight and not to let my wrists sag - but that was all. The rest of the emphasis was on playing all the right notes with the right fingers. I am reading the stuff on this web site about the arch of the hand etc - I have never heard any of this before. How can I be sure that a piano teacher is going to help me to avoid injury and continue playing? I also believe that the psychological state of the musician has something to do with injury. I think if you bring all your frustration and pain with you to the piano, this inevitably creates tension which leads to strain and injury - in a way you are literally punishing yourself. Do you agree with this? Anyway I truly appreciate if you have managed to read through my rambling prose! Would you be willing to take a brief look at my playing and see if there is anything which strikes you immediately as obviously harmful? - It's just a simple video of me playing moonlight sonata, re-learned in an afternoon, so nothing virtuosic but I am hoping this might be enough for you to have an idea. With best regards, Alex.

Hi, ..just wanted to say that I've been at a similar point as you've described! I would say yes, the 'psychological' state does reflect in every movement and toneproduction we make at the instrument. Physically, the one thing that strikes me most in your video is the almost absent movement of your upper-arm, especially it's independend role in respect to the forearm. Your elbows seem tense. Your finger activity seems to be quite good/efficient! Of course upper-arm shouldn't be artificially/forced, but from what I can see your blocking free movement there. Btw, it took me years to free up my playing (also restarting after a decade of not playing at all), so don't expect to change things overnight and don't force anything. What helped me was Alans book, a good teacher and lots of Alexander Technique lessons.

We have a competition going on in our town at the moment (Novi Sad, Serbia), and it is fascinating to watch and listen as one after another, the pianists confirm what I say about the arches of the hand. Most have a sound that lacks complete control, that is relatively undifferentiated. They leave an impression of working to play but not touching the emotions that deeply. A few of them have real colour, a real capacity for evenness of touch which leads to an opening up of the control of colour, voicing and expression. Many of the former group play very impressively: their fingers really work, splashes of notes all over the place, Volodos transcriptions played with panache - but there's an underlying sameness to the sound, a lack of real orchestration. of the pianists whose sound has the quality of real pianism have a fully functional arch. Even I, who have been harping on this for years, am astonished at the degree to which this holds true. So: your performance of the Moonlight: it's not beautiful. Not even remotely close to being beautiful. You are pumping out notes. OK, your performance flows and is not ugly, but it does not plumb the depths of sadness with which Beethoven wrote this. A close friend had just died. Do we feel this as you play? Not by a long shot. You need a much greater control of tonal colour to bring this sadness and loneliness to life. All the eighth notes are as loud as your melody notes. The basses are inaudible. Your sound is one-dimensional when it should be three-dimensional. One could say, "too long in the electronic music business," or one could accept that you have a genuine artistic sensibility and look for a way to open up your technique to let your sound match that inner sensibility. I would in any case take the latter path, but your post and your fascination with Liszt demonstrate the obvious need of doing this. And your hand has a hidden anomaly. How best to put it: most simply, your metacarpal-phalangeal arch should generally be at least even with or slightly higher than your wrist. This joint is the keystone, and when it ceases to function as one, the wrist must take over that work. This is role reversal. And it can lead to the type of pain you describe. It also leads to the slight underlying sense of struggle that marks the sound of your performance. Sorry to be so abrupt, but I believe it is best to get to the heart of the matter without shilly-shallying around... If you try to play virtuosic Liszt pieces without resolving this inner physical anomaly, it is no wonder that your pain persists. But take heart, the solution is not so difficult. Try to orchestrate your sound much more. Play the 8th notes . Give more meat to the ominous basses, make them have a more lugubrious and threatening character. And draw the heel of your hand a little closer to your fingertips, creating an internal dome feeling in your hand. Feel how this helps you achieve the orchestration I describe easily. You have really fine hands for piano playing, when you use them this way they will serve you better. There is another, strange neurological aspect to this. The neuromotor system has an amazing memory, and can feel pain even after the cause has gone. It's kind of like phantom limb pain but the limb still happens to be around. This memory of pain from 20 years ago could also be contributing to your condition, but in any case the present physical organization is likely aggravating it. By the way, this problem in the hand also leads to the lack of freedom in your arm which sparetimeplayer pointed out. But the arm stiffness is a result, not the cause. If you succeed in relaxing your arms without resolving the anomaly in the hand, I don't see the pain going away. But relaxing your arms IS a of resolving the anomaly - there is a way of involving the support of the whole body, from the legs and pelvis, that is crucial to helping the hand's dome maintain itself. But for that you'll have to wait for my second book, I can't explain it all here... Thanks for your post, a nice opportunity to clarify some ideas! And please do let me know if this helps. Kind regards, AFF

Alan, your reply is immensely helpful and I really appreciate the trouble you have gone to. I am not in the least offended by your critique... in fact the opposite is true, I often feel as though I live in a world where it's difficult to get the real truth out of people! I too am a believer that criticism really is best if delivered straight... also I don't have the least doubt that you are absolutely correct. I think it's simply amazing that you can look at a hand and tell these things! I was sure that you would be able to, from other posts of yours I read. I am going to buy your DVD (would you recommend this over the book?) and then I will no doubt find out what a metacarpal-phalangeal arch is; I currently have no real idea.... When creating the "internal dome" that you speak of... do you mean that the palm of the hand is cupped all around or more just arched front-to-back? The knuckles higher than the wrist instead of lower? Is there a pianist whose hand shape and position is exemplary that you could point me towards? There are certain aspects of technique which I find physically aggravating, other are not. Fast R. H. octaves and passage-work with two notes simultaneously in the hand i.e. scales with thirds in one hand, seem to be the worst. Also, I noted what you have said elsewhere about one finger often being weakest. My 4th fingers are much weaker than the rest of the hand, and I seem to have difficulty and pain in raising them enough to play semiquaver passages evenly. The pains are mostly in between the 3rd and 4th fingers half way between wrist and knuckle; some in the wrist. The 5th fingers are strong, even without rotation of the hand, but suffer from some inaccuracy.... in particular the "side to side" accuracy of L5 is poor, but the Liszt studies are really helping with this as they make great demands in this regard. What you say about reorganization of the entire body posture makes sense to me, also not just in piano playing but in everyday activity, I am really interested in doing this and in investigating things like the Alexander technique you write about, which I have come across but never done... You say I have "really fine hands for piano playing" - obviously this pleases me immensely, but what do you mean exactly.... the shape of the hands I was born with or something about the posture? I know I have a large hand... 9th between fingers 1 & 2, 10th between 1 & 3 and 1 & 4 and 11th between 1 & 5, octave between 2 and 5.... but from what I am reading, this necessitates a slightly different approach and is not in every way an advantage? You realise you have thrown me a gauntlet, I see that I shall have to re-post the beethoven one day and set the record straight! Anyway... a million questions, as you might have guessed! Are all these things covered in the DVD? Thanks for your patience and best regards, Alex.

Hi Alex, Sorry to take so long to get back to you. I have been on the road, Frankfurt Music Fair etc. and snowed under with some deadlines. Thanks for your reply, there is much in it! Yes I would recommend the DVD as a first step; it presents the material in a graphic and tangible way. The book of course investigates these issues at greater length and in more detail, so in order to digest the images of the film and eventually use them to deepen your technique, I would recommend reading it eventually. But start with the film. When creating the "internal dome" that you speak of... do you mean that the palm of the hand is cupped all around or more just arched front-to-back? The knuckles higher than the wrist instead of lower? Is there a pianist whose hand shape and position is exemplary that you could point me towards? Rubinstein's hand is as exemplary as any for that dome, and yes, I mean cupping the whole hand, not just front to back. The ring of muscles around the palm can act like a sphincter. There are certain aspects of technique which I find physically aggravating, other are not. Fast R. H. octaves and passage-work with two notes simultaneously in the hand i.e. scales with thirds in one hand, seem to be the worst. Do a general overhaul of your technique based on the first chapters of the film, then go back and see where you stand with these specific problems. My 4th fingers are much weaker than the rest of the hand, and I seem to have difficulty and pain in raising them enough to play semiquaver passages evenly. The pains are mostly in between the 3rd and 4th fingers half way between wrist and knuckle; some in the wrist. The 5th fingers are strong, even without rotation of the hand, but suffer from some inaccuracy.... in particular the "side to side" accuracy of L5 is poor, but the Liszt studies are really helping with this as they make great demands in this regard. The fourth will feel better when you get more skeletal with it. As for your fifth, moving your arm a bit to the outside to do Seymour Fink's chapter 12B will help a lot. See my blog for more on Seymour's wisdom on this. You say I have "really fine hands for piano playing" - obviously this pleases me immensely, but what do you mean exactly.... the shape of the hands I was born with or something about the posture? The inherent size and shape of your hands. They just look great on the keyboard. At I talk about one student, Kuang Li, whom I took just because of his hands - yours have that really wonderful look about them. You are not using them optimally yet, but I believe that it won't be that huge a job to get them working well for you. That's what I meant! You realise you have thrown me a gauntlet, I see that I shall have to re-post the beethoven one day and set the record straight! Smile I agree entirely about the lack of ppp.... in my ( partial ) defense it was played on an electric piano, the velocity on this machine is all wrong and "jumps" from ppp to mf quite suddenly. Here is another gauntlet thrown: when you get real technical control, you can make a really and truly orchestrated sound (on a Clavinova! And yes, these things are covered in the DVD, never fear! I wish you well and keep in touch! AFF

Hi Alan, Started to play again after 15y not touching a piano and I found your DVD most helpful. I started out with difficult passages (of pure eager curiosity) that haunted me before and as for some of them I could instantly see what I did wrong. It's amazing what tiny small movements of wrists posture etc can have an impact on speed and sound. The grasping was very very helpful in an Iberia piece I used to play. But sound is also very dependent on the instrument and I would be most grateful to have your opinion as I'm thinking of buying a good one this time. The more I try out pianos the more confused i get. A good Steinway is of course always a good choice but I'm quite fascinated by the Fazioli. I know that this is most personal but in the same time interesting as we are so used to the Steinway that anaything else feels strange.Do you have an opion? Excuse me for my english! Eric

I prefer the Steinway but I have had several wonderful experiences with a Fazioli. When well-regulated, the F has a beauifully silvery tone that is quite endearing and special. However its basses cannot match those of the Steinway, and as it turns out, the greater overall power of the Steinway allows you to do much more in orchestration. The main problem is that the new Steinways are so generic in sound, you would almost think you were buying a Yamaha! They don't have the personality they used to. Definitely try to find a Steinway that's over 20 years old. Hope this helps! AFF

Thankyou! It does help. Same opinion for the Hamburg Steinways as well? Eric

I must say I played a really nice Hamburg concert grand at the Steinway dealer in Muenster last year, but the other pianos there did seem to lack personality. Maybe because they are new and need to age and mature... AFF

Hey people, 1st, Alex may I make some observations on the "moonlight" and your interpretation=I'll leave the hand/arm shoulder structure to Alan. It's good that you are playing. Music is so much fun as well as important to the soul, heart, and mind. In former Eastern Block countries, kids were expected to take music as core subjects, because it helps develop the intellect and the person. WatWith the B., I think you should back away from it, try to find out why B wrote it, what was he trying to say? As Alan said, B had lost a friend. this is a piece that reflects grief. Also, there is a death scene in an opera (I forget which) where the orchestra plays exactly, the same harmonic/melodic pattern that B uses here. To me, the 1st mov. is that of grief, anger, resignation, pathos, hope, loss. It is not a piece of "moonlight"--romance music. It is one of extreme sadness. The triplets are much too loud. It also lacks feeling. But if you don't know what the piece is about, it's a bit difficult to put the deminsion and depth of feeling into it that is there. The triplet figures must be very subordinate (pp & sometimes ppp) to the melody (p) in the treble, as well as below the bass pp<p>pp hairpins. The bass has its own poignant pleading. You have three things going on: the melody, the triplets, the bass--and a 4th thing, an inner voice, which can be found and brought out by following its voice-leading. This can give you the melody, the inner voice, and the bass, all doing & saying different things at the same time. --sort of like a 14c. motet, where each line was independent and often in a language different than the other two. Watch out for the last beat of the measures that have the dotted 8th-16th pattern. The last 16th should come immediately after the last triplet. You're giving the measure nearly an 8th note extra, which isn't right. It's easy to see on paper. Multiply the # of 16ths in a beat (4) by the number of triplet notes in a beat (3) --This is 12 subdivisions. Draw three lines, one above the other. Let the bottom line have 12 marks. Now, starting with mark 1, count 4--this is the amount of time a triplet takes. At the 5th mark, place a note--count another 4 and put another note there. You will have 3 notes, altogether. On top of this line, place the 16th notes: starting with mark 1 as note 1, count 3 marks--this is the time of the 16th; at the next mark (#4) you place another note. Continue this pattern to the end and you will have 4 16ths. Now, look at where the last 16th comes--just after the last triplet. Like this: |s------s------s------s------|(sixteenths/quarter) |t---------t---------t-------- |(triplets/quarter) |x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|pulses in a qt note) This is almost on top of the last triplet and it must come before the start of the next measure and its group of triplets. So step back and try to feel what B may have felt. I lost a daughter in an auto accident. I think I can understand what the emotions are and how he goes from one to another. Let your heart feel the music. Have your body ready to play it: ppp to p, with the exception of one place where there is a very brief mf. Keep the triplets going. Don't play too slowly (which is a mistake most make--they want to be lulled by the piece when that is not it's character). When I make tempo changes, I do use some rit and ten; but if it is going to be a phrase, I'll do it terraced. At mss. 25-27, I use the una corda for color change, then back out--using only technique to bring me down for the final ppp arpeggio, before the pp half & whole notes. Hope that helps--it takes a lot of control. One of my favorite performances of this is Kempff's on YouTube. Question to Alan, or anyone--what about tempo of this 1st movement? My Schmidt edition is marked qt@63; however, since it is in cut time the beat is on the half, not the quarter, so each qt become about 120. and Beethoven's marking of seza sordino, of don't use dampers (which means don't have the dampers down) can be done by 1/2 pedal and never (seza) letting them back down. When played at tempo and with the slightest lift of the dampers, the sound blurs and the piece takes on an entirely different character from playing it in 4/4. Glenn Gould has a version where he plays it pretty close to tempo. Any thoughts on being brave enough to take the "romanticisim" out of it by getting it up to tempo of 2/2, which although fast, the blur can be used to great effect to keep the heart and tragedy in the piece? As far as Faz. vs St., I've played a few Faziolis & was surprised that I like my Estonia, every bit as well. It has some wonderful bell tones at 1/4 the price. The Steinways of today do sound similar. I think that happened after NY Steinway let go nearly all their technical staff, and replaced them with an equal # of sales people--really bad move. Isn't the NY Steinway now owned by GE? The Hamburg Steinway, to me, though, does have colors and they don't sound cookie-cutter. (ex: Yamaha, except for their "S" series) I think any of the top-tier pianos (including a good Estonia) when properly regulated, keys balanced, hammers voiced, can do just about anything you want/ The sound will be different for each, since the scales are different; but they are all pretty close. --for concert performance, each can be wonderful. Many people don't realize what needs to be done, even to a Steinway, to get it to sound right. They usually have to be re-pinned, always regulated, keys better balanced, and voiced. then, once a concert regulation/voicing is put on it (this costs about $3,000-$4,000 above the price) and it's played a while to settle in, it takes only minor changes to keep it up. --that is until you wear out a set of hammers and it starts all over. The upkeep on a good piano is quiet expensive. But it is worth it. A $100,000 sports car is going to take a lot more to keep it running, especially at top notch, than an old truck which squeaks and creaks. A fine piano is the same as the fine sports car. They are made for doing things most people never get a chance at or could handle, if they do. (btw, along with being a pianist/singer, I'm also a piano tech.) Bob T