A Sinking Feeling

After leaving the metronome out for a while I experienced some progress but my RH is still having problems. The connection of the fingers with the keys is stronger and I'm more aware of the tension that seems to persist in my right elbow (some pushing but not so strong as before). However when I try to increase the speed (without using a metronome) my right hand starts to jump at every key press (I ment key pull). The problem is more severe as my left hand seems to be able to go as fast as one can imagine. I haven't tried "measuring" the maximum bpm my left hand can reach but it's way higher than the limit of the right hand. The left hand is stable and fast, the right one not and when I try to play some Hanon faster it goes completely out of the alignment. The 2nd finger is not able to maintain the key fully pressed all the time when playing faster, the 3rd one seems to instinctively pull too hard from time to time and the 5th one causes the whole hand to rotate a bit clockwise. I don't know what to do as my left hand seems to function by itself while the right hand must always be under observation to keep the wrist relaxed and stop this feeling that the hand sinks as the speed increases and try to replace it with an "up" feeling. Maybe I'll post a video to clarify things. By the way...I recorded a new piece and posted it in the student evaluation group. Unfortunately this song contains few passages able to reveal my RH problem.

While I might not be able to provide any answers, perhaps I can supply you with some questions that may aid you in becoming aware of the source of the problems: 1. Are you left or right dominant? I find my dominant (right) hand has a much easier task of learning repetitive tasks, it also retains excess tension due it being used more. This means I tend to stumble more with my right hand. My left hand is much freer by comparison, but does not learn as quickly. 2. What is your approach to practising at the moment? I find switching strategy when I get stuck in a rut usually provides good results. So if you normally focus on a particular type of finger action switch to another one for a while. Perhaps vary rhythms or articulations in whatever you're playing. Or perhaps even shift the focus away from the physical and approach things more from the musical side. 3. Here's a strange one, but try it anyway - what happens is you play something you know fairly well, but miss off the first bar, or even just the first note? It's a technique I picked up from an Alexander Technique book - the reasoning behind it is that because you're not starting from your habitual place, the usual patterns of movement don't kick in, so you give yourself a chance of doing something new. Personal experience with both myself and my pupils have proven it's value to me. 4. Finally, what happens if you take an idea from a piece and improvise with it? My recent experiences with improvisation have led me to conclude that there's something about it that prevents a lot of my usual habits from kicking in. I hope some of this will help you find some answers.

You may not believe me, but when it comes to piano playing, in most right-handed people, the left hand is usually closer to nature in terms of correct movement than the right hand. Your right hand should learn from your left hand. From what I've seen in the clip you posted in the student evaluation section, your right hand "thinks" too much in terms of physical power, muscles. It is also more under the influence of your wish to control everything. Your left hand is able to play faster because it doesn't have that problem. You just let it happen, and it does what it is supposed to do. I would suggest you gently push your fingers of the PASSIVE right hand just above the middle joint with the help of your left hand, just enough to overcome the resistance of the key and/or produce the softest tone possible and in a slow tempo. Aim diagonally forward into the key, not just down, and feel how much more control that gives. Allow the key to come up by itself. "Sound" each tone twice; one as the first attempt, the second time to make sure you can do it again. When you've done this several times, try to reproduce the same sensations when tapping with the fingers of the right hand alone without the help of the left hand. Feel the resistance of the key and move diagonally forward, not down. Minimum effort. Bones, not muscles. Every key twice. Forgot the sensations? No problem, refresh them with the help of your left hand. This method will take just a couple of days to see positive results. P.S.: Do the same with your left hand. It will teach your right hand in the process. Paul

You may not believe me, but when it comes to piano playing, in most right-handed people, the left hand is usually closer to nature in terms of correct movement than the right hand. Your right hand should learn from your left hand. From what I've seen in the clip you posted in the student evaluation section, your right hand "thinks" too much in terms of physical power, muscles. It is also more under the influence of your wish to control everything. Your left hand is able to play faster because it doesn't have that problem. You just let it happen, and it does what it is supposed to do. I would suggest you gently push your fingers of the PASSIVE right hand just above the middle joint with the help of your left hand, just enough to overcome the resistance of the key and/or produce the softest tone possible and in a slow tempo. Aim diagonally forward into the key, not just down, and feel how much more control that gives. Allow the key to come up by itself. "Sound" each tone twice; one as the first attempt, the second time to make sure you can do it again. When you've done this several times, try to reproduce the same sensations when tapping with the fingers of the right hand alone without the help of the left hand. Feel the resistance of the key and move diagonally forward, not down. Minimum effort. Bones, not muscles. Every key twice. Forgot the sensations? No problem, refresh them with the help of your left hand. This method will take just a couple of days to see positive results. P.S.: Do the same with your left hand. It will teach your right hand in the process. Paul The strange thing is that I have the feeling that the right hand acts using the same movements as the left hand. Why do I obtain different results then? What I feel in the left hand is that all the fingers pull towards me not forward. Then why should I try to move forward with the fingers of the RH when the LH does not function in that manner and it's working fine? The wrist of the RH is relaxes during the Hanon drills. Still it doesn't seem able to remain stable and aligned with the arm. It pretty much resembles the movement performed to knock at the door. Of course at a smaller scale and on a different axis.

What you feel that is happening may not be what is actually happening. That's why many people need a teacher/coach from time to time to correct them. Besides, the clip I watched may not be representative. Maybe you just didn't practise enough hands seperately before you combined them in that piece? In order to break a negative pattern, you have to do something that may feel completely different sometimes. What I suggest is nothing more than a didactic exercise. What I am saying has NOTHING to do with muscles. We are not changing your technique. Your right hand needs to realize that you don't need physical strength to get a key down. That's why I want you to overcome the resistance, the "weight" of the key with minimum effort. How you do it is your problem (do it with your nose if you like), but the best way to do this (with least effort) is to follow the path of the key, which is diagonally forward. Forget about the pull, forget about alignment, forget about just anything you have done or learned before. Think bones, not muscles. As soon as you can do what I suggest, you can go back to what you've been doing before (pulling towards you), but the sensations will be different; most likely more correct. Besides, by that time, Alan may appear and tell you something that makes more sense to you. If I were your teacher, I would advise you not to do Hanon for a while. The secret of virtuosity lies not in what you play or practise, but in how you do it. I have a feeling that Hanon is not exactly what you need right now. Your goals are much higher, actually. If I were your teacher, I would also confiscate your metronome. Speed comes by itself and almost always as a surprise. DO NOT TRY TO FORCE YOUR DEVELOPMENT IN ANY WAY, because the results will be opposite! P.S.: asked you a couple of questions. The answer to those questions may open new perspectives to understanding what you need. Thank you for your reply to those questions. Paul

While I might not be able to provide any answers, perhaps I can supply you with some questions that may aid you in becoming aware of the source of the problems: 1. Are you left or right dominant? I find my dominant (right) hand has a much easier task of learning repetitive tasks, it also retains excess tension due it being used more. This means I tend to stumble more with my right hand. My left hand is much freer by comparison, but does not learn as quickly. 2. What is your approach to practising at the moment? I find switching strategy when I get stuck in a rut usually provides good results. So if you normally focus on a particular type of finger action switch to another one for a while. Perhaps vary rhythms or articulations in whatever you're playing. Or perhaps even shift the focus away from the physical and approach things more from the musical side. 3. Here's a strange one, but try it anyway - what happens is you play something you know fairly well, but miss off the first bar, or even just the first note? It's a technique I picked up from an Alexander Technique book - the reasoning behind it is that because you're not starting from your habitual place, the usual patterns of movement don't kick in, so you give yourself a chance of doing something new. Personal experience with both myself and my pupils have proven it's value to me. 4. Finally, what happens if you take an idea from a piece and improvise with it? My recent experiences with improvisation have led me to conclude that there's something about it that prevents a lot of my usual habits from kicking in. I hope some of this will help you find some answers. 1. right hand dominant 2. no matter how long I practice I break down my time in 2 equal portions: technique and songs. Technique means - half of it Hanon and octave drills, half scales and arpeggios. 3 and 4. I have never tried something like that Paul was right. Someone should steal my metronome. Although I compelled myself to leave it out for a while I tend to start using it again every 5 minutes. I have the constant feeling that if I force things just a little bit, maybe progress will occur. I increased the tempo for the Hanons 1 by 1...40 up to 252 or whatever (played them as quarter notes not 16th as they are written). When I switched to playing them as they were originally written - 16th notes- I started having problems by 52 bpm (that's ABRSM Grade 4 - I used the gradings as a tempo guide). I think that my playing was already faulty, but playing 4 notes per beat reavealed the sloppy technique, that's all. By 63 bpm the hand starts to jump too often and too high to be able to maintain an even and fluent playing. That's all I can say for the moment.

I knew that by watching your clip; your will, your determination to be "fast and strong" is too strongly present in the movements of your right hand. Since your left hand is more intuitive (closer to nature), it moves better. Please, get rid of this mindset as soon as possible! Technique means: the art of sounding notes in the right musical context. This actually means: the art of moving a key as efficiently as possible to get the sound you want. There may be scales, arpeggios and octaves involved, but your purpose should be MUSICAL, always, however dry the technical formula may seem. It is the "Hanon-drills" mindset that keeps you from progressing. Either think of them as "songs" (there is an artistic purpose present) or drop them, because in the way you have been practising them, they are nothing more than useless junk. This comes from how you think about technique, my dear colleague. Progress will not occur that way. Very likely, you will see the reverse: music, the instrument and your body (!?!) will take revenge at you for your lack of sincere dedication towards them. Naughty boy! Tempo is not something you need to "increase". Speed is not something you need to "develop". Everything is already there from birth. Practise the essentials SLOWLY, because they are what causes movement to free up to really incredible speeds. Work and be patient, "weighing" the keys with your fingertips. Every tone is neither staccato, nor legato; just detached and pianissimo, exactly as you imagined it should sound. Make sure that the arm determines where you are going and where you are before you activate the fingertip. Behind every finger movement, there is a well-balanced arm. No stretching on the keyboard, no weird angles, no putting thumbs under, etc. DO NOT FORCE RESULTS AND DO NOT CHECK FOR THEM TOO SOON! P.S.: At the same time, strengthen your arches against collapse AWAY FROM THE PIANO with the exercises Alan has given you for that purpose. Also, watch this regularly: to refresh your memory. This is not just Alan's fantasy to make lots of money out of his project; it is really the key to progress and much in line with what I suggest you do. I have nothing to prove this to you. You'll just have to take my word for it. And last but not least, please click on the link in my signature and see how a giant like Rachmaninov exercised his fingers. Do the same, away from the piano in a comfortable position. Paul

1. right hand dominant I guessed as much. I think between us Paul and I have covered the disadvantages of the dominant side of the body. Paul mentioned getting away from the idea of strength being required to get the key down. As you're playing on an NP-30 (or something similar) I think this is particularly significant. The only real resistance on those keyboards comes right at the beginning of the key descent, after that it's like moving a feather. I noticed just before you started playing in your video you set your hands into a fairly stiff position, so I's guess you're having to overcome some exertion from the opposing muscle groups. See if you can catch yourself setting your hand as I describe. It's not so easy. I do it much less than I used to, but it's still there. 2. no matter how long I practice I break down my time in 2 equal portions: technique and songs. Technique means - half of it Hanon and octave drills, half scales and arpeggios. As Paul said, you should be treating these as music or dropping them. If you begin treating them as music then you force yourself to ask the question "Why?" a lot. Why does this not sound the way I want? What am I doing to sabotage my own efforts and why is it occurring? Just doing the exercises will have no real benefit, observation and question has to take place to allow you to make any corrections and improvement. Once you find the right movement it will become easier every time you do it. It should remain easy when you speed it up, too. 3 and 4. I have never tried something like that I imagine that they're both outside you comfort zone, but I'd suggest you give them a try. After all, if what you're doing now is not working, then it's time to do something different. Paul was right. Someone should steal my metronome. Although I compelled myself to leave it out for a while I tend to start using it again every 5 minutes. I have the constant feeling that if I force things just a little bit, maybe progress will occur. I used to approach practising in the same manner. Although sometimes a form of progress can occur when you force things, there is usually some residual effort or tension involved that does not disappear afterwards.

If I may, I'd like to add that there are certain tricks you can think of that might eventually help you gain speed in passages with scales and arpeggios without collapsing the arch. For example: Historically, people started playing from a standing position without thumbs (those were too short to reach the keys). Only later, they sat down and added playing with the thumb. Follow history and do exactly the same in your approach to technique. Regard the basis of your finger technique the arch with the FOUR fingers and use the thumb as a separate entity, a pivot only to get from one position to another. Technically, you can group arpeggios in blocks (chunks) to speed things up, but never consider the thumb as part of that technical group. This also rids you of unnecessary stretching problems and strange angles of the hand/wrist while playing such passages. Artur Rubinstein displays this approach very clearly. His thumbs either dangle down alongside the keyboard or they are somewhere above the keyboard near the other fingers but do not touch the keyboard. As soon as he needs the thumb, he uses a quick millisecond movement for contact (between two hand positions) and off the key he goes again. Paul

I knew that by watching your clip; your will, your determination to be "fast and strong" is too strongly present in the movements of your right hand. Since your left hand is more intuitive (closer to nature), it moves better. Maybe another reason would be that I mainly play guitar. I play piano for enjoyment and to sharpen my ears. So that's why the left hand is more "intuitive"...maybe...? Are you suggesting that unless my practice method/schedule is mandatory, I should change it? Or are you telling me that I should quit playing piano? What I actually do now is working. I'm working to develop my hearing. As I said...I play guitar...and being 25 I guess becoming a pro at piano cannot come into question anymore. That doesn't mean I want to make things in haste. I want to play piano good. That's why I wanted to meet Alan and that's why I kept posting here. Check out cubusdk...he is not a competition level pianist but he plays extremely expressive If I were able to play like this guy, I would be satisfied.