Arpeggios

Hi all, This video on YouTube shows Richter playing Chopin's arpeggio etude (Op. 10 No. 1), with the camera looking down from above so you can see exactly what his thumbs are doing the whole time. Although this isn't one of the videos Alan was talking about, it shows very clearly that Richter never puts his thumb under his hand to play these arpeggios. --Rush Quick note, if you add the words &fmt=18 to the end of any URL video in Youtube, it will be played in High Resolution! Richter's video is so amazing, his hands have such a nice natural flow to them that I could turn the volume off and still enjoy the entire recital because his hands alone seem to be making music! It is so inspiring, thanks for sharing the video.

I think Alan is referring to a lateral shifting of the wrist outward (contrasted from a rotational twisting which is pronation and supination) to assist the thumb to go further during its turn-under. If you try to do that in arpeggios, you'll be making a series of to-and-fro movements with every shift of position. That's no good. In spite of the correctness of striving for a legato connection by working the turn-under of the thumb, for some large intervals you just aren't gong to get it. If you're playing a velocity passage, the to-and-fro right-to-left accommodations of your wrist for every position change inhibit your facility. You have now entered the realm of compromise. You work the turn-under of the thumb as much as you can, meanwhile accepting that it just might not be a perfect legato. At tempo, nobody is going to notice. Sleep well at night. That performance of Richter is fantastic. You can see the thumb really making the lateral movements. Some of those intervals in the middle of that etude just can't be played legato, at least not by me. I use Alan's trick of rotating my hand outward in order to span larger intervals. Still, there are a few that I'm just not going to be able to connect. Okay, I practice (and perform) the thing with as much overholding as I can manage without seizing up. That makes me feel really secure in my position. Those few arpeggios that I can't connect perfectly, well those are treacherous. I pray and keep going. Steven De Groote used to play all kinds of passagework, scales and arpeggios, with a very quiet wrist. His arm seemed to make a single, smooth, continuous gesture that shaped the whole phrase. He didn't cry about it if there were slight breaks in connection that could only revealed by slow-motion camera work. This works.

That's exactly what I meant. By the way, in Op. 10 #1 there is no need to put the thumb under in any case because there are no arpeggios! It's all arpeggiated open chords but the thumb always comes to a note below the fifth finger note not above. A better example would be Op. 10 #8 in F major. AFF

What do you think about supination instead of swivelling? I mean rotation in the opposite direction to what is shown in the film. When I play an arpeggio (1-2-3-1-2-3-5) I can leave the 3rd finger on a key and shift the thumb laterally. The wrist rotates instead of swivelling, and the 3rd finger becomes almost horizontal. This feels much more natural to me compared to pronation (shown in the film under "reverse opposition" and swivelling sections) which has a much more limited range of movement unless the elbow goes up. I hope my explanation is clear enough, if not, I will try to take some short video clips. To me it seems like a good solution for slow legato arpeggios. I would like to hear what other people think about this movement.

OK, I have something else to add to the mix here - the other component which is opposite from the vigorous, large lateral movements of the thumb. What I call swiveling is the left and right movement of the wrist while the hand stays horizontal. What I call rotation is the rotation of the forearm along its axis - the movement you make when you turn a screwdriver. So the other thing I would do to help your arpeggios is to forget about what I said before and just experiment with extreme rotations. Stand on your right 3rd finger and rotate your arm so your thumb goes under your hand so far that it rests on its next note up the arpeggio. Your thumb can now play that note by reverse-opposing: moving away from the hand instead of towards it. Practice this rotation so extremely that your hand lies on the keys on the space between thumb & forefinger, as we practiced in thumb rolling. Then there is the OTHER weird rotation motion: of SUPINATION as you mention above. This is the bizarre fact that you can perceive the thumb as going OVER the hand rather than under it to get to its next note in a rising arpeggio for the right hand. But like I say in chapter 8 of the film (another place where my director made me drastically shorten my explanation), don't overdo these exercises. Do them, let the reflexes learn them, then let them go and just play your arpeggio... Good luck! AFF

So the other thing I would do to help your arpeggios is to forget about what I said before and just experiment with extreme rotations. Stand on your right 3rd finger and rotate your arm so your thumb goes under your hand so far that it rests on its next note up the arpeggio. Your thumb can now play that note by reverse-opposing: moving away from the hand instead of towards it. Practice this rotation so extremely that your hand lies on the keys on the space between thumb & forefinger, as we practiced in thumb rolling. If I do this motion when the arm is almost straight it feels fine, but if I lean forward (usually this is how I play), my elbow rises up to the air and it feels like a lot of effort in the shoulder muscles (I think they are called deltoids). Maybe it's just my arm that has a limited motion range inwards, but I think I see you doing a similar elbow motion in the film in the thumb windshield wipers section How would you recommend practising it - straight arm and body far away from the piano? or leaning toward the piano with bended arms to give those shoulder muscles some workout? Then there is the OTHER weird rotation motion: of SUPINATION as you mention above. This is the bizarre fact that you can perceive the thumb as going OVER the hand rather than under it to get to its next note in a rising arpeggio for the right hand. As I said, this feels much more comfortable to me than the previous motion mentioned because only the forearm is involved and shoulders are relaxed. My guess is you would say it's best to practise both for the greatest variety Zack

your guess is as good as mine! I can't really answer your first question without seeing and possibly touching... There are just too many complicated variables... But your answer to the second is right on! AFF