Certain Difficulties, And Things To Share

Hi everyone (but esp. Alan), For a long time, I haven't touched the piano. My passion for music never fade, it just went to orchestral works. My own playing is simply disappointing myself, other than some slower pieces like Chopin's nocturne which I manage to do everything I want. Life's too full of responsibility and too brief that at times, I feel doubtful what I might be able to achieve on the piano at my age (26), that I eventually moved away from the piano. Yet, when the great pieces strike me, I want to pick it up again. After much thinking and reading, I was able to play much more functional than I did. But certain long term bad habits still sit in my right hand. The habit was to "thumb over'' a scale, which indeed I corrected many years ago. But I over did the wrong technique (a poison by someone Chuang C. Chang: most technique books don't help too much, but this one hurted me so deep!! ) when I was in high school (and eventually rendered me unable to play an even scale however slow it is) that even after years, the strange tension's still there. The bad habit's only in my right hand. So strangely, my right hand which the stronger hand, can always play with much more color and dynamics for as long as scale doesn't appear. After reading Alan's book, it improves much and, at some points, I thought it would eventually be all well. And even now, all kinds of passages open their ways to me as I discover the structural integrity of my hand: all but scales. I still have much to improve on every aspects, but their ways are clear: everything is slowed down by the scale, which is the thing i constantly work on, exclusively. I layed down Alan's book, realising my problem is very specific to me, and reading onward means little if I don't solve my specific problems first. There were stages of my own attempts at solving the problem, which happens to be successful to a certain extent. Some improve my playing not in scale, so I might as well share them here, to see how Alan looks at them: The weakness I found, with some discussion with Alan, was my thumb-index finger assembly. As soon as my middle finger pressed and the thumb preparing to go under, 2 problems arised: 1. my thumb gets tensed. Actually, it used to move a bit. The whole arch between the idex and thumb siffened too, seriously paralyzing my playing. I counteract this tendency by colapsing them intentionally whenever my middle finger plays. I keep catching myself this tiny tension by reversing the habit. After I got the feeling, I add back the bear-minimum musclar tension to maintain my hand structure. The result: the scale improved. Not much, but I played the other passages more tension free and powerful. My search moved on: 2. if my middle finger plays and my second finger holds, I find my second finger pushing a little bit more momentarily. This, while reinforcing my metacarpal-phalangeal arch, works against the momentum my hand's helping my middle finger. The pushing also activates (wrongly) the lumbricals of my index finger, and to a certain point my entire hand to stay there. The feeling is to ", which whenever it happens, I could see it's something deterimental to moving fast, just don't know why and how to correct it. I manage to correct, completely, the tendency to the impulsive push, but the "sticking" and paralyzing of my hand is still there. Could Alan help here? I tried "slapping" the relaxed index finger in, and it seems to help a bit speed-wise. But certainly that's not the solution. When my left hand plays scale, even though it sounds not as rich, the index finger doesn't have the tendency to "stick" and freeze my whole hand. Whether index finger holds or not, the structure is firm (though I could improve on it if I don't have work on my god-damn RH) , yet the hand still feel free and functional 3. I got confused They're 2 very different ways and sometimes work the opposite way. My left hand, like most other pianists, just sought its way out automatically. But my right hand really needs some conscious effort and directions here. Somehow this is related to point 2 above, because how I loose my index finger depends on how I'm going to let my thumb go!! I'm training to be an airline pilot in Australia, so could only play a digital piano or a bad piano in this year. But I think I could still work on my technique. Look forward to be back at the keyboard! Alvin

Let me just add that my difficulty and question concerns mainly the upward scales and apr of the right hand. Alan's book and video deal very well with the downward direction, which for me is much easier. Going upward just turn out to be a lot more difficult for me. The difference is, as I perceive, that in moving downward, the thumb's relatively awkward under-the-palm position occur AFTER it's note has been played. Even though it may still be actively helping to maintain the structure, it can be passively MOVED to any position the hand. Going upward, on the other hand, require the hand to make room and facilitate the transition, while my middle finger also struggle as to what its role is after playing the note and the hand starts flowing. Hard for me to play fast, or transition from slow to fast.......

Well, you should wait for Alan to respond, since he probably would know more about this kind of problem, but I think it would good for you to read one of his blog posts here: where he works on something much similiar to this. 3. I got confused Two things here: You should try to see if it's possible to combine both motions, which would get your thumb there twice as fast than using either one of them, and would in the end allow you to play scales twice as fast! Second, if your left hand is working fine, why don't you see if you can figure out how it's doing whatever it's doing, and copy it with your RH?

Thanks for the link. I didn't realize there's such a blog before. BY the way, the forum has grown considerably since I visited last time, which is quite an exciting thing. Thanks. This is also what I've been trying to do. Unfortunately though, the left just seem to be able to bypass the problem somehow and found its way automatically (or trained?) . It's the inner tension, a sluggish, uncoordinated muscle contraction that creates problems, that even if I copy the same motion, the right hand just doesn't feel right. It becomes "blocked'', with the free flow obstructed as soon as I increase speed. I believe that's a special organization of hand that I'm seeking, that relax all unwanted tension, yet contract so powerfully to the full capacity of muscles that are supposed to contract (perhaps momentarily) that leads to a colorful playing.

Did the link above work for you? I think we have some issues with the blog that needs fixing.Can anybody check some older blog links for me please? The whole menu, archives, categories doesn't work for me. Thanks!

The original link didn't work, but the parental address of the blog did. I think someone fixed it now that both works now.

OK Alvin, that's an amazing post, at first I couldn't touch it because there were too many things to think about. Now I've digested your description more thoroughly and must first say that it relates to many key areas of my work in developing the technique of my students. From what you describe, the solution is quite complex and deep-reaching but most certainly possible. It sounds like what I call pianistic co-dependence. All these parts of your hand (thumb, 2nd & 3rd) are falling down and/or stiffening up in order to help the other parts not do the same. It's a vicious circle. When you stand up into your structure, you are using too much muscular effort to do so. Your failure to resolve this could also be related to tensions further back, specifically in the shoulder and the hip joints. The thumb-forefinger assembly can stand in a way that thumb & 2nd form a right angle. It resembles the right angles you see in baby's legs and torso as they learn to stand up, often by sticking their rear end up into the air first. There is a correlation between the free open sensing of this quality in your thumb-2nd finger assembly and an openness in your hip joints. There can also be felt a sensation of the two sides of your shoulder blade corresponding to the thumb and fifth in your hand as it stands on key. In all this, your thumb and hand will NOT resemble what you see me demonstrating in my film. There my hand slopes down to the outside from the 2nd knuckle. But this position will not help you solve your problem. You must LIFT the outside of your hand until your 5th knuckle is as high as your 2nd. Additionally, your thumb should stick out more from your hand as if it's an outrigger strut instead of a fifth finger. You see, my ideas have changed a bit since I made the film, partly thanks to Seymour Fink, in fact! So do this adjustment in your hand and see if it helps. Of course you can't leave your thumb stuck out like that when you play a scale, but this arrangement helps it find a new moveability. Because for sure your thumb isn't moving enough. I am talking about a subtle independence of movement between thumb & 2nd that can only be felt at very gentle levels of effort. Greater efforts only trigger old useless patterns. Then try the following steps: if you want that new hand structure to serve you without stiffening up again, you must pass through several phases. 1) Stand up any which way you can, even by using effort that stiffens, just to get a sense of the arch structure's potency. 2) Turn your hand into a hovercraft, where the fingers dangle down from the platform and barely reach the keys. Externally this looks the same but the inner feeling is totally different, much lighter. This is now UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM instead of stable equilibrium. This is a strange, new kind of relaxation where your hand doesn't become flaccid but remains in a wonderful, potent posture - something Moshe Feldenkrais coined a new word to describe: . 3) Begin to suffuse this freely moving, floating, viable structural entity with increased amounts of activity, but a specific quality of finger activity that generates and recreates hand structure in each passing moment instead of losing it and regaining it. The regeneration action is constant and continuous, so there is never a moment of structural weakness from which you may feel you need to recover (by stiffening). If you do all this carefully, you may notice changes in your shoulders and hip joints that happen as a result of the changes in function in your hands. Conversely, improvements in your shoulders and hip joints could help you achieve the kind of change I describe for your hands. Let me know how it goes! AFF

Thanks for our reply, Alan. I found myself unable to archieve the light and floating feeling as soon as I speed up. There's a way my previous teacher told me, which works to a certain point in relaxing my hand, and I would like to see your view on this: She asked me just to "place" my fingers on top of the keys with my hands without using any efforts. The effort is minimum, and the role of the finger is to apply a standing force rather than to swing into the keys. This somehow relaxed my hands, and I believe that's coincide with the hovercraft you mentioned. Indeed sticking to this seem to restrict the differentiation of sound I'm able to produce. So I tried to move my fingers more (by lifting and striking in), even in a relaxed way. But then my fingers tend to have two position only (something you mentioned in your book about one of your student who played Bach's Italian concerto-- right now I don't have the book with me...). I thought this is a fast and powerful striking motion, but for me it seems to be an unrefined motion, and isn't efficient at all because even though my fingers are contracting hard (with the other parts as relaxed as I could), the sound isn't as big and rich as what I could do just by placing them onto the key when my hands is relaxed and potent. I tried to slow down to a point where each finger( and thumb) free feel and potent in the whole range of the motion, but for this I have to slow down quite a lot, and the finger (and thumb) muscles ain't really working until the finger touches the key. My fingers seem to be floating slowly onto the key before it needs more muscle power to push down the key. The motion could be very comfortable and feel very potent. It seems strange and make me wonder whether I'm doing what you meant: Should I practice that way and gradually speed up as I refined my motion? By the way, I found it helpful to lift my outside of my hand, but not in the way you described it. It helps my 4th and 5th finger stand up and play a rich voice. But it doesn't seem to help with my thumb and 2nd finger, esp. when playing scale. Alan, I wish I could come and have a few lessons with you some day. Alvin

Alvin, another great post with very pertinent questions. And difficult to answer over the Internet! However I will try... If we group movements into 2 categories, 1) educational and 2) the ones we actually do in playing, that might help us gain some clarity. Standing the finger on key effortlessly, weightlessly, as if it were a loose rope, is a wonderful educative practice. Raising and lowering the finger as slowly as possible, to feel as many gradations to the movement as possible, is a wonderful educative practice. Make sure you let your arm breathe this as well. Quickly striking the key from a height, a cobra strike, is a wonderful educative practice too. When you play, you should be looking for a certain sound. The finger should know as many ways as possible of moving, so that it has the tools to solve that specific sonority problem effectively. If you lose the light floating feeling when you speed up, then you must "beef that feeling up" with more vigorous slow practice. If you get locked into the "on-off, no in between" syndrome as soon as you exert more effort, you must educate that with sensations of slow, gentle graded movement. All these serve to educate the reflexes. It takes time. You cannot force them. But if you take them by the hand, as you would a child, and gently but insistently introduce these new experiences to them, they will indeed learn and respond in time. The process of integration is an individual affair - so get to know yourself and your own tempo of learning. Be good to yourself! All the best, AFF P.S. As for lessons, I am abysmally slow at updating the page at alanfraser.net that lists upcoming master classes, but after I finish here in New York at the end of the week, I will put on a schedule for the next year or so. If you can't come to Europe or N. America, perhaps a possibility that now exists for my return to the Orient might materialize. I'll keep you posted.