CONTINUE THE TOPIC OF ARM IN OR OUT

Yes, i completely agree with your thought about separating between the wrist standing up and the MCP! So just to make sure i am playing this correctly,in the Chopin Etude op 25 NO 2 -left hand-the fifth finger (first note of each bar) ,goes upwards and to the thumb (second note ) ,i "land' from the wrist being reletavly high,downwards. The circle form the fifth to the thumb is an upwards circle and NOT a down one,correct?! (meaning the fifth does not play down and the thumb starts playing from the wrist being low?!). If i am right about this,then it is a counter intuitive motion ,because playing on the fifth and doing the circle an up one ,actually makes the distance from the thumb to its note bigger, because the thumb does not go to the direction of the note it plays. Is that ok? Thanks a lot!!! WER123

No you got it wrong. The hand scoots low along the keyboard from 5th finger note to thumb note. However the thumb itself is raised as a preparation to rotate into its key. IT is going down but the arm is not. AFF

Yes, i completely agree with your thought about separating between the wrist standing up and the MCP! So just to make sure i am playing this correctly,in the Chopin Etude op 25 NO 2 -left hand-the fifth finger (first note of each bar) ,goes upwards and to the thumb (second note ) ,i "land' from the wrist being reletavly high,downwards. The circle form the fifth to the thumb is an upwards circle and NOT a down one,correct?! (meaning the fifth does not play down and the thumb starts playing from the wrist being low?!). If i am right about this,then it is a counter intuitive motion ,because playing on the fifth and doing the circle an up one ,actually makes the distance from the thumb to its note bigger, because the thumb does not go to the direction of the note it plays. Is that ok? Thanks a lot!!! WER123 The word land certainly concerns me. It's interesting to microanalyse these sometimes, as I can see two slightly different versions. In one, my wrist is already super low as I play the fifth and the whole things ascends to the thumb BUT it's still incredibly low. This leaves loads of room to ascend further through the thumb. The position is down but the action is up. Your description sounds like the opposite to me. Even after sounding the thumb my wrist isn't especially high. Even when I do some circles the opposite way around (to ensure my fifth doesn't get lazy about moving the key), I never think of landing on the thumb. It's just a very subtle sinking of the wrist. But the primary direction of circle is unequivocally from down to up while playing the thumb. The smooth path is completely gone if you're using an up as a preparation to land on the thumb. The other possibility is to actually carry on sinking down a little after playing the fifth. The lowest point of the journey can also be somewhere in between thumb and fifth, as long as you're on the way up by the time of playing the thumb. You wouldn't want to worry about the difference at speed, but it's interesting to explore subtle variations in practise before letting it become instinctive. Regarding making the distance bigger, it's fine. The most common musical mistake is to worry too much about connecting to the thumb in strict time. This only ruins the projection and differentiation of the bass. A slight space is not only okay but actively desirable here. There's nothing worse than killing the sense of a bass line by hurrying into the thumb.

Really appreciating the detailed answer thank you so much!!! I am sorry to nag about this,i just dont want to practice this the wrong way- the correct way to insure a smooth line in the left hand is doing the circle to the left and not to the right , (with the left hand obviously),correct? from the fifth finger the hand moves to the left side and not the right...? Thanks a lot!!!

Although it's not an exact science, to be honest that does sound wrong to me. Personally if I'm doing an up movement through 5, I'll still be going from right to left a little. It takes a little longer to round the corner and come back to the right. When doing the slight down movement, however, I'll be on the way from left to right when the fifth plays. I don't want to say any alternative is definitely unworkable. However downward movements are more limited than up. They slightly restrict freedom to move. I did say that you can leave a little space, but I think this may be a little too much. There's enough time for a u like curve viewed from above, but I don't think there's time to be going further left before setting off.

There is no down or up movement of the arm in the left hand of Op. 25 #2. Stand the hand on the 5th finger on the first note E. Raise the thumb in a huge arc-creating rotation motion: supinate the thumb. Then pronate the hand to bring the thumb into its initial note G a 10th above the 5th finger's initial bass note E. Do this exercise repeatedly on these notes. This is the basic movement of the hand for the whole etude. You do the arc movement of the thumb, EXACTLY as I show in the rotation chapter of my DVD, and you fit in the other two notes of each group as you can. There is no up or down or in and out. Do this movement without wobbling or weaving. It's just a very efficient rotation. AFF