Different ways of organizing force

Yeah, all this stuff about stabilization. I am beginning to regret that I wrote in that one of the arm's roles is stabilization. I even put it first on the list! I think that although ergonomically it is true, if I make pianists think about it, start trying to perceive it and incorporate it in their playing, I am probably doing them a disservice... AFF

that one of the arm's roles is stabilization. I even put it first on the list! I think that although ergonomically it is true, if I make pianists think about it, start trying to perceive it and incorporate it in their playing, I am probably doing them a disservice... AFF Yeah, I'm increasingly seeing how possible it is for the arm to connect itself up, when the fingers aim to extend straight through the keys. When the last traces of repression and fear of the keybeds are removed (meaning that I'm actually going as far as the near vertical fingers of Nyiregyhazi or sometimes Rubinstein), it does increasingly seem to connect itself up without anything notably willful (although I have noticed that in students I often need to shake their forearms around before they can do this without retaining stiffness). That said, at the same time I do feel that I'm actually understanding the pressing concepts from the Craft of piano more and more. I'm finding that the knuckle of my fourth finger, especially, doesn't quite tend to connect fully. Thinking about the concept of isometric muscle activity has been rather interesting here. I've been slightly pressing to the point where any flimsiness is exposed and where the knuckle is reminded to push itself right up. From there, any trace of extra pressure is the bad kind of isometric activity or keybedding, analagous to trying to push a wall over. At that point I try find the balance where there is only just enough pressure to maintain the high knuckle and sense of connection. It's virtually zero- but there's a very slight sense of "resting" into it. I suppose the big thing is to be able to distinguish between a process of the finger activation and feeling what the arm needs to do in the end product. I think it's quite useful to run through this test process solely AFTER keys have been depressed- in order to totally dissociate the test from the idea of arm having to press during the sounding process. What the finger learns from having to bear pressure goes on to become involved in sounding the note, but it's easier to keep the arm pressure out of the movement when only ever experimented with as an after-thought. Another way to put it is that any feel of "down" here only ever serves to check that the sense of "up" is properly in place. I've also been thinking about the seemingly contradictory exercises of using wrist weights or resting one hand on top of the other like Neuhaus, and pushing lightly up on the underside of the hand. I'm convinced they train one and the same thing now. That which adds more weight trains the "up" to be exaggerated more by challenging it to be more intense. Whereas pushing up the underside of the hand reminds you NOT to be pressing down but rather using that upward action. The exercises that involve downward pressure are easily misunderstood, but both styles of exercises really serve to improve the sense of "up".