Hand Movement In Arpeggios : Why Low Wrist?

outward (ascending for RH) arpeggios and scales have always been my nightmare, primarily due to very bad habits I formed in early years that are hard to eradicate now. Alan's exposition of the use of the thumbs and rotation in arpeggios has helped me tremendously. Besides that, I have been examining how the masters play in slow motions (sometimes frame by frame on DVDs!) I found a very common pattern for pianists to arpeggios: they lower their wrists right before they pass their thumb (which is more like the thumb movement Alan suggested than a strict ''passing under''). An example is Horowitz (he also curled his fingers a lot, something not many pianists do and I think is more relevant to tone production than to the tempo. I am more concerned about how he passes his thumb after his 4th. For other pianists (which I can't reproduce here since I watched by slowing down my DVDs), arm rotation is more pronounced. But the lower of the wrist is the same. This lowering of the wrist is very visible in Horowitz's playing!. Since this is rather universal across different pianists, I believe this lowering of the wrist serves a function in fast ascending arpeggios. (which is a "solution'' different pianists stumbled upon). What is it? Is it a way to throw the thumb into the next playing position?

I can only speak from my own perspective, but to me, there are some things that can be done to stop bad habits of movement taking place. I was shown by Alan the technique of palming the keys earlier this year, which forces the wrist to be low. It acts almost like a Feldenkraisian (new adjective?) constraint - when you're that low, there's really very little chance of collapse (particularly the widespread crashing down onto the thumb), and every chance that the fingers will do their right work of generating the arch. Also, I find my kinaesthetic navigation of the keyboard improves when I'm that close - I can feel the keys even if I'm not quite touching them.

Thanks a lot for your reply. Can you be more specific about what ''palming the keys'' is? I really want to solve this one biggest technical limitation of mine....(the second one is repeated notes. It appears much less frequently though) For most other techniques (e.g. octaves) because I didn't work ''the wrong way'' for too long, I have been seeing constant improvement by following Alan's books. But this one thing keeps coming back at me. Now with the help of technology (by slowing down the videos) I am at least on the right track. Now is the question of how to instill the correct inner activities and sensations into my hands....

Palming the keys is as it sounds - your palms literally touch the keys (or stay very close to them) when playing. First you go for the most extreme version: hold an easy interval (say, as sixth) on the black keys while allowing your palm to mash down the white keys. This gives you the sensation of being in a state of rest even whilst holding an interval or chord. The next thing that Alan had me do was to use the grasping of my fingers to raise and lower the second MCP joint slowly - first so little that the palm doesn't leave the keys, then eventually enough so that the palm is lifted. I find my shoulders re-arrange themselves when I do this. Also, if you haven't looked at it already, I suggest you check out chapter 19, The Thumb in Arpeggios, in All Thumbs. It deals with the location (or perhaps better put, movement) of the wrist when the thumb goes under.

A great chapter indeed! I just got the ''All Thumbs'' book last week and haven't got the time to go through the whole thing. I wish Alan could videotaped some of his lessons (even just classes or master classes with students) dealing with each applications (a related one if not exactly the same exercise) in his books. I found it very difficult to learn from books. This is a response from a few amateur pianists of mine whom I recommended Alan's books. The youtube posts of Alan is of great help. Couldn't he expand those and perhaps sell them?

Alan does video the lessons he teaches at his workshops, but they are currently only available to the participants. Probably the best thing is to get along to one of his workshops if possible, or have a Skype lesson if not. Videos are great but nothing compares to the real thing. That said, I'm sure he'd love to do more with videos, a new DVD etc., but he's insanely busy (several more books in progress, plus a fairly heavy schedule of workshops and recitals) that anything new is going to take a while to be finished.

probably a bit off topic but.... how does the skype lesson works out? Just contact Alan directly?

Yes, that's right.