More On Keybedding/tension/injury Prevention

Just written another post regarding a second realistic way to be able to avoid "keybedding". It also contains an illustration of how some very simple changes to the conscious mindset can rapidly bring about massive changes to the results.

I realize that before joining thr Craft I did "stand up" but it was totally uncounsciously. I think you can do this stand-up or "pushups" starting from the key with very little involvment of the arm. You know what part in Grieg Am-this is the way to get it razor-sharp. A question, what muscles are involved in the hand when you stand-up or push-up with your fingers? Lumbricals?

I am at Marc's place in Alsace working on our websites and teaching him daily lessons. He has been struggling for three months to make two keys go down together but has been going about it in totally the wrong way. He angles his hand to the outside to equalize the length of 4 and 5, for instance, then uses an arm movement to jam the fingers into the key. The hand then "stands up," so he thinks it's good because there's that nice arch structure. But and make the adjustment on their own. The lumbricals/interossei work in both cases, but their function is totally different in the two instances. One is defensive, the other creative. Hope this helps, AFF

I realize that before joining thr Craft I did "stand up" but it was totally uncounsciously. I think you can do this stand-up or "pushups" starting from the key with very little involvment of the arm. You know what part in Grieg Am-this is the way to get it razor-sharp. A question, what muscles are involved in the hand when you stand-up or push-up with your fingers? Lumbricals? It's interesting trying to perceive what happens. I'm wondering how much it's possible to control what muscles go into it. I can't honestly feel anything much from the knuckle in some cases. It still feels very powerful- but it's a totally different feel from the way the knuckle operates in a pull. In some cases, I'm wondering if the knuckle motion is even a passive response. That said, it could be because I've worked so much on pure knuckle pulls (as well as lifting weights outside of piano playing) that I've developed some strength that goes into it whether I perceive use of it as obviously as in pure knuckle actions or not. I think this is one of the reasons why it's very beneficial to be able to differentiate and work on both. It's also the case that the extension movements are getting my 5th knuckle used to get into a position from which pulls work better. Incidentally, one exercise I've been trying is start with a completely curled up finger that folds in on itself on the tabletop- so the nail lies flat on the surface. By very lightly straightening out the finger, it gives the whole range of the action and movement. As Alan says, it's not good if you're crushing into it- and especially not with this one. I think it's best to spend only a very short amount of time with this one, and to do it with virtually no effort at all. I found this one very useful with a student whose last joint tended to buckle backwards when starting in the mid-range. If gives the feeling of straightening out without encourgaing the joint to collapse back suddenly.

What I understand a muscle can only work in one direction so there are two "sets" of lumbricals/interossi? Until know I realize that I've been mixing pushing/pulling in an uncouonscious way even if I understand the difference theoretically.Now revisiting Kinderszenen I found that differenciating these two approaches does a miracle to the sensivity eg in these higly delicate passages. Pushing, which i guess is what you automatically start to do when using Wirth's basic concept , also seems to give great speed with (almost) no effort in some passage work. But I feel like it's most effeciant in below f. In your blog;Andrew, you say that Rubinstein use this push-thing ? I'm not so sure. When you show off like that I'd say grasping (and up) the chord is much easier .Pushing in high speed is it really feasable?

Not sure- but the knuckle acts in the same path in each movement. Nothing goes in reverse there. While it feels like the whole finger is extending out, only the last two joints straighten out in an extension, while the knuckle still pulls in a regular fashion (rather than in the opposite direction to normal). Yeah, funnily enough I've been doing the same piece. Having the ability to choose between fingers extending or just pulling is definitely adding something to the range of sounds for me too. It's great to have the option to either forget about it and see how the instincts want to act, or to sometimes make willful selections about which quality to employ. I'm finding it useful for rather loud things as well, myself- including the big fat chordal piece in A major (sorry, I completely forgot the title of that one!).I've been starting to combine it (very carefully with arm pushes) recently. The pure finger pulls of old are basically useless in combination with an arm push, but these seem to complement each other rather well. In your blog;Andrew, you say that Rubinstein use this push-thing ? I'm not so sure. When you show off like that I'd say grasping (and up) the chord is much easier .Pushing in high speed is it really feasable? I didn't necessarily mean to suggest it especially specifically, although I do believe it's there. I'm becoming a little skeptical about the full hand grasp, in general. It looks to me like he perhaps does the combination movement- where the thumb extends out but the fingers might perhaps be pulling at the same time. I find these actions are much lower in impact than if the thumb squeezes inwards. Anyway- he's certainly doing something to make everything shoot up on those landings. There's no digging in there, whatever his hand is doing to "catch" the drops.