Scales: Rotation, Feather Legato & Maximum Articulation

I've recently been working on scales and arpeggios from a variety of different angles - integrating rotation, experimenting with feather light legato and exploring maximum articulation of the fingers. I've started this thread to get some insight from other people on some issues I'm running into - I'll present my own observations of the problems too. First off, rotation: 1. Working through the rotation ATM's in Craft and Honing have been incredibly useful for both scales and arpeggios. One observation I've made, however, is that when I pronate the hand and allow it to remain that way for an entire scale, I get a lot of tension along the outer ridge of my hand and fifth finger. My theory is that I'm compensating for a lack of tension elsewhere by holding those muscles tight, but I've not yet discovered what might allow me to resolve the problem. Next up, feather light legato, dynamic levels and maximum articulation: 2. Using feather light legato has allowed my playing to become much more even, even with normal standing legato or staccato. While I used to have accents on most of my thumb notes, I tend not to have the issue any more. In fact, I tend to get the opposite - since I'm using far less effort to play, sometimes my thumb wont descend all the way to the bottom of the key, so I miss a note. I guess I need to learn to articulate my fingers more, and retain this new articulation internally even when my fingers aren't moving much? This leads us on to maximum articulation and feather light legato: 3. I know in Craft, Alan states that legato and maximum articulation are two antithetical activities that need to be synthesised, so I guess with feather light legato this disparity is even more apparent. Is feather light legato by it's nature so opposed to maximum articulation that the two wouldn't work together, or does it just need lots of careful practice, observation and adjustment (of fingers and brain) to get the two to co-operate? Finally, arpeggios: 4. I'll use D major for the right hand as my first example. The problem I have here is with the note A, played by finger 3. Due to the smallish size of my hands, I have to use a lot of rotation (i.e. second finger metacarpal-phalangeal joint almost touching the keys) to get my third finger over my thumb to it's note A. The problem is that at this angle I have trouble getting my finger far enough onto the key due to the black keys being in the way. If I aim nearer to the edge of the key without swivelling my thumb comes off the edge of it's key. If I attempt to prevent that from happening, I end up swivelling quite a lot, which appears to be solving one problem by introducing another. Any advice on this would be appreciated. 5. Last problem - F# major and Eb minor - when I rotate for these arpeggios I end up with the nail of my thumb landing on it's key when it goes under. If I stand on the key my finger slides straight off. I guess the solution to this is to really cultivate the ability to float above the keys, and for any other similar situation (e.g. F# and B major pentatonic scales)? Apologies for a long post. While I've tried to be fairly specific with my questions, I imagine that most, if not all of them are related. Any advice or discussion would be much appreciated. Nick

I think I've answered one of my own questions. With regards to the tension in the outer ridge of my hand, I believe I've been exerting a huge amount of force downwards through my arms and putting tremendous pressure on my arch. This revealed itself yesterday when I had an exploratory play through of the first exercise in Liszt's 12 books of technical exercises. Particularly with my left hand, I noticed my arch becoming distorted due to the pressure I was making it bear. This caused finger 5 to lose any and all functionality in playing those repeated notes. I think I'm still exerting this pressure even when playing 'feather legato', just with less support from underneath - a functional disaster! Edit 27/09/2011: Just been doing the 'thumb strut' stuff in Honing, the Liszt exercises is much easier with my 'new thumb'. There's still work to be done, but working on it over the last couple of days have allowed me to become aware of everything Alan talks about is related. I'm interested to see what tomorrow might bring! I guess a good exercise is designed to bring such things to the forefront, which is why I'm puzzled when I see people repeating the same thing excessively, practising all of their mistakes rather than paying attention to what they are doing.

I'll answer your second post first simply by saying, "Here here!" for your last paragraph. AFF

First of all, the word "it's" means "it is." To write the possessive of "it," leave out the apostrophe, making "its." I see even well-schooled native English speakers making this mistake more and more often... Rather disturbing! Um, if you are pronating your hand for the entire scale then you aren't doing the slight rotation in and out of pronation that would resolve the tension I think. is going to be a great book for you. It has all sorts of new ways to individuate your thumb more, to get it to experience its own wonderful movement capacity. That's what you need here. Excellent question. I offer two opposing strategies, both useful and probably both necessary. First try feather legato without the articulation for the sense of fine connection to the key and its precise control. Then try maintaining the feeling of incredible lightness but slowly increasing finger articulation (lifting in other words) to the max. Finally return to step 1 and see if step 2 has 'educated' it. 4. I'll use D major for the right hand as my first example. The problem I have here is with the note A, played by finger 3. Due to the smallish size of my hands, I have to use a lot of rotation (i.e. second finger metacarpal-phalangeal joint almost touching the keys) to get my third finger over my thumb to its note A. The problem is that at this angle I have trouble getting my finger far enough onto the key due to the black keys being in the way. If I aim nearer to the edge of the key without swivelling my thumb comes off the edge of its key. If I attempt to prevent that from happening, I end up swivelling quite a lot, which appears to be solving one problem by introducing another. Any advice on this would be appreciated. You need to stand on your thumb more. It needs to be more active and stronger. When it stands better, it will carry your hand to the new position so effectively that your 3rd will now be able to drop nicely into its key. Your 2nd MCP joint will be way over to the left, but it won't be so close to the keyboard. Again, if your thumb were stronger you wouldn't perceive this as a problem. I often play with the edge of my thumb nail, it's a convenient place to stand on. At first it felt uncomfortable, but that's because at the time my own thumb was relatively undifferentiated. Not at all, you postulated a number of really relevant, thought-provoking questions. Keep 'em coming! AFF

First of all, the word "it's" means "it is." To write the possessive of "it," leave out the apostrophe, making "its." I see even well-schooled native English speakers making this mistake more and more often... Rather disturbing! Whoops, I'm usually very careful about such things, but I can see I got it wrong every time in that post. I'm always surprised when people who speak English as a second language post on forums with an apology for any mistakes, since they usually make less mistakes than the native speakers. England is in pretty dire straights in this respect. I see shop signs with such mistakes, despite the fact that someone was paid to get it right. A friend of mine recently convinced his local café to reprint their menus correctly. I imagine you'll appreciate the one superhero we have in the UK, Grammar Man: Um, if you are pronating your hand for the entire scale then you aren't doing the slight rotation in and out of pronation that would resolve the tension I think. Ah, makes sense. I'll have a play around and report back. is going to be a great book for you. It has all sorts of new ways to individuate your thumb more, to get it to experience its own wonderful movement capacity. That's what you need here. Yes, I found the thumb strut chapters in Honing to be very useful for clarifying function. It's time for me to revisit them, and refine the function of my thumbs even further. Excellent question. I offer two opposing strategies, both useful and probably both necessary. First try feather legato without the articulation for the sense of fine connection to the key and its precise control. Then try maintaining the feeling of incredible lightness but slowly increasing finger articulation (lifting in other words) to the max. Finally return to step 1 and see if step 2 has 'educated' it. A question about this. When I've been exploring feather legato and some of the aspects from Honing ("Moveable Pylons" and "Bones" chapters), I've noticed that I've reduced effort so much that the key descends to the bed, then raises slightly - still enough to keep the damper off the strings, but occasionally I let it go too far and the note it cut short. I guess this is an example of hovering and not standing? With feather legato should the key remain bedded? Or does it depend on the situation? My mind boggles at the number of ways of approaching this, so I'll just ask those questions and not the hundreds more I've got related to this tiny aspect of technique. Of course, the reason I enjoy learning from your method, Alan, is that it makes me ask myself questions and actually think about the problem. You need to stand on your thumb more. It needs to be more active and stronger. When it stands better, it will carry your hand to the new position so effectively that your 3rd will now be able to drop nicely into its key. Your 2nd MCP joint will be way over to the left, but it won't be so close to the keyboard. Again, if your thumb were stronger you wouldn't perceive this as a problem. I often play with the edge of my thumb nail, it's a convenient place to stand on. At first it felt uncomfortable, but that's because at the time my own thumb was relatively undifferentiated. Thanks, I'll have a play with my thumbs. It's amazing to consider how much potential we can unlock from the thumb, if we know how. Thank you for the advice. I'll report back once I've had time to explore these new approaches.

First of all, the word "it's" means "it is." To write the possessive of "it," leave out the apostrophe, making "its." I see even well-schooled native English speakers making this mistake more and more often... Rather disturbing! When I was young, I was so infuriated about the inconsistent logic of using possessive apostrophes in all instances, except for the x of "it" that I deliberately insisted upon using apostrophes in such cases, no matter how many times the teacher corrected them. I've since dropped the willful rebellion against this, although it's one thing that I do still tend to slip into.

A question about this. When I've been exploring feather legato and some of the aspects from Honing ("Moveable Pylons" and "Bones" chapters), I've noticed that I've reduced effort so much that the key descends to the bed, then raises slightly - still enough to keep the damper off the strings, but occasionally I let it go too far and the note it cut short. I guess this is an example of hovering and not standing? With feather legato should the key remain bedded? Or does it depend on the situation? Very cool question! You are in a great place if this rebound is happening. You are 'living on the edge,' but exactly the edge where you need to be. It just takes an iota of control in either way to either bed the key or let it come up. Living on that balance point is an amazing experience and opens up all sorts of new tonal vistas if you play around with it. Try to re-bed the key without going all the way into standing. Or try giving way to the key's tendency to come up a little, letting it actually come all the way up. Then develop the ability of choice - to be able to manipulate that key to any one of a thousand points along that gamut. Lots of fun! Only two grammatical errors in your latest, its dire not straights, and they made fewer mistakes, not 'less mistakes...' You're coming along! AFF

Very cool question! You are in a great place if this rebound is happening. You are 'living on the edge,' but exactly the edge where you need to be. It just takes an iota of control in either way to either bed the key or let it come up. Living on that balance point is an amazing experience and opens up all sorts of new tonal vistas if you play around with it. Try to re-bed the key without going all the way into standing. Or try giving way to the key's tendency to come up a little, letting it actually come all the way up. Then develop the ability of choice - to be able to manipulate that key to any one of a thousand points along that gamut. There's something in the rebound of the key that cultivates a sense of freedom, which flows back from my hands into my body. It's a lot of fun to play around with! I was learning a couple of easy pieces earlier - the first two studies in Burgmuller's Op.100, and noticed how much of the 'moveable pylons' principles had seeped into my playing after just two days. It felt like the keys were extensions of my fingers. Only two grammatical errors in your latest, its dire not straights, and they made fewer mistakes, not 'less mistakes...' You're coming along! AFF Not only do I become a better pianist, but my use of the English language improves too! Perhaps subliminal messaging could be used on the next DVD - every 5 seconds flash up a screen of correct apostrophe usage or sentence structures for a couple of frames! I'm only half joking.

After a few days of 'living on the edge', I've discovered a a couple of problem areas in my playing: 1. I seem to be holding my second metacarpal-phalangeal joint very tight to maintain structure. I appear to be compensating for a lack of structural integrity. 2. I'm also holding on with the muscles along the outer ridge of my hands - particularly with my left hand. Allowing muscle tonus to lower revealed the tension itself. The symptoms had manifested in my inability to control to left fifth finger in situations that should have caused no trouble. Such practice has also allowed me to formulate a theory about why the keys on digital pianos feel so different to play that acoustic pianos. While I'm sure this varies between pianos, I've noticed that there is an initial 'give' on my upright piano - the key descends to the point that one can rest on the weight of the hammer. From there the resistance increases, as enough velocity must be generated to move the hammer. On digital pianos I find the opposite - no give at the beginning, but once I've got the key moving there is much less resistance. Perhaps one part of my idea is wrong though (or many parts!). I've noticed in the highest register of the piano there is no way to rest on the weight of the hammer (as I perceive it). Since there are no dampers at the top end of the piano, maybe I am in fact resting on the weight of the dampers, rather than the hammers? I'll post again once I make more discoveries with this aspect of my technique.

After a few days of 'living on the edge', I've While I'm sure this varies between pianos, I've noticed that there is an initial 'give' on my upright piano - the key descends to the point that one can rest on the weight of the hammer. From there the resistance increases, as enough velocity must be generated to move the hammer. On digital pianos I find the opposite - no give at the beginning, but once I've got the key moving there is much less resistance. That's a very interesting way of putting it. I've noticed things roughly along these kinds of lines, but I think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head there. Sometimes my digital feels rather "heavy" in a way (typically in softer playing, where the perception of resistance is rather vivid), while in other ways it feels like the resistance it puts up is pathetic (especially when I play loud). I've never really thought about the notion immediately greater resistance, but I think this is a huge part of the different feels- and why there's more a sense of resistance in softer playing. What digital do you have? I'm on a Yamaha CLP 370. One interesting thing I've found recently though, is that the style of finger action I use plays a massive part in how realistic my digital feels. When I use a purer type of pulling action (often from a rather flat finger) I've often felt a sense of merely coasting through the point where I'd actually be seeking maximum acceleration on a real piano (before all the energy that I'd expect to go somewhere productive suddenly slams into collision at the keybed). It really feels quite awkward and weird on a digital. There's simply no resistance to interact with at this point. It feels almost like a toy piano here. However, since I've been experimenting with actions of finger extension (typically starting with somewhat more curved fingers, but often finishing with completely extended fingers that are reasonably close to vertical), somehow the digital has been starting to feel more lifelike. While the sound will never be the same, somehow there's much more of a sense of it responding to what I'm doing and it actually starts to feel almost like I'm playing a real piano! Somehow the greater sense of physical connection to the results even makes it sound more realistic. It's starting to feel like playing an actual musical instrument- rather than a mere piano-simulator. It's interesting to reference this with your idea about the action. Maybe the extension action is more conducive to a fairly instant acceleration- whereas a flat-fingered pull tends to involve a type of late acceleration that digitals simply were not designed to respond to? I wonder if those who learn solely on digitals tend to have a hard time pacing finger pulls when they switch to a real piano?