Scales: Rotation, Feather Legato & Maximum Articulation

You're on! Or at least you would be, but isn't that kind of thing still illegal (even when used for valid educational purposes)? AFF

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. The fact that in your practicing you are zeroing in on your physical sensation to the point of noticing these things is already a good thing. Furthermore, although you perceive it as a problem it's not entirely so. The efforts you notice are inherently good, they're still just a little primitive: like a baby when it first stands up: the hip joint muscles are working but they still hold on stiffly to create stability. The solution: the rolling the loose hand forward exercise at the beginning of . This new image will suffuse the efforts of those valiant muscles, refining them and bringing them to lower, more optimal levels. A good piano is regulated so the smaller, lighter treble hammers offer no less resistance than the heavy bass hammers. But this is of course much easier to do on a grand, virtually impossible on an upright. If that's the case with you, then I think resting on the dampers is a good alternative strategy - it gives you the same sensitivity to key weight you seek. Thanks for some very perceptive posts! AFF

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. Where I work we have a Yamaha CLP 320 (I think), and a similar level Roland. It was on the Roland that I noticed it. I'll experiment on Monday on the Yamaha, though I imagine it will be similar to your digital. With my band I use a Kawai MP5, which I bought because it felt more 'piano-like' than any other digital that I've tried. I'll see tomorrow if the resistance follows the same pattern on that, or if it's more like an acoustic. Interesting ideas about finger actions. I'll have a play around when I get the chance. Always more to learn and never a dull moment!

The fact that in your practicing you are zeroing in on your physical sensation to the point of noticing these things is already a good thing. Furthermore, although you perceive it as a problem it's not entirely so. The efforts you notice are inherently good, they're still just a little primitive: like a baby when it first stands up: the hip joint muscles are working but they still hold on stiffly to create stability. The solution: the rolling the loose hand forward exercise at the beginning of . This new image will suffuse the efforts of those valiant muscles, refining them and bringing them to lower, more optimal levels. Great, I'll give that a go. It was the first ATM I worked through when I first read Honing. I got a lot out of it then, but perhaps now I'll be approaching it with more intelligence (but hopefully no preconceived ideas!). A good piano is regulated so the smaller, lighter treble hammers offer no less resistance than the heavy bass hammers. But this is of course much easier to do on a grand, virtually impossible on an upright. If that's the case with you, then I think resting on the dampers is a good alternative strategy - it gives you the same sensitivity to key weight you seek. Thanks for some very perceptive posts! AFF Ah, I see. I'll have to see if I can find a decent grand to practice on at some point. The only one I have access to at the moment has seen better days. At some point in the future I'll have to build a piano to get a better sense of how they work.

A good piano is regulated so the smaller, lighter treble hammers offer no less resistance than the heavy bass hammers. But this is of course much easier to do on a grand, virtually impossible on an upright. Are you sure that's right? From what I heard, bass keys require notably more pressure than upper keys- both to get the key to the bottom and to produce tone. I wouldn't have known this, were it not for having specifically heard reference to the different weights, regarding a digital piano. I never had a clue before I'd heard about different key-weights on digitals. I suspect that a decent tuner makes the difference so small from key to key, that's it seems like nothing. However, it's said that there's a rather notable difference between bass keys and the upper register. I think it shows how much the senses adapt to context, that we may not necessarily notice the difference- even when going directly between the two registers. Also, aren't there springs of some sort to return the key? I don't know much about the fine workings, but (at the risk of exposing severe ignorance) I think this is as much to do with resistance of springs as the actual hammer weight? Is this one of the things where the specifc workings tend to vary between uprights and grands?

Andrew, I just tested my Kawai MP5 and found the key resistance to be closer to an acoustic than the other digitals. It has some of the initial resistance that the other digitals have, and part way down the resistance is less. Towards the bottom, though, there's a little more, which seems to match my upright somewhat. I imagine the higher models (MP8 and the new MP10) which have wooden keys probably feel even closer to a real piano.