Sorry. It was my mistake. I didn't read the text attentively enough. If the arm works harder that means something doesn't work right in the hand/fingers. So it's not a thing to seek for. In fact you have to avoid it. I actually wanted to ask you how can I enhance the connection between the hand and the arm? You said that the arm needs to be well connected with the hand...how can I obtain this or enforce the already existent connection?
You know...I think Alan is right. If I practice on a table top and concentrate on a good finger activation all the other things come naturally. Maybe for my level of tehnique it would be better to work on this rather than adding arm weight so early. When I get back home I will record a preliminary or a grade 1 piece and post it here. I think that a piece with low technical demands will allow me to concentrate on these mechanical things and will allow you to see better what hinders my playing.
"You know...I think Alan is right. If I practice on a table top and concentrate on a good finger activation all the other things come naturally. Maybe for my level of tehnique it would be better to work on this rather than adding arm weight so early."
I think you misunderstand. I'm not talking about a mindset of "adding arm weight". This is exactly the kind of thing I'd discourage you from myself. I'm talking about letting the arm hang back in release and observing the results on what the hand becomes capable of. If you're in the habit of pushing from the elbow, there's every chance this will make the contact between finger and key feel lighter and induce less feeling of "weight". It's not about trying to feel weight bearing down into a key but about hanging back in release- so the hand can operate to its full potential. It's more about the feeling of something tugging BACKWARDS at the wrist- rather than the feeling of weight pressing anything down. Weight just doesn't do that unless you make all kinds of adaptations to force it to. Thinking about what people traditionally say weight is supposed to do just tricks the brain into pressing with the arm.
Also, the simplest way to align the arm is simply connect the hand to the keyboard properly and slowly let gravity pull the wrist back until everything feels settled. If you try to force a position to occur, it will likely be held and forced. You cannot crank into position manually. When you release into position, it literally forms itself- assuming the hand is properly connected.
No. I understand what you mean. I just mentioned arm weight to make it clearer that now I perceive the difference between letting the gravity act and elbow pushing and I know that generating a false weight feeling by muscular effort is not a thing to wish for. It's just that sometimes old habits try to come to the surface. When I said "arm weight" I actually referred to "proper perception and usage of the way gravity acts on the arm".
I think Alan wanted to tell you and me that considering the stage I'm at, it would not be good to add the perception of the arm release (in my previous reply I named it "arm weight") and rather concentrate on the major problem we worked together on last year, namely finger activation.
Surely that's not exactly what he means? You said your problem is that the shoulder is stiff? Isn't it logically self-evident that this is caused either by excessive pressing or excessive holding up of the arm? Either way, your arm needs to learn to just let go and hang. I'd agree entirely that proper finger activation is fundamentally vital, if there is to be any chance of this occurring. I wouldn't want to take any attention from that. However, it strikes me that if you try to ignore what the arm is doing, it's very unlikely that the finger actions will inspire release. If I feel my arm is "held" my finger actions feel flimsy and weak, as you described. Only by letting the arm hang back do they start to feel like they truly connect with the keyboard. From here they aquire a real sense of being productive.
Clearly, the old-fashioned type of weight based thinking has you trying to get over the top of the keys and push downwards still. I wouldn't encourage the idea that weight is supposed to provide a big force for you in a million years. But if you're stuck in the pressures caused by thinking of trying to force your weight act heavily through a key, you need to wipe the slate clean and observe what comes from true release (only in the arm!)- rather than keep holding it forward. If the arm is held there with insufficient release, of course the shoulder will get tired! How could it not?
If Alan really does mean not to focus on release of the arm perhaps I'd better stay out of this- as it would mean we really are looking at something spectacularly different. However, I suspect that we're not actually looking at anything different. I believe that your problems are caused by old-fashioned "arm-weight" thinking too. That's why I want to encourage you to throw out the idea that weight is "hang" behind quality finger actions. As long as you're pressing weight forwards and over the top, there's an inherent limit in how much it's possible to activate the fingers. Did you read my post on hunched shoulders? I'm convinced that this is classic case of trying to get "over the top"- but then finding that such a position is too much work for the shoulders to sustain. As long as you keep fighting the force that is trying to straighten your arms out, they cannot settle into an easy balance.
Maybe the finger activation and the holding coexist...
I was thinking that perhaps the fingers got used to work more intense but the elbow still has work to do. Is that possible?
And another issue regarding the tempo this time. I arrived home and I tried to play the same scale at the same tempo on my Yamaha P-85. I don't know what happened. I practiced for about 2-3 weeks on semi-weighted keys and now I feel like my tehnique felt down. It's quite frustrating but maybe I judged and took things to easy. At the minimum tempo for Grade 4 I can play the scale but it certainly lacks precision. Not necessarily rhythmically but my hands don't feel sure. The holding intensifies and the tone becomes a little weaker at higher tempos. I certainly have been expecting to be able to play more loud after 3 years of practice. Maybe the tempo where I feel the most comfortable would be the 60 bpm if I play the scale with 8th notes. That means barely Grade 1. It's unbelievable. I guess things need more time than I thought they would. I play for 3 years now but I never took it in earnest and I was never efficient until I met Alan. So that means one year. At which tempo should I practice the Hanon drills, the scales and the etudes and pieces? Should I follow my instincts/perception? Or the methods?
"And another issue regarding the tempo this time. I arrived home and I tried to play the same scale at the same tempo on my Yamaha P-85. I don't know what happened. I practiced for about 2-3 weeks on semi-weighted keys and now I feel like my tehnique felt down."
I know the kind of feeling. Not with a semi-weighted keyboard, but my Bluthner feels likes that compared to the heavy action on the piano at my parents' house. I just got back from staying there for a week and at first the piano felt unplayable and I struggled not to feel the arm trying to press. But by focusing on that sense of hanging back (in tandem with the finger activations) the fingers soon began to feel extremely powerful. I was surprised at how well some of the stuff start working on what I always regarded as a sluggish piano. Some things were actually going way faster than on the light Bluthner!
Anyway, I think this is indicative of the held arm again. If the arm is held up and forward too much, the finger movements to depress a light key feel so little it's like the muscles don't even do anything. It's literally like different instrument With a heavier action, you need to connect the chain up from finger to shoulder- as the same kind of isolated finger prods don't produce the goods. I think this is what really happens when those who are successful with "arm-weight" play finger work. The arm doesn't go over the top and bear down but simply hangs back in release. It's possible to do this on even the lightest of actions, but all the more important on heavy ones. That said, if you can learn how to do it even on the lightest actions, the hand activates much better and feels more productive than when you rely on the lightness of the keys to get away with a held arm. In the past, practising on my digital made the sense of holding really bad and caused the worst bobbling of all. Light actions have their own difficulties- but I believe the solution is universal, regardless of the weight.
"Not necessarily rhythmically but my hands don't feel sure. The holding intensifies and the tone becomes a little weaker at higher tempos."
Again, I suspect the cautiously held arm from you old videos causes the lack of security in the hand. Do you have any recent films yet? Sometimes I even feel I'm pulling straight back from the piano, to test the hand's grip and stretch out any kinks in the chain. It's not just hanging the arm into lengthing but actively pulling the elbow slightly back from the keys. This doesn't cause a big pressure between finger and key (it probably even lightens a bit) but gets a very stable feel. It's a good way of connecting the whole thing together and testing whether the quality of hand activation is good enough for that to happen. In the past, just the slightest bit of holding forward perpetuated my bobbling hand and kept the pressing reflex returning. I want to get some new videos up soon, as the change has been quite remarkable since then.
So. I recorded 2 films. Quite far from what I'm expecting but maybe it's better to watch yourself because this gives you a clearer picture of your real level.
Hanon 1st drill from The Virtuoso Pianist
C# minor scale
Looks to me like your thumb is at the centre of your trouble. You are moving your arm slightly towards to back board of the piano before playing with your thumb each time, then pulling your arm backwards away from the piano as your thumb plays it's note. You can really hear it in the scale whenever the thumb's note isn't a pulse note - an audible increase in dynamics. It's not so noticeable on the Hanon since the thumb is always playing the first of each group of four notes.
I'd have a look at seeing if you can activate your thumb without pulling your entire arm backwards. Maybe stand on another finger while playing a note with the thumb and see if you can notice the arm movement.
So. I recorded 2 films. Quite far from what I'm expecting but maybe it's better to watch yourself because this gives you a clearer picture of your real level.
Hanon 1st drill from The Virtuoso Pianist
C# minor scale
Firstly, there's a very big improvement from your older films. The alignment of the arm is much better and it's far looser. However, there are still many signs of the "held" arm and especially the held wrist. The alignment of the right hand actually looks pretty good (without the high wrist of before) but there are a number of clues that it's still held up too much. The left is better than before, although even on the surface you can still see a notable remainder of the wrist being held forward and up, rather than releasing.
There's a certain amount of bobbling going still, which shows that the sense of connecting the whole arm to the finger is not quite there yet. The more the fingers activate the more can hang back (without fear of slipping off) and similarly the more the arm hangs back the more the fingers can activate (and indeed MUST activate to stop the elbow sliding back and pulling the hand from the keys). Can you see how the whole arm is wobbling slightly with each finger activation? The more the arm hangs back, the more stable the hand will remain (provided the fingers activate properly)- without any sense of fighting against the reactions forces. The more you hold forwards the more wobbling will show up, rather than be absorbed.
One thing I'd try is to feel the wrist very gradually drifting forwards (while still feeling the elbow pulls back enough to stabilise) but then very gradually drifting back again through groups of the Hanon- so it never stops in any "held" position. It doesn't require much movement at all, but doing something would help to reduce the feeling of trying to hold the wrist from collapsing. You need to get more activity at the finger end, so the wrist can hang in alignment rather than be "held" up in alignment.
One thing I find highly indicative is when you lift your hands off after the scale at 1:30. Most concert artists will lift off and allow the hand to hang down at the wrist when doing such an upward finish (unless something else is about to follow). That is because their wrist is ALREADY so relaxed that removing the support of the keyboard naturally leaves it hanging freely. The change on the outside occurs despite consistency of release on the inside- not a change of action. Your hand remains entirely held out from the wrist- which I think is extremely revealing and suggests far too much habitual effort from there. In your case, you start with effort and finish with effort. Not only is your wrist starting held in place but it's not wanting to release even when you've finished playing. Remember that the feeling of aligned wrist while playing should be nothing like the feeling of aligned wrist away from the keys. You're treating them as the same- rather than using the contact with the keyboard as a source of release.
Regarding the thumb, I'd disagree that the arm is pulling it back. I see the thumb itself slipping back as the natural result of following a circular path around the joint. Have you tried thinking of extending the thumb out in front of you to play the key- rather than sliding back? This has been a major help for me. It makes it easier to feel the thumb and arm are stable.
What do you mean by "forwards"? The elbow can hold only upwards....as far as I know...
One thing I'd try is to feel the wrist very gradually drifting forwards (while still feeling the elbow pulls back enough to stabilise) but then very gradually drifting back again through groups of the Hanon- so it never stops in any "held" position. It doesn't require much movement at all, but doing something would help to reduce the feeling of trying to hold the wrist from collapsing. You need to get more activity at the finger end, so the wrist can hang in alignment rather than be "held" up in alignment.
Am I supposed to move my wrist forwards by activating the fingers more? As a result of this drill should I see my wrist (and hand) moving closer to the point where the keys are fixed on the playing mechanism?
Do you mean that I'm forcing my wrist to stay aligned with the arm as in somekind of exercise rather than letting the finger activation and support of the keys to make the alignment naturally?
I'm currently processing a longer video because youtube doesn't allow films over 15 minutes. I'm going to post a half of my usual practice session, namely the technical part.
It may be that in the videos I'm more tensed than usually. I should play more often in front of the camera, even call some spectators. I get nervous and that may cause the muscle strain.
