"What do you mean by "forwards"? The elbow can hold only upwards....as far as I know..."
From the shoulder. The shoulder is holding the elbow in a forward position instead of letting it hang back to pull the kinks out. It can release more if the finger end works to contribute more stabilisation at that end.
"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?"
You could either instigate it with arm or fingers- but remember that it's a slow drift through many notes and not separate movements per note. The point is simply that the wrist needs to be loosened up and allowed to drift around very slowly. It's just whatever stops it being fixed.
"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?"
Yeah, the wrist is being held in alignment with the muscles around that point. These will be free to let go if the fingers are work properly. You're more concerned with forcing the position to occur- than with how you create it. When the arm releases back, the alignment creates itself.
This is rather offtopic, but has this tension something to do with my unability to hold a steady rhythm? Previously I had difficulties when playing pieces without the metronome. Now my no-metronome playing has improved when I count loud. However when trying to count in my head my hands tend to ignore the imaginary count. Quite frustrating, because I feel that the piece gains pulse when being able to concentrate for a while and follow the "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" count...I think that certain beats are not held for their entire value. It's quite a mess. Intricate pieces and high tempos hide these kind of problems.
It would be better to have an unsteady tempo and steady values than having a steady tempo and unsteady values. If the values, especially the last beats from the measure, are not accurate, they just ruin everything.
I meant exactly that Razvan should not think about arm weight but about activating his fingers. There is a chapter in , and I never once mentioned arm weight. I knew that doing so would have been a distraction for him - it would have been counterproductive, really damaging in fact. I intentionally refrained from putting any concept of arm weight anywhere in his consciousness, because I knew it would only screw him up. As I said before, effective pedagogy does not mean just spouting what you know: it means evaluating what your student needs and then giving her or him exactly that, nothing less, nothing more.
I meant exactly that Razvan should not think about arm weight but about activating his fingers. There is a chapter in
What if it's phrased simply as "release" of the muscles- without reference to the weight that is therefore released too? If there's no focus placed on achieving a released but aligned wrist in tandem with activations, what would distinguish it from the old fashioned "finger isolation"?
When I see the left hand in the Hanon film, I see a very large amount of movement in the fingers- but the wrist is not taking the opportunity to "hang" or to perhaps even be pulled slightly back into alignment, so as to test the quality of the finger activations. It leaves the arm stiff and the hand bobbing. I don't believe that it's impossible for the shoulder to be inspired into release through attention to the hand end but I cannot follow why it would be harmful to cross-reference the two. Why would it be bad to notice the possibility of release that is created by a decent finger action- when release is what is needed in the shoulder? I can't understand why ignoring the arm end of things would be better than seeking to observe where the hand creates the possibility for release.
Finally managed to upload the videos. Here they are. Mainly they contain the same drills only that I play them in slow tempos too. Added the broken chords and the octaves drills.
Finally managed to upload the videos. Here they are. Mainly they contain the same drills only that I play them in slow tempos too. Added the broken chords and the octaves drills.
I'd basically say the same as in the other videos, but the ultra-slow practise is interesting. Do you get more tired from slow playing than fast playing, perhaps? The holding becomes all the more severe in your slow work. I'm not sure if it's actually doing you good to practise quite so slowly. You move so much more naturally when it flows forwards. At the least, you need to improve the quality of movement if you want to go so slow in a productive way. I actually wonder if the metronome is distracting you from feeling what goes on between notes and putting too much attention on the instant of sounding alone? It's nowhere near as severe as what many do, but there's a sense of the on/off approach to the fingers. They play the key and then "stop"- forcing the arm to hold much more stiffly than it needs to. I think you need to feel the finger activity is sustained in a better contact with the depressed key and perceive what efforts in the arm are no longer required. You're trying to force your arm to maintain its position with many efforts rather than connecting it. You need to stop forcing it to be still and find a balance where relative stillness just comes of its own accord.
Maybe I should just play up and down on the scale without a particular tempo. Maybe you're right about the metronome. Should I not practice so slow anymore?
Maybe I should just play up and down on the scale without a particular tempo. Maybe you're right about the metronome. Should I not practice so slow anymore?
I wouldn't say to throw out such slow practise, but I'm not convinced it serves any great purpose to use a metronome at that speed. At something a little more in the middle a metronome can aid flow and keep things moving naturally, but at ultra slow tempos it can sometimes makes things feel all the more disconnected- like you're having to make a real effort to land on the beats rather than feeling a sense that each one draws you into the next. I do find it valuable to practise going to the next note when it "feels" right to do so, rather than in sync with a rigid meter.
I think the problem is that you're playing one note and then basically just "waiting" for the next to arrive- rather than thinking about an ongoing sense of contact to the instrument and the sound. If you go ultra-slow, you still need to feel 100% involved until the next note arrives. It's not as obvious as with some people, but I do think this is an issue. Following a feel rather than a strict beat may help.
I'm curious about knowing at which grade I'm at the moment? I mean school grade from the technical point of view. Which schoool grade is equivalent with ABRSM Grade 4?
Why would you worry? It depends entirely on the individual student. By the way, one thing that struck me about your practise is that it's exceedingly structured and precise. Which is great! This is what most people are missing- but I think it's actually to the point of fault. I'd love to be able to get myself to work that slowly and accurately. However, you're basically just going from A to B with little challenge. You're already hitting all the right notes on the metronome beats, so what is the point in doing it yet again at a slow speed? You're doing almost nothing to test or explore your limits. I'm not sure if you played differently for the camera? However, you're far too careful!
For example, playing from one thumb of a scale up to the next is a great exercise (ie. in C major r.h. play each note from C up to F and F up to C, starting and ending on the thumb) First do it slow. Then do it very fast. This will likely expose a lot of your stiffnesses. If it didn't work find a mid-speed where it will or even go slow again etc. Everything is based around listening to your senses and judging how happy you are with a small unit. There's no predetermined speed. You just experiment and listen to your senses. How can the thumb move fairly quickly yet smoothly? If something doesn't work, what held it back and how can you improve it? It's all about listening to feedback- rather than pressing forwards in a completely predictable way. Sometimes you'll only work on tiny units, sometimes you'll put them back together. It's different every time, according to what your senses tell you needs fixing. There's no playing through a scale simply for the sake of doing it. It's all about testing to find something that's missing and figuring out how to improve it.
Clearly you have a very good attitude but I think you're stuck in the idea that if you do something slowly enough times to a metronome, it automatically produces something good. You need to test yourself more in small bursts of speed. When it doesn't work, you need to use your intelligence to figure out why- not just monotonous repetition. I think your sheer commitment to following the metronome is actually reducing your sensitivity and causing much of your stiffness.
