Silent Practice

Hi, I read about silent practice in two different places. One was an interview with David bar-Illan and the other a biography of Glenn Gould. The Gould biography says that it was a useful training method for voicing chords. Might it also help develop concentration because it requires absolute attention be paid to the depressing of the key and forces you to think of the sound? Do you think there are any technical issues that can be clarified with this method?

Absolutely! Silently pressing the keys forces you to be much more aware of just HOW you do it. And when you do get to the keybed, it's a wonderful opportunity to STAND UP into your hand's structure and really sense its integrity and moveability. Anyone else made some interesting discoveries on this? AFF

Yeah. been practising a lot lately and regularly so as usual when you work hard new problems and demands arise. One thing I've done lately is to press down every singel note or chord slowly like 1mm or 0,5mm and then stop there before I play the note/chord. I think by doing this for a while I kind of discovered what standing up really means the sound gets better and more compact so to speak. I got the idea from watching Art Tatum. Maybe just another crazy practice ritual but I ilke the result. It's also a good way to relax while youre not relaxed I don't know how to put it. Eric

You put it very well! Thanks for the tip! AFF