Staccato Vs. Legato

Just a few quick questions about the differences between playing staccato and legato. Recently I've managed to bring my fifth lumbrical to life, thanks to the advice offered in other threads. Most of the time now all of my knuckles are primed and the speed at which I can play legato has increased quite dramatically. However, my staccato playing is still very cumbersome in comparison. As an example, I'm now able to play Hanon 1 at about 140 bpm with my right hand legato, but only about 80 bpm staccato. This difference is what I am exploring. Here are my questions: 1. Is there a standard way to play legato? I lean towards using the fingers - basically as legato, but letting go of the notes sooner. Initially I thought this would be easier than legato, as there is a release between each note, but I'm finding this to be hard work. 2. Is the difference likely to be that I play legato much more than I play staccato? Staccato playing has come up relatively little compared to legato playing in the last few years for me. 3. Do the fingers need more capability to move in staccato playing? I've been doing some work with the 'out the back door' technique and I know that my fingers need to move more in general, so I've probably just answered my own question there. Any advice would be appreciated.

Just a few quick questions about the differences between playing staccato and legato. Recently I've managed to bring my fifth lumbrical to life, thanks to the advice offered in other threads. Most of the time now all of my knuckles are primed and the speed at which I can play legato has increased quite dramatically. However, my staccato playing is still very cumbersome in comparison. As an example, I'm now able to play Hanon 1 at about 140 bpm with my right hand legato, but only about 80 bpm staccato. This difference is what I am exploring. Here are my questions: 1. Is there a standard way to play legato? I lean towards using the fingers - basically as legato, but letting go of the notes sooner. Initially I thought this would be easier than legato, as there is a release between each note, but I'm finding this to be hard work. 2. Is the difference likely to be that I play legato much more than I play staccato? Staccato playing has come up relatively little compared to legato playing in the last few years for me. 3. Do the fingers need more capability to move in staccato playing? I've been doing some work with the 'out the back door' technique and I know that my fingers need to move more in general, so I've probably just answered my own question there. Any advice would be appreciated. Something I'd recommend is trying to aim slightly forwards with a finger extension, rather than always going for the backwards pull. Pulling the finger back can make for a very crisp staccato, but it's not great for speed- because the reaction force will want to displace the arm very notably. It's quite hard to avoid stiffening, against that- unless you have time to do each individual action separately, rather than as part of a flow. Basically, either you have to allow yourself to bounce or be bracing against it. I've only recently been discovering the path that results in the least natural displacement of a neutral arm and wrist. When you get it just right, it's surprisingly how little the arm is affected. I'm trying to get myself used to this path for the fingers for both legato and staccato. The more consistently you find it, the simpler everything feels and the less inclined the arm is to brace against anything.

Something I'd recommend is trying to aim slightly forwards with a finger extension, rather than always going for the backwards pull. Pulling the finger back can make for a very crisp staccato, but it's not great for speed- because the reaction force will want to displace the arm very notably. It's quite hard to avoid stiffening, against that- unless you have time to do each individual action separately, rather than as part of a flow. Basically, either you have to allow yourself to bounce or be bracing against it. Thanks. I'd noticed the displacement, but hadn't considered using another type of movement. Just trying what you said on the desk illustrated the difference very clearly. I've only recently been discovering the path that results in the least natural displacement of a neutral arm and wrist. When you get it just right, it's surprisingly how little the arm is affected. I'm trying to get myself used to this path for the fingers for both legato and staccato. The more consistently you find it, the simpler everything feels and the less inclined the arm is to brace against anything. I spotted that you'd written about this in a previous post. The holidays should give me time to explore it.

I spotted that you'd written about this in a previous post. The holidays should give me time to explore it. Yeah, it's the same thing I described briefly in a previous post. For a long while I'd assumed that aiming slightly forwards would be too flimsy/sensitive an action to depend upon. However, when done just right it still involves the power of the grasping action at the knuckle, without causing the slipping that comes with a pure circular path. I strongly suspect that there's no other way to approach the fastest speeds for finger staccato without finding something close to this line of movement.

Josef Hofmann said that the proper way to play a finger staccato is by using a scratching motion in the finger, with no involvement from the arm. Although Hofmann had the best finger staccati and repeated notes, it has been said that the best pianists don't always understand their own technique: they may do something very different than what they say they do. I wonder if pulling the finger back toward the palm, while keeping the arm motionless, is likely to cause unnecessary tension.

Personally, I think it would be almost inevitable. The thing I wonder about it whether pianists who talk simply about the scratching action instinctively learned to balance it with an act of extension in other joints- ie. they don't truly understand their technique, as he says. Increasingly, I'm finding that there are times when I'm almost entirely focussed on a sense of pulling back from the knuckle- yet I realise that my fingers remember the extension movement I've done elsewhere, and hence employ enough of that for the arm to remain very stable. Try holding out a curled finger and then uncurling the last two joints, without moving from the knuckle. In isolation, this movement would be truly useless at moving a key, wherever you start from. However, add this to a conventional and more powerful pull from the knuckle and it can make all the difference. When mastered, the pianist may perceive themself to be scratching backwards, while actually using an extension action to counteract that. The scratching part may be the most vivid sensation, but I don't think it can fire on all cylinders without the extra component also being available.

Are you saying that the forearm should extend- as a follow-up motion- when the scratching motion is performed with the finger? Sometimes I wonder how pianists developed their technique if they don't know what they are doing. Is that a sign that some people just have a high level of innate physical coordination? I would think that if you consciously practice a scratching motion with the finger and try to keep the arm motionless, then that is the technique you are going to develop. After all, your mental concept of technique is intrinsically linked to what you actually do at the keyboard. Many pianists have injured themselves due to misconceptions about technique.

It doesn't necessarily need to actively do anything. It's just a matter of how the reaction force affects it- and whether you fight that or find a way for the natural mass to stabilise it easily. I'd agree. However, if you develop a different style of finger movement elsewhere, then you can chance upon a way where the arm merely happens to stay still of its own accord- which feels suprisingly similar to the action of literally scratching back with the finger.

Are you saying that the arm stay still during the finger staccato, but that it merely needs to stay still on its own accord, as opposed to being held still through muscular tension? Are you saying that the scratching motion that Hofmann described probably didn't occur in his playing- that it was merely a sensory illusion caused by the innate stabilization of his arm?

Leave your arm loose and do a scratching motion with one finger in mid-air. Does your arm move? You may well be able to detect some movement visually but not feel anything kinesthetically. This is why Hoffman said just scratch with your finger. For sure he did not create tension in his arm when he did that type of staccato. But he may not have noticed the little bits of responsive, adaptive movement that happen naturally in the arm (if you let it) when you do the cat scratch staccato. He developed that technique first in order to get a specific sound. He was mostly focused on the precise sound of the particular articulation he wanted. Probably then later he noticed what his finger was doing to get it. So try to follow his advice but not dogmatically. Do the cat scratch in such a way that you stay loose. Don't try to make your arm move in a specific direction, just stay loose enough to let it go where it wants to. All best for a wonderful 2012! AFF