Taubman ideas

Hi That's very well expressed by JohnMetz. But I think at least in the videos the shaping and in/out are also exaggerated.That might however be good from a pdegogic point of view. As Alan points out if you know how to use eg the thumb some of the shaping becomes useless. Most pianists don't play with the thumb and those who does usually have a fantastic sound. In a way I'm sorry about that book Alan is working on "All thumbs" the competition is already pretty unbearable... Rotation is of course indespensable to solve some technical problems but only if you know how to stand up. It really seems like Edna&Co has picked up some stuff from Craft that's pretty ironic but Edna G is a Julliard product she really knows how to play the piano (I suppose) and speaking about cash it won't hurt the revenues either.

Alan, as for the 'in and out' thing, you mentioned having to stop students from overdoing it. In Taubman approach, the purpose of 'in/out' is to "smooth out" the playing, making it graceful, rather than you arrive on the thumb note. That way your thumb doesn't have to make an erratic jab inward. Or alternatively, nor does your hand have to twist to connect the 2nd finger on a white key to the thumb on a black key. By moving in, you've already prepared your thumb to be exactly where it needs to play. So regarding chromatic octaves, since the main point of in/out is smoothness, the Taubman teachers are right there with you. Moving way out and then way in and way out and way in, over and over and over again in chromatic octaves totally works against the fluidity of motion that the in/out movements are meant to engender. This is when they start talking about . Just enough to get your thumb from the white key up to the edge of the next black key and then back out (just a hair!) to the next white key. Furthermore, Taubman teachers (probably) wouldn't talk about in/out movements when discussing chromatic octaves. If someone were playing the octaves in a jerky fashion (as you described), the teacher would probably talk about "keyspot." Meaning, where on the key do you play your finger. In chromatic octaves, your thumb and fifth finger will be . All about economic and efficient movement. Got done with the Golandsky Institute's Berkeley Seminar today. Must say, they did a good job.

Small world. My wife and I were dining at our favorite restaurant and I saw a woman who looked familiar from YouTube videos. I went over and introduced myself. I was right, it was Edna Golandsky. She was very charming. Jai Jeffryes