The Knees

Hi p2u I'm quite curious about your thoughts about the "knees". I guess the Rachmaninoff exercise has something to do with this. Sometimes I've found just incredible results when using the "knees" in a kind of skeletal way eg absolute control of a singing tone and to overcome some uncomfortable positions in scales and passages. When I use the knee I put the front of the fingerpalm a bit forward leaning on the key (that is the intention is to go forward down) and then I do a very very tiny movement with the arm (I guess maybe it's the arch going up a nanometer) forward which pushes up the arch a tiny bit or rather "tense up" the arch and I easily reach the keybed with everything dead straight up to the "knee". The first connection of the finger goes "in" and "locks". Hard to describe for me but it's kind of completely effortless operation. I also remember what Alan said about Kemals theory of playing louder and louder by using more and more "levers" from tip to knee and on. I like more to think in terms of controlling the sound. Eric

Hi p2u I'm quite curious about your thoughts about the "knees". I guess the Rachmaninoff exercise has something to do with this. You read my mind, as some arm weight shools seem to propagate, is not a very good idea. Training the knees to aborb shocks in light hand staccato, for example, will teach those joints to do whatever is necessary and the fingers will become "strong" without you applying any force they may not be able to bear. You may have heard about lifting the fingers and then dropping them into the key in some of the old Finger Schools? To my mind, the "dropping" part is also exactly to teach the "knees" to absorb the "shock" involved of dropping into the key without us consciously locking anything. Some teachers even recommend to develop the knees better. So, you lift the finger in the MCP joint and then let it gently come down, absorbing the slight "shock" of dropping into the key with your "knees". However bizarre this may sound, if you can avoid tension and stiffness while doing this and then go back to playing with the more "classical" hand arch, your knuckle bridge (the "hips") will have benefited significantly. That's as far as I can go right now. More later. P.S.1: You have probably seen Dinu Lipatti's hands before? Those are not only ideal classical hand arches, but he also displays ideal "knees" that never collapse, whatever awkward position or stretch they have to work in. Since nobody is born with that kind of hands, it must have required the work and discipline of a ballerina to get them in that kind of athletic shape. One might think that "big hands" is enough to do what he shows there, but believe me: it's not. Here's the picture: P.S.2: Rachmaninoff's exercise has not so much to do with the "knees". His exercise stretches the extensors. Just take a closer look at what he is really doing and you'll see (and feel if you imitate exactly what he's doing). Paul

Looking forward to that. I'm pretty sure the "knees" are within the concept of "skeletality" but w'ell see. Eric

Looking forward to that. I'm pretty sure the "knees" are within the concept of "skeletality" but w'ell see. Eric Thanks for your patience. The first stage: wake up the fingers. I've created some very primitive animated .gif files to show you exercises for that purpose. Please note how the "knees" are involved, not developing finger strength, but rather finger intelligence. Instead of giving separate links, I'll give you the main link to one of my albums on image hosting resource "radikal.ru": The files that were uploaded last are shown first. Please start down the page and work your way up to look through the materials. Also feel free to download the images to your computer. If you are interested, there are other albums as well, all related to preparatory exercises for instrumentalists. The character encoding for the site's layout there is "Unicode - Russian". Thanks. P.S.: The exercises are shown with both hands, but doing them hands separately is, of course, recommended. Remember: no strength/force, no speed, no tension! Paul

Now that we have established a clear brain-finger-brain connection, it is time for stage 2: developing some more physical control over the PIP joint. One very good exercise for this purpose is from Jozsef Gat's book on piano technique: While keeping the other fingers loose and lenghtened, bend the PIP joint of the target finger in a 90% angle and lock it in that position with maximum tension while keeping the DIP joint completely relaxed as shown in the picture. You can check the DIP with a finger of the other hand; the joint should be moveable. P.S.: You should also be able to do this with the thumb - clearly differentiate between nail and middle joint. I have noticed that some people don't have any control whatsoever over the middle joint of the thumb(s) which to my mind may be the cause of many problems related to virtuoso technique. Both flexion and extension at that joint are either severly limited or completely absent, not to speak of the inability to withstand any kind of compression. Flexion and or extension, if at all possible, cannot be carried out without also involving the joint that attaches the thumb to the wrist. This leads to problems when the hand has to be opened for certain chords and intervals, etc. and to pain in the wrist on the pinky side. One of my students had the required control in his left hand, but not in his right hand. He had always thought that the problem was a "weak right-hand pinky" and was taken aback when the real problem turned out to be an entirely undeveloped control over the middle joint of the thumb. About a month or so of focussed training on the diagnosed problem (mostly away from the instrument) opened the way to good further development. Further, we can test the alertness of the PIP joints by practising a light one-finger hand staccato on a table top. The fingers (and everything behind them) should be completely relaxed while doing this, otherwise we will not benefit from this exercise. Under no circumstance should we fight collapse by locking anything. The "shock" of the light hand drop on the table should be felt in the PIP. If the joint collapses, this means you should make the movement even lighter until the joint doesn't give way. More later. Paul

Glenn Gould is another one with great "knees." AFF

Hi p2u Thanks a lot for these tips and exercises. I' ll work with them for a while and come back. Eric