10 years ago by
A Pianist
Alan, I love the palming that you showed me. You encouraged me to get my palms right down on the keys and allow myself to enjoy feeling them. I've watched Horowitz's last concert in Moscow probably a thousand times, but I don't know that I ever specifically tried to copy that palm in the keys position he employs in the music of composers like Scarlatti and Mozart.
You also suggested that I let go of the tonus in my hand after attacks, so that I could even mash the keys if I wanted to. You manipulated my hand to acquaint me with the feeling of the bones of my hand "swimming." Something about the huge sensory feedback from that is so delicious it makes my conscious mind just want to go away and take a nap. This is a good thing! My conscious mind wants to tell me all sorts of things about what I'm about to screw up! I have longed for a way to tell that part of my head to give it a rest!
This is making many passages easier to play, but one motion that the swimming bones facilitate in a startling way is tremolando. Swimming bones enable me able to shake like crazy. I have worked and worked on Debussy's Poisson d'Or. It seemed simply impossible to play that measured tremolando and keep the hands together. Suddenly, with the palmed, bone-swimming mobility you demonstrated for me, I'm just able to do it without any mystery or elusiveness. I just feel where I am on the beat, and I shake like made and I can keep the hands together. It just happens.
Another shake. I always wanted to play Beethoven's Op. 109. This is the most beautiful, serene music I can imagine playing, but I also didn't imagine I would be able to do the trill variation at the end, maintaining those trills while playing the independent melody notes. Well, I did it today, and it worked fine the first time. Thanks, Alan. You gave me access to music I have always dreamed of playing.
Jai Jeffryes
