To Alan Fraser: Peter Feuchtwanger - Ever heard about him?

Hi Rush, I just wanted thank you for your post. It really helped solve a problem I had. I am a beginner player and I had a problem with the right hand playing B7 chord in first inversion. No matter what I did, the keys did not come down at the same time. The thumb playing a black key while fingers 3,4 played white keys "confused" my hand and the chord sounded broken. I also tried a fingering of 1,4,5 and 2,4,5, both didn't help much. The common advice for beginners is "practise slowly" but this is one the instances where I just couldn't do it, slow or fast. You post gave me the idea to stop thinking about the keys in terms of black or white keys, but actually think of the hammers and string. I have an upright piano, so I decided to open the cover so that the hammers and strings would be visible. I could immediately SEE which hammer hit first and by how much and compensated instantly. I still don't play the chord comletely even, but there is huge improvement now even when the strings are not visible. When relying only on sound, I could always tell whether all the string are hit at the same time or not, but my ears are not trained well enough to know exactly which key is late and by how much - but as soon as the eyes came in to the game I could hear instant improvement in the sound. So I just wanted to thank you for helping me with a frustrating problem. Zack

Hi Zack, You're welcome and thanks for letting me know about it. That's an interesting way you figured out to solve the problem by watching the hammers. I can imagine how that could help you engage the feeling that you are playing all the way to the strings. --Rush

I can remember many times while growing up, watching the hammers to get a better sense of evenness, precision and alive attack. Obviously any one of the senses can be useful to enrich the ear, if we figure out a way to include them in our experience. But as I am constantly cautioning, don't get so caught up in some other sense that the ear is neglected. Use the other ones to constantly refine your listening... AFF