Technique and methods

Alan, you have a fantastic recording of the on your website. I sense that you have a deep understanding of the rhythmic vitality buried within this piece. The way you play the main theme is particularly effective (s...

I've finally got around to doing most of the videos for the post on thumbs (that I'd actually completed the writing for ages ago). I'd be interested in any views from anyone. Most of the exercises have a good deal...

Just wondering there are any thoughts on this theory? "I also have a strong suspicion that it (collapse) can impact on rhythmic steadiness and the ability to play fast. When a finger gives way, there is a bigger gap i...

Has Alan come across this new method? Apparently the guy come from a background of Feldenkrais training. Just checked the site, however, and it's $300!

Recently I've noticed a deficiency in structural function in my fifth fingers - either one or both of the joint between the phalanges will collapse when I play a note (specifically if I stand on the finger). It seems tha...

Actually, Alan, I fell, but I did get back up and I want to run this one by you. It relates to the role of the upper arm. One of the things that caught my attention when I first encountered your DVD several years ago...

Although I'm extremely interested in the objective issues that make sense of how and why certain things work, the other day I stumbled on an ultra-subjective idea that I believe provides a fantastically simple point of f...

I haven't studied so intensely lately. However I'm starting to feel the pull of the gravity acting somewhere around the elbow more and more. As it is clear that the gravity factor doesn't change it's even more clear that...

Hello everybody, I want to write about my current concerns , i'm going to tell my story; last year i had gotten a horrible tendinitis on my right wrist, after playing chopin's polonaise op.44, i have seen many doct...

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...

Hi, Alan! First of all, sorry for possible grammar mistakes in my text (English is not my mother tongue). Alan, in your dvd, when you're playing Bach/Busoni's Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland, at the tragic C minor cho...

Arpeggios are an aspect of technique that I've been looking into recently (since everything I've been playing seems to have sweeping left hand arpeggios somewhere). I made some progress with them a few months back, makin...

Just made a rather interesting discovery, while practising opus 10 no 1. As far as the 5th goes, I've been experimenting with either pure knuckle pulls or actions that combine the action of extending the finger mildly fo...

Hi just wondered if anyone played this with different fingering on the opening flutter (trills) beginning the demisemiquavers; I find the first quadruple demis a bit stretchy for the second finger on C with the 4th on...

Hello all, First I must say that this is an invaluable place for both amateur and pro pianists to find solutions to their problems. Everybody here is so knowledgeable and helpful (a rare combination! ) Thank you all...

Hi Alan, I've disappeared for a few years; study, work, family and other things took my life for a spin and I'm just now returning to my original love: playing the piano, I'm just so happy to see you're still around a...

If you're hitting speed barriers, you need to go back and work out the "bugs" in your playing. Figure out where the difficulties come from. What notes of the studies tend to get shortchanged? What intervals feel awkward?...

Hi all, I'm currently studying a Bachelor of Music in contemporary performance. I'm a mature age student (36 y.o.) and have a lot of performing experience under my belt but no degree. I'm classically-trained but pursu...

Ok I have been trained pretty well in technique and approach to piano and never had really any problems with pain ever. But now I am in my freshman year of conservatory and I have (for reasons that are personal) experien...

Hi there, What is a good technique for glissandoing? I struggle to do this without getting a sore hand pretty quick.

Earlier today I was working through one of the 'Natural Finger Shape' ATMs in Craft - specifically, Natural Shape IV: Legato Review. While working with my right hand I made an interesting discovery. While standing on...

Over the last couple of days I've become aware of some tension along the outer ridges of my arms. It appears to be localised to a small area around where the tendon for my fifth finger emerges from my wrist, on the arm s...

Alan, I'm suddenly starting to hold a lot of tension in my neck. It feels tight and unpleasant. This is not tension that is coming from lack of function in my hand/arm. Rather, it seems to me that the tension starts i...

Recently, I went over to the home of a local concert pianist to rehearse some music for his church. Rather than playing piano, he will be singing this week, with me as his accompanist. First off, this guy sits with a...

I'm tremendously excited about all the uses I've been finding for the bird beak - from Albeniz's Leyenda to groovy funk rhythms. I especially like repeating one note continuously alternating Left and Right hands and shif...