MCMTA talk Alan gave in April 2018
Born in Montreal in 1955 Alan Fraser studied piano but also delved into composition, cello, classical singing and had several stints as a pop musician. Alan’s main pianistic influence was the pioneering research of Phil Cohen who studied alongside Ronald Turini, Andre Laplante and Janina Fialkowska with Yvonne Hubert, who had been Cortot‘s assistant in Paris. Alan spent several years with Cohen after an apprenticeship with two former Cohen students, Alan Belkin and Lauretta Milkman.
A paralel between human walking and piano walking
But it's not only that, isn't it?
Alan explains the real mechanics behind the arm weight technique
Seems to be very vertical in it's approach but the hand needs to be "lateralized" at some point
As long as our hands are standing and not falling
Is curling the nail joints or fingers weakening arches of the hand?
We need to provide certain neurological sensory images for our brain
What to do when your piano student is double jointed
Teaching piano is hard. How about the old "hold the apple" routine?
Another way of using our skeletal mechanics at the piano
It affects the sound as well as induces tension in the wrist and forearm
Then the thumb and fingers aren't functional
The oldest questions in the piano book
Being elastic without being tense
What about slurs? Lots of elasticity!
How does all this apply to chords?
Everybody is different. Teachers should really adjust to their students
