The following text describes how the forearm is used in tone production.
The forearm has its fulcrum at the elbow and moves in three basic ways.
- The first is a vertical movement and swings the forearm up and down from the elbow. It is a very tiring movement if instigated by the muscles of the arm,
but if the movement is initiated by the pluck of the fingertips, the arm moves as a free body in a passive state and there is no tension generated.
- The second movement is a lateral movement and is useful in getting the fingers across the piano. This lateral movement also becomes an element of the
walking arm and is indispensable to keyboard technique.
This lateral movement is somewhat cumbersome, but can be done slowly once the motion has been mastered during practice.
- The third movement, and the most important is the rotary motion of the forearm, better known as rotation. This movement involves
- the rotation of the forearm to supination, which is the palm of the hand upward and visible, and
- to pronation, rotation of the forearm so that the palm of the hand is downward.
It is rotation of the forearm, when coordinated with the action of the fingertips, that compensates for the natural inequity of the fingers and results in tonal equality and power.