Purpose of Technique  «Prev  Next»

Relaxation in Piano Playing and Keyboard Technique

Relaxation implies
  1. the Elimination of all unnecessary exertions,
  2. the Cessation of the needed impulses at the right moment, and
  3. Weight-release the cessation of limb-support, and hence Weight-manifestation where and when needed.

Connection between Music and Technique

  1. To summarize this: no successful technique can ever be acquired without this element of timing. Mastery of technique and mastery of interpretation alike rest on the same basis a basis of rhythmic impulse and control.
  2. You now realize why the study of technique should never be separated from the study of music. Technique and music must be associated from the very beginning. You must acquire a strict mental association between every musical effect and its technical reproduction. Hence it is harmful to try to acquire a Technical effect without making such association.
  3. In short, every note must be sounded with definite 1) musical purpose, 2) rhythmical purpose and 3)tonal purpose, and this from the very beginning.

Setting the Piano Keys in Motion

  1. The louder you want a note to be, the more swiftly must you make the key move during its descent.
  2. If you want the sound to be beautiful in quality, you must set Key and String gradually into motion, however great the swiftness required at the last moment of key-descent.
  3. Whereas, if you want a less beautiful but a more "brilliant" tone, you may depress the key suddenly, you may then hit the string by means of the key, but still taking care not to hit the key instead.
  4. If the sound is to be exactly what you want as regards tone-amount and tone-quality, you must be careful not only to direct your effort to the sound, and to that only, but you must also succeed in choosing that effort for each note. This you can only do, by actually feeling how much the key resists being moved.
  5. Since you must be able to judge key-resistance, it follows that you must always reach the key gently. This you may do at the moment that you want the key to move down, or you may do so beforehand. In this way, as you meet the key and while you are moving it, you can judge its resistance, and can thus accurately judge how much force is required and how to use it.