Purpose of Technique  «Prev  Next»

Rhythmical Sense Conclusion

Remember, only through the rhythmical sense can you bring your mind on the needs of the music and the keyboard for every note. The time-spot is the common ground upon which mind and matter meet. This also describes every other act of concentration during practice and performance.
While musical attention and technical attention thus coalesce (or are linked together) in the rhythmical act, we must remember that besides the laws of physical technique there are the laws of musical interpretation. We must learn to obey these laws, if the emotional effect of the music is to be achieved in good taste and effectively. From a modern keyboard technique perspective, the wrist is moved by shaping which is initiated from the forearm.

First Principles of Piano Forte Playing

  1. You will now understand why it is wrong to squeeze the key upon the "bed" beneath; for if you do so, you cannot "aim" your effort to the sound only. If you commit this error, your effort (chosen for a particular inflection of tone as it should be) will be partly spent upon the key-beds instead of upon the strings; hence the result thus obtained cannot represent the effect you intended; and your playing must hence sound un-musical, because the result is un-meant. "Key-bedding" also tires your hands and fingers. Likewise, it prevents agility, since it impedes your passage acrossthe keyboard; and in the same way ruins your Staccato, since the key cannot then be free to rebound, as it should be for Staccato.
  2. The two chief rules of Technique (as regards the Key) are therefore:
    (a) Always feel how much the Key resists you, feel how much the key "wants" for every note; and
    (b) always listen for the moment each sound begins, so that you may learn to direct your effort to the sound only, and not to the key-bed. If you have succeeded in these two respects, you will have successfully judged each note both musically and instrumentally, and you will have made considerable progress towards playing musically.
  3. You will now understand the following General Directions:
    You must never hit a key down, nor hit at it. The fingertip may fall upon the key and in gently reaching the key, you may follow up such fall, by acting against the key. This action against the key must be for the sole purpose of making it move in one of those many ways which each give us quite a different kind of sound. And you must always therefore direct such action to the point in key-descent where sound begins. In short :
    1. If you hit the key, you cannot feel it, and cannot then tell how much it requires doing to; and
    2. if your action is too late during key-descent, you cannot then obtain the exact sound you intend, nor any ease in playing.