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Physiological Details of Keyboard Technique

1. How to use your finger, hand and arm. Bring the finger gently to the key, and when you reach the surface exert the finger during descent 3. The condition of the upper arm and elbow is compelled to be in sympathy with this form of finger action. 4. For soft passages, the inertia of the balanced arm will serve sufficiently as a basis .

How to Observe the Hand.

  1. To enable the finger to do its work effectively, you must exert the hand downwards upon the finger at the hand-knuckle during each momentary act of tone production.
  2. You cannot exert the finger against the key without this corresponding exertion of the hand. You also cannot exert your hand upon the key without the corresponding exertion of the intervening finger.
  3. When you exert both finger and hand you may move either the finger only, or the hand only, during key descent. Therefore, one of these exertions will then be entirely hidden from view.
  4. Thus, in all normal playing by finger movement you must always back your finger exertion by a hand exertion, delivered for each note individually, although this hand exertion may remain quite invisible.

Arm Implementation

This matter is bound to seem complex when first contemplated, but is perfectly simple once it is grasped. To enable finger and hand to have their proper basis, you must back the hand exertion by some form of arm use or some "state of the arm". The four ways of applying the arm depends upon the desired tone. These four are applied only during the moment of key descent to enable the finger and hand to do their work effectively. Whereas two are compulsory and constantly needed, whatever the nature of the passage.

Four optional and momentary forms of arm use.

  1. The weight of the whole arm relaxed during key descent.
  2. The weight of the fore arm in place of the entire arm weight.
  3. A down exertion of the forearm but in conjunction with a loosened upper arm .
  4. The down exertion of the forearm, but here in conjunction with a forward driven upperarm .

Singing Tone Chords

For singing tone chords, you must momentarily release the whole arm as felt necessary for the particular tone. This triple combination of arm weight , finger, and hand exertion needed for singing tone, lends itself to the distinction between weight initiated touch and muscularly initiated touch. If you think of weight release the musical result will be fuller than when you think of the implied finger and hand exertions.
9. Lighter effects need only forearm weight.
10. For greater tone than can be provided by the full weight basis, no III is needed. Here you must exert the forearm downwards in addition to the full release of the upper arm.

Two compulsory forms of arm (Poised Arm versus Rotative Forearm

The two compulsory forms of arm use are the balanced arm, and the rotative forearm.
  1. The balanced arm is used for all passages, but is applied either continuously, or intermittently.
  2. The forearm rotative conditions must be applied correctly to every note, whatever the touch form used.
The poised condition of the whole arm is a freely balanced, self-supported condition of the whole arm. It is used in two ways.
a). Intermittently and b). Continuously.

Use the Poised Arm Intermittently

Intermittently, the poised arm is applied in between the sounding of all the notes in passages which require the arm during descent. In this case the arm reverts to its poised condition instantly on the completion of each separate act of tone production.

Poised Arm Used Continuously

The poised arm is needed continuously without pause. The continuously poised arm forms the basis for arm vibration touch. This continuously poised arm may be either used in its fully poised or in a slightly less poised condition. When fully poised or self-supported, none of its weight reaches the keybeds, and you rest at the surface level of the keyboard.(Balanced on the surface of the keys) When slightly less than fully poised, enough weight may be allowed to rest on the keybeds and there passed on from keybed to keybed to form natural legato resting.

Rotative forearm

Reversals in the condition of the forearm rotatively, are needed for every note played, either as alternate changes of state or as repetitions. These different forms of arm help can be applied during the act of touch either without any accompanying visible movements of the arm itself or while exhibiting such visible movements. In the last case, there may be either vertical movements of the whole arm or forearm, or their may be rotational movements of the forearm.