Transition from Powerful to Gentle Effort
This complete and accurately-timed transition from the powerful sounding-effort to the gentle holding-effort, which I
have shown to be requisite for all musical playing, seemed a rather complex process. Dr. John Hunter's discovery of the dual nature of the muscular equipment.
We now see why this transition is a perfectly natural process, perfectly simple, neat, and easy to control. Thus, to recapitulate: in sounding the note, we can quite forcibly apply both the "strong" and "weak" sets of in-folding (known as the flexing) musdes both of the finger and hand. We can nevertheless completely cease the action of the strong flexors (both of finger and hand) at the right moment, and then carry on solely with the weak hand muscles, to hold our note down which is a perfectly simple process.
We now see why this transition is a perfectly natural process, perfectly simple, neat, and easy to control. Thus, to recapitulate: in sounding the note, we can quite forcibly apply both the "strong" and "weak" sets of in-folding (known as the flexing) musdes both of the finger and hand. We can nevertheless completely cease the action of the strong flexors (both of finger and hand) at the right moment, and then carry on solely with the weak hand muscles, to hold our note down which is a perfectly simple process.
Key Descent versus Note Holding
Briefly exert your finger and hand as fully as you would like during key-descent to attain that duly required acceleration just up
to the point of sound, and then completely cease all that work, and hold on to the key solely by that gentle elastic action of
finger and hand which leaves knuckles, wrist, and fingers quite elastic. In other words, exert the strong flexors both of the finger and hand during key-descent, but hold the notes solely by using the weak muscles of the hand.
Note: Remember that excellent example of the oyster, quoted by John Hunter, and it should not prove to be difficult for an intelligent keyboard player to learn to sound a note correctly, and to hold it correctly afterwards after the sound has been produced.
This law of holding lightly (by means solely of the "weak" finger muscles) applies equally, whether you hold the notes fully depressed (as for Tenuto[1] or Legato) or whether you hold the notes instead at their surface-level, as in staccato, and in all light agility passages.
Note: Remember that excellent example of the oyster, quoted by John Hunter, and it should not prove to be difficult for an intelligent keyboard player to learn to sound a note correctly, and to hold it correctly afterwards after the sound has been produced.
This law of holding lightly (by means solely of the "weak" finger muscles) applies equally, whether you hold the notes fully depressed (as for Tenuto[1] or Legato) or whether you hold the notes instead at their surface-level, as in staccato, and in all light agility passages.
[1]
flexors: The flexor carpi radialis is a muscle of the forearm situated medially to the pronator teres muscle. It originates from the medial epicondyle of humerus and descends inferomedially to the midpoint of the forearm, where it extends into a long tendon.
[2]
Tenuto: (of a note or chord) held for its full time value or slightly more. "a deep breath is needed for singing the last tenuto notes"