I’m 65 and just starting back to piano after a few years of being self taught. I realized that I developed some bad habits in my playing and videos like this are exactly what I need to improve my technique.
Thanks for this interesting explanation. I adapted Guerrero's technique a couple of years ago to my left hand scale runs on the Flamenco guitar and have had (for me) great results. Thank you for showing it on the piano!
wow, this was very helpful, thanks a lot. I never totally understood how to "relax" my hand/fingers and still have a clear sound. now, I could "feel" it and it even seems stupid to have used so much stength before. seems like a huge improvement: hands are less tense and less cramped.
very good instruction; i've adopted this technique and this pulling rather than striking the keys is the most important with the wrist a little lower than coventional instruction
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel: Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, Berlin 1753 counted among the “qualities a good harpsichord should have”: “The keys should have a proper weight, which pushes the fingers back up” . Bach 1753, p.9 and also on p.9: "The fingers [must..] be raised up again by the tangents.” www.peter-feuchtwanger.de/english-version/texts/stefan-blido-zen-in-the-art-of-playing-the-piano/index.html
Fascinating. The exact key to Gould. As soon as I get to a piano I will try it. It may even allow someone with inadequate and muddled early training to rationally recreate some kind of technique. But do you know: the reason it works is because the use of the other side of the brain takes away - banishes - the naturally excessive input from the side you were using in the particular instance. A lot of pianists speak of the importance of playing something backwards to get it in one! and it works! As a teacher of English I try sometimes to build my students' skills by backwards techniques here and there. I note you are originally Chinese so wonder if the oriental mindset which seems so much more balanced between the two sides of the brain in your view has enabled the particular expertise of the Chinese - as opposed to, say - the Russian circus us?
Sadly, this technique can result in tendinitis and other injuries. He basically teaches you to isolate the finger from the rest of the arm which is extremely inefficient in terms of weight transfer from body through the finger to the key and in fast tempi nevertheless ends up in tension. What contributes most to a fluid technique and dexterity is incorporating all the movements that help fingers in playing, such as forearm rotation, or going in and out of the keyboard. I wouldn't recommend practicing as shown on this video
wojtas2524 tendinitis can be the result of inefficient practicing methods, regardless of any particular technique. General tightness in the hand, especially in the tendons connecting the thumb joint to the wrist, can very likely over time result in such tendinitis. The method of finger tapping, as originally taught by Alberto Guerrero, doesn’t actually involve “pulling” on the keys, as the original publisher of the video mentions. The reality is that the majority of pianists don’t have the technical reach to pull this method off. It requires an acute sense of ones awareness in relation to the keys, and in efficiency of motion (i.e., playing from the key, shifting, etc). Perhaps not an advisable practical method for the uncultivated pianist.
@@bearmouse1000 yes other practicing methods result in tendonitis too. And it may be useful to use this to help learn about voicing and clarity, but using this as the primary way of learning technique does teach you to use your fingers in isolation which was the main reason Glenn Gould had such severe tendonitis Edit: also my understanding was that pulling was key to Guerrero's technique based off of interviews with his other students and Glenn Gould
The technique is useful also for teaching the 'voicing ' of chords and figures where one note is to be emphasised without tensing the hand. It can be applied also in voicing exercises of Tausig (Daily Exercise 24 and sim.), Joseffy. and for those with large hands - that of Saint-Saens.
Aha. Voicing meaning bringing out a certain note in the chord. But the chords are in the music, not the emptiness of exercises which can never engage the heart and emotions!
I’m 65 and just starting back to piano after a few years of being self taught. I realized that I developed some bad habits in my playing and videos like this are exactly what I need to improve my technique.
Great! Glad it helped.
Invaluable advice. That quick finger activation and release is how we play quick passage work not through arm weight
Thanks William
Thanks for this interesting explanation.
I adapted Guerrero's technique a couple of years ago to my left hand scale runs on the Flamenco guitar and have had (for me) great results.
Thank you for showing it on the piano!
wow, this was very helpful, thanks a lot. I never totally understood how to "relax" my hand/fingers and still have a clear sound. now, I could "feel" it and it even seems stupid to have used so much stength before. seems like a huge improvement: hands are less tense and less cramped.
very good instruction; i've adopted this technique and this pulling rather than striking the keys is the most important with the wrist a little lower than coventional instruction
Thanks!
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel: Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, Berlin 1753
counted among the “qualities a good harpsichord should have”: “The keys should have a proper weight, which pushes the fingers back up”
. Bach 1753, p.9 and also on p.9: "The fingers [must..] be raised up again by the tangents.”
www.peter-feuchtwanger.de/english-version/texts/stefan-blido-zen-in-the-art-of-playing-the-piano/index.html
Thank you
Fascinating. The exact key to Gould. As soon as I get to a piano I will try it. It may even allow someone with inadequate and muddled early training to rationally recreate some kind of technique. But do you know: the reason it works is because the use of the other side of the brain takes away - banishes - the naturally excessive input from the side you were using in the particular instance. A lot of pianists speak of the importance of playing something backwards to get it in one! and it works! As a teacher of English I try sometimes to build my students' skills by backwards techniques here and there. I note you are originally Chinese so wonder if the oriental mindset which seems so much more balanced between the two sides of the brain in your view has enabled the particular expertise of the Chinese - as opposed to, say - the Russian circus
us?
What a wonderful video 😌
Thank you! 🙂
Sadly, this technique can result in tendinitis and other injuries. He basically teaches you to isolate the finger from the rest of the arm which is extremely inefficient in terms of weight transfer from body through the finger to the key and in fast tempi nevertheless ends up in tension. What contributes most to a fluid technique and dexterity is incorporating all the movements that help fingers in playing, such as forearm rotation, or going in and out of the keyboard. I wouldn't recommend practicing as shown on this video
wojtas2524 tendinitis can be the result of inefficient practicing methods, regardless of any particular technique. General tightness in the hand, especially in the tendons connecting the thumb joint to the wrist, can very likely over time result in such tendinitis. The method of finger tapping, as originally taught by Alberto Guerrero, doesn’t actually involve “pulling” on the keys, as the original publisher of the video mentions. The reality is that the majority of pianists don’t have the technical reach to pull this method off. It requires an acute sense of ones awareness in relation to the keys, and in efficiency of motion (i.e., playing from the key, shifting, etc). Perhaps not an advisable practical method for the uncultivated pianist.
@@bearmouse1000 yes other practicing methods result in tendonitis too. And it may be useful to use this to help learn about voicing and clarity, but using this as the primary way of learning technique does teach you to use your fingers in isolation which was the main reason Glenn Gould had such severe tendonitis
Edit: also my understanding was that pulling was key to Guerrero's technique based off of interviews with his other students and Glenn Gould
The technique is useful also for teaching the 'voicing ' of chords and figures where one note is to be emphasised without tensing the hand. It can be applied also in voicing exercises of Tausig (Daily Exercise 24 and sim.), Joseffy. and for those with large hands - that of Saint-Saens.
Aha. Voicing meaning bringing out a certain note in the chord. But the chords are in the music, not the emptiness of exercises which can never engage the heart and emotions!
You voice chords by rotating the wrist to the finger you want to accentuate, not by conciously analyzing the speed of every finger going into the key.