Technique
Scott McBride Smith, Editor
"We play the piano with our brains, not our fingers," I told a student after a recital last night in which she experienced some obvious technical difficulties due to unwanted tension. Maybe I should have used the word wrists instead of fingers, since that was where most of the problems seemed to be. The look on her face spoke volumes. "Yes," she seemed to be thinking. "But how? And why am I hearing this after a performance, instead of before?"
Those are two good questions for her teacher. Piano lessons are not just about the details of interpretation. Giving a student the tools to realize those ideas in a pain-free, efficient manner is equally important. Especially in these days when we know so much about the dangers of carpal tunnel syndrome and other problems associated with over- or misuse of the wrist.
In this issue,
our three authors offer some concrete suggestions about the use
of this important lever. All agree that a relaxed, supple, (but
not limp) wrist is ideal. Their articles provide some practical,
down-to-earth exercises to use with early-level students, along
with an equal amount of creative imagery and detailed physical
description. Start working on correct use of the wrist in the
early levels of study. Your students will thank you.
from Nancy Longmyer's article
The importance of the wrist's position and relationship with the arm and hand
The wrist plays an important role in early-level piano technique and is the most important joint in achieving relaxed but controlled playing. However, the wrist cannot function alone. It must be discussed and must perform in cooperation with the arm and hand.
When teaching a new student, my primary focus for the first few weeks is to work to form a straight line from the hand to the arm. The wrist should be as high as the knuckles; a position which makes it easier to move the fingers, makes the fingers less tense, and directs the weight into the keys. Of course, it is important that the student is seated properly not too high, and not too low. If the wrist is low, I will gently place my finger under the student's wrist and guide it up to the correct level. Often, when one asks the young beginning student to lift the wrist, the shoulders go up, in which case, I will gently place my other hand on the student's shoulder.
My second objective with a new student is to develop a good hand position. Once the position of the wrist is in place, forming a good hand position involves the use of arched fingers and correct thumb positions. Since hand position is not the topic of this article, I will merely point out that playing with an arched 5th finger, and playing on the corner of the thumb will often bring the hand into a proper playing position and the wrist in line with the arm. . .
Nancy Longmyer, a nationally certified, independent music teacher, maintains a studio in Falls Church, Virginia and teaches at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is author of the ear training program, Listen and Learn, a series of ear training tapes and tests designed to develop the student's listening skills. She holds a Masters degree in vocal and choral music from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Masters degree in music history from Temple University in Philadelphia. She has studied at the Musik Hochschule in Cologne, Germany and has studied privately with Eleanor Steber, Jenny Tourel and Todd Duncan.
from Daniel Paul Horn's article
Whatever we sow, our students will reap
I write here not out of extensive experience with beginners or the very young, but as a former child, remembering how I was taught, and reflecting on how those early lessons affected me years later. My thoughts also come from observing what I see among incoming college freshmen. I regularly address their use (or misuse) of wrists and forearms. (When pianists speak of the wrist, the forearm is inevitably part of the discussion, and in assessing piano-related physical discomfort, the cause is often traceable to that part of the pianist's mechanism.) All that I've learned in both contexts convinces me that healthy use of the wrist from the very beginning is one of the most valuable techniques a teacher can impart.
About my own early technical training
Failure to address the proper use of the wrist, fingers, and forearm in the early years of study invites trouble, either soon, or years down the road. I traveled this road. My first kindly, neighborhood teacher paid scant attention to physical aspects of playing. We sped through all six John Thompson books, following an unvarying pattern: the first week, I "played" a piece, the second week I "counted" it, and the third week, I started something new. My learning of scales involved merely the memorization of mysterious series of numbers. What amazes me in retrospect is how intuitively most kids grasp the connection between the fingers and the forearm without lessons, as they roll their knuckles across the black keys playing a rudimentary melody. An enterprising teacher can easily take this game and make it a part of the process by which students learn about effective use of their complete mechanism.
Eventually, my mother realized what was happening, and found
a competent teacher who inherited a major rehabilitation project.
In most respects, I look back on this teacher with tremendous
gratitude. He was dedicated, committed to giving me his best.
An accomplished recitalist and chamber musician, his musical instincts
and taste largely formed my own. He worked hard to give me a functional
technique, based largely on a quiet, even immobile wrist. I practiced
scales and Philipp exercises with a coin on top of my hand; never
was that coin to drop to the floor! At first, all seemed well.
I progressed quickly, attracting favorable attention, but en route
there were questions. Why was the top of my forearm
so tight? Why were octaves a struggle? I tried to understand
what I could, rationalizing discomfort as part of a supposedly
inevitable "no pain, no gain" battle for physical mastery.
. .
Daniel Paul Horn, D.M.A., N.C.T.M., is professor of piano and chair of keyboard studies at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Wheaton, Illinois, and has taught at the Adamant Music School and the Sewanee Festival. He studied at Peabody, and earned a doctorate at Juilliard; principal teachers include Walter Hautzig, Martin Canin and Menahem Pressler. He has recorded on the Titanic and Centaur labels, and frequently appears on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Series.
from Elaine Felder's article
Howe my own early technical training has affected my teaching
When I was a child learning to play the piano, my fingers moved around the keyboard quickly and with facility. As the repertoire I was learning became more challenging, I began to develop tension in my wrists and forearms. The problem was given superficial attention, since I instinctively managed in some way to get through technical exercises and pieces. In high school, however, increased practice time and the length of difficult music I was playing produced fatigue and pain in my wrists and forearms that I could no longer ignore. Many months of remedial exercises and easier repertoire in college were required to allow my wrists to develop flexibility and therefore eliminate the pain.
My own experience as a student has made me very aware that now, as a teacher, I must pay constant attention to the proper development of the wrists in the early stages of my students' piano study. This means monitoring and then incorporating this awareness into every part of every lesson in sightreading, repertoire, as well as scales and exercises! and in a manner that holds a student's interest. The attention given to this by both teacher and student can make a major difference in the student's ability to play challenging repertoire later on with ease and lack of pain or tension. It is always so gratifying to me to see the pleasure of achievement in a student's face at any level of study when technically difficult passages become more comfortable to play.
"Hands-on" demonstrations of technique vs. "verbal" directions
It is a challenge for all of us who teach young students to find a balance between the amount time spent on pure technique and the time spent on repertoire. It is an even greater challenge to motivate students to do it. I have found that hands-on demonstration works excellently as a teaching tool and gives a student an immediate feeling of the physical changes I want him or her to make. One-octave scales are learned and memorized from the first or second lesson and continue through all of the major and minor keys. Such scale-playing makes it possible for students to focus on and observe the way their fingers and wrists are moving, and over time, to consciously alter and refine their behavior as needed. Often, verbal directions simply lose their impact. When I find that a student begins to lose focus I will place the student's hand on top of mine and play the scale. The demonstration is followed by these questions: "How different does my hand feel from yours? Did you feel the biggest difference in your fingers, wrists, or forearms?" I ask the student to rate the difference on a scale from one to ten. . .
Elaine Felder is piano department coordinator at the Music Institute
of Chicago. A former member of the faculty at the Cleveland Institute
of Music, she studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and the University
of Colorado. She also did private study with Adele Marcus and
Vitya Vronsky, and was a participant in solo and chamber master
classes at Indiana University with Menachem Pressler. Elaine was
also a regional winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs
competition, and received a scholarship to the Dartmouth Summer
Music Festival.
For the other Samplers from this issue
