Technique: What is 3-D Piano Technique?
Scott McBride Smith is Executive Director of the International Institute for Young Musicians in which capacity he directs summer programs involving some of the nation's top artist-teachers and students. He has been a contributing editor of Piano & Keyboard magazine and has recovered from his early bad practice habits to become a well-known clinician and private teacher in Southern California.
The child is the father of the man, as Wordsworth said. And nowhere is this truer than when talking about piano technique. Beautiful pianism is not just the result of imagination and careful listening. Fine playing also requires the technique necessary to realize a full range of sound. For this to be possible, appropriate technical development should start at the very first lesson.
Is a good piano technique simply the result of repetition–“ten more times, dear…and then 20 more after that,” as one of my teachers used to say? My own answer would be: only partly. Repetition– and lots of it–is certainly an element in developing a reliable technique. But even more important is learning how to use your body in optimal and non-injury-causing ways.
Over the last twenty years, we have seen any number of legendary pianistic careers cut short and promising dreams crushed by injuries, overuse, and misuse of the body. These outcomes are tragically unnecessary, as there are several products available in the commercial marketplace that can help pianists at all levels achieve a healthy, painfree technique.
In this issue we inaugurate a series of questions-and-answers with the authors of some of these best-selling materials. You will hear about the author, their approach to piano technique, and about their texts and videos. And, most importantly, you will learn about some practical approaches to an optimal piano technique.
Name: 3-D Piano, with Fred Karpoff.
Product Description: 6-DVD series, 280 minutes of video, and 84-page study guide.
About the author: active performer, teacher, presenter of workshops and masterclasses, pianist of the Boccaccio Trio, and Associate Professor of Music at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University.
Price: $285 individual usage, $425 institutional usage.
Website: 3-dpiano.com
Interview
About Fred Karpoff
What is 3-D Piano and how did you come up with this title?
“3-D Piano” refers first and foremost to fluid, interdependent piano technique that uses threedimensional movement throughout the body. By three-dimensional, I mean fluid movement, simultaneously, in three planes of motion: left to right, up and down, and in and out. The term also applies to teaching, with the teacher, student, and student-observer all playing important roles.With 3-D Piano, I wanted to recreate that kind of experience for the pianist at home. Like a studio class, the video is interactive, so the home viewer can immediately work with the material much like she would in a group lesson, first by observing others, then by receiving direct instructions, and finally by trying it out.
It seems like appropriate movement and gesture at the piano are being discussed a lot these days. I don’t honestly remember hearing anything about it when I was a student! Were your own educational experiences a factor in the development of this series?
I had excellent teachers–Robert Weirich at Northwestern, and Ann Schein at Peabody, where I also frequently played for Leon Fleisher in his master classes. After a vocational injury, I completed my doctoral studies with Veda (Yoheved) Kaplinsky, and my experiences in dealing with this injury have greatly influenced the development of this series.
What was your injury, and how did it shape your approach?
I’m glad you asked about that, because one of the reasons I produced the series was to help others avoid what I went through. As an enthusiastic graduate student, I decided to suddenly increase my practice time to six or more hours a day. After a couple of weeks, I noticed that I felt tired at night. My arms felt sore, but I just thought that my hard work was paying off! Then one morning, after only fifteen minutes at the piano, I felt a sharp pain on the underside of my arm, and I stopped playing right away. I later found out that I had tendonitis in my arms and bursitis in my shoulder.
How did you address it?
First I was told to rest, take anti-inflammatory drugs, and take up swimming–but that didn't address the core problem, which was too much effort and inefficiency in my technique. Julian Martin was a new faculty member at Peabody then, and he had recently been working on his own redevelopment with Dorothy Taubman. He worked patiently with me on very basic pianistic movements for several weeks. Around the same time, I began lessons with a Feldenkrais teacher to deal with longstanding movement habits. (Feldenkrais helps students develop their sensory skills and promote more efficient, agile body movement.)
After a few more months of working at the piano on my own, Julian took me to see Veda Kaplinsky, who showed me a systematic way of understanding the faults in my technique. Time and again, she demonstrated why I experienced specific pains. She offered alternatives that dramatically changed my approach to the piano. I owe Veda a special debt of gratitude for guiding me to health and to playing the piano professionally again after my injury. She also equipped me with the ability to quickly diagnose pianistic problems and to offer lasting solutions to others. Really, the genesis of 3-D Piano is the work I did with Veda. I am indebted to her for this as well.
Did you have good early training?
I had older siblings who played well at the later-sonatina level. I suddenly showed an interest when I was eight by picking out some of their tunes by ear. My father then taught me how to read music, and within a few months of playing on my own, I could play my siblings’ repertoire (and they quit, so the story goes). Because my family moved a lot, my training was quite sporadic, with only four separate years of lessons, each with different teachers, from ages 9-17.
I finally turned to classical music in earnest with lessons I began in the middle of my junior year in high school. My path was unorthodox, but I received some “traditional” input over these early years, including some things that I now question. For example, I remember doing certain isolation exercises (e.g., holding down one note of a fully diminished-seventh chord and going through a set of permutations with the other notes) with no knowledge of how opposable muscles worked, so I was doing more damage than good. I was young and strong enough to “power through” these exercises, and unaware that I was setting up unhealthful movement patterns that not only had negative consequences for my body, but also for my sound quality.
I remember practicing Hanon by lifting the fingers high to “strike” the keys, and playing scales “thumb-under.” During high school, I remember practicing the Hanon octaves exercise with a sudden, snap-back motion that used the complete range of motion. I would write the date in the score at the spot where it hurt enough so that I couldn’t continue, hoping that I could go farther the next day! These are just some of the reasons why precise, injury-preventive technical instruction is imperative, preferably from the earliest stages of study.
You are so right. So many problems can be avoided by proper instruction in the early stages. Did the need for this series also come out of your own teaching experience?
Well, there were several other factors. To develop artistry, it's important to cultivate each student's uniqueness. That work is highly creative–it requires intuitive, imaginative teaching that responds to each individual, as opposed to merely teaching the music in a manner that it is “supposed to go.” But effective artistic teaching is much more likely to happen when students possess the tools to play well. Barbara Lister- Sink says it elegantly: “free, ‘effortless’ playing is a skill which all pianists can acquire.” If a healthy technique is well established as our students’ foundation, we do a lot more teaching and a lot less correcting.
In a ‘traditional’ master class, the emphasis is, rightly, on the music. But often, the high-quality musical ideas of a master teacher can’t really be well-executed when the student’s technique isn’t fluid enough. In 3-D Piano, I use a lot of ‘kinesthetic transference’ (usually by ‘playing’ on the student’s arm or back, or having the student rest his or her arm on mine) to immediately transmit to students how to play a passage. The review sections show a detailed, step-by-step process for acquiring solutions to basic and advanced technical issues.
What other ideas or experiences have shaped your views?
I studied Gyorgy Sandor’s book, On Piano Playing a lot in the mid-80s and still recommend it to others. Also, one of Nelita True’s videos was especially helpful, as was Louis Kentner’s book, Piano. Several lessons with Karl-Ulrich Schnabel affected me deeply, and I consulted with him extensively in preparation for my doctoral exams, especially regarding pedaling, a surprisingly neglected topic.
After I came to Syracuse, I studied Tai Chi. Just as with Feldenkrais, I was intrigued by the quality of movement, and how I could apply what I was learning to better motion throughout the body while playing the piano. This led to study of the Alexander Technique. All of these modalities are wonderful, but the Alexander Technique is my current preference, and it is my first recommendation to students as an adjunct activity to piano study.
What is the format of your series?
Throughout the series there are mini-documentaries of me working with twelve of my students. These are followed by review sections–detailed instruction directed to the viewer. The reviews are presented in close-up, at angles that allow the viewer to observe exactly how a technique is performed. There’s ample usage of slow motion and freeze-frame analysis, often of a problem presented by the student, followed by a three-dimensional solution. Throughout the series, the viewer is invited to put to practice what has been observed through exercises in the study guide. The opening units present essential information for pianists of all levels, including foundation elements, basic three-dimensional movement, sound quality, and chord ensemble. These lay the groundwork for the more advanced concepts that follow, such as arpeggios, octaves, tremolos, repeated chords, trills, scales, and pedaling.
I was impressed with the cinematography in 3-D Piano.
I was fortunate to work with professional filmmaker Richard Breyer, who had done several educational projects before. I’d seen his documentary film, Freedom’s Call, and I was knocked out by the stunning visuals and by his gift for storytelling. To realize my vision of the content, Richard had the idea to shoot live lessons and edit them down to magic moments for the viewer. He also did a masterful job of structuring the subject matter with detailed reviews, shot close up. The material had evolved from my prior work over many years–from lectures I’d given in piano pedagogy courses and, especially, from my workshops with pianists and teachers. I had a wide range of topics I wanted to cover, and with Richard guiding the production, I was free to focus on how to best present the content.
Is it appropriate for all age groups?
It’s designed for teachers of all levels of students, but for individual pianists 3-D Piano assumes basic music literacy and some degree of piano training. That said, adults of all ages, early intermediate to advanced pianists, are doing well with it, as are some highly motivated youth as young as age 12. Although the students seen in 3-D Piano range in age from 11 to adult, the normal minimum- age viewer will probably be in high school, at a point when a student is more self-motivated and intellectually capable.
How do you envision 3-D Piano being used?
We suggest viewing one or two segments and review sections at a time. We’re projecting an experience of between 2-4 months or longer for all but the highest-level viewer. Of course, those instructors who are using the series to supplement their teaching will move more quickly through the lessons. Teachers may watch the DVDs on a laptop with their students to interpret 3-D Piano together, building upon what the video and the study guide provide. Professors can use it as supplements in their pedagogy or studio classes. And we’re pleased that teachers and learners from around the world are finding it useful.
To put it simply, we set out to make a series that we hoped would help teachers and students find new and, sometimes, improved ways to express themselves while decreasing the risk of injury. And we wanted to make a series that could be used in a wide variety of learning and teaching environments, from a practice supplement to one’s daily routine to the featured event at a workshop or lecture. But above all, our intention was the same as all who teach this wonderful instrument – to share a healthful, effective approach to the magic of music.
Could you take one significant point and talk us through it?
Although it’s essential for playing advanced elements like octaves, tremolos, trills, and repeated chords, the Vibrato Technique is something that everyone can use, even those who describe themselves as “only” teachers of beginners. By the way, the term “Vibrato” comes from Louis Kentner; it’s not to be confused with string vibrato. Rather, it describes a free, continuous motion that’s initiated by the larger arm muscles and distributed into smaller bursts of energy to the fingers. In 3-D Piano, the Vibrato Technique is demonstrated through advanced repertoire, but is broken down into basic movements and wholebody exercises that anyone can do.
The best way to understand our approach is by viewing the following video excerpts. I’ve selected a segment from Unit 5 that features an accomplished student whose technical approach hindered his ability to play octaves and repeated chords with ease and power. You’ll notice that movement away from the piano is emphasized to free up the student’s playing. I’ve found that transitioning back to the piano after these exercises greatly improves kinesthetic ability and execution. The student in this lesson is playing Liszt’s Vallee D’Obermann, but the basic vibrato motion can just as easily be learned and applied by beginning and intermediatelevel pianists as well. !
