Articles
Principles of Piano Techniqe (continued)
(Only good technique can produce good music.)
About relaxation: Every person knows how to relax. It is an easy thing.
But when it comes to playing the piano, is everyone capable of relaxing?
It is not so sure. Of course, piano playing needs a certain degree of
tension, especially for very challenging, highly difficult technical passages,
but this tension must be established on the basis of relaxation. This
type of relaxation can be termed rational tension. It is totally different
form stiff muscles.
Relaxation has been already mentioned in the previous article ("Principles
of Piano Technique"). The purpose of repeating this is the to express
it more clearly.
When fingertips grip onto the keys, fingers will be strong. All ten fingers
will be able to support the same weight evenly; the weight of the arms
will be able to rest and play on the bottom of the keys. Real relaxation
happens when the upward support of the fingers and the downward weight
of the arms are in a state of balance. Pushing down on the keys or keeping
some weight in the arms is not real relaxation and cannot produce good
sound.
The weight of the arms should be very focused on the point where the finger
touches the bottom of the key. In other words, only when the weight focuses
on one finger, can the other four fingers be natural, agile and relaxed.
This is the independence of the fingers. In playing fast passages, the
focus of the energy is of the utmost importance. If it were not focused
at one finger at a time, the fingers would affect and impede each other,
causing muscle stiffness, and lose their natural agility.
The form of the hands is most rational when the hands are in their natural
position. It is unnecessary to mold the hand position into a fixed and
static one.
The method mentioned above is very simple, natural and easy, but one has
to carefully experience it and continuously adjust one's technique to
be able to execute it with precision. The above principles directly affect
the quality of our performance. Technique must be established on an accurate
foundation, and only then can the performance have a bright future.
About fingers: Pianos are to be played with fingers. The training of
fingers is most important. Two hundred years ago, pianists had already
attached special importance to the independence, agility and evenness
of the fingers. These were already the main goals of finger training.
Every person's fingers are already very agile and independent. When the
fingers grip the keys lightly, each finger is capable of evenly supporting
the same weight. Such is the natural ability of the hand. So is there
any necessity to spend a lot of time to train the natural ability that
one already has? It seems to be a waste of time and energy! Actually,
we should retain this natural ability of the fingers, fully use and develop
it to play the piano.
First, one must find the natural weight of the finger itself, in other
words, the weight of the finger from the knuckle to the fingertip. One
knows how to play the piano if the weight of the finger is focused at
the fingertip and plays onto the bottom of the piano key. When practicing,
one must use the natural ability of each finger without separation from
the arm. This is how it is done: the thumb supports the weight of the
arm and plays onto the bottom of the key. The rest of the four fingers
simultaneously straighten out, open and lift up comfortably. This is the
preparation. Then each fingertip from its height drops down naturally
one by one; this is the weight of each finger. When a finger grips the
key and plays onto the bottom of the key and bounces upward, it creates
the explosive force. The sound is focused, bright and beautiful. The whole
process is very simple. (Please refer to No. 4 Explosive Force in our
first article" Principles of Piano Technique" for its explanation).
This exercise must only use the natural weight of the fingers, concentrate
the weight precisely onto the point on the piano key to find the explosive
force. It is the most natural energy produced by the finger brought into
full play. If you practice continuously in this way, the fingers' physical
strength and their ability to play will be greatly enhanced. It is a very
effective technique to train the ability of playing, a direct route, without
any detour. For this exercise we usually practice in the C major scale.
About the fingers' point of support: We emphasize that the fingers'
support point is at the first joint of the fingers and not at the knuckles.
This way, the knuckles are completely liberated, and thus allow the fingers
to fully function. Through the fingertips' support point, the weight of
the fingers focused onto the bottom of the keys, playing is targeted,
effective and enhanced.
Two hundred years ago, according to the music of that period, it was believed
that the weight of the arms hinders the fingers' performance, and attention
was placed upon purely finger training. A lot of time was used to train
each finger's agility, independence and evenness. Knuckles were the main
focus of training, and had become the fingers' support point and delivery
point. Such a support point is bound to cause certain muscle tension.
The tension inevitably and in many ways affects the fingers' natural agility
and independence. In order to remedy the loss, mechanical and artificial
training of the fingers' agility was enforced. This is totally worthless
and wasteful! To solve this problem, we again insist that the support
point be moved from the knuckles to the first joint of each finger. The
palm is liberated and the agility of the fingers is restored. Therefore,
gripping the keys by the first joints of the fingertips is of the utmost
importance!
Let us discuss another issue: using the knuckles as the fingers' delivery
point. In order to do so, the fingers' second joints (or mid-joints, as
some call them) are required to keep in a 90-degree angle so the fingers
can be steady when they strike the keys. We consider this method to be
too conservative. The second joint should be allowed to lift up and put
into full play. We need to utilize all factors that can be used and develop
them. It is an important task of technique training.
As music has developed, factors such as the dynamic range, layers and
tone quality, have made piano performance more difficult. Therefore, the
training of piano technique must undergo a revolutionary change. We need
to retain the best of traditional technique and discard unnecessary restrictions
in order to adjust to the requirements of the music of today. When released
from pedantic fetters, we will happily discover that our hands already
have everything we need. They are just waiting for us to use them effectively.
Let us be in a pleasant frame of mind when we learn to play the piano
and to listen to beautiful music.
As the "explosive force" and "legato" have been dealt
with in the precious article "Principles of Piano Technique",
we will not repeat.
