The Secret of Technique in Two Short Paragraphs

[marik]

In the late tendency of "discovering" the "secret" of technique, I desided to make my modest contribution into the piano community. I'll try to put it in a short and consise form.

So...

Consider, we are throwing a stone into a target in a most natural and strightforward way. Let's analize what is going on. The whole motion starts from the hips, and shoulder blade would give the most momentum, following into the arm in the most relaxed way, where at the moment of stone leaving your hand your palm and fingers will give that "last push". After that all the construction immediately and naturally gets comletely relaxed.

Exactly the same process going on when we play piano. All the motion starts from the hips (it is rather like a crane--the more mass in the base, the easier to lift tons of weight). The only difference is that most of the momentum moves from shoulder blades inside the palms, then that momentum followes into fingers, while the finger tip gives that "last push", and all the system comes into "standby" mode, absolutely calm and relaxed.

It is all about seeing the target (musical idea), accumulating energy, releasing it, and getting into "standby" mode. 

Hopefully, it is not confusing.

Best, M

[nick]

In the late tendency of "discovering" the "secret" of technique, I desided to make my modest contribution into the piano community. I'll try to put it in a short and consise form.

So...

Consider, we are throwing a stone into a target in a most natural and strightforward way. Let's analize what is going on. The whole motion starts from the hips, and shoulder blade would give the most momentum, following into the arm in the most relaxed way, where at the moment of stone leaving your hand your palm and fingers will give that "last push". After that all the construction immediately and naturally gets comletely relaxed.

Exactly the same process going on when we play piano. All the motion starts from the hips (it is rather like a crane--the more mass in the base, the easier to lift tons of weight). The only difference is that most of the momentum moves from shoulder blades inside the palms, then that momentum followes into fingers, while the finger tip gives that "last push", and all the system comes into "standby" mode, absolutely calm and relaxed.

It is all about seeing the target (musical idea), accumulating energy, releasing it, and getting into "standby" mode. 

Hopefully, it is not confusing.

Best, M

Marik, I like your description. It seems so relevant to discuss the hips as the basis for the stability and power. For a long time I did not realize this, and would just slide this way or that way up the keyboard depending on where the notes were. Once I centered in the middle, and felt my butt solid on the bench and only leaned left or right, accuracy increased tremendously.

Nick

[cmg]

The whole motion starts from the hips


Hopefully, it is not confusing.

Best, M

Well expressed and reminds me of a teacher I had for one year when I was a teenager.  A great musican named Joseph Running.  He studied with Dohnanyi and would always tell me to "play from your ass."

Not, of course, to be confused with playing out of your . . . well, you get the point.

I'd only like to add one thing:  don't wear binding underwear when you practice or perform. 

[thalbergmad]

Very well put Mr Marik. I do like short posts on technique.

If true, Jan Zelezny could have been the greatest pianist ever.

Thal

[pianistimo]

  javelin thrower AND pianist.  interesting.

two short paragraphs to explain a lifetime of learning?  some say that tone production is it's own means to an end. 

my own feeling about where music comes from is at odds with the hips a little - i like to think of that center of the body that some call 'chi.'  i call it the 'solar plexus' for no better term i know.  it's somewhere in the center of your body - about two inches behind your belly button.  it's where - when you take a deep breath in - you can focus all the energies to any part of your body the fastest.  whether you have to pedal or play with fingertips.  people say it's all brain.  if you play a lot by reflex - it's also part of your muscle system which is centered in the middle of your back.  but - if you don't take a breath in - your back does nothing for action.  interestingly - my teacher advised drinking a lot of water.  i didn't question him specifically - but believe the reason is that well fluidated bodies transmit neuron signals faster.  you know - electricity and water.  don't quote me on this.

ps olive oil to cook food, put into food, and use in salad dressing is the real secret of my technique.  so far - no crampy fingers.  perhaps another secret is to never overdo.  if you type a lot on the computer - don't practice 3 hours.  one or the other?  bananas might be another secret.  that potassium link.

[ramseytheii]

my own javelin thrower AND pianist. olive oil interesting. lifetime of food, production and water and your belly button. two short paragraphs to explain a'solar plexus'?  some bodies  say that you can focus all the energies whether you have to pedal or type a lot on the computer. it's feeling about salad dressing is the real secret of the body that some call 'chi.' people say it's all potassium but -  if you play with fingertips when you take a deep breath in your back does nothing in the middle of your back .  where music comes from is bananas .  my secret. learning is the end.

a little hips - about two inches behind for action- it's where  my technique is center.     brain.
the fastest  body means it's own  tone is centered .   to an electricity to cook food i believe the reason is that crampy fingers at odds with the fluidated transmit neuron signals specifically don't take a breath in - interestingly. i like to think of that.  i didn't question him  .

    -   i call it the  for no better term the center muscle system which if you play a lot by reflex  you know  it's somewhere in  ,    water - but  well of your your body . if you know    -  to any part of   -  also part of your  practice     -  that  teacher advised drinking a lot of   hours.  put into faster use in  of  so far- no.    perhaps another secret to never overdo. one or other?   -  might be another   link. 

  3   

ps     - don't don't quote me on this.

 

Oops!

Walter Ramsey

[ramseytheii]

I congratulate you for the short and concise definition.

Just digressing: over the past century, surely the scientific knowledge behind piano technique has accumulated to an all-time high.  Bernhard often commented that in the times of Liszt, this knowledge was lacking, and Liszt even told his students to play difficult passages in ways contrary to the way the body worked (not a criticism of Liszt). 

Now that we have such knowledge, and can put basically any technical question in terms of it, and have so much of it that we can condense it succinctly and efficiently, I think the time has come to a return of true musicianship studies.  What I mean is this: technique as a science should never be central, as it is in so many methods we see today.  The emphasis should never be in fact on personal technique, but only on the pure study of music.  The technique should be guided from the teacher's constant alterations and watchful eye, and with the knowledge of the science in the background.  Students should focus expressly not on how they look when playing, or how it feels to play, or how to play this passage or that, but on learning real music skills, the basic music skills that I am probably not wrong to suggest most pianists lack.

The vast canon of repertoire that pianists play has been devalued in modern society.  You often find academics with the nagging feeling that they have to justify their profession, justify their art, defend it from comparison with other things, and then become overprotective.  I believe study should back away from the physical technique, and go back to the pure study of music itself: its history; its development; its theory; its structure; its endless opportunities.  I actually believe this is the true path to real creativity, a skill which most concert artists lack.

Yo-Yo Ma had this to say in a recent interview:

"All this work makes me wonder whether we are heading toward something like world classical music. People right now do partake in a recognizable tradition, but they want that tradition to acknowledge the world as we experience it, especially after the nineteen-eighties, when suddenly we became more conscious than ever before of living in a global culture, or on a globe of many cultures. Nothing is totally distinct. Every great world religion has elements that are taken from other religions or overlap with them. It’s a sort of biological or ecological need to keep evolving. If we don’t, then a tradition gets smaller and may eventually die out.  If we want to preserve a tradition, the best way to preserve it is to let it evolve."

To my delight, he echoes an insight that Bartok had over a half-century before.  Bartok, after intensive studying indigenous folk music of Eastern Europeans, travelled to North Africa to do the same.  He discovered that the folk music of North Africa was stagnant, having been the same thing for centuries (maybe a millennia).  The music of the E. European tribes, who were all ethnically diverse but in close proximity to each other, on the opposite side of the coin, had developed to amazing levels of complexity and ingenuity.  His research told him that only a cross-fertilization of the musics guaranteed its evolution and continued survival.  North African tribes, living in isolation in desert environments, or in homogenous ones, were not able to develop their folk music to that level.

That's a round-about way of saying, students should be made to focus on how to make music - in all of its forms - and not just play the piano.

Just some random thoughts.

Walter Ramsey

PS Not sure if this reads as critical of marik's post - just in case, let me say it isn't at all.  I recognize that it is a feat of great knowledge and study that a big area like piano technique can be condensed into such a logical form.  My argument is that we should build off that, and go back to musical roots!

[cmg]

Well, Walter Ramsey, I counted 11 paragraphs before counting itself confounded me. 

You make eminent sense here.  No one could argue that.  And your remarks are hereby noted as a welcome -- expanded, but not to say bloated, of course -- appendix to Marik's more concise, two-paragraph statement.   

[marik]

Not sure if this reads as critical of marik's post - just in case, let me say it isn't at all.  I recognize that it is a feat of great knowledge and study that a big area like piano technique can be condensed into such a logical form.  My argument is that we should build off that, and go back to musical roots!

Walter,

Thank you for your excellent message, which expands some ideas, and also thank you for nice words.

Indeed, I wanted to put in a very short and concise form as I believe in important matters, the less words, the more you say.

Of course, technique is much more than that and there are many layers of technique--both physical and mental.

I however wanted to emphasise here two main ideas in my message: 

1) First to see the "TARGET", in other words musical image comes first (most definitely, if there is no target what is the point of "throwing stones" ). It is in perfect agreement with your remark about back to musical roots and everybody here knows I am always the first to argue should I feel the term "technique" is used not a tool for expressing musical ideas.

2) Such thing as throwing a stone for MOST people is a natural and relaxed process.
It should be the same for piano playing, as the whole mechanism of perfect coordination between accumulation and releasing the energy is the first and foremost principle.

The whole approach to technique is the relationship between whole your body and key bed, and the mechanism of connection should happen in the most natural way. After all that the tone production is already derivative.

Best, M

[pianistimo]

at the risk of sounding like thal - my husband threw a stone in a hospital once. 

actually, i agree with most everything said here.  finding information about music requires having a music library that is well thought out.  those are hard to find in some places.  some seem quite random.  you know - smaller uni's or community colleges that aren't tied to a main university.  when i finally went into a 'real' library (at least to me) at west chester uni - i was astounded at the information and cannot fathom going into julliard's or eastman's or wherever there are more of these.  basically, you have a whole collection of both cd's and records which have amazing info inside the covers and also - excellent descriptions of forms and manners of playing.  west chester was in the process of converting all these lp's into cd's - i think. 

also, i was impressed that the faculty does not insult you on what you don't know.  one of the faculty took us into the library and showed us what resources were available to us.  this was immensely helpful.  also, how to use the computers (which seem to change every couple of years - processes) to find info.

my technique doesn't change to exactly what mozart describes his playing as - because obviously we can't magically make our modern piano into a smaller sounding fortepiano.  but, i can think about not making it as dynamically crashing as beethoven in the 'forte' areas.  and, even beethoven not so loud as to be obnoxious.  i think playing a shade or two below what your mind tells you to- gives you more freedom of expression than wild extremes.  perhaps this picking and choosing of dynamic extremes would be my 'secret.'  bach would be wayy less extreme than mozart.  mozart less than beethoven.  beethoven less than chopin/liszt etc.  and modern music perhaps according to what the composer wrote - to the extremes of the instrument - without destroying it.

something else i was thinking is that what we read DOES influence how we interpret music - and perhaps in that way it influences a bit of our technique.  for instance, when i found out about music journals - i started reading them right and left.  when i read about bach's goldberg variations - i started thinking about what parts to bring out to clarify what bach's composition purposes were.  for instance, if he was using B A C H in the 13th variation - that should be brought out, right?  *it's been a while since i read the article and i hope this is the variation that he used this system in.  also, i've not played the entire goldbergs - but i mark scores so when i get to whatever parts, i have little notes about it.

same with reading about chopins new forms based on hybrid forms.  such as the polonaise-fantasy.  it was good reading and would probably influence my playing could i attain that level to play though the entire thing without stopping on minor details.

[rc]

That's a round-about way of saying, students should be made to focus on how to make music - in all of its forms - and not just play the piano.

I sometimes feel the pinch of the piano-centric mentality.  Any instrument really, many will confuse the means with the end...  But when I think on it more, it's sometimes a necessary step on the journey to focus on the instrument.  To bring out the magnifying glass and refine the 'how' of music.

The thought occurred to me once that what I'm doing in learning the masterworks is assimilating their golden ideas to later create something of my own, mashing various influences together.

In Alberta we're fortunate to have a good public radio station that plays all sorts of music under the sun.  There's so much good stuff out there the cross-fertalization possibilities are boggling!  I wish I could quit my job and spend my time exploring ideas.

[dmc]

my own feeling about where music comes from is at odds with the hips a little - i like to think of that center of the body that some call 'chi.'  i call it the 'solar plexus' for no better term i know.  it's somewhere in the center of your body - about two inches behind your belly button.  it's where - when you take a deep breath in - you can focus all the energies to any part of your body the fastest. 

I believe the word that describes the place you're looking for would be the term many athletes & trainers use (vox teachers too) when they refer to proper breathing:

The CORE[/u] of the body. 

[pianistimo]

yes!  that's it.

[leonidas]

With all due respect.

I'm calling BS

[pita bread]

With all due respect.

I'm calling BS

Speak for your own ideas.

[leonidas]

They are naturally much better.

[marik]

They are naturally much better.

Good for you.

[nyquist]

The whole approach to technique is the relationship between whole your body and key bed, and the mechanism of connection should happen in the most natural way. After all that the tone production is already derivative.

Marik,

Could you elaborate on the relationship to the keybed?

Thanks,
nyquist

[leonidas]

Good for you.

The problem is, I am not being selfish, I am not leading everyone up a confusing and random path.

I dont play the piano with my ass 

[mephisto]

Thanks for the advices Marik!

[mephisto]

With all due respect.

I'm calling BS

Have you heard Marik play!?

[leonidas]

Yes...

[term]

The secret is not to know something about it. The secret is, how to do it.
There is no use in knowing about the arch, the involvement of the body etc. The process, i.e. to get better and better, still remains. So you may as well believe in spirits showing you the way (as a member of this forum does), it doesn' matter, since both approaches have one thing in common: A process.
The secret of technique, if such thing exists, would not be to know something about technique but how to skip the process, or at least how to make it faster, so that you can actually sit down and play better instead of sitting down and knowing how to play better.

[pita bread]

The problem is, I am not being selfish, I am not leading everyone up a confusing and random path.

I dont play the piano with my ass 

Really? Because it sure sounds like it.

[leonidas]

Want a duel?

Alkan op76 no1?

[nadiave]

hello...
im nadia...
im kindanew here...
i need help plis...

[dnephi]

Want a duel?

Alkan op76 no1?

You kidding?  Pita only KANduels in Op. 39.

[counterpoint]

I dont play the piano with my ass 

I wouldn't have said that.

But it was in my mind too... 

[pita bread]

Want a duel?

Alkan op76 no1?

might give me a reason to finish the other half of it

[pita bread]

actually stevie, what ever happened to your 10/2 duel, huh?

[marik]

Re: The Secret of Technique in Two Short Paragraphs