Glenn Gould and Claudio Arrau doing vibrato on the keys as if this was going to influence the sound ).Instead get the series of videos from the Taubman institute (google them) and do yourself a favour getting it right from the beginning. These have all been discussed before in the forum, so do a search. Best wishes,Bernhard.
e.g. Glenn Gould and Claudio Arrau doing vibrato on the keys as if this was going to influence the sound ).Best wishes,Bernhard.
Get a video of Martha Argerich. Her technique seems correct to me, and the funny thing is, you can't even see any of her muscles working. Everything is so smooth it's just effortless. And I don't think she's been injured (Has she, anyone?) You may or may not learn from this, but it sure is fun to watch. Plus, of course, she's hot.
From my experience, it is very hard to learn technique from videos. (Heck, it is hard to learn technique from a live teacher!) I have watched the first five of the Taubman Techniques videos, Barbara Lisker's "Freeing The Caged Bird", and Seymour Fink's. I found the Taubman series to be the most useful of the three (I was able to get them via interlibrary loan). This past July I attended the Golandsky Institute week-long workshop (Edna Golandsky is the main speaker on the Taubman videos). I have also been taking lessons with a member of the Institute's faculty for a few months now. My current understanding is fairly different from what I got from the tapes. YMMV, but perhaps one can profit from a video only if one already has an understanding that is similar to what is being taught.It occurs to me that piano technique and martial arts videos are similar in the sense that you can learn from them only if you already know what they are teaching. This might be because when dealing with precise and subtle body maneuvers it is very hard to convey what one is doing, particulary when one does not really "know" what one is doing. I have practiced Aikido for a while now and I notice that what an instructor says h/she is doing can be different from what he/she is actually doing. Matthay was right to talk about "the invisible" in piano technique.nyquist
I would be very interested if you would be willing to comment further on the differences between the material in the Taubman videos and the live teaching of this material (I only know about Taubman through the videos). I do find most of her ideas very similar to Matthay’s (as you mentioned), and later Abby Whiteside.Best wishes,Bernhard.
By stable position I mean something very specific. I think of the playing aparatus (upper arm, forearm, hand, fingers) as a suspension bridge. It hangs from the shoulder and stands on the playing finger(s) (the non-playing fingers are relaxed and don't depress keys).
I have spent what seems like a lot of time looking for the stable position and then learning to play with the stability-regaining motion. It is work but it is fun (a bit of OCD does not hurt).The details of the Taubman technique concern the proper way to hold the fingers, wrist, forearm, etc., when at rest in the stable position; and the proper way(s) to move from stability to stability (rotation, in-and-out, walking arm, shaping, and all their coordinations–to steal Bernhard's phrase). After the initial training in which all gestures are very exageraged one works on minimizing them, so that to the casual observer they are not obvious. The person playing still feels them, "underneath".
That is a tall order. Let's see what I can do. The obligatory caveat applies: this is my current best understanding; I am relatively new to the training; the descriptions and wording below are not "official Taubman language". There are a miriad little details that get worked on over and over at one-on-one lessons. I will not go through those in this post–though I am thinking of preparing a separate post. The basic concept I am working on and did not get from the tapes (though it might be there) is that playing consists of going from stable position to stable position while spending little time on the transitions. When one is stable at one place; one is just there. There is no preparation for what is going to come: no reaching for the next note, etc. At the right moment one "just" moves to be stable at the next location.By stable position I mean something very specific. I think of the playing aparatus (upper arm, forearm, hand, fingers) as a suspension bridge. It hangs from the shoulder and stands on the playing finger(s) (the non-playing fingers are relaxed and don't depress keys). The position is stable if the upper arm is relaxed (not lifted out to the side, or pushed against the ribs), the biceps and triceps are relaxed, and the top of the hand is horizontal; the hand is extended only as much as it needs to play. (Muscles in the forearm are contracted to provide stability of shape.) To me it feels like a pendulum (with some friction?): if one distubs it, it swings back to its bottom position. One plays by disturbing this stability while moving to a different note (or notes), and depressing a key (or keys) with the motion of the apparatus as it regains stability.The active element of playing happens when one disturbs the stability (flexes the biceps, rotates the forearm, moves the hand in-or-out), sound production happens powered by the metaphorical bridge regaining its stability at the new position. 90% of the time should be spent in the stable position, 10% moving. When playing slowly, it can look jerky, at speed it looks fluid.The image I keep in my mind is that of a sitting frog that is very relaxed who jumps suddenly; when it lands it seems unperturbed–didi I move?. A different image that emphasizes the active and passive side of sound production is that of playing a Japanese temple bell: one moves the clapper out and lets it go; gravity does the playing by throwing the clapper at the bell. (I tend to get mad at my instructors when they use this type of "poetry", but I have to admit it is useful–if just as shorthand.)I have spent what seems like a lot of time looking for the stable position and then learning to play with the stability-regaining motion. It is work but it is fun (a bit of OCD does not hurt).The details of the Taubman technique concern the proper way to hold the fingers, wrist, forearm, etc., when at rest in the stable position; and the proper way(s) to move from stability to stability (rotation, in-and-out, walking arm, shaping, and all their coordinations–to steal Bernhard's phrase). After the initial training in which all gestures are very exageraged one works on minimizing them, so that to the casual observer they are not obvious. The person playing still feels them, "underneath".nyquist
That brings me to my other question: I have heard that Taubman pupils spend a lot of time practicing proper movements, so much so that they don't have any time to learn any repertoire. That's probably exaggerated, so I'd be interested to hear how you see that.
Is that so? From watching the videos I've got the impression that they practised the movements on repertory. They certainly seem to dislike pure exercises (Hanon, Dohnanyi, Cortot, etc.)
That's a good description. I have a particular question:Is this a Taubman concept? In other words, is the arm considered to start at the shoulder? If that is the case, I would be really surprised. The arm really begins at the sternoclavicular joint, in the center of the body. The shoulder itself is not a stable structure that is connected to the torso. It is suspended just like the elbow is. Thus, the "bridge" really begins in the center of the body. Would you mind to clarify?That brings me to my other question: I have heard that Taubman pupils spend a lot of time practicing proper movements, so much so that they don't have any time to learn any repertoire. That's probably exaggerated, so I'd be interested to hear how you see that.Thanks so much.
On shoulder anatomy: The instructors I have had interaction with do not speak in strict anatomical terms. They use what I would call "folk anatomy". This might be intentional as I have heard Edna Golandsky say that knowing which muscles one should contract does not really help do the motion.
Topic: Piano Performace DVD's to recommend? 