Alfred Cortot's "Rational principles of piano technique"

[baadshah]

Does anyone know/use this method. it was written by cortot in 1928. It divides technique into 5 categories:

1. evenness and independence of fingers
2. passing under of thumb
3. double notes and polyphonic playing
4. extensions
5. Wrist technique and chords

the exercises are all very short, normally a few bars long, to be repeated with different rhythms, speeds, fingerings, notes etc. THere are 15 or 20 pages of short exercises in each chapter.
They are along the lines of some of the additional exercises he prescribes in his chopin editions.

I like them because i feel they focus right at the root of the difficulty, using just a couple of bars each time. other studies tend to last pages and require ages just to learn - id rather use that time working on real pieces. Ive worked my way thru the first 2 chapters , and found them pretty beneficial. On the other hand, ive never used any other methods (czerny, henon etc). I wondered what other people's experiences of the book are.

[pabst]

I used these some time ago as a sophisticated warm-up before every session, sometimes using an specific exercise when the study session would envolve that specific problem, but I wouldn't go as far as to spend more than 5 minutes on them daily - and that's great, supposing that's how cortot meant it to be used.

[stevie]

well, meiting sun used them and he has a great technique.

cortot didnt intend 5 minutes, he says at the start of the book it should be played through daily, an hour or so each day.

[dolcejen]

Where did you get it?

[stevie]

asked my local bookstore to order it.

[lostinidlewonder]

Wow piano technique can be divided into only 5 parts. Personally I think these 5 are a joke  Passing under of thumb??? How on earth can that be 1/5th of piano technique?

Evenness and independence of fingers is something you should keep away with a stick. Early players of the piano aimed for this evenness and independence of fingers so that all notes of a scale would be perfectly balanced and even in volume and excecution. Instead however Chopin urged us to realise that there are many qualities of sound of the piano, people do not notice unevenness in a scale when it is played fast, so learn to realise what musical job is assigned to your fingers while playing, don't play notes just because they are notes, they all have reason and they are not controlled with an eveness of playing but filled with color and musical ideas. We are not playing harpsichord or clavichord afterall.

I also reckon 6) Efficiency is a huge part of technique in piano playing. Not only for our hands but for our methods of memorising the music. Personally it is about 90% of my struggle with piano, the rest are just distractions.

[stevie]

you have to read the book to understand

the passing of the thumb section includes just about EVERY form of scale and arpeggio, and much more.

[lostinidlewonder]

Passing under the thumb is inferior when playing arpeggio/scales because it distorts the natural form of the hand. It is possible for doing slow note progressions but otherwise it is very obsolete. I have had to deprogram students who play this thumb under religiously, it is most definatly an efficiency issue you have to know when to use it and when not to.

Even though something can be applied to everything it doesn't necessarily mean it should be, we have to consider it in relationship to the efficiency of our fingers and comfort it provides us.

[pianowelsh]

True lostinwonder but it is a technique which is sometimes necessary in knotty passagework and slower scales and does need practising to perfection. have to say i do have the book but havent worked on many of the excersizes i tend to use it more for the useful way he shows the repertoire in the back and points out the level of difficulty for each section (1-5) - helps when trying to balance up your technique and repertoire! I tend to use Beringer Hanon and Brahms 51 more often than Cortot but i think they are pretty good from my limited experience of them. Have to say im adverse to excersizes where you hold one note and do crazy motions with other fingers i believe this creates unnecessary tension especially if repetitious (granted sometimes have to in contrapunctal music) so things like Pischna and large chuncks of Dohnanyi are out for me.

[baadshah]

im also interested in the 51 brahms exercises. ive just downloaded the music from the net - im completely unfamiliar with them. how are these pieces from a musical point of view. Do you have any favourites musically /technically?

[stevie]

im also interested in the 51 brahms exercises. ive just downloaded the music from the net - im completely unfamiliar with them. how are these pieces from a musical point of view. Do you have any favourites musically /technically?

they are exercises, they sound like crap.

[frombachtobarber]

they are exercises, they sound like crap.

I tend to agree.