even chords

[luposolitario]

When I play chords softly, often I can't play all the notes simultaneously .
Even with only 2 notes. Any suggestions?

I started the thread "hand\arm positions". If someone want to read it...

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

As I am also a student, I will try to answer your question. Chords need to be studied fully, that is that every note is sound and full. Lets say that we are in C major. Exactly play all of the chord's notes one by one(C, E,G and C). I assume that you know the correct hand position. Repeat the notes in succesion single to get a full sound. Then alternate for example C and G together, holding down E and C. This is just one of the ways. Play the chords together from piano to forte, pianissimo to fortissimo making sure the sound is full and even. This is my feeble explanation of what I mean. Happy to help.

[leahcim]

When I play chords softly, often I can't play all the notes simultaneously .
Even with only 2 notes. Any suggestions?

Caveat emptor, I'm no expert, I have the same problems and what I say might be complete hogwash, but hopefully someone will jump in and say why

Firstly you probably want to use the search because there are lots of past threads on movements and book recommendations [and posts saying "get a teacher" ]

Unless someone can see you play it's not easy, even if they are an expert, to see what you're doing.

But [to state the obvious] for the notes to sound together you need to press them down together.

When you're playing softly are you letting your fingers relax too much? [one of terms I've seen used to describe it is "cooked spaghetti"] ?

If so, that may be why some notes sound before others.

in "20 lessons in keyboard choreography" one of the first things it talks about is "taut" fingers, which are described as being springy. That's not actively tensing them though. But as many books and pedagogues talk at length about relaxing I think they give a confusing picture about what is and isn't relaxed as you play.

e.g if you use the eraser end of a pencil to play a note, you can play the note from ppp to fff, probably with a lot of control without either gripping the pencil too tight or tensing up to play loud? The pencil is rigid throughout. Similary, I believe, your fingers need to be taut and not collapse whether you're playing soft or loud to get similar control.

If your fingers collapse on single notes, I find it's difficult to play 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 evenly too because individual notes are going down at different rates too, i.e the finger that's "late" in the chord is probably "late" playing the next note of a scale or passage as well.

One thing I've noticed is that playing with tauter fingers is improving it.

If anything initially everything goes louder. But, for me at least, playing loud probably meant adding more tension and effort, so it sort of killed 2 birds with one stone. I can play notes louder with far less effort and, I've more control over how and when the notes sound than when I was effectively playing softly by relaxing my fingers.

As for your other questions on movements, I think the key is to listen and focus on getting the sound you want. As others have described it "the sound you imagine". For me, at the moment, that means recording my playing, because I don't have the ear yet to hear all the faults when I'm playing at the same time. Similary, much of the sound I "imagine" is from someone else's recording of the piece, listened to along with the score.

Although it seems an anti-thesis to the various books that talk about movements, with the piece I'm currently playing I've found it far more effective to forget all the movement stuff [aside from keeping an awareness of whether something feels uncomfortable or not, or whether you're getting any pain or tension] and listen to my playing and then worry about fixing stuff that's wrong with the sound [obviously that means changing movements, but as a few pointed out to me recently, the music is the focus]

[pianistimo]

with the smaller chords that fit into your hands you can use the 'paper-cutter method.' lightly touch all three (or four) notes and paper-cut your hand down from the fingertips.  (let the hand fall - but still keep that arch in your hand).  try falling from a place high on the keys and also putting your fingertips in a lower placement.  experiment also with how high you allow your hand to be - and what is the minimum height that you need to make a full chordal sound.

i used to do a hand wave in the air (sort of) as i prepared to play a chord.  am trying not to do this as much or at all because it's sort of an unneccessary pre-movement.  you just get right to business this way.

[steve jones]

Funnily enough, this is something that has never troubled me. Yet, I just sat at the piano to see what you mean, and I happened!

Im not expert (FAR from it), but I would try to use you entire body to play even the smallest chords. I can only make chords even and control the dynamic when I... shall I say... put my back in to it  If I tried to play more 'from the elbow', I would certainly get the same problem.

But I may be doing it completely wrong, so take my advice with a pinch of salt.