Playing softly

[fleah]

Hello everybody!

I am having such a hard time playing softly, i.e., hitting the keys and they don't sound.  Can anyone suggest how to practice playing softly or the technique for playing softly so that when you hit the key it sounds, and ideas for graduating the sound (piano, pianissimo, ppp).
Thank you all so much!
 

[alessandro]

Indeed Fleah,

I also have difficulties to play ppp.  As I read somewhere else in this forum, in a thread on grand or not grand piano's, it could be more easy to play softly on a grand piano.  I have an upright one.  I have an idea of what triple forte is but can't get a satisfactory ppp out of my fingers (out of my piano?).

[tac-tics]

I'm nowhere near qualified to give this question an adequate response, but my first impression would be just play the piano sections at the lowest volume you are proficient at and just compensate on the forte sections by playing extra loud. Volume is relative, so just have your audience sit farther back than usual =-)

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

In order to be able to play softly, one must practice softly. It is a lot easier to bash out chords fortissimo, but very hard to keep them piano and still sound full(let alone pianissimo). If you practice with a hard and loud touch, you will play in a hard and loud touch. So for practicing let's say etudes, instead of bashing out the notes play them as soft as possible, whilest still retaining the full sound. At first of course just keep it piano, don't practice forte all the time. Practicing certain technique such as chords, arpeggios, scales, etc, needs to be kept soft. This excercise might help: play chords from soft to loud, from as soft as you can, to as loud as you can(without bashing). This takes time, but is very important. I am just a student and my teacher really stresses out the importance of dynamics. Hope this helps.

[henrah]

Press the keys closer to the backboard. More pressure needed for same sound at end of key, therefore more precise control. I recently figured this out for playing one of my friends compositions where there was a repeated Eb whilst the left hand was bouncing notes over the right and I kept finding that my right (Eb) was too loud. Works really well as it allows you to hit hard on the key and get less volume.
Henrah

[steve jones]

I find it hard to play chords softly when I have to bring out an upper voiced melody. This always cocks me up! I can play loud and I can play soft, but to play a strong melody over a soft chord (like in Chopin's preludes 9 and 20) is hard for me.

[vakulchai]

You can try some experiment. For example, control your playing with your arms not only fingers, and firm your fingers a little bit more when they hit the keys.

However, most of the time when the piece ask for ppp and I think I cannot play soft enought; it comes out that my piano teacher ask me to play louder. He ask for pp or even mp. He said people at the back of concert hall cannot hear me if I play ppp.

[gonzalo]

Hello everybody!

I am having such a hard time playing softly, i.e., hitting the keys and they don't sound.  Can anyone suggest how to practice playing softly or the technique for playing softly so that when you hit the key it sounds, and ideas for graduating the sound (piano, pianissimo, ppp).
Thank you all so much!
 

Play with flat fingers position

[timothy42b]

Here is what I am trying.  I think it is helping but it is hard to tell.  Like you I struggle with playing softly especially at the lesson.  My teacher's piano is very live and percussive and I play it more loudly than I expect to.

This week I started turning the volume on my digital piano up a notch. Then I try to relax and play it softly.  Eventually I'll have the speakers all the way up and still be playing quietly.  I will have to see if I am able to transfer this to the acoustic next week. 

[cy_shuster]

Playing pianissimo is a great way to evaluate a piano's action.  When parts are correctly aligned, friction is reduced, and the movements of the key and hammer are properly adjusted, it's possible to play very softly with control. 

And yes, it's much easier on a grand piano than on an upright: gravity keeps the various parts of the action in contact, while springs are used on an upright.

One key adjustment that affects "ppp" playing is how close the hammers get to the strings.  Move the music desk on a grand so you can see the hammers, or lift the top of your upright.  Push a key down as slowly as you possibly can, so that you don't actually make a sound.  Just inch the hammer towards the string, without touching it.  How close does it get before it falls away?  It should be in the range of 1/8" to 3/16".

The farther the distance, the more "oomph" you have to give the hammer so that it carries to the string, and the less control you have over volume: sometimes it might be too hard, and sometimes not hard enough (making no sound).

These adjustments are called "regulating the action", and it's one of the three main areas of piano maintenance: tuning, regulation, and "voicing".  For more info:
https://ptg.org/resources-pianoOwners.php

--Cy--

[mike_lang]

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[jamie_liszt]

To play softer you play closer to the keys and use less movement, put less pressure on the keys.

[rc]

Greetings.

In order to be able to play softly, one must practice softly. It is a lot easier to bash out chords fortissimo, but very hard to keep them piano and still sound full(let alone pianissimo). If you practice with a hard and loud touch, you will play in a hard and loud touch. So for practicing let's say etudes, instead of bashing out the notes play them as soft as possible, whilest still retaining the full sound. At first of course just keep it piano, don't practice forte all the time. Practicing certain technique such as chords, arpeggios, scales, etc, needs to be kept soft. This excercise might help: play chords from soft to loud, from as soft as you can, to as loud as you can(without bashing). This takes time, but is very important. I am just a student and my teacher really stresses out the importance of dynamics. Hope this helps.

This is the best advice. In short: develop control. It's important to listen closely as well as paying close attention to the force you're using to depress the keys.

Though playing closer to the backboard will work, I think it's a silly idea to go through more effort to play softer. It's sort of dodging the problem, much better to learn how to control dynamics in your regular playing position.

I'd recently spent a few months practicing those technical things as softly as possible. Once you can play very softly, it is an easy matter to add force and you will have much better dynamic control. An unexpected benefit of playing scales/arpeggios softly is that any dynamic unevenness of the fingers will stick out painfully, and you will develop very even scales/arpeggios.

Here's a site for the brave that I found useful: https://www.chopin.strefa.pl/engl.html . It's difficult to read, and a lot of it as well. But if you can get the ideas, they're pure gold. His sections describing 'touch' deal with developing soft playing.