brand new - finger jump

[mikew3456]

hey. im brand new and trying to teach myself to play the piano. after humbling myself and realizing that fur elise is gonna be too hard to start with, im gonna learn the bach musette in d. i am familiar with the notes on the staff. and have spent some time goofing with the d scale. so i sit down to start playing, and already i have trouble with the fingering.

going from the 2nd bar to the 3rd with right hand. my thumb plays the final D note in the 2nd measure and then it says to play the F# with the middle finger. i can either pivot my thumb on the D, kick my elbow out and then reach over.. or i can squeeze my elbow into my side and then rotate my forearm over. neither feels smooth. i hope my descriptions can be made sense of.

heres a link to section in sheet music that im referring to

[ramseytheii]

There shouldn't be any jerky motions, so don't try and connect them.  Pretend there is a slur over the 4 sixteenths at the end of bar 2, and a staccato marking on the last note, "D."
Then simply move your arm over to the f-sharp, without trying to flip, pivot, or anything complicated. 

The important thing is that you can imagine a constant line of energy from your pinky all the way to your shoulder.  Don't let your index finger get "pokey," or rigid, because it's the pinky side, the fleshy part of the hand, which is moving it, it is not following the index finger.

Walter Ramsey

[nightingale11]

first get a teacher even if you haven't got plans for becoming a virtuoso because if you learn by yourself there is a big risk that you will use inappropriate motions that eventually will lead to injury. To let you get an idea of what a good teacher is and a good way to practice have a look here:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5767.msg56133.html#msg56133
(huge collection of links)

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,9159.msg92755.html#msg92755
(m1469s index of the forum)

[counterpoint]

going from the 2nd bar to the 3rd with right hand. my thumb plays the final D note in the 2nd measure and then it says to play the F# with the middle finger. i can either pivot my thumb on the D, kick my elbow out and then reach over.. or i can squeeze my elbow into my side and then rotate my forearm over. neither feels smooth. i hope my descriptions can be made sense of.

Let's look at the score:

in bars 1 and 2 the hands are lying comfortably in 5 note position
in bars 3 and 4 the hands are lying comfortably in 5 note position

so the only "problem" is how to move your hands from position A to position B

The solution: Just move the whole hands 1 octave to the left after you have played bar 2

As I understand you, you tried to play legato from the last note of bar 2 to the first note of bar 3. That is not possible - and it's not required either 

[danny elfboy]

Let's look at the score:

in bars 1 and 2 the hands are lying comfortably in 5 note position
in bars 3 and 4 the hands are lying comfortably in 5 note position

so the only "problem" is how to move your hands from position A to position B

The solution: Just move the whole hands 1 octave to the left after you have played bar 2

Another important thing to remove awkward motions is moving from A to B is keeping your wrist lose. Your wrist should be totally relaxed as you move because keeping a straight finger as you lift or move from A to B requires unecessary muscular effort and accumulating tension.

[mikew3456]

thanks for the help everyone.

yea i was slurring it and trying to play it legato style. so if i just kinda make an abrupt transition i can just move the hand.

it seems like i keep my hand stiff all the time when i play. not just when i jump from one part to another. like every 5 minutes i have to shake my wrists out to loosen them up. thats gotta be unhealthy. any adivce?

[ramseytheii]

Your question is so simple but so complicated.  It's not possible to diagnose your problem over the internet, but there are certain things I think you can do in piano technique to avoid this:

practice playing by stroking the keys, rather then striking; in almost every language except German, the word for playing the piano is to stroke. 

Also when moving horizontally across the keyboard, utilize the clockwise and counter-clockwise motion inherent to the elbow. 

Be sure when using shorter fingers (thumb and pinky) that you bring your hand further inside (closer to the fallboard), so the fingers don't become rigid trying to reach the keys.

Medtner wrote that every action at the piano had to have a center, and he observed that Rachmaninoff's technique was based on "shaking out" motions.  Imagining a center from which the motions are shook out can do wonders for keeping you loose.

Stiff wrist usually indicates stiff arms, so allow your elbows to breathe like lungs.

Practice slowly and try to maximize the expressive potential of every note, and practice polyphonically: bringing out different lines and voices within chords.  Neuhaus wrote that polyphonic practice was the surest way to a cantabile technique, and a cantabile technique has no stiffness whatsoever.

Just a few modest suggestions!

Walter Ramsey