How to Practice to Improve Tone & Clarity?

[atticus]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to practice in order to improve tone and clarity in a piece?  Are there any practice techniques for this?

I have experimented with playing deeper into the keys...is tone/clarity dependent on how you stirke the key (i.e. pressing the fingers down vs. letting them relax and sink into the keys)?

Any thoughts on this topis are appreciated.

atticus

[m1469]

In response to your post, I have started to write a dissertation on this subject () because it is something I have been thinking about for a number of months now.  But, in the spirit of wanting to go practice, I will just post this for now and maybe my dissertation later (or never... hee hee).

Let's see if we know the difference between these two sounds (I will tell you that one is slightly louder than the other) :

https://media.putfile.com/Two-tones

I believe that if we can change a tone beyond dynamics (such as color, clarity and so on) according to the "way" we physically approach the key, then we should be able to

a)  hear a discernable difference (besides volume) in the character of each tone.

b)  know what the physical approach was that was used for each tone, just by listening.  And, I am going to be mean and not even tell whether or not I have indeed used a different* physical approach in each one  . 

*bear in mind that no approach will ever be EXACTLY the same as another, since we are human and not computers.

[counterpoint]

It's important, to be able to hear the quality of the real played sound.

Often we don't hear the real sound - but the sound, that is in our imagination. While it is important, that we have an imagination of the ideal sound, we must not confuse that with the sound we really produce. So working on the sound means to improve the real sound until it gets more and more similiar to the imagined ideal.

[Bob]

For tone, I've always heard slow and to the keybed.

For clarity, voicing and balance.  Firm up the fingers that will voice the notes you want.  Voice the top and bottom so they come out more.  Relax the other fingers.  You can either make the voiced notes louder, or drop the others down a notch in terms of dynamics.   Keep the notes you want heard connected so the listener's ear can't wander off.

And then some things are out of your control directly.  The condition of the piano, if it's capable of doing what you want easily.  The tuning - everything is better when it's in tune.  And then the way the piece itself is written.  Some music is written in a way that makes it difficult to bring out the notes you want.

[counterpoint]

Another thing:

clarity has much to do with rhythm and note duration. Controlling the note length is very important. It depends on the character of a musical phrase, if notes are shortened, extreme shortened, full length or even overlap.

[ramseytheii]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to practice in order to improve tone and clarity in a piece?  Are there any practice techniques for this?

I have experimented with playing deeper into the keys...is tone/clarity dependent on how you stirke the key (i.e. pressing the fingers down vs. letting them relax and sink into the keys)?

Any thoughts on this topis are appreciated.

atticus

For those for whom the purely physical approach is more a hindrance than a help, I suggest practicing everything in a polyphonic style.  Neuhaus himself wrote that this was the way to cantabile technique, because in the end, playing with beautiful, clear tone is a matter of balancing all the parts. 

When I say, everything, I really mean it, because I practice even Chopin etude op.10 no.1 in a polyphonic style.  It doesn't mean I will perform it like that, but the practice is invaluable.  if you are interested in knowing more, let me know and I will post a detailed example!

Walter Ramsey

[atticus]

All,

Thanks very much for the responses!   

Walter Ramsey - Thanks for the post.  Would you please post an example of what you mean by playing in a polyphonic style?

Kind regards,
atticus

[danny elfboy]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to practice in order to improve tone and clarity in a piece?  Are there any practice techniques for this?

I have experimented with playing deeper into the keys...is tone/clarity dependent on how you strike the key (i.e. pressing the fingers down vs. letting them relax and sink into the keys)?

Playing deeper in the key is useless.
Consider just this: you have lost control of the hammer before you hear any sound.
This is due to the escapement mechanism.
The escapement literraly "throws" the hammer at the string.
If you throw a rock to a wall, the moment you let go of the rock and it hits the wall you've indeed lost any contact with the rock and therefore you can't do anything about it or change it's trajectory. Likewise when the hammer is thrown (clearly before it hits the string) it has slost any contact with the key device.

The escapement occurs before you hear a sound so you don't only have no control on the sound produce once you hear it but you have no control even before you hear any sound. The moment you have control is when you exert a force that changes that speed of the hammer.

You need to have an holistic approach with music because playing a single note musically is something that whatever individual, animal and even object can achieve.
What really changes is the whole-- indeed, the balance of all parts, not the single note.

I have read an interesting quote lately:
"You can't tell a pianist from a non-pianist by listening him playing a single note"

[theodore]

I agree with Danny Elfboy in his statement that a pianist looses control of a single note once the key has been struck.

Consider the following:

For example, on a long note, vocalists can begin a long crescendo and gradually add the intensity of a vibrato.

Violinists and cellists can play ponticello by producing an eerie dry hollow sound and then adding and subtracting vibrato in the course of playing a single note.

Flutists can add shrillness and then hollow out their sound and end with a cloying whimper. Most vocalists, woodwind and string players are capable of producing a seamless glissando between half steps.

True forte-pianos followed by a crescendo are quite normal in most orchestral instruments. Also crescendo and decrescendo on a single note is the most expressive of vocal techniques.

When playing very very high notes of great length the orchestral instruments radiate an astonishing amount of body and projection.

When we add to that the playing of string instrument pizzicato and the use of brass flutter tones and choke tones we find that the variety of expression is quite extensive and can all be done in the space of one single note.
 
The pianist in comparison must then rely on playing more notes per measure to try, by contrast and note relationships, to emulate some of the variety of tonal possibilities mentioned above.