Huge person - little sound.

[green]

A new adult std, 30ish. Very tall and huge body! When she played 'toccatina' by Kabalesky, I could not see any motions beyond the wrist. Very small, slight, wrist motions in the RH staccato triads. Her 'sound' was strange. Very quiet. An even, controlled sound, but at one level throughout, not 'expressive'. That 'dynamic' seemed matched by 'shy' wrist/finger motions.

The way I described wrist motion, in summary, was this:

The arm hangs from the shoulder and is suspended over the keys. Finger contact with the keys is one of three points of 'stability' - fingers on the keys, sitting on the chair, and feet on the floor. The actual wrist motion involves three steps 1. the weight of the suspended arm is released, 2. finger(s) are momentarily 'braced', transfering the weight of the arm to the key, 3. the forearm moves up and forward, hand relaxes. All of these movements are coordinated onto a single 'motion'. The effect would seem to almost never require any form of pushing, but rather a controlled release/dropping of the arm weight.

Like a cat pouncing? The moment(s) of crouching, focusing, the concentration of energy that 'builds', (I think of a lepard), the whole body poised to strike. Like a coiled spring.

I see so often stds who cannot coordinate these movements, and even more often wonder how I can decribe/show it better. What I see most often is pushing down into the key, then raising the whole arm/hand, as a single unit,  from the elbow like a crane. In two separate movements.

I have seen what seems to be well coordinated movements of fingers/wrist/forearm, but when listening, as with the std above, the sound is small, constricted. Concealing arm tension, co-contraction (fingers that are not 'braced' are in the air), a misunderstanding of what is, and is not, involved. (Hope I'm not too far off...)

With this std she had great difficulty simply dropping her arm onto the keys, supported by the fingers. We tryed this by having her hold her wrist with the other hand, allowing the arm to relax. When she felt ready, she let go of her arm, but it broke at various places. The first joint (from the tip of the finger) and the wrist. Also she 'caught' the weight of the arm using, I don't know exactly, perhaps upper arm muscles? It was a difficult task for her.

After we processed the above we got to a point where I heard a change in her sound, it was...more 'open'. She said she had never 'thought' about this before, and that it was helpful to her. She also said she heard/felt a difference in the sound.

I would appreciate any comments.

[comme_le_vent]

is 'huge body' a polite way of saying shes fat?

apart from that, it sounds as though your doing the right thing, keep up the good work.