loud vs. soft and firmness/tension

[Bob]

I'm thinking more for soft playing -- Are you more relaxed or more firm in the fingers for playing soft?

If I want precise control, I'm thinking it's firmness and possibly more than with loud playing.  With loud playing, you're moving fast enough that all the notes are attacked at the same time.  With soft playing, if you're too loose, the notes aren't sounding at the same time.


Thoughts?

[Bob]

I'm still wondering about this.  Is it better to firm up or relax? 

I'm thinking both.   Firm fingers and relax the arm to drop into the keys.

[go12_3]

The arms should be relaxed and the finger tips should produce the loud and soft with a firm touch. The tips of the fingers can vary upon the touching of the keys, on whether to play
with less arched fingers or more arched, it depends upon the pianist.  Overall playing soft and loud, the firm touch is recommended.  However, when playing loudly, the fingers should be more arched and strong enough to strike the keys firmly.  I think tension produces a more harsh sound; the fingers should just flow along the keyboard effortlessly.

best wishes,

go12_3

[Bob]

I've been having a hard time playing soft full chords.  8 notes total.  As soft as possible.  It's me and it's the piano.  I either end up playing mf or it's soft, the notes aren't sounding at the same time.

[go12_3]

It's especially hard to distribute an even touch throughout each finger as you play a chord.
I think chords are the most difficult for my young students to learn,  and therefore it requires time and practice.  What I have my students do to strengthen and get their fingers to acquire a firm and even touch is an exercise, "press the keys down" in which all five fingers press down or sink down into the keys and hold for 5 seconds and slowly release and then repeat  for a few times.  This enables the fingers to be trained to stay arched and have that firm touch so when a chord is being played, then each finger would respond evenly. 

best wishes,

go12_3

[rmbarbosa]

This question puts me another similar question: the difference in stroke between a piano tone and a forte tone is that the key is pushed down slower in the former than in the latter. In both cases the same amount of strengh is exerted. This is theoretical true. But... how to play very fast and pianissimo if one must push down slower? Another member of this forum told me that the difference in speed is very little and to do what I instinctively do to play pp, I`ve tried but... I also read that in pp one must attack the key first with a uniform accelerated motion and after, at the 2º part of the attack, with a constant speed. But it´s a question of "miliseconds" and can our brain control this? May you help me?

[guendola]

I have seen a couple of discussions carried away when "attack speed" was introduced. The trouble is that there is no constant attack speed. What really counts is the speed of the hammer hitting the strings and that is the result of the accelleration that the pianist applies to the key. An attack that starts slowly can still accelerate a lot and result in F but if not accelerated at all, it could be ppp or even no sound at all. Furthermore it is possible to accelerate until the key hits the bottom of the keyboard or stop earlier and the final speed will be different again. So it all boils down to starting speed, acceleration and depths of the attack, three paratemers that can be controlled pretty well by human beings

By the way, the "even touch" doesn't come from the fingers alone. It rather comes from the general arm/hand movement and is refined by the finger involved in a specific attack. It is a bit like rolling a ball over the keys.

As for chords, I think it is easier to teach "shaping" the chord right away. Hardly any chord is supposed to be played evenly. Giving different strength to each note allows for much more variance than a perfectly even chord.

Now to the original subject: I think there are various possibilities. When playing scales, you rather need a stable hand but when playing soft chords, this can also be done by letting your hands sink into the keyboard while the fingers are in place. Success depends a lot on the instrument but this should not be used as an excuse unless you know exactly that you are playing very well on a good instrument

I think that knowing a bit about the physics of piano playing can help develop techniques but the most important point is being sensible to the "feedback" of the piano action and sound. So experimenting with all kinds of movements is the best path to better playing.

[gyzzzmo]

I'd say, go sit behind a piano and try out? :p