The technique secret?

[Bijuson]

Hi, it's my first post here but I'm reading this forum for a while. I'm from Brazil and I'm restarting study piano, and this forum is a great helper.
I wanna talk about the wrist in piano playing. Wathing a video of Kuschnerova( amazing pianist) I realize that her wrist is very active and loose. How much this contribute in her technique? How can I learn to use my wrist in my piano playing?
 By the way, I recomend you to go to her site elenakuschnerova.com and get some videos and mp3. Her rhapsody espagnole is the greatest I have ever heard!!!It's is from Tchaikovsky competition of 1990. Anyone knows if she wins this competition?

Obs:sorry my poor english.

Bijuson

[f0bul0us]

Hi, it's my first post here but I'm reading this forum for a while. I'm from Brazil and I'm restarting study piano, and this forum is a great helper.
I wanna talk about the wrist in piano playing. Wathing a video of Kuschnerova( amazing pianist) I realize that her wrist is very active and loose. How much this contribute in her technique? How can I learn to use my wrist in my piano playing?
 By the way, I recomend you to go to her site elenakuschnerova.com and get some videos and mp3. Her rhapsody espagnole is the greatest I have ever heard!!!It's is from Tchaikovsky competition of 1990. Anyone knows if she wins this competition?

Obs:sorry my poor english.

Bijuson

I don't know if she won the competition, and I've seen her videos a while ago. She has very good technique, but I don't like the way she uses the pedal with...anybody, especially in Chopin's revolutionary etude. It's just too heavy.

[thierry13]

I don't know if she won the competition, and I've seen her videos a while ago. She has very good technique, but I don't like the way she uses the pedal with...anybody, especially in Chopin's revolutionary etude. It's just too heavy.

I HATE his revolutionnary study playing and interpretation!! However, i just love his sonnetto del petrarca(104). His rhapsody espagnole,Hungarian rhapsody no.10, and Petrouchka are great too. It's funny to see her play, since when striking a f chord, she make a big jump on her bench  

[nick]

The concert pianist Alexander Peskanov has books at the library(inter library loan department) that discusses his technique, and he swears by the use of the wrist to prevent tension build up. He has the students starting slowly of course with the wrist dropping on each note with weight, then coming up for the next drop. Then with eighth notes, wrist down on the 1st note and playing the second note while raising the wrist. Then 1 wrist drop every fourth note. When one gets much faster at it, 1 drop every eighth note,which he demonstrated on his video. He has a web site.
Nick

[Bijuson]

Hi nick, could you tell what is the site? I like piano videos a lot.
When you talk about wrist movements, you say about passive movements, isn't it?

[nick]

Hi Bijuson. Try Alexander Peskanov.com. There are a multitude of sites but you will see one for his books and video.
Passive wrist movement? Not sure what you mean. The wrist drops with the weight of the arm so you feel the weight as the finger reaches key bed, with the wrist lowered. If it is four notes per wrist drop, the wrist is slowly raising until the 4th note where it reaches the top of movement, slightly higher than level with the forearm, then drops again on the 1st of the 4 note group. Sounds pretty active to me. Good luck.
Nick

[etudes]

i think Boris Berezovsky won the competition in 1990
correct me if am wrong

[anda]

He has the students starting slowly of course with the wrist dropping on each note with weight, then coming up for the next drop. Then with eighth notes, wrist down on the 1st note and playing the second note while raising the wrist. Then 1 wrist drop every fourth note. When one gets much faster at it, 1 drop every eighth note,which he demonstrated on his video

this is a very good technique - i can tell from personal experience, it allows you to play faster without geting tired.

just this week i worked with a kid a similar exercise (he has an etude requiring him to play 9 notes with one move - poor kid, his stoopid teacher chose that for him  )

[canardroti]

Hey i like her technique! very smooth and effortless it seems. Although the piece sounds a bit harsh from time to time . She still plays it 1000 times better than i do lol . Oh yeah Hi everybody, i'm a new here .

[faulty_damper]

One thing to consider is that in piano performance and all other performances is that there is the concept of "showmanship": movements are slightly exagerated or even overly exagerated (Lang Lang).  Not all pianists do this and some teachers would forbid any unnecessary movement because it leads to poor technique - it can hinder technical development.

About the wrist: stop looking at her wrists!

About using the wrist: it depends on what the wrist must do to guide the fingers and at the proper strength to play the piano.  But...

About technique: "good" technique occurs when you have control over all aspects of the body (i.e. core, legs, torso, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, neck).  Picking out one of these, in this case the wrists, has little benefit for a general discussion about technique because in actual use any discussion about it is not beneficial unless this topic becomes much more specific.

What does Elena say about her wrists?  Ask her how much it contributes to her playing because only she can answer that (and even then, she may not even be able to explain and if she does, it may not be reliable).

[steinwayguy]

Now I haven't even heard of this lady, but I know that when most people talk about "technique" they mean "hitting the right pitches".

"Technique is tone production."
   -Schnabel
"Technique is rhythm."
   -Hans von Bulow
"Technique is the ability to the aural image."
   -Me
"A well formed technique, it seems to me, [is one] that can control and vary a beautiful sound quality."
   -Chopin

If you're not one of those "technique is hitting the right notes" people, my apologies, otherwise, reconsider your opinion of "technique".


Also, I hate talking about technique.

[chopinisque]

That's odd... my teacher always tells me off for any wrist movement.  She tells me to keep them as still as possible and claims that it's because it's ugly.  Sometimes, she even clamps her fingers around the wrist to stop it from moving...

[Nightscape]

That's odd... my teacher always tells me off for any wrist movement.  She tells me to keep them as still as possible and claims that it's because it's ugly.  Sometimes, she even clamps her fingers around the wrist to stop it from moving...

You're joking, right!? 

[anda]

That's odd... my teacher always tells me off for any wrist movement.  She tells me to keep them as still as possible and claims that it's because it's ugly.  Sometimes, she even clamps her fingers around the wrist to stop it from moving...

i had a somewhat similar experience with a temporary teacher - she strictly forbid me raising my wrist or moving it (so, instead of changing a perfectly functional technique, i prefered ignoring her and ended up by not working with her anymore)
 
how can you play with a completely still wrist? i mean, that's not natural, and (in most cases) leads to stiffness - most dangerous thing!

[gerry]

What does Elena say about her wrists?  Ask her how much it contributes to her playing because only she can answer that (and even then, she may not even be able to explain and if she does, it may not be reliable).

Funny, following a small intimate recital last weekend, I asked her that very question (more or less in the somewhat rhetorical "How ever do you do it?" vain; her reply as she pointed to her head was, "it's in the mind". Something to chew on.

[keypeg]

but I know that when most people talk about "technique" they mean "hitting the right pitches

Is that actually true?     Seriously?  They do?  Holy smokes!  I mean, really?

KP

[anda]

That's odd... my teacher always tells me off for any wrist movement.  She tells me to keep them as still as possible and claims that it's because it's ugly.  Sometimes, she even clamps her fingers around the wrist to stop it from moving...

Neuhaus wrote that the best wrist position is the one you can leave from anytime (quote  from memory, and translated, sorry about that). anyway, the best wrist position always depends on what you have to play right now, and what you have to play next. the wrist helps the fingers get to the right keys, and also directs (and distributes) arm weight to fingers. so i don't think a still wrist, a wrist being constantly in the same position, could help much.

about technique generally - there are so many correct definitions, it's hard to pick one. anyway, for me (personally), the technique is the sum of abilities required in order to play a certain work.

best luck