Fast Pianissimo

[tunneller]

Hey, I'm at work so I can't try this out, but will do when I get home. I've been thinking about pianassimo vs p/f/etc. At the moment I can do pp only by "cheating" - get to the note early enough that I can do a slow decent all the way down. Doesn't work for faster pieces.

Once you are playing reasonably fast, then regardless of the volume, the finger has the same amount of time to get from top of key to bottom. But for a quiet note, the momentum on the key has to be low right about the time the key engages the hammer mechanism.

So that tells me that a pp must be very rapid finger for the initial descent, then very slow as you get to the bottom then very fast off once the note has been held. This is exactly what you get if the knuckle is used as a pivot and the tip of the finger swings underneath. A constant rotational speed pulling the fingers in will give a sinusoid variation of vertical velocity. Perfect. And maybe will be easier to think of the backward stroke at a consistent speed, rather than a downward stroke at a consistently approaching zero speed. Maybe a little bit of lifting knuckle too.

Am I on the right track?

[fleetfingers]

I marvel at how scientific some people's brains are. My first read-through of your post resulted in my head spinning. I could not picture what you were talking about. But, then, I read it again and actually understood it! 

It sounds right to me. I went to the piano just now and played a few things really fast and pp, paying attention to what I was doing. Indeed, each finger plays with a 'swiping' motion...where it slides downward on the key, curling inward toward the hand.

[tunneller]

Well I am still at work in the office. Much less scientific when off duty 

[richard black]

That's pretty much how I see it!