Fundamentals of Piano Practice

[drapopolus]

I've just started going over Fundamentals of Piano Practice again. I read it when I first started piano a over a year ago but I guess, at that time, a lot went over my head. I'm now in a much better position to make use of it - having learnt my scales, a bunch of theory, and now being able to read to an acceptable degree. I'm sure I'll be revisiting this one a lot  - as the knowledge is going to take a long time to digest, assimilate, and incorporate into my practice routine.

I've never had a teacher, so I decided to start focusing on technique, taking it slow. I've realised that I've never used proper technique when playing chords (I'm still at the chord attack stage, trying to wrap my head around slowing the notes down into arpeggios and parallel sets). I must say - What a feeling it is to let gravity do all of the work. I spent a good hour and a half just playing block chords and feeling gravity. This produces such a nice tone and is coordinated, yet relaxed.

I have one issue though - sometimes my ring finger will hit a note when I land a triad with my thumb, middle, and pinky finger. I guess this is because my ring finger is relaxed with the rest of the hand and it sort of flicks out and hits a note as my hand receives the impact of the key bed. Should my hand be a bit firmer? Perhaps my hand is too relaxed? Can someone please give me some advice on this one.

Also, at the moment I'm lifting my hand 3 - 20 cm above the keys, as suggested in the book. Am I correct in assuming that, with time, I'll develop control and a feel for gravity so I won't have to lift my hand as high?

In addition to this, I wanted to hear from students who have used the book for a long period of time. How effective has it been? Do you think it's sped up your development? Surely, (From this one experience alone) I can see that this book is an invaluable resource.

[brogers70]

Brace yourself for people telling you you should have search ed old discussions. There's been a lot of talk about that book here.

I personally found some ideas in it very helpful; I'd say just try them out and see how they work. My playing improved a good deal after I started using the book. However, it improved more once I found a very good teacher.

There is also a lot of verbose, irrelevant stuff in there, too. SO just play around with what seems interesting and ignore the rest.

[drapopolus]

I'd love to have a good teacher, but at the moment I'm living in China, so they're a little hard to come by. That's the reason I'm using Fundamentals of Piano Practice.