That each situation is individual goes without saying. But unless the principles in question can be actively referenced to part of the method, they are based on the teacher's expertise, not on the method. You can't cite the method as either the source of success or failure, if the teacher is simply doing as they see fit (with no concept behind it that can be defined) it is down to their individual qualities as a teacher The method cannot be given credit for the individual teacher's subjective ideas. You hadn't followed my point. Based on irrefutable geometry the rotation MUST stay large unless there is an alternative means of creating key movement. Either large up and down arm movements must replace it (which are equally unfeasible at high speeds) or the fingers must be creating the movement by either scratching back or expanding outwards in length. They both advise the impossible and actively mislead about the important role of finger MOVEMENT as the explanation for what gets the key going. It's really tiresome when taubmanites leap forward to accuse everyone of misunderstanding the method, in order to protect their idol. There is no misunderstanding. They say the fingers should merely support rotation. That gives no means of reducing it. When I interpreted them at face value, the rotation did me no good. When I made my own reinterpretation of what they insist on, it actually worked- in a way that bears objective scrutiny and which does not require blind faith in something that is clearly impossible. When the Taubman method makes an unequivocal assertion, they are responsible for every person who follows their assertion. There is no misunderstanding except in terms of what they fallaciously assert as if it were fact.
Actually, my Taubman teacher is a member here! Her username is RAB. She didn't teach me the proper harpsichord plucking technique which I learned later on... but she did often talk about the natural curve of the finger. I don't think it's good to get into too much technical/biomechanical detail with a 9 or 10 year old student. That needs to come later.... when the student's body is more developed, as is their will to play the instrument at a professional standard...
Personally I really don't like harpsichord scratching.
Your Baroque playing and control of polyphonic textures in general must leave much to be desired!
When the finger bonds with a single spot on the key there are fewer variables. Too many different things can happen when you're Scraping back across the surface.
The purpose of fingertapping is to learn how to scratch STRAIGHT down, without ANY horizontal scraping across the surface. No wonder you saw no value in the exercise! You were doing it completely incorrectly!
Pity they cost so much money! You'd think for over $50 per DVD they'd be anything but vague....
I didn't see no value in the exercise.
Look, I'm not going to argue with you, Andrew. Feel free to go on playing the piano in your own way! I wish you the best of luck in the development of your creative powers at the piano!
Let me rephrase than. The DVDs are a wealth of use, yes, but without a teacher they are not nearly as useful. I'm sure you could master the basics correctly but without a teacher how can you accurately progress? People may have done it before, but a teacher can evaluate your progress, reflect on it, and improve you. I still have yet to get the DVDs to have a better understanding of the approach, to see Mrs. Golandsky explain it herself. I don't think they're enough on their own. So they are vague when you look at the entire approach as a whole including all repertoire and exceptions but they are the greatest wealth of knowledge available out their except a teacher.
So basically, what you are saying is that the DVD's are useless, despite costing about $500. What you REALLY need are thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of Taubman lessons...
To translate that, when a pianist inevitably fails with advice that fails to mention something so basic as the need to move your fingers, they need a teacher who can find ways of getting that happening by feel even if not by direct suggestion. But with the dvds alone, the active instructions against moving keys with fingers will likely serve as a direct inhibitor of this pianistic essential.
That's not a very good translation.
That's simply what happens in practise when advice is not merely one-sided but one-sided against the single biggest element of accomplished pianism. As I said before, simple geometry PROVES that the finger must be moving to send the keys down, once rotationis reduced to a subtle level. It would have to stay big for rotation to be anything other than secondary to the movement of the fingers. The irony is that the DVDs might serve as a good preparation for the essential matter of getting the fingers moving from a place of freedom- were it not for the fact that by the time you've listened to them, you've been so poisoned against the idea of fingers generating the movement that you'd have to rethink virtually everything you've learned in order to get on with learning what you'd otherwise have prepared yourself for getting on with. They're too busy making it into a dirty thing to give any proper advice on how to go about mastering the biggest issue of all. Once you understand how to support on a finger, you need to learn how to enter that support by moving the key with the finger. Nothing will sidestep this most basic essential of pianism.
The fingers do not generate the movement! The forearm muscles and the elbow moves the finger. That is rotation. It is essentially a shift in weight.
You talk as if 500$ worth of lessons should make you an expert. Every great pianist has invested much more than that in money and time. It would be foolish to think 500$ worth of tutelage in any art would bestow mastery at any level. Many top teachers charge roughly that much for just one lesson.
Of course, you are correct! It takes more like $50,000 worth of lessons to achieve mastery... and spending the money alone is of course no guarantee whatsoever! I'm just saying that $500 for 10 DVD's is highway robbery. That's all.
Fine in the exaggerated version, but you spoke of minimising that rotation. At that point, the explanation is implausible. If you want a simple proof then try this. Touch one finger against a table top and rotate so the adjacent finger is approx the distance by which a key moves during depression away from the same surface (say a cm although it may actually be further if anything) . Using rotation, bring that finger against the table too and don't move it a jot. You'll see that the amount of rotation needed is very large to cover even a cm of descent, unless the finger also contributes significant movement of its own accord. No finger movement means a very large rotation is essential or you cannot cover the required distance. There's no getting away from this. If you move less than yet do enough to finish moving the key, the rotation is not the explanation for that distance being covered. The further apart the fingers are, however, the smaller the movement required for rotation to create key movement. ......
Topic: Studying Taubman Technique 