Alan Belkin's General Principles of Piano Technique

[saichoo]

https://alanbelkinmusic.com/Piano/PianoTechnique.html

I only just rediscovered this essay. I read it once years ago, thought it was good and proceeded to do nothing with it. I read it again last night and a nugget of advice combined with Ralph Kirkpatrick's advice (in his preface to the Scarlatti sonatas) spontaneously appeared in my practising today. And it helped enormously. Of course you have to adequately prepare leaps and non-intuitive fingerings. Duh. 

Has anyone else read this?

[thalbergmad]

There is a free piano concerto score on that site.

Thanks very much.

Thal

[hardy_practice]

This is good.  If only more posters could take this on board and declare which, experience or science, they are offering an opinion on!

It is important to distinguish descriptions of how piano playing feels to the pianist, from what a pianist is actually doing. Even great pianists' descriptions of what they are doing may be grossly inaccurate from a scientific point of view. For example, often one reads about aiming for "complete relaxation". As a scientific description, this is nonsense: Complete muscular relaxation only happens after death! Piano playing requires muscle tone, and even muscular effort. What is being described here is how a good pianist looks and feels: uninhibited, without excess tension.