Achieving different dynamic levels in the same hand.

[pianomancoy]

Hello.

I am learning the second movement of Beethoven's Sonate Pathétique.  I am trying to increase the clarity of the melody, while keeping the accompaniment soft.  Does anybody have any useful practice techniques and/or mental approaches to simultaneously achieving two or more dynamic levels (e.g., pianissimo, piano and mezzoforte) in one hand?

Thank you.

[jollisg]

One way I have learned it was by playing the whole chord, but immediately release all the notes except the melody note. I hope you understand what I meant. My english isn't the best 

[pianomancoy]

Thank you for the reply.

[faulty_damper]

In order for one note to be louder, you must depress that key faster.
Starting at the beginning of the movement:

beat 1 -
1. align the fingers (relaxed) touching the keys
2. depress with a minuscule forearm rotation toward the melody

beat 2 -
1. align the fingers touching the keys
2. hand drop/angles downward where the tips of the fingers drop down from the wrist.

Some parts will require a combination of the forearm rotation and the hand drop.  If the descriptions of the movements don't make sense, go with the feel: it should feel the easiest of all possible combinations of movements.  Note that I mentioned nothing of depressing with the fingers but some movement is necessary.

[hardy_practice]

That also means the louder will happen sooner - to start, exaggerating that effect is OK.

[lazyfingers]

That also means the louder will happen sooner - to start, exaggerating that effect is OK.

Correct. +1.

There is no substitute to finger control. It is all very well  for those like faulty and others like Taubman to champion forearm rotation etc, but they ignore that the finest dexterity that the human body has evolutionary been developed with is the fingers.

No matter how the forearm moves, the finest dexterity can only be achieved by the fingers.

[pover]

Here are a couple of tips which I use when I encounter similar problems:

1- Play the melody forte and legato, and the accompaniment (in the same hand) as pianissimo as possible, and staccato. Don't be afraid of the melody sounding harsh, since this is just a practice drill to instill this difference in dynamics.

2- Play the melody while "Ghosting/Miming" the accompaniment. This means that you actually play the melody, but instead of playing the accompaniment, you just move your fingers like you would, but without actually pressing the keys. Trust me when I say this works.

3- Always think about how you want to shape the melody. The idea of phrasing should remain with you and should be instilled by first playing the melody on its on. Later on, you can experiment with how to vary the dynamics of the accompaniment.

[xdjuicebox]

It's all about weight distribution - you have to learn to feel more in certain fingers than the others, which is really hard. Some of the exercises suggested in here are great, but what always does it for me is the following:

1. Play the quiet stuff as a chord, and then pluck the loud one fff. Don't do this too often or you'll injure yourself.
2. Tremolo them.
3. Do it super slow and keep repeating until you get it right. Once you get it right, try to remember what you did and replicate it

[pianomancoy]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.