How to play quieter?

[rubinsteinmad]

Hi, I am currently learning Liebermann's Gargoyle III. I can't play soft. I know it says Una corda, but since I play too loud, I want to practice it w/out soft pedal first. Does anyone have suggestions to start playing soft again?

[chopinlover01]

Start by pressing down with no energy at all. You'll get tons of ghosts notes. Then, add just a little more energy, then more, and once you find the sound, find the control you need to maintain that sound. The trick is using the arm weight to keep a consistent transfer of weight/energy from one note to the next (ie, in a G-B-F figure, let's say, you play the G to B, but you don't realize the G as early as normal- you keep your finger in the keybed so that the transfer of wait remains equal).
Also, make sure your "nail joint" doesn't collapse (the last joint on the finger before the literal fingertip). Additionally, playing on the literal tips of the fingers sometimes helps.
Hope I've helped your dilemma!

[indianajo]

playing consistently softly is a skill you should have practiced on the mindless exercises we studied when we were young students.  Schmitt, Hanon, Edna Mae Berman, later Czerny, playing some of these exercises both loudly evenly, and softly evenly, are exercises your teacher should have assigned you in your first years. Mine did. Soft has one additional barrier: some inexpensive pianos won't consistently sound at low volume and one needs to learn how slowly he can hit the keys on each piano he encounters. Certain well maintained concert brands, one may assume this key velocity, as one has to in a contest etc.    
So go back to learn the basics on exercises if your teacher was too afraid of losing his student to assign you the boring repetitive stuff. Learning this skill on a new difficult piece with expression is too many things to learn at once.  

[rubinsteinmad]

Yeah, my 1st teacher really focused on that. I switched, and the new teacher was more interested in "good" tone than soft. I haven't heard her play quiet ;(

[michael_c]

Yeah I played quietstuff with my 1st teacher, but I had to switch, and this new teacher was all about "good tone. She can't play quiet

Shame. Part of good tone is knowing how to control all the nuances of pppp to p.

The control of dynamics, from the very softest to the very loudest, is achieved with the control of arm weight (see what chopinlover01 said above). It's similar to the bowing arm of a string player, or the breath of a wind player. There's no need for Hanon, particularly not if you do those exercises mindlessly. Mindfulness is essential here. Practice pianissimo with pieces that demand a very soft sound: the inspiration from the music will help you achieve your goal. Take the Liebermann piece apart: first try just a short passage with one hand. Caress the keys gently with the absolute minimum of finger motion.

[rubinsteinmad]

Shame. Part of good tone is knowing how to control all the nuances of pppp to p.

The control of dynamics, from the very softest to the very loudest, is achieved with the control of arm weight (see what chopinlover01 said above). It's similar to the bowing arm of a string player, or the breath of a wind player. There's no need for Hanon, particularly not if you do those exercises mindlessly. Mindfulness is essential here. Practice pianissimo with pieces that demand a very soft sound: the inspiration from the music will help you achieve your goal. Take the Liebermann piece apart: first try just a short passage with one hand. Caress the keys gently with the absolute minimum of finger motion.

Thank you!

[quantum]

Support the playing mechanism.  Floppy fingers don't make reliable and consistent soft tone.  Weight directed from the torso, through the arm, through the hand and fingers, through the key, through the piano action, all to propel the hammer in a predictable and reproducible manner. 

As alluded by above posters, there is no need for specific branded exercises to practice pianissimo.  What is needed is awareness of one's body and one's instrument.  Get to know your instrument and how it reacts to your input.  Become aware of your body mechanics and how changes in approach affect tone.

[iansinclair]

Hi, I am currently learning Liebermann's Gargoyle III. I can't play soft. I know it says Una corda, but since I play too loud, I want to practice it w/out soft pedal first. Does anyone have suggestions to start playing soft again?

Quite right to learn the piece without the soft pedal first!  Then you have that as an additional control later on.

That said, the comments above are all worthy of consideration.  I would add two more: first, there is a minimum sound level for any piano!  The problem is that unless the piano is really well voiced, and really well maintained, that minimum level may well be different in different places in the range -- even on two adjacent notes.  This makes playing really softly remarkably hard.

The second is that there is nothing like playing pianissimo to bring out all of the possible problems in technique.  It's well worth learning to do it, and do it well, for exactly that reason.  So work on it; it's worth it.

[marijn210999]

Hi.

Playing softly is - to most people's surprise - one of the most difficult aspects of piano playing. Since soft playing sounds like - if played softly in a right manner - some kind of tenderous touch which doesn't involves much effort. For example: listen to the second movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata, K.280 (the F major one) as played by Glenn Gould. It sounds like as if the notes are played complete effortless and untensioned.

Now that last thing is very true, but the first one is far from the truth. In fact it takes a lot of effort to play softly, but it takes a very different kind of effort then when playing ascending 32d notes octaves (as you will find in, for instance, Liszt's music. However. This is how I usually can manage to play a certain passage softly in a correct way:

1. Before you even touch the piano, hear in your mind the music you want to play. Hear it exactly the way you want it to sound. Then after you've done that, you can play the music. Be sure , when playing the music, you always are one step forth in your mind. So be sure to hear every bar or passage in your mind first, then play it. This also mean you have to hear other music in your mind then the music you're playing, which is a mentally hard task. You have to practice with it first.

2. Be sure that you're fingers are very active. This is achieved by curving the fingers so, that you have full controll over it. Believe me. You will be able to play softly much better when curving you're fingers.

I hope this helps.

BW, Marijn

[rubinsteinmad]

Wow! Thank you! I'll start practicing that way now!

[marijn210999]

Wow! Thank you! I'll start practicing that way now!

No thanks. Let me know how it works out!

BW,
Marijn