Help! How do I improve my touch?

[kypiano]

Hello,

I am new to this forum, and I would like to know how to improve my touch? I am a so-called "advanced student", however, recently I started looking at easier pieces, and I was shocked at how unprofessional my sound was. (Right now, I'm focusing on Bach Inventions.)

Does anyone have any ideas? I've experimented for a long time, but it seems all it does is make my playing weaker and punier. I don't know how to experiment for my own benefit.

Will practicing scales help?

Any suggestions?

Thank you for everything,

Ky

[bronnestam]

Here is a useful video:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/27507/115504807

OK, so this is a friend of mine and as you can see, you have to pay for it ... which of course seems like I ... well, I don't. I have this video, I have watched it several times, and I used it just two days ago when I was in a piano summer school and had plenty of time to practice. AND - now here comes the essential part - I really think my sound gets far better if I use the advice here. More powerful, more controlled.

If you are totally against paying anything, I can make some comments right here. In parallel to looking at this video I just happened to be at a lecture/book presentation by Murray McLachlan who also has a terrific technique. He, and my other teacher there, also emphasize what is shown in this video: you have to calm down, work with ONE single key/note, experiment a lot with the simle action of striking just one key and listen to the sound. And actually start with just being silent for a while ... just breathe ...

I have a sense that we all get a bit too impatient. We are not pleased with the sound we make, and so we think that playing yet another 1000 arpeggios and Hanon exercises in ultra-speed will do the trick. Faster, more even, smoother finger movements - a misconception that all it takes is the ability to move our fingers really, really fast and hit the right key in the right moment.

So I think you should go back to the very basics, feel your muscles and your movements, from the back and out to your fingertips, really explore what is happening and how it is happening. The professional sound is not just a job done from your knuckles to your fingertips, it may very well originate from your back and your shoulders.  (Do you follow me?)

There was also a course in Alexander technique in this summer school which I did not attend, but it seemed to be very interesting as well. Check that out too if you like.

[dogperson]

Here is a useful video:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/27507/1

So I think you should go back to the very basics, feel your muscles and your movements, from the back and out to your fingertips, really explore what is happening and how it is happening. The professional sound is not just a job done from your knuckles to your fingertips, it may very well originate from your back and your shoulders.  (Do you follow me?)

There was also a course in Alexander technique in this summer school which I did not attend, but it seemed to be very interesting as well. Check that out too if you like.

What a wonderful video and for $2.99 for 36 min, a bargain IMHO.  Thanks much for posting the link.  If you wouldn't mind sharing, what was the seminar you attended?  Always looking for a different way to learn.

[bronnestam]

Yes, that video was ridiculously cheap considering what you get. You pay far more for a 40 minute lesson with a far less prominent teacher ...

He says that when you climb upwards, your wrist should move as if it slips in a spoon. I had a very nice teacher in the beginning of this summer who described the same things as "draw a happy smiley with your wrist". We tried this in a nocturne where I thought my melody was a bit dull, and the tone improved a lot. The smiley metaphore really worked for me.

The seminar I attended was a closed one at Chetham's Piano Summer School in Manchester, England. Murray held this lecture/demonstration and promoted his book "Piano Technique in Practice" at the same time. I bought a copy and even though I have only had the time to take quick glances in it, I find it very interesting. A long chapter is devoted just to sound, how you produce the sound on the piano - tone, colour, phrasing, rubato etcetera. The only disappointing thing is that some tricks described there are only possible to do on an acoustic grand piano, like the "Bebung touch". Too bad if you have just a digital ... 

Anyway, I will read this thoroughly. It was much more expensive than the Tengstrand video, though, but there is a lot to read and not just the basic stuff. At least not basics for me.