TO arps

[MarkAllison]

Hi,

I'm trying to practice my arpeggios, and my teacher recommended I do them staccato to get the accuracy right, especially HT. Now, I've done this and it works great with the Chang Thumb-Over method (TO), however I can't seem to be able to play them legato thumb-over quickly (or slowly for that matter).

Does anyone have any tips for approaching this?

Thanks,
Mark.

[bernhard]

1.   For slow legato arpeggios use T.U. (nothing wrong with that ).

2.   For not too fast legato arpeggios you may get away with T.U. If you cannot, use the pedal.

3.   For ultra fast arpeggios, use T.O. (T.U. will create and impenetrable speed wall). At extreme speeds they will be legato because you will hit the next key before the damper of the previous one gets to the string. Also there are limits to what the human ear can perceive. If you don’t believe me and if you have access to a digital piano with a recording facility and inbuilt metronome, try this experiment: record an slow arpeggio with T.O. The “break” in the legato will be painfully obvious. Now play back the recording but set the metronome to a higher speed. As you increase the speed of the metronome and the recording speeds up, the “break” will start to disappear, until it reaches a point where it is completely undetectable.

However, and this is the important point, when you recorded your arpeggio slowly, the technical demands were such that you were able to play the arpeggio evenly. As you start playing faster, the shift of the hand necessary for T.O. bcomes more clumsy and you become uneven. It is this unevenness – rather than T.O. – that causes the problem. So you must isolate the two notes involved and practise only the hand shift. As you do that, prepare the fingers, that is as you shift the hand from 3rd finger (G) to thumb(C) (e.g. in the RH C major arpeggio C-E-G-C-E-G-E) you must make sure that fingers 2-3 already land on E-G. In fact the whole point of this handshifting practice is not so much the accuracy of the handshifting as the accuracy of the finger placement in the keys before they are needed.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[MarkAllison]

Thanks for that - I am practising for my ABRSM Grade 4 exam in UK and am looking at EMaj, BMaj and FMaj  HT at the moment. The min. speed required is crotchet = 76. Would you recommend TO or TU for that? I'm thinking perhaps TU at the moment because I can do that legato, however I won't be able to go much faster, although there is no requirement to go much faster.

Mark.

[alvaro_galvez]

At that speed I would do TU. Rather than practicing speed I´d practice quality. Polish the wrist movements  (exagerate them if you can) and focus on the quality of the sound rather than speed. If they give you an advantage use it! 

[bernhard]

At that speed I would do TU. Rather than practicing speed I´d practice quality. Polish the wrist movements  (exagerate them if you can) and focus on the quality of the sound rather than speed. If they give you an advantage use it! 

I agree. At that speed TU is fine and will allow you a nice legato which is probably what the examiners are looking for at this grade (rather than speed).

Good luck.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[dmk]

I agree. At that speed TU is fine and will allow you a nice legato which is probably what the examiners are looking for at this grade (rather than speed).

Good luck.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

To add to what Bernhard and Alvaro said... the examiners (at this grade) do not appreciate the use of the TO method because at that slower speed.

My teacher conducted a little experiment, she was wanting to teach beginners to use the TO method (as as Bernhard said earlier, when you are playing arpeggios at a fast speed it is the only way to go) but was worried about a non-perfect legato at this slower speed.  She submitted one of her senior students to a gr 4 exam who played the arpeggios at the recommended speed using a beautiful TO style.

Guess what the result was  she commented on the method and that the legato could have been finer ....predictable huh! 

good luck in your exam !!

dmk