Practice techniques away from the piano?

[musicsdarkangel]

I have several boring classes right now (actually just 3), and was wondering if there are any finger exersizes, wrist exersizes, mental practice ideas, just anything to help my piano playing.


Right now I am just lifting my wrists (like a drum roll almost).


Any ideas?

[Pianostudy]

I have several boring classes right now (actually just 3), and was wondering if there are any finger exersizes, wrist exersizes, mental practice ideas, just anything to help my piano playing.


Right now I am just lifting my wrists (like a drum roll almost).


Any ideas?

I do know of a few.. but how exactly does lifting your wrists do anything at all for your piano playing? I guess it gives you some wrist exercise(?).  Try playing your pieces through on a desk or something using all the correct fingerngs.  This is more challenging than it sounds!  If you are able to do this, you will be at a good point with your pieces.

[Brian Healey]

You can practice relaxed hands and fingers away from the piano. Put your your hands on a flat surface as if you were playing the piano. A school desk works great.  Then practice lifting each individual finger and letting it drop without effort. I like to imagine that someone is pulling my finger up with a string, then someone cuts the string and the finger falls with only the aid of gravity and nothing else.

Or if your class is really boring, just close your eyes and practice mentally. Think of a piece you're working on and imagine your hands playing the keys, and picture the keyboard in your mind. Also, try as hard you can to really hear the notes in your mind. Visualization is a powerful tool.



tah dah,
Bri

[pianowelsh]

Once had a class with Bernard Roberts (known for beethoven interpretations) and he suggested an excersize involving circular motions beginning with the finger joints and working backwards along the mechanism as a means fo preparing hands/ arms to play - -poss usefull at the end of a boring class if you have a room to go to afterwards. I know i hate having to get up and play having sat vegetating in a soporiphic lecture room for an hour or so!!

[musicsdarkangel]

I do know of a few.. but how exactly does lifting your wrists do anything at all for your piano playing? I guess it gives you some wrist exercise(?).  Try playing your pieces through on a desk or something using all the correct fingerngs.  This is more challenging than it sounds!  If you are able to do this, you will be at a good point with your pieces.

I'm going to start using my arms, but there is a section in la Campanella where the hands (at least the right) have to use wrist in a drum roll fasion (the long chromatic scale)

I have realized that if I want to get better at octaves though, I should use my arms instead. 


Maybe I could do thirds on the desk as well?  ANy other thoughts?

[lostinidlewonder]

I reckon practice away from the piano can aid coordination (having a better sense of which fingers need to play and which order). But has limitation on mastering form/flow(how the hand exactly feel, move over patterns, this is what is the strongest basis for musical memorisation) and exact movement of notes, this which needs to be of course done at the piano.

When I'm away from piano I often practice the fingering of pieces. Particular phrases which annoy me. I move my fingers very slightly to the left or right (maybe like 1cm) depending on the direction the piece moves. It is the mind which has to observe the movement not the physical fingers, that is very important i think when practicing away from the piano.

I close my eyes and observe the keyboard in my minds eye. I don't think you have to observe all the notes that piece you are trying to play goes through in your head, that would be something if you could do that very impressive, but instead try to see particular notes which you use to aid your memory of the piece. Perhaps it is the note in which the passage of that piece moves around, a note which moves slowly up or down, or just a one that highlights notes which have to be played in the other hand or in the future bars, maybe it is the note which balances the entire hand, whatever.

I don't believe you can practice sections that have "large reaches" away from the piano, eg: Liszt's La Campanella's Rh opening, you have to have the keyboard infront of you so you can master those controlled movements.

I find practicing Bach away from the piano helps incredibly where single note movements of Bh are going in odd directions and need to be mastered. It is the fingers being tested not the entire hand movements, so you can get away defiantly with practice of Bach away from the piano, easier than other pieces in my opinion.

I remember when i first learnt the Ondine from Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, the coordination of the melody in the Lh to the RH tremolos was absorbed easily away from the piano. Just tapping the constant RH rhythm with the correct fingers and then tap with the Lh the melody, not moving all over the place or crossing over hands as in the piece, but the coordination of the rhythm over the melody can defiantly be targeted.

These things help me now and again, especially if i am troubled over a small section in a piece which isn't under my hand yet. Often it is pretty subconscious until people glare at you angrily because the tapping becomes incessant. 

[SDL]

Close your eyes and memorise the music as if you were at the piano playing it - just as you would when reading music away from the piano.  You do actually simulate what you would do on the piano - Ive started learning like this when I dont have a piano..  Ive done this many times before a concert and won!

[musicsdarkangel]

Wow, i've gotta try this stuff.

I wonder if it would help me with the 3 page 32nd note run in la campanella?

[quixoticcafe]

The only thing that will help you with that 32 note run is JESUS..
Why not tape your course lectures and sit there and look at scores and try to secure visual memory. Supposedly people like Adele Marcus have photgraphic memory. Maybe this is one way to start getting it?

quixoticcafe

[Derek]

I often move my fingers around in various patterns like stairstepping, drumming back and forth, and sometimes I practice some cross rhythms with my hand, or come up with new ones...often I just improvise in my head. I'm certain this helps my recent playing "incubate" in my mind. And listening to recordings of yourself is a great way to critique your own playing, as well as an innocent and gratifying form of vanity. haha

[lostinidlewonder]

I wonder if it would help me with the 3 page 32nd note run in la campanella?

It most definatly would help to break the run into groups and practice the groups. For example I would (if we are talking about bar 75) break the finger groups into this.

3212123 (E D# C## D# E E# F) has the feeling of a turn
1234123 (F## G# A A# B B# C) has an upward movement
1234321321 (C## D# E F# E D# C## C# B# B) has a upward movement which returns and then goes downwards.
4321321 (A# A G# F## F# E# E) downward movement


These groups can be practiced away from the piano, you just practice those finger combinations. Your hand should be very steady throughout each of these groups, controlled. But when you move to each group you can slightly reposition yourself.
When you cross over fingers you should slightly move up or down according to the direction of the notes. It wont be the same as playing it on the keyboard but similar, it highlights the general direction (it is also helpful to know where the black notes are since they act as supports for the fingers through the run, so you should "feel" the fingers which strike the black notes slightly more than you do with the whites when playing away from the keyboard. When you try it on the keyboard it will be more natural. Of course there is particular shape to this scale so you would have to observe those subtlies on the actual keys.

[bernhard]

Have a look here:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,1894.msg14707.html#msg14707
(mental practice – Glenn Gould interview)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2458.msg21365.html#msg21365
(Mental practice – tips for fingering)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2615.msg22522.html#msg22522
(Piece analysis – delay going to the piano and spend most time analysing – Comparison with the process of film making)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3833.msg34775.html#msg34775
(analysing pieces)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4322.msg40260.html#msg40260
(mental practice)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4954.msg46883.html#msg46883
(mental practice)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.