Technique - a weird question

[softbn]

Hi there. Today when I was practicing Ocean Etude by Chopin one of the professors came into the classroom and said “your second finger is to soft” when I played the note with my second fingers again he said “ I still  can’t hear it, it DOES NOT COME OUT OF THE PIANO - it’s forced - even though o didn’t play it loud”

He advised practicing that etude staccato extremely slow for one week thinking about each note with my fingers playing - no rotation nothing but the action of fingers …..” and he added “if you have no money you can’t buy something same with the piano. The weight is all you have to…” but said not to practice with wait but play it with my FINGERS”

Do you have any idea what he was taking about ?

[brogers70]

You do need to use your fingers to play. Sometimes, if you've been working very hard on the larger motions of upper body, shoulder, arm, and wrist, you forget to pay attention to the fingers. It used to be, perhaps, that people made the opposite error, too much time spent working on/thinking about the fingers and not enough on the rest of the body. But you do need a little impulse of the fingers to bring out a note. Practicing something slowly with finger staccato is a good way to get your fingers to learn to get on and off the notes quickly, and practicing like that will show you where you are leaving your fingers on the keys too long. Obviously you won't play like that in the end, but it can be a very instructive exercise.

[jamienc]

The professor is 100% correct. What he is talking about is related to two important issues with this etude and playing in general. First, slow and detached prevents you from getting stuck in the key or position as you ascend and descend. Second, it enables you to detect (and avoid) any excess motion that will make your accuracy less than desirable. This is especially important for those pesky positions where the index or middle fingers need to play between the black keys. The first chord in the right hand is an excellent example of that technical necessity.

[softbn]

Why did he say the sound of the note I played with my index finger “did not come out of the piano?” 🤣 even when I played this note forte? Any idea ?

[brogers70]

Why did he say the sound of the note I played with my index finger “did not come out of the piano?” 🤣 even when I played this note forte? Any idea ?

Pretty hard to answer that without having heard it myself. You could ask him what meant. For now, I'd just take him on faith for a week or two. Practice as he suggested, with an open mind, and see how it goes. If you give it an open-minded try for a week or two and still don't get it, then ask again. Another thing to do is to record yourself, sometimes with a little distance you find that things do not sound the way they felt in the moment.

[lelle]

Could you post a recording of you playing this passage?

[softbn]

FIRST is how I practice

Second is how he suggested. I don’t know if I got it right but he said to lift my fingers and look forward and listen to the sound. I’m so confused right now. He talked about the sound emission or something.

[brogers70]

FIRST is how I practice

Second is how he suggested. I don’t know if I got it right but he said to lift my fingers and look forward and listen to the sound. I’m so confused right now. He talked about the sound emission or something.

I agree with him that the note in question gets lost in the overall sound. If I were to practice that section in the way I think he meant, I would use a much shorter, sharper finger staccato on each note; even though the tempo is slow, you want your finger motion to be extremely rapid.

[quantum]

FIRST is how I practice

Second is how he suggested. I don’t know if I got it right but he said to lift my fingers and look forward and listen to the sound. I’m so confused right now. He talked about the sound emission or something.

The first recording, it is ok for practice and learning the notes and the patterns.  However, this is not how one would apply articulation at performance tempo.  If you were to simply speed this up, the legato would get in the way of the fingers to remain agile at tempo, and pose an additional technical workload on your playing mechanism.  Also, the way you have applied phrasing would lead to an unnecessary agogic accent every time the hands shift to the next octave. 

When you speed up a passage you don't need to maintain finger legato in order to project a legato phrase.  At performance tempo you would be aiming for an implied legato for the larger phrases.  Playing fast passage work using finger legato also leads to a lack of clarity.  Playing more detached as the passage speed is increased will help you.

[softbn]

Thanks a lot for your reply! That means a lot to me. How would you suggest I practice that? Staccato or portato? I didn’t think i focused on using legato at all and now I’m thinking how I’m gonna practice that….. what speed etc etc…. I’m given hard pieces and I do not know much about “practicing”. I’m discovering that practicing is not trying to play something at a full speed at all costs.

[lelle]

It's hard to hear from the quality of recording, but I think your professor's concern might be projecting the sound more. It sounds a bit "shy" now, for lack of a better word. But really, your proffessor should be helping you accomplish this and guide you until you get it. Do you get adequate support from them?

[pianopro181]

Hi there. Today when I was practicing Ocean Etude by Chopin one of the professors came into the classroom and said “your second finger is to soft” when I played the note with my second fingers again he said “ I still  can’t hear it, it DOES NOT COME OUT OF THE PIANO - it’s forced - even though o didn’t play it loud”

He advised practicing that etude staccato extremely slow for one week thinking about each note with my fingers playing - no rotation nothing but the action of fingers …..” and he added “if you have no money you can’t buy something same with the piano. The weight is all you have to…” but said not to practice with wait but play it with my FINGERS”

Do you have any idea what he was taking about ?

The weight comes from the back and shoulders which generates through the arm to the fingers enabling them to facilitate power through the keys. The fingers without the weight are inefficient as they’re compromised of 3 small bones so you need both and likely he feels you are neglecting either one or the other or both.