Can anyone please explain PARALLEL SETS concept with a video?

[tombikadam]

I saw that a lot of guys including me didn't understand this parallel sets training, can someone please create a correct video demonstration for both of us!?

[brogers70]

I don't think parallel sets is worth a video. The idea is that if you can reach a group of notes without moving your hand, you can play them infinitely fast. So consider CDEFG or CEG. If you play them simultaneously, then that's infinitely fast - there's no delay at all from one note to the other. Then, so it goes, all you need to do is slow down a little, and you'll be playing very fast, but not infinitely fast. So, in principle, it should be trivial to play a CGEGCGEGCGEG Alberti bass as fast as you want. Maybe you need to practice two notes at a time first, so just getting the initial CG as fast as you want, then add notes, and voila.

This is an idea originated by a physicist, not a biologist or pianist, and it shows. The difficulty is not in the motions of the fingers, but in training the brain to send the right signals to the fingers at the right time. I found parallel sets to be an idea that sounds nifty the first time you read it, but didn't actually help my practice much at all.

[dizzyfingers]

I don't think parallel sets is worth a video. The idea is that if you can reach a group of notes without moving your hand, you can play them infinitely fast. So consider CDEFG or CEG. If you play them simultaneously, then that's infinitely fast - there's no delay at all from one note to the other. Then, so it goes, all you need to do is slow down a little, and you'll be playing very fast, but not infinitely fast. So, in principle, it should be trivial to play a CGEGCGEGCGEG Alberti bass as fast as you want. Maybe you need to practice two notes at a time first, so just getting the initial CG as fast as you want, then add notes, and voila.

This is an idea originated by a physicist, not a biologist or pianist, and it shows. The difficulty is not in the motions of the fingers, but in training the brain to send the right signals to the fingers at the right time. I found parallel sets to be an idea that sounds nifty the first time you read it, but didn't actually help my practice much at all.

Thanks for explaining this.  I had no idea what this post was about.  "Parallel Sets" lol - how vague!

[lelle]

There is some merit to the idea that you can reach very fast speeds by tearing off a chunk of notes as one "gesture", which is what going from playing the notes simultaneously to playing them in a very fast sequence essentially is. Then the issue is just gluing together these gestures at the same speed.

It's the difference between playing a sequence of notes, feeling each note as a separate impulse given to each finger, vs feeling them as one impulse given to the whole gesture.

I learned the first movement of Kreisleriana in one day this way. First I identified groups I could do in one position. Then I practised each group separately, in tempo, feeling them as one impulse each. Finally I worked on putting them together. Admittedly, I have many years of finger independence training and playing advanced repertoire behind me.

[tombikadam]

I don't think parallel sets is worth a video. The idea is that if you can reach a group of notes without moving your hand, you can play them infinitely fast. So consider CDEFG or CEG. If you play them simultaneously, then that's infinitely fast - there's no delay at all from one note to the other. Then, so it goes, all you need to do is slow down a little, and you'll be playing very fast, but not infinitely fast. So, in principle, it should be trivial to play a CGEGCGEGCGEG Alberti bass as fast as you want. Maybe you need to practice two notes at a time first, so just getting the initial CG as fast as you want, then add notes, and voila.

This is an idea originated by a physicist, not a biologist or pianist, and it shows. The difficulty is not in the motions of the fingers, but in training the brain to send the right signals to the fingers at the right time. I found parallel sets to be an idea that sounds nifty the first time you read it, but didn't actually help my practice much at all.

awesome explanation, You explained it very well. I also think that this technique is used to establish the position of the notes you are currently playing rather than the speed.