Voicing

[treblemaker]

I'm a high school piano student and am currently working on the kablevsky youth concerto mvmt 1 but I have trouble voicing. Right now I can voice 3 over 1, but I have trouble voicing 4 and 5 fingers over my thumb. Do y'all have any advice to help with voicing?

[quino-lane]

sorry, I don't have advice for you, but I think it's really cool that you're playing that youth concerto! (i'm also a high school student)

[brogers70]

The most helpful advice I got on voicing was from Josh Wright. The exercise he suggests for learning to voice a passage, particularly when there are multiple lines in one hand, is to play the line you want to voice up legato and forte and the line(s) you want to voice down staccato and forte. Obviously you won't exaggerate like this when you play the piece for real, but it trains you to use different touches for different fingers in the same hand. I found it extremely helpful, for example, in the Schubert Gb Major Impromptu, where you are playing the melody with your right 5th finger while the other RH fingers are playing a busy, but quiet accompaniment, or in Schumann's F# Major Romance, where the same issue arises.

[quantum]

You could do an exercise separating the the primary pitch from secondary pitches. 

Play the primary pitch forte, and hold the key down. 
Pause.
Play the secondary pitches pianissimo, without releasing the previously held note. 

Work at bridging intent with execution when playing both primary and secondary pitches.  You want the tone you pre-visualize in your mind's ear to equal the tone that you hear yourself play at the piano. 

Gradually reduce the time of the pause.  Eventually you will reach the point where you are playing the primary and secondary pitches simultaneously, and with contrasting dynamic. 

[...] play the line you want to voice up legato and forte and the line(s) you want to voice down staccato and forte.

A technique similar to this can also be used on organ to voice chords. 

[treblemaker]

Thanks. I tried those and they really helped.