Technical elements of playing : Compiling a list

[m1469]

For the sake of teaching (and clarity for me as a student) I am working to compile a list of the technical aspects of learning to play music on the piano.  I am trying to think first of the most broad aspects (for example, the category of Shapes / Note groups would include scales, arpeggios, octaves etc.) and then I want to break it down from there and then find pieces within the repertoire that will provide opportunity to work on these specific aspects.

Please excuse if this has been discussed somewhere before, but I could not locate it.

Here is what I have so far and I would appreciate anybody's input and feedback (no particular order):

*Comfort in all registers of piano
*Comfort in all keys
*Shapes / Note groups
*Pedalling
*Articulations
*Dynamics
*Velocity / Tempo
*Aural Skills

*Physical awareness/ control / development 
(what is actually happening physically to achieve whatever the musical task may be at had : arm weight, relaxation, etc.)


Have I left anything out?  Can I word something better? Can I combine any of these aspects already mentioned? etc.. 

Thanks,

m1469

[i_m_robot]

Chopets

[m1469]

uh... 

If that is a real answer, then maybe you would not mind giving another real answer to my real question :  what is that??

If it's a joke, I don't get it, sorry. 

m1469

[m1469]

Ohhh, he he, the Chopin Etudes  . 

Yeah, that's a thing, but I am looking for the technical elements first and then pieces  for all levels of playing (especially for building technique within repertory accomplishments from complete beginning stages).

Thanks,

m1469

[maryruth]

Skills
1.  Articulation--specific types of touches (legato, staccato, portato, slure, accent symbols)

2.  Counterpoint

3.  Dynamics

4.  Interprestation--pieces that need extra musical thinking to be effectively played.

5.  Key changes--pieces with more than one key signature; or accidentals when it moves to another key for a lengthy period of time

6.  Left Hand

7.  pedaling--special focus on one or more styles of pedaling (syncopated, full, half, quarter, color)

8.  Range of Motion--sudden or far-reaching shifts in hand position

9.  Reading Challenge--sections are harder to read than to play

10.  Rhythm--strong rhythmic elements and/or recurring patterns

11. Voicing--Bringing our certain notes while playing other notes, either within on hand or between the hands (balance)

[Bob]

There is so much to this.

Here is some of what I've thought before.


On the *physical side...

You have your body -- *two hands, *five fingers, *two arms, etc.

There is the piano -- 88 keys... so you have the *full range that has been mentioned.


The point is to produce a sound on the piano.  That's accomplished by making the key go down.  You can either *drop onto a key or *press down into a key.

With the idea of one long limb in mind, you have...
- the finger (you could even break this down to the first two segments of the finger)
- the hand (the palm and backhand part)
- the forearm
- the upperarm
- maybe the shoulders
- the trunk of the body

And that's one arm.

Note to self:  I should make a better chart later.  I made one like this a long time ago.  I should put a link on my Bob page here too.

So for even one finger, you can drop it or you can press it down to produce a sound.  You can disregard the finger entirely and use the hand -- lift and drop the hand, just drop the hand, or pull the hand down.

Keeping in mind that the fingers are what actually makes contact with the keys.

You can keep in mind the material use -- bone, tendons, and muscles.  With an arch in the finger, you can drop you forearm/upperarm weight into the key without really controlling your finger.

There is the state of all this material -- how much tension is stored/trapped in the muscles and tendons to begin with.  (Turn your palm upward and totally relax.  Your fingers curl back up, don't they?  That's from this type of tension.  Not necessarily bad or good, but still there.)

There is also position.  If you've got the arch in the fingers, you can drop a lot of weight into them without much effort.

(What a mess of thoughts this is.)


There is also how each part moves.  Up/down at each joint of the finger.  Fingers can move in circles (or up/down and left/right).  (another area to chart out)  The forearm can rotate unlike the limb/digits.  Beyond the possible movements, there are the position -- finger up, finger down, etc.  Instead of static positions, there are movements -- finger moving up and down, for example.

And then there are combinations of all this.

The movement stuff could be entirely separated from the piano.  But the point is to produce sound from the instrument, so some things are a bit of a waste.


Back to the fingers...  you have five digits.  There are many combinations of finger groupings -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5....  12 13 14 15 23 24 25 34 35 45 45..... etc. etc. etc.   

Putting it back onto the piano....  You can play one note with one finger.  You could curl the finger, you could lift and drop the finger, you could press or lift/drop or drop with the hand... with the forearm.... with your body..... All for just one note.

Still on the piano...  So you've got one note played.  Eventually, you'll probably want to play more.  You can either keep your hand static or moving it.  If the hand is static, you can play any of the other fingers (also, hand span -- stretching fingers in or out as a group). 

Goes off into thought-land.... If you play one note with one finger and move your hand.... There are all the finger combinations you could do.  If you use 1 and 5, then you get the traditional octaves.


There are also all the directions of progress you can work toward -- speed, endurance, control, accuracy, etc.


Still on the physical side, the keyboard is made up of black and white keys.  That affects exercises.

There is the state of your body -- in shape, out of shape, are you physically capable of doing this?   You mind controls your body, so there is that connection too -- Does your mind send the signal to control your body?

I think that's about it for the physical side.  There are lots of combinations of all that to put together, and a lot may not be so practical towards piano playing.

Then you have the mental side and the emotions.
Mind -- reading, interpreting, aural skills, concepts, etc.  Planning too. 
Emotions -- actually feeling the music if it's that kind of music
(Spirituality too I supppose, but I consider that a combination of the mind and emotions.)

Any area can be turned into technique.  Chords are important.  You can work on chords as an aspect of developing technique.



Since my thoughts on the physical side of technique are a little removed from actual piano playing, that gets a little confusing (this is a huge area).  You can also strip technique off actual pieces of literature.

Oh yes, you also have the sound produced on the piano to experiement with.  And the pedal.  Notes can be soft/loud.  When you get more than one pitch, one pitch can be louder than the others or they can blend into the same sound.  Balance and voicing.

And you have to be practical.  What is actually played on the piano?  Thinking on the physical side like that may not even produce the idea of scales -- there is also crossing your thumb under or fingers over.

(and that's all not to say that something that seems pointless may not help your piano playing.  Opening and closing your hand is not directly related to piano playing, but would probably help in the long run.)

(stretching too, speed, strength, coordination...)

I think those are my main ideas.  There is a huge amount of possibilities from all that.

The technique of working on a piece over time....



It's a huge area.  There is no end.  I wonder if it's even possible to "completely" make a list of the techniques used in literature.  Plus, everyone plays differently, so they may be using different techniques to produce the same result.


More thoughts.... There are...
Scratches
Five finger exercises
Scales and arpeggios
Chords
Wrist exercises
8ves, straight and broken and all differenet sorts of combinations between the two hands
repeated notes
crosses of the thumb and fingers
Playing large chords, fast and slow
Short and fast notes on only a few fingers  123 234;  paired fingers

Adding repetition to increase endurance on all these.  Pushing speed, or slowness too.  Dynamics (loud, soft, changes in dyn).  Different articulations.

Hold fingers down while the others play
3rds
scales in 3rds
Exotic scales
Fast scales and arpeggios
Chord progressions
sight-reading

Actually playing literature!

Going out and performing literature.

There is also your general health and how much energy you have.  How fast your body will heal up after practicing.  How fast your mind will absorb the material.


That's about all I can think of.  Sorry it's so messy.  There is a lot of information here and lot to be read into or figured out from this stuff.  I wonder if it's possible to even organize all this stuff....

Food for thought anyway. 


Oh yes, thinking in the key your playing in...... seeing the key on the keyboard..... hearing the pitches and chords.....


My God, this is a long post.  And it's off the top of my head too.  Hmm..... I haven't been thinking about these ideas for some time now, have I?   lol....



There is also rhythm.  All different types with that -- divisions of 2's, 3's, etc.


You can play one note.  Then you must 'reset' to play a second note.  That involves releasing possibly and then probably some type of lift.


With one note, you have dynamics -- loud to soft.

With two or more notes, you get articulation and speed and endurance.

Hand position -- static or moving.


You've got the "one-note" idea, and then the "many notes" played with the hand.  It also depends on how many notes you play at once.  One note being like one position or one movement type -- one note with the finger, or one 8ve (1 and 5) -- same thing.  Many notes would be something like playing the first finger, then the second -- It's not the same part movement.


wonders about areas of music -- literature, technique, theory, aural skills, etc.

wonders about philosophy -- teaching and learning



chords, chord progressions

developing tone and ability to play softly

[pianonut]

czerny's 'the school of velocity' goes through different exercises (for adults).  am sure other writers of technique books have similar (but i like czerny and hanon myself- also i freqently used 'a dozen a day' books - forget who wrote them- but you keep adding the previous learned exercise to the next one so it builds up the muscles of the hand and the memory)what i have personally found rewarding is taking a relaxed pace and not overwhelming students with technical work, but just doing 10-15 minutes of it and then playing their pieces for the majority of the practice time.  after a while, you can trust them to do their own technical work on their own - and just work pieces during the lesson.

[ted]

I'm too far off the beaten track to offer much constructive help. For what the observation is worth, it seems to me that the fingers of most pianists are not athletic enough. I'm not talking about the top flight players, but the ones you are likely to encounter socially, at small concerts and playing professionally outside the classical world. I know the holistic approach is good but I sometimes wonder if some finger work per se might be a good thing after all. The hands of so many players I see seem to be very flaccid and the sight makes me glad that, right or wrong, I have my strong fingers to fall back on.

Aside from this observation I don't know very much about technical things.