The arm has an incredibly important role in piano playing. Sadly this role is often given chiefly as that of the primary driver of key movements (a genuine role but not the main one. On the other hand, the fingers are usually severely downplayed. They are often portrayed solely as something to transmit arm energy, rather than as the primary mover of the keys. Again this is a necessary role at times, but as an exception and not as the general rule. I use a melody from Mahler's unfinished 10th symphony to show the arm performing a vital (but not weighted) role.
Among other things, I show that fingers simply don't have sufficient mass to strain into the keys, in their own right. Ironically, using arm weight as a replacement for finger movement is usually portrayed as very safe for the hand. The truth is that there is little difference between locking the arm tightly (to move solely in the fingers) and weighing the arm down into fingers. They both prevent the fingers from being able to move freely and safely. Using the arm inappropriately is the real source of an overworked hand, not finger movements themselves. However, this can only be resolved by teaching the arm to make room for the hand to move. Resting more mass into the hand offers no rational solution and would logically add all the more load to a burdened hand. We need to stop blaming the hand for everything, whilst uncritically glorifying the arm weight that often causes the issue.
The irony is that weight approaches only succeed when they serve as an indirect trigger for feeling how to take excess weight OFF the fingers, so they can have room to do their job. Anyone who literally tries to use arm energy as the main source of legato will only be punished for doing so. Weight methods work only when they ease you into a clearer connection between finger and key, not when they genuinely reduce the fingers to applying arm energy without moving for themselves.
The primary role of the arm is generating sideways movements. This prevents locking up and allows the arm to mould itself freely around the points of contact that are created by clear finger movements. The depressed key is a platform that we use to help mass on its journey sideways, not a point to pile it into. With this simple model, you can quickly remove the risk of straining the fingers. This doesn't happen from moving them. It happens when they move under excess load that prevents everything moulding into an easy suspension around their contact.
#piano #pianotutorial #pianotechnique #pianoteacher #armweight
Негізгі бет Музыка The (real) relationship between hand and arm in legato at the piano- with popular myths debunked
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