The craft of piano playing

[alan fraser]

I happened to come across your piano technique website and was very impressed by breadth of information on the site. Your reviews about piano technique were extremely informative, logical, and convincing, especially the ones about Taubman and Lister-Sink. One point that stood out to me was your observation that Lister-Sink actually played the scale better with flat fingers than with curved fingers. Perhaps not surprisingly, Horowitz famously played passagework with low wrists and flat fingers and produced a wonderful jeu de perlé. Do you believe that flat fingers produce a better sound than curved fingers during passagework, as flattened fingers allow the entire ball of the finger- as opposed to just the tip- to touch the key?
It depends on the context. Many times you also see Horowitz curling extremely (Mozart K330 for instance). But yes, the more surface area of the finger on key, the richer the sound.

I have heard that many pianists who tried to follow Horowitz' technique had injuries, which sounds strange if Horowitz' approach is the most effecient one.
They tried to follow his lead but they didn't understand the internal organization. Flat fingers creates more 'pulling' on the tendons of the forearm and you have to know how to organize yourself to minimize that increase in 'pull' and also to have the strength developed so you can do that without hurting yourself. Horowitz was incredibly strong, and that means a lot.

In the Horowitz slow motion video that you posted, I was amazed at the insight it provided into his ocatave and scale playing. In this article http://nettheim.com/horowitz/horowitz32.html, Horowitz claimed that he uses only the wrist (with the movement stopping at the wrist) to play octaves and that if he used the forearm, he would become fatigued and a harsh sound would result. However, in the slow motion video, Horowitz appears to be making huge motions from the elbow. It seems as if he wasn't accurately perceiving what he was doing during octave playing.
Exactly. He was subjective just like the rest of us. But that doesn't mean we should necessarily imitate what we 'see.' Perhaps if we subject ourselves to the same subjective illusion we will go farther!

Are you an advocate of traditional wrist octaves, as I remember you had criticzed the Taubman/Golandsky forearm approach to octaves?
You'll have to read my book and watch my DVD's, the answer to that one is too long to put in here.

I was also fascinated by your discussion of arm weight and think that you did a fabulous job at debunking the Taubman rotation fallacy.
Thank you!

When scales are played, do you think that they should be played through finger independence (the fingers moving independently of the hand and forearm) or through releasing weight of the forearm into the key?
Neither. The external look is that the fingers move independently, but there is a movement of the hand and forearm through several notes that creates the phrase and the physical freedom needed for that finger independence not to become finger isolation (which would lead to all sorts of problems both physical and musical).

However I certainly don't advocate releasing the weight of the forearm into the key - all that does is emasculate the finger, and why would we want to?

On the other hand, I have indeed taught exactly this latter technique at times, when I saw that the student was tight in the arm and needed release there big time.

For example, in the Horowitz clip, do you think that his scales are played through finger independence, arm weight, or a combination of finger activity and forearm movement? If it is the third option, then that may actually be similar to the Taubman approach, as it advocates a balance of action among the fingers, hand, and forearm.
Yes, I believe it is the third option, and yes it is similar to what they advocate. I just wish they would do what they advocate!

I really enjoyed your website. Keep up the excellent work. I would love to see even more reviews/ technique articles.
Thanks again for your really pertinent observations.

Best wishes,

Alan Fraser
_________________
Craft of Piano technique - the synthesis of mind, body and spirit in sound...
www.alanfraser.net
www.craftofpiano.com
www.pianotechnique.net

[alan fraser]

Dear Mr. Fraser,

Thank you for the response. As usual, your comments were very enlightening.

"It depends on the context. Many times you also see Horowitz curling extremely (Mozart K330 for instance). But yes, the more surface area of the finger on key, the richer the sound."
That's That's very true about the flat vs. curled fingers. Horowitz used different techniques for different pieces. Curling seems to be effective when you are forced to quickly play long fingers on white keys. That is another area where Taubman may be unnecessarily restrictive, insisting that you use cumbersome out motions of the forearm to play long fingers on the white keys.

"They tried to follow his lead but they didn't understand the internal organization. Flat fingers creates more 'pulling' on the tendons of the forearm and you have to know how to organize yourself to minimize that increase in 'pull' and also to have the strength developed so you can do that without hurting yourself. Horowitz was incredibly strong, and that means a lot."
Horowitz did have excellent body organization. I'm familiar with Alexander technique, and the Alexandrians would say that Horowitz "used himself" very well, meaning the relationship among his head, neck, and back was excellent. Perhaps if one has optimal organization in the body as a whole, certain localized tasks that would be stressful for a poorly organized person (e.g. using flat or curled fingers) can become perfectly healthy and effortless in the hands of a well-organized individual. Many pianists observed that Horowitz played with a lot of arm tension, but that he would immediately release the tension after striking a note. Perhaps the "tension" that was observed was merely the necessary tension to bring the hands and fingers into action, as opposed to the excessive and dangerous relaxation that many pedagogues advocate.

The issue of strength is another point that Taubman completely ignores. Horowitz allegedly had very muscular hands and fingers, and I imagine that muscle mass helped prevent excessive exertion. Do you think that pianists should do muscle-building exercises away from the keyboard, or should practicing the piano be sufficient to develop muscle?

Hard to say. I myself tend not to but there were times when I definitely did. When I recorded Russian Recital I remember doing both pushups and pullups every day for a month before. I didn't do anything for the hands alone: doing pullups definitely develops much greater strength in the hand but relates that strength to a whole body effort, so I thought it wiser to do that than some "hand exercise" that might stress something out. My hand strengthening was integrated into a whole upper body strengthening regimen.

"Exactly. He was subjective just like the rest of us. But that doesn't mean we should necessarily imitate what we 'see.' Perhaps if we subject ourselves to the same subjective illusion we will go farther!"

Yes, perhaps thinking about the wrist movement sent the hand into potent action (something that Taubman/Golandsky ignore) and prevented superfluous forearm activity.

"Neither. The external look is that the fingers move independently, but there is a movement of the hand and forearm through several notes that creates the phrase and the physical freedom needed for that finger independence not to become finger isolation (which would lead to all sorts of problems both physical and musical).

'However I certainly don't advocate releasing the weight of the forearm into the key - all that does is emasculate the finger, and why would we want to?

'On the other hand, I have indeed taught exactly this latter technique at times, when I saw that the student was tight in the arm and needed release there big time."

I see your point. The hand and the forearm should follow the fingers, but that does not mean that there is an individual rotation on each note.

"Yes, I believe it is the third option, and yes it is similar to what they advocate. I just wish they would do what they advocate!"

That's true. Although Taubman advocates a balance of activity among fingers, hand, and forearm, you correctly observed that Taubman practitioners fail to address the significance of the hand's arch, which effectively destroys finger and hand activity.


"You might want to visit my forum ( www.maplegroveproductions.com/piano ), where you will find lots more of my answers and dialogues with pianists who have posed fascinating questions. And with you permission, I would like to post this valuable exchange on that forum. Would you be ok with that?"

I'll definitely take a look at your website. In particular, I'll try to find more information on maintaining the correct arch of the hand.

Thanks for your very perceptive "comments on my comments!"

AFF
_________________
Craft of Piano technique - the synthesis of mind, body and spirit in sound...
www.alanfraser.net
www.craftofpiano.com
www.pianotechnique.net