Fundamental Movements
Arm Weight (2.2)
- Now that you're playing with a supple wrist, a quiet hand, a good preparatory lift and drop, and free fall on dyads, you're ready to support your arm weight on single notes.
- Start with your 2nd finger in your LH on middle C, with your hand well-aligned in front of your forearm.
- Maintain the quiet hand. Do not pull the 3rd finger back. This has to do with the old, false notion that we should make all the fingers the same length. So the 3rd finger tends to get pulled back and the result is that we end up using opposing muscles simultaneously.
- Cultivate the sensation of "letting go," only using the finger you've selected while allowing the rest of your hand to remain quiet.
- Choose one note (such as c5 in the RH or c3 in the LH); lift and drop with each finger in succession. Remember, as you lift and drop on one supported (or stabilised) finger, all the other fingers remain at rest. Listen to the tone you produce with different fingers and strive to have the tones sound similar.
- Do not hyperextend (or overly flatten) your fingers. This makes it even more difficult to move than by using overly curled fingers!
- Give yourself permission to let the thumb be relaxed, off of the keyboard, if that’s better for your hand’s alignment.
- To engage the thumb, you just move the hand forward toward the fallboard. Your other fingers then rest over or between the black keys.
- When working to support the 4th finger, it may be helpful to practise by playing both the 4th and 5th fingers (on the interval of a 2nd) simultaneously. Then, lift and drop, and descend slowly into the key with a quiet hand, first with only the 5th finger, and then only with the 4th finger. After practising attentively (watching and listening) you will soon be able to allow each finger to support your arm weight without engaging other fingers.
- Building on our previous work with alignment, play some different dyads in the middle of the piano by using a preparatory lift and drop. Slightly lift one or more of your other fingers and note how tension unbalances the hand.
- Contrast this by allowing the fingers that are not playing to rest quietly on the surface of the keys while lifting and dropping (Refer to Quiet Hand).
- When playing in any register of the piano, combine free-fall, a quiet hand and optimal alignment.
Purchase options
Fred Karpoff
Winner of the Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award presented by MTNA, Fred Karpoff has performed as soloist and collaborative pianist on four continents and presents workshops throughout the world. After recovering from a career-threatening injury, his life’s work is realised through guiding teachers and pianists toward more efficient, healthful and expressive playing as the Artistic Producer of Entrada Piano. Fred has served as Professor of Piano at Syracuse University and Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music. He holds the DMA from the Peabody Conservatory and is an international Steinway Artist.
Author profile >>