Junior Virtuosos: Dropping into a key
In my previous “Junior Virtuosos” post I described strategies for helping young students to find a natural hand position. This week I would like to a focus on the next essential step to developing a healthy technique: Dropping and balancing into a key using the weight of the forearm.
It should be noted at the outset that no matter how wonderful a hand position a student develops and how well they learn to drop into a key, it is all for naught if the student is sitting at the wrong bench height or distance from the keyboard. For a great seating guide nothing beats the Well-Balanced Pianist’s page.
1. FIRST STEPS:
Many older American method series begin with children learning a five finger position or stretching over groups of black keys.
In starting this way the finger is divorced from the hand and forearm and the student will place the responsibility of key depression solely on the finger or wrist. This immediately causes strain and a weak tone. Young children are often still learning how to grip a pencil yet they are asked to isolate all five fingers.
Before the finger can be involved the student needs to learn to use the weight of the forearm and how to balance into a key.
Gross motor skills come before fine. Arm before fingers. Thankfully many contemporary methods such as Music Moves, Piano Safari, Tales of a Musical Journey, Hello, Piano!, and The Music Tree are reversing this pedagogical trend.
a. Fists
Before involving the fingers I find it useful to have the student make a gentle fist (like holding a bird’s egg) and play short rote pieces on black key clusters to feel how the weight of the forearm is responsible for producing sound.
Marilyn White Lowe begins this way in her “Music Moves for Piano: Keyboard Games” series and this can be applied to the first pieces in the Faber’s “My First Piano Adventure.”
b. Pencils
Another effective way to learn about forearm weight and key resistance is a technique used by Tobias Matthay (19 February 1858 – 15 December 1945). The student is shown a pencil with the eraser end of the pencil placed on top of the key. Because the key is weighted the pencil is not heavy enough to cause the key to descend. You can have fun finding various objects in the studio and experimenting with which is heavy enough for the keys to play. By lightly holding the pencil the student can use the weight of the forearm to play the key.
If they drop slow enough they will feel the “point of sound,” the little bump near the bottom of the key which activates the escapement mechanism of the action. I like to explore the inside of the piano with the student and show them that by the time the key has reached the bottom the sound has already been produced.
This technique of using the eraser end of the pencil is effective not only during the first stages of study but throughout the pianist’s development.
c. Fingers
After the student has experienced playing with loose fist and pencil, I move on to playing with the hand in its natural alignment as can be found by dropping the arm loosely by the side of the body.
As is found in Music Moves, it can be fun to draw a picture of an apple and having the student poke their finger through as if it is a wiggly worm.
For a beginning four or five year old reaching this stage may take a few lessons.
d. Balance
In the natural hand alignment I like to have the student balance the 2nd or 3rd finger on the bottom of the key as if a “skydiver who has landed on the ground with his or her parachute still in the air.”
No other finger should rest down but instead a toned palm should raise the fingers slightly above the key. I check that the shoulders are rested and the elbow is hanging loosely by the side of the body.
The hand and forearm should be in one piece. Dorothy Taubman called this “contacting” and often compared this simple balance to standing on the floor. This can also be practiced on the surface of the key.
If the key is depressed even a little I know they are pressing.
2. THE TWO DROPS: HAND AND FOREARM
Dropping into a key can be divided into two distinct movements that work in conjunction:
a. Lifting and dropping the hand and forearm
b. Lifting and dropping the finger
To get the sensation of the hand and forearm working as a unit I like to have students give me “high-fives” and playing “pat-a-cake.”
There are lots of wonderful activities using this movement to be found in The Curious Piano Teachers. We can then apply this movement to the piano. We can make big “high-fives,” medium “high-fives” and tiny “high-fives.”
When learning to drop into a key all movement should occur at the joint where the elbow meets the forearm.
Movements of the wrist and finger can be added later. It is important that students be able to identify and isolate this movement. I like to use the image of a castle drawbridge raising and lowering.
If the wrist or hand droops the Kings, Queens, Knights, Princes and Princesses will fall into the moat.
Neither the shoulder nor upper arm should raise.
This simple movement of lifting and dropping the hand and forearm in one piece can take a while to master and may take many lessons. At first only fingers 2 and 3 should be used as they are the easiest to balance on. Gradually the fourth and fifth fingers can be introduced and lastly the thumb which requires a different sort of balance due to its position on the hand.
3. THE TWO DROPS: FINGERS
The second drop is the drop of the fingers from the main knuckle group (metacarpalphalangeal joint). To feel this movement I have students wave to me like a baby waving “bye-bye.” I’ve learned the hard way to make it explicit to young students that we are pretending to be babies, not that they are babies. Dr. Teresa Dybvig has observed that because of the way the joints look on the top of the hand, pianists often map this joint as being higher than it is which causes the fingers to straighten. By flipping the hand over and placing a pencil under the joint students can better understand where the movement occurs.
We can further experience this movement by tapping fingers 2, 3, 4, and 5 on the fallboard. There should be no additional movement in middle (proximal) or tip (distal) joints. They simply come along for the ride.
To combine the two drops I go back to the movement of “high-five.” When we make a “high-five” motion not only does the forearm move from the elbow joint, the palm and fingers are activated as well.
The fingers and forearm should lift and drop together as a unit. The wrist should not be involved.
When tapping an individual finger all four fingers should continue to lift and drop together as a unit, the playing finger dropping a bit further so as to complete its journey to the bottom of the key. Sadly, the method of holding down a five finger position while a single digit lifts in isolation has caused countless pianists to be injured. You can read more on this here.
5. WHAT ABOUT LEGATO?
Legato is an essential skill at the piano, but too often it is rushed into before the student has learned to coordinate the use of the finger, hand, and forearm. When dropping into the key becomes part of the student’s body vocabulary, legato can be introduced without much fuss using two note slurs and rotational movements. This will be the subject of a future post.
Big thanks to Jack Polo for his help with the media.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this post. Questions and comments welcomed!