Pianist and Pedagogue
The piano offers a richer and more varied repertoire than any other solo instrument. We can play as many notes as our ten fingers allow, which gives us an enormous range of sounds and colors. Unfortunately not every pianist’s hand is large enough to physically …
Playing the piano is fine motor skill requiring a complex set of coordinations between large and small muscle groups. For most students verbal descriptions and visual demonstration are not enough to convey the complexities of physical movement and a kinesthetic experience is necessary. This is …
The question of tone quality comes up amongst pianists regularly. It is often said that no matter what the pianist does all that matters is the speed of the hammer when it hits the strings. This is partially true from the point of view of physics where all that is taken into account is the relationship between the fundamentals and partials. But what we consider to be “tone quality” is a result of a complex and fascinating combination of the mechanics of the instrument, the body, and human perception. Without getting too technical here is a brief overview:
Pitch generally corresponds with frequency. The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch. Few sounds are made of pure, regular sound waves. The number and intensity of overtones (partials) are what allow us to distinguish between a harp and a violin. This can be described as timbre.
Our bodies react to external stimuli via the end organs of the inner ear (fine hair-cells), our retinas (rods and cones) and through touch (bulbs beneath the skin). In piano playing we are primarily concerned with auditory stimuli but when we play the piano or watch the piano being played our vision and touch can also play significant roles in our perception of tone quality.
What we perceive to be tone quality is a result of three different attributes combined to create a single aural experience.
a. Pitch- frequency
b. Intensity- tonal loudness
c. Duration- length of time the pitch is sounded
Each of these elements can vary greatly. It is through combining these elements that a vast array of tone colors are created at the piano.
Otto Ortmann, was an American educator who served as director of the Peabody Conservatory from 1928 to 1942. Beginning in the 1920’s Ortmann and other researchers began using a device called the oscillograph to record and create graphic representations of sound waves.
The results were fascinating. For instance, the higher a pitch is played on a trombone, the fewer partials are present and a more pure tone quality is produced.
The greater the intensity (loudness) of a mezzo-soprano when singing A=440 the greater the complexity.
The shorter the duration of a sound on the piano the more noise and less tone we perceive.
When we play a key we hear not only the tone produced by the instrument but also how percussively the key is played and mechanical noises produced by the instrument (finger-key impact, key-bed impact, hammer-string impact, hammer-check impact, and friction among the action parts).
A percussive sound is created by striking the key from above. A non-percussive sound by staying close to the surface of the key.
Ortmann showed in his research that these noise and percussive elements affect the way we perceive the quality of tone. Subsequent research, including this study published in Novemeber 2014 issue of “The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,” support that view.
A fascinating blog post on the study can be read at Physics Central:physics buzz blog.
As Ortmann notes, the effect of duration in piano playing is particularly striking as the human ear is not capable of separating the noise elements present at the beginning of a tone from the tone itself. When the noise elements were removed in the recording studio even professional musicians were unable to identify the tone as being produced by a piano, and instead guessed double bass, flute, violin, and other instruments.
The piano does not sound like a piano without a human being playing it.
If you want to create a soft sound at the piano play slowly into the key. If you want to play loudly, play fast. However, volume is not the only thing that is altered by varying the key speed. The mix of overtones shift as well.
If you play too slowly the hammer will fail to hit the string and a weak sound, or no sound at all will be produced.
If you play too fast a harsh sound that fails to carry is created. This is due the suddenness of the attack which causes the strings to segment the vibrations rather than allowing the whole length of the string to vibrate, enforcing the fundamental sound.
Children and amateur pianists often make the mistake of believing volume is created by force and will press and push on the keybed. This is a waste of muscular effort and creates an unpleasant tone. As soon as the hammer has struck the string there is nothing we can do to alter the sound other than activating or releasing the dampers. It is important to separate our emotional response to the music from the physical means of tone production.
Despite some claims to the contrary, how we physically play the instrument matters. Small changes in alignment and balance can produce large differences in tone production due the way they vary transfer of energy into the key and alter key speed. I’m always astonished how simply unlocking a joint or balancing the finger into a key, a weak, flabby tone can suddenly sound rich and full.
As Thomas Mark notes in his book “What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body,”the kinesthetic energy delivered to the string is a function of mass and the velocity of the hammer. But kinesthetic energy fluctuates not with the velocity but with the square of the velocity. Consequently, a change in velocity by a certain percent…will result in a larger change in the kinetic energy delivered to the string. This means that seemingly slight changes in the speed of key descent produce large differences in volume and tone quality.”
At the 1:02:00 mark of this Masterclass, Leon Fleisher suggests to a student playing the opening of Beethoven op. 110 that she play more on the pad of the fingers in order to slow the descent of the key and create a more lyrical sound.
At the 2:20 mark of this Masterclass, Fleisher suggest that the pianist play the opening of Prokofiev’s 6th Sonata on the tips of the fingers in order to create a bright and percussive sound.
In order to drop into weighted keys without having to use excessive force, forearm weight is essential. While the weight of the arm does not directly affect the sound, it can indirectly change the tone quality by altering the speed of key descent. For instance, asking the forearm to release more weight into the key can cause the key to descend more slowly and less percussively.
One particularly useful way creating different sounds at the piano used by Tobias Matthay was to think in terms of “arm touch”, “hand touch”, and “finger touch”. We of course use all three in combination when playing (moving any part of the body in insolation is in-coordinate), but by slightly altering the proportions we can create different tonal effects.
This was first shown to me in a lesson with Nina Tichman, an expert in Debussy. I was preparing Book 1 of the Preludes for a performance and played for her “Voiles.” The opening passage depicts a sail fluttering in the wind. She suggested playing the opening third with a weighty “arm” sound to ring in the air, the descending thirds with “finger sounds” to create the light flutter of the sail, and the final gesture with “hand” sounds for the ending gust. Immediately the passage took on three distinct colors and sonorities.
You can see her masterful performance of the work here at 1:03:10.
It can be great fun going through your repertoire and experimenting with different combinations.
Ortmann recognized that we mostly use visual and tactile imagery to describe sound. In his book, “The Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique” he dedicates a chapter to unpacking what goes into creating these sound images for the listener. Here is a brief summary:
Image Pitch Intensity Duration Percussion/Noise Technique
The sound quality needed in the beginning of Schubert Sonata in Bb D. 960 will not be effective at the opening of Bartok’s “Allegro Barbaro.” Provided we create them in a way that is healthy for our bodies, the greater the range of sounds we can conjure up at the instrument, the more interesting our playing will be.
The focus of this post has been on altering the tone quality of a single note. But there are many other ways to alter the tonal qualities including use of the damper and una corda pedals, balancing chords, melody vs. accompaniment, musical line, and timing. Some factors like regulation of the instrument and acoustics of the space are out of our control.
What is so remarkable about the piano is the seemingly endless sounds and colors that, with knowledge and imagination, we can draw from it. I hope this post will inspire you to experiment and enjoy all the possibilities that the instrument has to offer.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this post. Questions and comments welcomed!
A question that frequently gets asked by parents and pianists alike is whether a digital piano is interchangeable with an acoustic for learning to play the piano. The answer, with rare exceptions, is no. Often it is believed that if there are 88 keys and …
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 …
One of the most common questions piano teachers have is: how do I help my student to develop and maintain a good hand position? To answer this question we first have to define what a good hand position is and what it is not.
A good hand position is a hand that is in its natural alignment. To find it is simple enough. Drop the arm loosely by the side of the body and voila!
When hanging by the side of the body our fingers have a gentle curve, the main knuckle is prominent, there is a little space between the fingers, and the hand and forearm are in one piece. The thumb acts as an extension of the forearm. The ‘look’ of the hand will vary a bit from person to person but these features remain consistent.
To help the student become familiar with this alignment a mirror is useful. I like to begin each lesson by taking a moment to check the students seating and reminding them of their natural alignment, dropping the hand by the side of the body and bringing it to the keyboard exactly as it is.
Another trick is have the student flip over the hand palm up
and then place it palm down on the keyboard in the same alignment.
There are various images you can use such as: “bless the piano,” “hold a cup of soup” etc. I find “hold a cup of ice cream” works best because when students are asked to hold a cup of soup they often squeeze their fingers together to stop the soup from spilling out.
The trouble teachers often run into is our language is ambiguously descriptive. The most common example of this is instructing the student to play with “curved” fingers. But one person’s curve is another’s curl. A student with long fingers is going to look quite different than one with short fingers. Our own lax hand is the perfect model of what our hand should look like at the keyboard.
In many old method books the student is instructed to hold a ball, or an egg, or a bubble.
The problem with these images is they encourage the student to curl the fingers overworking the flexors. There is nothing natural about curling the fingers. The only time we might do so walking down the street is if we saw someone scary walking by.
3. Common Pitfalls
The most common pitfall for students is our human desire to be “neat and tidy.” Students will often try and line their fingers up, one per white key over a five finger position.
In doing so the fingers are abducted (spread apart) causing unnecessary tension in the hand. For a young child their hand will only cover 3-4 keys. Even most adult hands will not cover more than 4-4 1/2 keys in their natural hand alignment.
I find it useful to have students practice bringing the hand to the keyboard with their eyes closed to avoid this problem. Most are shocked how few keys the hand covers.
Another “neat and tidy” issue is the common desire to straighten at the wrist. When our hand is hanging by the side of the body neither side of the hand is in a straight line with the hand, nor is the hand angling towards the side (as if pigeon-toed or Charlie Chaplin’s feet). No particular finger should line up with the forearm. The image I most commonly use for the hand is a “tulip and its stem.” (Thanks Teresa Dybvig for the image and Lauren Sonder for the tulip drawing!)
If I find a student is getting out of alignment I will ask them to take their hand away from the keyboard, shake it out a bit, and bring it back exactly as it is. A word of warning about the word “alignment.” Students, including adults, will often hear “line” and proceed to make a straight line with parts of their body.
The other common pitfall is what a colleague calls negraclaviphobia (“Fear of the black keys”). Students are so afraid of having their fingers in the black key area that they curl them in avoidance.
Some old method books even advocate making the finger tips into a straight line (eek!) to avoid the black keys. It’s hard to imagine a more unnatural use of the hand. For a young or small handed child the fingers will be near the black keys. For an older or larger-handed student the fingers will be in the black key area if the thumb is playing.
(Martha Argerich’s gorgeous hands)
The key is lighter the further away we get from the fallboard. When the thumb is not playing it is preferable to have the thumb off the keyboard provided no black keys are to be played in the near future. The intricacies of moving In and Out in relation to the fallboard will be explored in a future post.
This brings us to another pitfall: dangling thumbs. The intrinsic muscles of the hand at the base of the thumb are the heaviest in the hand. Students will often allow the thumb to drop down below the keyboard causing the rest of the hand to collapse.
In addition to reminding students of their natural alignment, I enjoy the image of the thumb tip being a “ghost with a flashlight (or laser beam).” The light can go up or down, side to side, or shine at an angle but it should always shine on the fallboard when not playing.
Even more than knowing how the hand should look at the keyboard we need to know how it should feel. The body awareness of children is generally quite low. If you ask them the lift their elbow many will lift their shoulder instead. Two effective approaches to developing awareness are moving in and out of the mid-range of motion and asking questions.
Moving in and out of the mid-range of motion: Our range of motion (ROM) is the motion allowed by the joint’s shape and surrounding soft tissue to allow a specific movement between bones. When the hand is in its natural alignment the joints of the hand are in the mid-range of motion. We can develop awareness by moving in and out of the mid-range. I like to begin by having the student move towards the end-range of motion and back to neutral. For instance:
Curling the fingers and then returning to neutral
Straightening the fingers and returning to neutral
Spreading the fingers and returning to neutral
Squeezing the fingers and returning to neutral
Angling the hand towards the thumb (radial deviation) and returning to neutral
Angling the hand towards the fifth finger (ulnar deviation) and returning to neutral
Dropping the hand at the wrist and returning to neutral
Raising the hand at the wrist and returning to neutral
Over time you can make these movement smaller and smaller so the student becomes aware of when they are using unnecessary tension. Regularly asking the student to verbalize how their hands feel will help them further increase their awareness. At first they may not feel much of anything but the more times you revisit these movements the greater their awareness will expand.
With young beginners there is rarely an occasion in the elementary repertoire to leave their natural hand alignment. Gross motor skills come before fine, arm before hand. I make a point of avoiding legato playing until the student is capable of maintaining a natural hand position and using their arm weight by lifting and dropping the hand-forearm as a unit from the elbow joint. For a beginning four or five year old this might take a year or more.
As the student progresses they will be asked to play increasingly varied figurations including large intervals, leaps, and chords. Our muscles were designed to alternate between tension and relaxation. When playing a large interval like an octave (or for a young student a 6th) the hand does not need to return all the way to the size it would be in when hanging by the side of the body. But it does need to beclose enough to release excessive tension . This is what Dr. Teresa Dybvig calls “open but unstretched.” When the hand is open but unstretched there is a greater distance between the fingers but the abductors are not activated.
To help the student feel this place gently open the students hand for them (always ask permission before touching) so they can feel what it is for the hand to open passively. Alternate between having them actively stretch open the fingers and having them opened passively. In my adult male hand this is somewhere between a 6th or 7th depending how my body feels that day.
I began by using the term hand “position” but in actuality the goal is not to find a fixed position at all. Rather, when a student is aware of their natural alignment they have a healthy neutral from which to depart from and return to allowing for maximum freedom and ease of movement.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this post. Questions and comments welcomed!