All about Alan Fraser's groundbreaking developments in piano technique as expressed in Craft of Piano Method, and the Alan Fraser Piano Institute inaugurated to share this approach.
pianotechnique.org/lessons - Built for Pianists for Pianists (Official Video Site)
thanks for your kind remarks! As for future awareness through movement lessons, we are working on it, but it may be some time before we get them ready for sale.,. so in the meantime, enjoy the ones that are on the RU-vid channel now.
Does playing staccato help to get used to this kind of springy sensation? And does practicing a scale with staccato articulation generally help to achieve a faster legato?
But isn't lifting the fingers in such a way isolating them? Unless you mean to do so by not actually streching them upwards but relaxing them into a neutral position.
This is a great question and absolutely relevant to the discussion. Yes, I totally agree with you that there should be absolutely no finger isolation. Perhaps I did not make it clear enough. If you will observe closely, every time I raise my finger, the forearm also floats slightly... so it's an integrated motion. Thanks so much for pointing this out!
I recently started practicing piano a few hours a day and really enjoy it a lot. However, I can already feel the tension in my shoulders building up. I spent a lot of time refining technique on the guitar to cope with tension problems. For some reason I assumed piano wouldn't be as bad but I was wrong.
Alan, this is great work that is really fascinating to me as an aspiring concert pianist. I don't understand where exactly the wrist should be in relation to the arm and the hand. It seems pretty high in your playing, but won't that make it harder to release the fingers?
thanks for this really perceptive comment on my use of the wrist. The wrist should basically be in neutral, not too high, not too low. You are absolutely right, my wrist is often a little higher than I recommend, and I must say that when this DVD was made 20 years ago, I was still developing these ideas. Look at some of my later RU-vid performances and you'll see a wrist that is better behaved!
@@alanfraser2948 Thank you for answering! I can see you have a more neutral wrist in your Rach sonata 1 recording, and I like your sound there very much. I was also searching if you have any videos on how to practice trills with the right grasping technique, I'm struggling with a locked wrist and tension from bad habits. Do you have any exclusive excercises for this technique?
for trills in general, simply lighten up. Float the forearm, levitate it as if it was filled with helium so that the fingers barely reach the keys, let alone going to the bottom of the keys. Flutter the fingers as if they were in midair.,.. that way your trill will become light and bubbly.
As physiotherapist and pianist, I cannot understand what the hell you’re trying to explain… 😳 There are dozens of technical details to play the piano without stressing nor psychologically nor physically, but raising your wrist is not one of them as a general rule. You should practice many hours, support and release sequentially the weight of your arm, allow gentle radial/ulnar deviation of your wrist to proper align tendons in carpian tunnel, supination/pronation for add stability to thumb and fifth finger, release fingers after each stroke to allow flexor muscles and intrinsic hand muscles rest, properly sitting distance and height, proper foot position on the pedal, weight distribution on chords to enhance melody notes from harmonic ones, breathing techniques… But if you believe that raised hand is the whole key for the piano, good luck! 😂
I can't believe the degree to which you missed the whole point. You''re a physiotherapist! I am talking about the functionality of human movement. I do not raise the wrist: it's the MCP joint that rises, just as the hip joints rise as you get out of a chair. The standing action doesn't create stress, it frees the hand from stress. It gives you agency, activating the fingers for maximum viability, maximum control of the key. "Feeling the weight" creates stress. You are trying to relax but now the hand has a load to carry, it's stressed out. The fingers don't need to be subjected to that burden, they need to be freed from it - functionally! I like your post as it shows th difficultly many have in entertaining an approach that diverges from accepted canon. Anyway, I wish you luck treating the many cases of tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome in pianists following the weight release technique who inadvertently weaken the MCP joint, stressing the flexor tendons.
@@alanfraser2948 your medical ideas are a complete mess, as confusing as your biomechanics comparing the MPC joint with the hip ones (quite fun though). Anyway I don’t love divagating from one or another joint, I was just searching some ideas by curiosity. Love practical and clear language, I’m a medical caregiver not a mystic keyboard wizard
Did you check out the playlist with the other videos? It goes into a bit more detail but at the end of the day there is no one size fits all solution as everyone's a bit different. There is a real danger of people giving bad advice in regards to technique, but at the same time if people can not create and share what they believe to be innovations on technique then music as a whole would not progress. With that said, these teachings are like any other, they are but a set of rules which you may, or may not apply. The choice is up to you. I would use these concepts where it makes sense and to the degree in which it works for me, using my own critical thinking to come to that conclusion.
very well put, Rob, I heartily agree...one size does not fit all. I have tried to present these ideas in a way which offers maximum flexibility to those who want to entertain them. in other words, try to find your own "size" amongst all the possible interpretations of what this structural-functional approach means
I think I do something like this. What do you think though of this habit. in C major scale as SOON as you hit C, then D, before you even hit E you start moving your thumb closer, then you legato and hit E. THEN once you get to E you basically do the princniple you just mentinoed wher you bring the thumb to the flat. I've read about Lhevinne and Hofmann saying to move your thumb inward in scales basically,o r how Rosina and Josef were taught by Safonov was the thumb should be ashamed of itself basically and it should go under before it has to hit the note. This is basically how I play it and I think it follows the things in this video but im not certain.
I have a random question for you, what do you think of Art Tatum technique? It's so great in my opinion, classical pianist can learn from it. He barely moves!! He also plays with flat finger, similar to Horowitz, Gekic, etc..
what pianists do you think are good to watch to learn from technique? I find gilels to be good, yuchan lim and some korean pianists tend to be good too. Pletnev too seems very effecient. Edit: the one video of cortot out there is great also the videos of hoffmann, but im wondering if there is any living or older pianists that have a good technique maybe Hamelin? His playing I don't really like though but I don't think its because of his technique.
Among the pianists who are no longer with us I would say Horowitz, Rubinstein, Cortot and Gyorgy Sziffra. Among the living, Kemal Gekic and Misha Dacic... and perhaps even, myself!
@@PianoSomatics I would agree, it's funny my teacher said Horowitz bad to learn from, Rubinstein though they said is good. I've always felt like I've learned a lot from watching both. I checked out your two recommendations and I agree, I like their playing and technique, it seem like no superfluous movement. I saw a masterclass video of Mikhail Arkadev with a young student, and he said (parapharsing auto-translate subtitles), that we should strive for a pianism where there is not even ONE extra movement, just do exactly as you need, I've been trying this approach as of the last day or so and it's very strong. Soon I will upload a performance of C minor prelude by Bach, I think my technique is pretty strong for how long I have been playing, but my goal is to have a beautiful tone and touch. I wish there was videos of Josef Lhevinne! Thank you for the response, I will continue to study.
@@pablobear4241 , teachers advise not to copy Horowitz because the hand position seems strange. But you must realize, that flat hand is not at all collapsed but an exceptionally well-organized and efficient tool for moving the key as he wished. And when you hear his amazing sonic range, you realize that this was the only way he could achieve his unique musical goals... First of all he had great ears and a great imagination, plus truly mind-boggling precision.
@@PianoSomatics Yeah, I don't reall yknow how to feel about flat hand vs curved. I use both, when I'm playing Scriabin I'm basicallyt flat 24/7, Chopin as well mostly flat. Bach, Clementi, Beethoven, MOzart, etc. curved usually works well unless you want to sing. But, for like bach prelude in c minor I am playing from WTC 1, and I have more beautiful toine but am not as even with flat hands... With curved its more even but sounds a bit more mechaincal, maybe it needs to grow on me a bit more but, it's so annoying getting perfect evenness.
the hammer releases after you activate the key, tone is based on velocity, holding the key down keeps the damper off the string, i think hes talking about achieving lagato, having desired velocity/ tone, after activating key the note just rings, no vibrato , there seams to be alot of confusion, like a golfer trying to stear the ball thru the air after hitting it, or pulling up on the armrest to help the pilot off the runway on takeoff
Great advice Allen, thanks! “when the finger goes down, my arm moves up a millimeter”. This advice makes you aware of the inter-dependance of all the parts of the playing apparatus. Paying attention to it prevents excessive pressing into the pianokeys I noticed. My playing gets more elastic and the sound improves. I also noticed that I sat too close to the piano, with the upper-and forearm in a 90 degree angle. This locks me up. Now I sit further away, and now the angle is more a 45-60 degree angle. The fingers are now in better contact with the arm and keys. Correct me if I’m wrong!
This connection between the fingers and the scapula is also a very important aspect of proper ballet technique. The great ballet teacher Victoria Simon once pointed out to me how extending the fifth finger in a particular way activated the necessary muscles around the scapula required to achieve the correct support for a particular arm position. That insight was the beginning of a new understanding for me. I realize from your video, my study of this anatomical function is far from over. Brilliant discussion! Thanks for sharing P.s. I really like your approach to referring to the sensations associated with proprioception. Asking a student if they “feel it” is misleading. They must “learn to perceive it on a sensorial level”.
i really like this video format where you can see a student struggling as much as you/ It's much more immersive than videos of a piano teacher only teaching you THank you so much !
Very complicated the act of touch. Thanks for your instructive lesson. What helps me is the imagination that the key is a see-saw. At the other end is a person that you want to propel into the air. (The hammer) Wat movement do you make almost instinctively?
The instinctive movement to make is one of standing up, that is, where as the fingertip moves the key, the finger's top knuckle rises - just as the human hip joint rises as the legs stand the torso up.
