I was taught this as a piano major when I went to Central Methodist College Swinney Conservatory of Music. My teachers piano professor was from Julliard. He must have studied with her too. I found this to be so interesting
Can you explain? A statement like that is hardly useful without backing it up with some examples. For the sake of argument I looked that name up. Nothing came up pertaining to a piano teaching method.
Excellent Introduction.I admire the playing of Taubman pupil who lives in Brooklyn, too...B.L,.....Amusing to hear that Ms.Taubman was the secret help to many in Manhattan studying with famous Madames.....includes me and many who had found other "Taubmans "..
I have found issues between teachers about the thumb under technique. The C Major is a simple example. One teacher says that this should be done as a jump from C to F for maximum speed. A second says that the movement should be covered by pedal when lifting and moving. A third insists on the thumb under being defined in order to maintain legato. How would you describe the Taubman approach please?
Simply rotate your have just before you have to play any turn. This is the solution to all turns. Jumping and pedaling are poor choices used to cover up bad hand positioning.
It is legato, with the single rotation technique described above, and if you do it right it's with no strain either. Though Taubman does use a lot of pedal legato where physical legato would cause strain, like 1-4 to 1-5 octaves that they will always do with 1-5 and pedal!
Is this a way, by not requiring the fingers to be so curled, not to have to trim one's finger-nails!!! (cue teenage girls who have been known to quit piano because of this requirement)
Thank you. Emphasizing the observation that it does NOT matter at all how many keys the fingers cover at once on natural position. My impression was that fingers should always cover or span 5 white keys, and that this 5-finger position was the desired one. I was wrong and this helped me understand this.
So basically keep your fingers in the white key area and then move your hand toward the piano and into the black key area when you need to play black keys.
No. Move your hand forward and backward, as needed, to play each white key just above its edge. So when you play the white key with your middle finger, you pull your hand back toward your body, but when you play with your thumb, your hand moves forward, toward the sound board of the piano. IOW, instead of changing the shape (i.e. curling your fingers) of your hand to position your fingers, keep your hand in its natural shape, and move your hand as needed to play with each finger.
