1. The Chopin Method: introduction 

As a musician with a degree in Biomechanics, I love this!

Just some note taking from the video: 1. Extensor and flexor tendons are in equilibrium one against the other. 2. The rest position of the hand is the best position to have on the keyboard at all times. 3. Every other muscle should be flexible in the body. 4. Centre of gravity to the hand. 5. Support. The hand finds support around it's massive wrist and forearm using fingers 2 and 3. 6. Start your students in B major rather than C major to develop the natural support on the black keys. 7. Each finger has it's own character and personality. 8. Chopin prefered the mechanism of the piano to be in such a way to promote the subtle feeling of the hammer rather than the hammer, whereas modern piano's mechanism is geared towards producing power of sound. (I personally feel it's possible to still be very aware of the hammer tip when playing on our modern pianos, it's just harder.)

The MASTER continues to enlighten us even 174 years after his passing. He was indeed the greatest pianist and piano composer ever.

Started learning piano (keyboard) about a month ago, and just this introductory video has opened my eyes, I thank you sir for making this channel and carrying on the teachings of Chopin. 👏

Great material for a piano returner. ;) At last I understand what and why I felt and instinctively knew in my childhood and youth when I was intensly practising the piano. Thank you, professor!

Dear Professor Saavedra, what great news to see your research in these videos. I look forward to watching them. All the best from Belgrade.

Thank the algorithm gods! I'm a self taught player and I always questioned my technique. This is great study material, thank you so much for this.

Thank you for this! I fully appreciate your directness, production quality, research and teaching.

Merci beaucoup for this. As a therapist who had to overcome a major orthopedic problem with my shoulder, I think I've developed techniques for treating the body, but especially the upper extremity that could be useful for pianist. I agree completely about the biomechanical basis of Chopin. As a side note, I wished that I could have treated Glenn Gould at an early age. He had neurological problems which affected his posture and probably his personality.

Funny, before I came to see this video, I also had come to the conclusion that C major is the most difficult key of them all! I'm glad Chopin feels the same way !!

Om my goodness. I just discovered a goldmine.

I love chopin! I'm addicted to his beautiful melodies

As I am steadily going deaf I need to use subtitles .This video gives several versions of Chopin`s name. eg Chopra , Japan (7 times) Shaban, Trapano , Tropon , and Trabang . Just a bit of subtitle humour on a valuable video .

Summary of notes: 1. Natural hand position. 2. Support fingers 2 and 3. 3. All other muscles in body flexible. 4. Be aware of character of each finger when fingering. 5. Try to be subtly aware of hammer tip when playing. (despite modern mechanism)

Nem toco mais piano, mas agradeço profundamente ao RU-vid por me recomendar esse canal maravilhoso.

Supe que era Chileno solo con el nombre y su forma de pronunciarlo. Gracias profesor Saavedra por los excelentes videos

Amazing description of this unique method. Thanks for your help.

These videos are a blessing. So much useful information, all well put together and explained. Thank you for this.

thank you for making this video because now i know that i've been learning the wrong rest position for 4 years

Incredible stuff. Glad I came across your videos. Thank you Dr.

I'm starting to Learn ❤

"its harder to play in all white keys" a super huge half truth. In fact, it is as hard if not harder to play on scales with both black and white keys. Depends on what is played

Thank you for this instruction. Would you please make a video showing Chopin's approach to a C major scale - how to use the 'in and out' motion of the thumb and where exactly fingers are placed on the keys?

In order to make a living I somehow was lucky enough to have some piano kids who weren't really strong at abstractions like sight reading. Asbergers dyslexia etc. so I developed a method I called map making where we created neighborhoods out of the enharmonic keys with all black notes like Db, F# and B. In making these maps which also taught harmony with primary chords we'd lable home or circle, up or triangle and down square. So the white notes represented the water 🌊 and the black notes the land. So that all leaves one with a magical archipelago of alternating little and big Islands. We'd populate these Islands with houses and schools and pools and zoos and playgrounds etc. Then they'd learn to make sure that the note they were composing was given a number like paint by numbers. Oh yeah in enharmonic keys the white notes are always adjacent to an Island like in Db major the 7th is C and the 3rd is F natural the white notes were always given a dock or pier with like a little bird or kid fishing😊 so we navigate north or to the right or south to the left. So the south side of a big island was Gb and the middle of the big island was Ab and the North side was Bb. So the (piers) would be C and F in Db or B and F in Gb or in B major B and E. Anyway it's loads of fun and Axiomatic or self evident once they get the lay of the land it teaches harmony and simple composition first then they start learning Xmas carols or The Lion sleeps tonight you know 3chord songs. It helpes to use thin white cardboard to notate by sliding it behind the keyboard lined up with the landscapes. So that's an important word here because you're reducing key shapes to meaningful playground contours that fit the hand. So that's my point I started with the keys that contain all black notes!

Excente video! Gran trabajo! Felicitaciones Sr. Claudio Saavedra!

So C Maj is both good and bad: Good for visualization but bad for mechanics. Makes sense. Also, the last statement concerning modern design finally lets me understand why I find so many keybeds so unimpressive. To me, the softer side of dynamics is SO important and I want to be able to delicately kiss notes or phrases or runs. SO many keybeds just don't lend themselves to doing this at ALL. And so many that do just aren't consistent with or good at it.....kind of janky.

I love the B major theory as it makes sense..

This floating head is really smart

Add to this that the hand does not 'act' in isolation. The wrist, the elbow and the shoulder are a 'couple' with each effecting the other. If the wrist is depressed (which means the flexor tendons are not in equilibrium) this inevitably means that the elbow will be locked and the should depressed, with subsequent effects of shoulder problems and neck problems - since the neck will also be pulled forward. In compensation for this change in the centre of gravity the chest will be raised and the back arched, along with increased tension in the legs. It's impossible for any part of the body to function in isolation. What we do with one part effects and is effected by every other part. And this is how it should be, or we would be unable to function. Alexander teacher.

im 13 and i have no idea what im doing lol

Auto generated subtitles have a different name for Chopin everytime he's mentioned lmao

Interestingly, only when explaining Chopin’s method is “E major” illustrated first, and then “B”. And so, the information is very interesting, I look forward to the continuation.

Nice video greetings from playa ancha🙌🏼

Amazing information. I would like to know more about this and more about the action of the 1800 pianos

I have started to study piano, and I started with the C major scale. Well I am going to start playing B major also.

I am very appreciate to see this wonderful video.

Loving this series!! Keep em coming!!

Здравствуйте! Спасибо огромное за бесценные знания и за прекрасный перевод на русский язык! Однако, должна обратить внимание на ошибку, а именно , слово sharp переводится с английского языка на русский диез, а слово flat переводится как бемоль.

"Great job!"

looking forward to more videos

thank you professor for such informative videos on chopin! as a pianist who focuses on chopin, ill make sure to watch all your videos. many thanks from vancouver - A. Zhang

Congrats ! 👍

excellent work

Thank you!

Thank you! Definitely interested in your next videos

Omg Chopin is right! Everything i know is wrong!! It totally makes sense. I just played a bunch of melodies, and they were easiest and felt most natural in B!

Really interesting material,I shall follow with bated breath

Awesome

I agree with his statement about learning everything in the the C scale first , MY theory is it learning everything in the C scale has more to do with learning HOW TO READ SHEET MUSIC than playing the PIANO .

gracias algoritmo de yutu x traerme a este canaaaal y gracias a ud don Claudio por este valioso contenido, saludos desde temuco! chaltumayyy

What a great channel and content! Keep it up! From your new FB friend, Sueanne 🎹

向大师致敬，像老师致敬！

Impressibe animations. wish I can do them

Me agrada este canal. Muchas gracias por todos los videos

Great video, but what's up with the audio? It's hard panned right with lots of background noise.

Looks like the captions are slightly off. @4:50 Chopin didn't have finance, he had finesse!

this is so cool

The CCs are funny 🤣everytime you say chopin its something else - japan, trapano etc , japan is the best tho😂

Teşekkürler çeviri ve videolar icin,emeğinize sağlık :)...

An analysis of Liszt and Henselt‘s technique would be great too.

Ohh it's Shopan ive always said it as Chapin

Thank you for the video. Something I dont undestand🤔 You learn Bmajor key first with natural hand first Im okay with that. But after when you arrive to C major your long fingers are gonna have to change position anyway no? Or you have to put your long fingers between the write and black keys??

Me encataria si se puediera hacer una version en español, estaria super interesante 😁, gran trabajo felicidades

i think if you wan to be play all chopin music,,,i think start all scale practice or even op22 is more difficult than C major in beginning

I wonder if Hanon wrote a disclaimer on his works?

Could you please clear up the confusion-->in the transcript and in fact what it seems that you are saying is that Chopin suggests starting in B Major, yet in the video, it shows E Major, which would seem to make more sense.

This guy just sounds like a pianist

For you guys I've made a series on "Understanding Your Body to Improve Piano Technique" Feel free to check it out if you want to know more about your body to play the piano more freely ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MQzCnLCnh2c.html

Madness.

Is there a publisher that includes all the Chopin fingering ?

Tradúzcalos al español maestro, por favor 🥺

Maestro Saavedra,deduzco por su nombre que podria hablar en espanol, podria subtitular sus videos en dicha lengua?...la comunidad hispanoparlante todoa se lo agradecera sentidamente , gracias

Dejar mi Savedra , do you have this explenation in spanish?please

We should address the uncomfortable shape of the "standard" piano keys as well.

What operatic piece was playing in the intro?

Why can’t we switch the beginner learning to B major scale so it’s easier on the hands?

Hola profesor, tiene este curso en español?

Awesome I’m 55 I hope it’s not too late to make use of this start in B major I’m ready to undo bad habits

the funny thing is Hannon exercises are actually newer than Chopin's etudes.

I don't even own a piano and I know for a fact he's speaking facts.

what accent does he speak?

Dear Claudio A. Saavedra. Considering the high technical level that the virtuosos practiced in the days of Chopin, Liszt and others, I find it sad that the whole beat theory is believed by so many. In several videos, I see children (7)9-12 years old playing several of Chopin’s etudes much faster than whole beat tempo. Shouldn’t that make whole beat supporters realize that whole beat tempo can’t be historically correct?

C est la technique que Liszt lui a montré. Chopin etait un grand compositeur mais n a pas invente la technique du piano.

I am so happy to find your channel. I have searched for piani videos. but there were not any video lesson about piano posture. thank you so much😍😍

who can tell me where i can find relative essay about the chopin method🥲