Craig goes through my all mistakes as an adult piano learner. :) I’m going to practice with this advice in mind today and hope that helps to relieve the tension that I always feel. Thank you Craig!
You used mostly your right hand in this video it seemed, and most of the motion was counterclockwise with your wrist. Is that right, RH wrist motion is usually CCW? In your next video would you be showing the LH wrist motion and would it be mostly clockwise motion?
That is generally how most people use it. Counterclockwise for the RH, clockwise for the LH. Going the opposite directions feels awkward in quite a few ways.
Fascinating. I am committed to developing good form: without it, I am limited in how well I can play. I would like to see you play something, so I can visualize how all this theory works out in practice. Thanks much.
Thanks for another great video Craig, your channel really doesn't get the attention that it deserves. You have done so much for me. Between you and Qi Gong I am able to play the piano again and it makes me SO happy!
Dear online piano teacher! Thank you for always providing us what we need. Thank you for showing up. I pray for you and your family’s health and happiness! Happy Sunday from Indonesia! 🌻
Thank you, Craig. The continuous motion that you described is as elegant as a symphonic conductor. I have found that continuous motion for the thumb is the most difficult. One thing I do is to stroke a note with the edge, corner tip of the thumb in a continuous motion. It gains so much control over the heaviness of the thumb when attacking a note. Apparently, the Russian school teaches beginning students to strike all notes as phrasing, stroking gestures. The speed with which these gestures are executed controls volume as well.
I have developed, rather quickly, use of the thumb under the hand often with a higher wrist, depending on context. It has really helped with the "awkwardness" of the thumb. Watch Martha Argerich on this; she plays the thumb under as another educated finger, to maximum result without unevenness. She often will raise her wrist higher to accommodate the needs of the passage most efficiently. Great topic observation.
What about the situation when you play the Arpeggio with thumb under? This is kinda a situation where you need to break this circular motion, which in my case leads to a lot of tension
Hi Dominick. I just noticed your post. Do look at Craig’s video on rotation. Arpeggios will be harder to play if you are not incorporating rotary movements to assist the fingers/hand and forearm travel laterally across the keyboard. They are slight movements but need to be incorporated to avoid tension. Craig talks about this.
Reviewing all videos, 4-5 months on. Continuous motion is one way of keeping muscle sets relaxed. Looks good, feels good, plays good. Until we fully incorporate these techniques, and always after, reminders are always welcome. Reducing excess tension is an ongoing issue. Good comments below.
I guess I missed Pt. 1; think I took in Pt. 2. Great advice, and the reasons for it, to be applied where it is called for. I use too much weight in long held notes, probably, occasional pushing to anchor the hand while other fingers are doing something else, inner voices, whatever. The lead in cue was "Reduce tension" as much as possible. Thumb is more challenging. This is one way on appropriate passages. Couldn't agree more with Alex and others, the channel doesn't get the play it deserves. ????? Dave M
Can't appreciate how much your videos help people like me who doesn't have good teacher around and so are self learning. Could you please just once make video stating how should one start learning? I mean should you first learn scales all of them then arpeggios or just by knowing some scales you should learn pieces on that. Kindly explain it.
