How to Play Piano

Piano Lesson Technique - Rotate Wrists to Add Power & Control to Playing, Even for Beginners
By Cynthia VanLandingham


The principles of piano technique are not difficult or mysterious. In fact they make perfect sense, but not in an intuitive way that would make students think of trying them first. Instead students do what feels "natural" to them not realizing that good technique has to be developed and that it isn't supposed to "feel natural" until they have practiced them enough for them to become natural. Piano is like any other art that involves the body. When a ballerina leaps across the stage it looks effortless because of his or her training. Unfortunately the basic principles of piano technique are often misunderstood and poorly taught. When they are and students practice them their playing begins to take on this effortless-like quality. Here is an important way for students to improve their playing technique right away that makes sense and give students more power and control.

Use the Arm and the Wrist to Help the Fingers. Generally new students don't know how to use their arms and wrists to play. They pull the fingers down into the keys with the wrists below the keyboard. But effortless playing involves leveraging the arms and the wrists to aid the fingers. The large muscles of the arm and the flexibility of the wrist give added power and control to the small muscles of the fingers. Focus on the following two technique principles to dramatically improve students' playing ability and comfort. Remember that these two elements of technique must to work together and not against each other for either to be effective.

1. Finger Flexion - Gently stretching the fingertips down to the keys from a rounded hand position above the keyboard (finger flexion) allows students to use their arms and wrists to give the fingers more power and playing. In conjunction with finger flexion, moving the wrist up and down to bend the arm forward and back uses the movement of the arm to let the key go down with less effort. This arm motion adds leverage that is necessary to help the smaller muscles in the fingers. Since the arms are much stronger, this yields much more playing power and control.

2. Wrist Rotation - In addition rotating the wrists, as when turning a key, creates power and spring that transfers energy from one finger to the next. This flexibility in the wrist applies the winding strength in the arm muscles to help the fingers play difficult passages of music with ease.

Any piano student can do this. It is not difficult. Even very young students can learn to play with ease. When the natural levers of the fingers, hand, and arms work together to create effective leverage, playing is much easier and more beautiful.

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