This five-tips article was first published in Pianist magazine’s recent newsletter.
We all aim to produce a beautiful, warm and rich sound at the piano. This is particularly crucial when practising and playing Romantic style works where a well-phrased, lyrical ‘singing style’ is a prerequisite when tackling a melodic line. To do this, we need to create an ‘auditory illusion’ as the piano is really a percussive instrument. The following tips might offer a few ideas to implement into your practice sessions.
1.
To produce the required sound, a deeper finger touch is necessary, that is, your fingers must traverse the key bed, playing past the double escapement action, or the ‘jolting’ action which occurs as the key is depressed on an acoustic instrument. Instead of depressing keys from above, rest your fingers on the key surface and transfer a relaxed, heavy arm weight through your wrists so that the fingers go to the bottom of the key bed: flatter fingers may be beneficial here, using the pads, and aim to keep your whole arm very relaxed so that it feels akin to a ‘dead-weight’.
2.
In order to utilise this weight, the wrists need to be extremely loose and flexible: aim to use ‘wrist circles’ or circular wrist motion (wrist rotation), that is, moving wrists in a circular movement, carefully, transferring weight from one note to the next. This ‘motion’ can help ‘cushion’ the note as the hammers hit the strings, thus avoiding a harsh tone. A singing cantabile is mostly produced by the amount of arm-weight transferred to each note via the wrist in a ‘hinge-like’ manner and it’s worth bearing this in mind as you practice.
3.
Overlapping legato is another effective method of transferring weight and keeping the smooth connection from one note to the next. To connect the notes seamlessly, hold each key down until the very last possible micro-second before the next finger plays the subsequent note.
4.
Balance between the hands is also paramount. Practice hands separately, being sure to keep the accompaniment part softer and lighter, allowing the melody to ring out. This is called melodic voicing. A beneficial hand balance exercise can be to use a simple five-finger note pattern (a C – G scale passage, for example) in each hand. Play the right-hand part powerfully, whilst the left-hand sounds softly and then reverse this pattern: concentration and focus is definitely required at first!
5.
Now shape the melody. Decide where it rises and falls (actually singing it first can offer a clearer picture), noting where the most powerful note within the phrase occurs: try to be mindful of the ‘crescendo’ and subsequent ‘decrescendo’ or ‘decay’ between each note up to and away from the climactic point of the phrase. To help the instrument to ‘sing’ here, listen carefully to the decay of the note and shape your phrases so that the next note matches or continues with the energy of the previous one. This creates an evenly balanced line free from bumps or jerkiness, yet where all notes ‘stand out’ due to the lush lyrical richness.
Once you can produce a powerful melodic line, for a greater resonance simply add the sustaining pedal throughout but being sure to change or release it regularly to avoid smudging harmonies.
Thank you for this very clear, actionable analysis of important technical skills. Too often, I read about things like “arm weight” or “balancing the hands” and am in the dark about exactly how to achieve or practice them.
Thank you, Barbara. It’s great to hear that you found this post practical and useful. Melanie