Penelope Roskell - Ask me anything about “The Pillars of Piano Technique”

Victoria Chan I normally don't advise taking on advanced pieces as a beginner, but it sounds as though you are really enjoying working on these pieces and the challenges that are involved! Perhaps you could balance out the work?  Start your day's practice with some simple exercises or pieces so you do cover all the basics (some of the main exercises from The Complete Pianist would be helpful here) then move on to your favourite pieces.  Remember that there are lots of wonderful pieces by great composers (Bach, all the Classical composers, Schubert, Schumann. Chopin, Bartok to name just a few) that are suitable for beginner and intermediate pianists.  If your finances can stretch to it, you may find that even just a few lessons would help to reassure yourself that you aren't building up too many bad habits.  

springgrass Pianists with small hands need to practice octaves sensibly.  It's much better to practise little-and-often than to practise for long stretches.  The most important thing is not to build up too much tension.  The wrist needs to stay flexible.  I would ask him to focus on what happens between the notes.  Does his hand relax as he moves between the octaves?   And remember that you don't always have to practise octaves forte, even if it written that way.  If you are just note-learning or memorizing you can save a lot of energy by playing piano.  There is no rush to play octaves - he should be patient and build up the tempo very gradually.  If you have a copy of The Complete Pianist, I suggest he looks at the sections on 'Widely spaced chords' and 'Playing octaves'.  Also, he might find the section on 'Pianists with small hands' helpful.

Michael Furmaniak I personally believe that good piano technique is good piano technique - whatever the genre or style.  The piano and the body are the same. The main things I am looking for are good co-ordination, quality of sound and flowing movements.  You see all those in the best jazz and Classical players.  Some pianists feel a bit freer when playing without notation - I notice some of my students relax more when playing jazz.  But I certainly wouldn't imitate Keith Jarrett's technique - he is obviously a very talented pianist but he makes a lot of contortions with his whole body!

Lo Without seeing you in person, it would be very unwise of me to comment on the pain. As I mentioned in another response on this forum, I will be doing a live Q&A for tonebase sometime after Christmas, and it would be better to address this live, if you are happy to do that? As far as memorizing is concerned, I would think carefully about whether it is actually necessary for you to play from memory.  Are you a professional who feels obliged to perform from memory? If not, then I would focus on just memorizing the passages where you need to look at the hands.  I do a lot of memorizing away from the keyboard - there are two sections in The Complete Pianist where I give examples of how to do that. 

Yoko R. S. Kobay I am very fond of the Burgmuller Etudes, as they are musically very engaging, as well as quite technically focused.  The problem with some of the more advanced etudes and exercises that you mention is that they are so boring!  It's important to keep a late-intermediate/advanced student engaged, so you have to choose your technical work wisely and not to overload.  At that level, I personally prefer shorter exercises (like the very short exercises I demonstrate on tonebase and in The Complete Pianist) rather than long etudes, so that the technique can be learnt quickly without weeks of note-learning and then quickly put into practice in an actual piece. Try to pick out the etudes that you consider most relevant to each technique and focus on those.  In my opinion, all technique should have  a musical purpose. 

ALICE You play the Clementi very elegantly and with a lot of feeling!

It is so long since I recorded the videos for tonebase, that I can't quite remember what I covered but here are some suggestions:

1)For the LH, I suggest you look at the quacking duck/snapping crocodile exercises.   They strengthen the intrinsic hand muscles which are responsible for supporting the hand arch.  Do them regularly for at least a month, away from the piano, and you should really see a difference.

2) For arm weight and legato, keep practising the Parachute exercises!

3) I personally never think about breathing consciously when I play.  I can hear that you like to sing while you play - this is not a bad thing, as it does encourage you to breathe with the phrase and also to feel the phrase sing.  Unless you regularly feel yourself holding your breath (in which case you will need to keep reminding yourself to take a deep breath out) then I wouldn't try to control your breathing.  

ALICE Thank you.  I didn't quite understand the first paragraph.  But I would say that, in any cantabile piece, you should start each phrase, whatever the intervals, with a parachute touch.  You just then transfer the weight that you used in the first note into the second note.  I call this 'Walking along the keybed'. Singing inwardly when you play is great!

Aline Valade It is good that you have found the Parachute touch helpful.  That is used mainly in cantabile playing - it gives a warm rich sound and it keeps the whole arm and hand relaxed.  In this Prelude you need a nice light forearm bounce for the staccato notes (no Parachute touch here).  For the semiquavers you need to keep your arm light and use independent finger action (what I call the Singing finger touch). 

Solreaa  Without knowing you or your level, it is very difficult to advise.  The pieces you mention are excellent, so I think you should continue to be guided by your own instinct. I always find that pianists play pieces they love with greater enthusiasm and conviction.  Perhaps listening to some of the lessons on tonebase will inspire you!  

Leah Olson I'm pleased to hear that, Leah!