Week 1: Chord Technique Check-In

Paul Miller Nice work! You will definitely need to go with option #1.... Debussy is painfully specific about his notations and it is pretty clear in the score that he is orchestrating the bass note as a separate color from the upper chord. Rolling the chord would blend and distort the texture. 

To help with speed..... 1. Notice how after the first chord you do a mini-rainbow in the air? Make sure you first relax right after playing the chord. Instead of lifting, slide down to the next note (taking the path of least distance/effort). 2. Instead of staying/freezing on any chord, once you hit it, already start moving your hand to the next note. Not only will it keep you from doing unnecessary motion or injury-prone motion, but it will increase your speed capability and give more time for the next note to be played with control.  

Kerstin Hello! Nice work-

right now, you are really trying to pre-position your hands over all the notes of the chords. It causes your hands to be in uncomfortable positions that feel stretchy and then to play by pressing down. That will always feel uncomfortable and be impossible to control because you have no physical way of controlling any given note with this technique. 

The rolling exercises will help a lot with this passage. You need to drop onto the chords with much more motion, as though you are preparing to roll the chords. Eventually the "roll" will be so fast that it will be unnoticeable. However, your arm will still feel the "roll." On this particular passage, since we will be wanting to use pedal anyways, you can utilize this by letting go of the thumbs immediately after playing. This will allow tension to release, better sound to happen, AND it will allow you to voice better by having control of the weight on each note. Practice by doing big rolls (always thumb outwards, with the thumb releasing down and out). Then work on making the rolls smaller and smaller. 

The second question is not quite on topic for this class, as it gets more into octave techniques and memorizing techniques. What I would recommend is starting by eliminating all the RH notes except for the main melody. Be able to play the main tune in octaves along with the LH (as written). If you can do that, you will be able to play the main skeleton of the section. The missing RH notes that complete the chords will then be added in in a much lighter way, so that it feels almost exactly like playing the skeleton. Again, speed will be increased by being able to release the thumbs in both hands down/out immediately, balancing your weight on the outer part of the hand. 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you so much. It’s very helpful. 

Juan Carlos Olite Nice work!

Here are some things that might help:

1. I notice that you sit quite low. This is possible with a control over technique but, currently, I think it might be a bit low for developing the type of technique you are inquiring about. I would be interested in you sitting higher so that you feel like your arms are not so much horizontal with the instrument but more like a slight slant downward, so you can feel gravity more. 

2. One practice technique is to try playing a passage while standing, allowing yourself to feel each chord played exclusively by gravity, almost like you are just trying to show a friend the gist of a the piece. Then, try mimicking that feeling while squatting a bit. Then, try mimicking that feeling while sitting on the bench. That will help warm the sound and get a louder sound.

3. The release of most of your chords seems to be upwards or inwards towards the fallboard. Instead, we want to focus on the release being initiated by the thumb immediately letting go, falling off the keys towards your lap. The motion with continue with the thumbs flowing under your palm, making your hands relax kind of like a jellyfish looks. In continuing that motion, you will notice it is kind of like an oval motion that, once you reach the outer part of the hand, the hand resets for the next chord. It will be almost like a counterclockwise motion with the RH and clockwise with the LH. We NEVER want to lift up or push in. We never want to use our wrist to do the motion. Instead, think of dropping onto the chord with deadweight gravity, thumbs release down and under, finish an oval shape to reset for the next chord. 

All of these ideas will help with larger and warmer sound because the release of notes will set you up in a controlled way for the next chord, which will allow it to be played with gravity and with a motion that creates warmer tone. 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you so much for your extraordinary feedback! Now I know exactly what to work on, there are quite a few chord sequences in this sonata!

Kimy Nice work! How you are approaching the chords looks like it is on the right track. However, the release of each chord needs help. As you hit each chord, you want your thumb to immediately release down and out, like it is sliding off into your lap and under your hand. That will help voice to the outer parts of the hand. Additionally, you can see that after each chord you play, you kind of stay on the chord in a locked position while you read ahead. Make sure that, when you are reading ahead and have finished playing the chord, you stay 100% at rest and relaxed, no staying in a position/freezing/pressing. Each time you go to play a new chord, it should feel as relaxed as if you were starting to play a new piece each time. 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thanks so much for the feedback. In the second practice video, I have tried to incorporate both hands sliding off and staying relaxed. Not sure if I have got it right.

While video is taken with LH first, then RH. I did explore with RH first, then LH. I noticed whichever hand that started first, will tend to have a more visible voicing, or maybe it's my hearing perception. And it's also a mental challenge to be consistent if I switch from RH first, then LH, after getting used to LH first, then RH.

https://youtube.com/shorts/6X7JoFwEUUk?si=JaqQZcNQgve8YJFf

Thanks again for your help and guidance. :)

Kimy It looks like it is improving! Be careful not to hold/stay on your RH thumb while rolling, let is release as you roll the chord upwards. Otherwise, it is on the right track :)

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you so much for your feedback. 

Jessica Pizano 

Nice work! 

The learning hands separate is an interesting topic. I think there are a few benefits but also many issues with that approach. 

Benefit: 

1. It is necessary to learn fingering in the first days of a piece.

2. It can help us isolate specific technical needs on specific smaller sections of music. (your isolating the melody was a great idea, for example). 

Cons:

1. Many people think it is going to make hands together easier. Although there is a small amount of mental "know ahead" that, granted, will be available from the hands separate work, there is not much that will be utilized, as playing hands together is a completely different mental and physical experience for your body. Outside of just getting an initial fingering it is NOT going to help know the piece any better at the early stages by playing the hands really well alone. 

2. If we focus on knowing each hand well before putting it together, it essentially is us learning 3 versions of the same piece. Learning one hand alone does NOT put it in motor memory because, when you play both hands together, the balance and mechanisms of the one hand will change to help everything else going on. If anything, it causes extra work later on to relearn each hand, as the physical sensation will be different from the separate work. 

I would recommend doing hands together but in smaller groups, like 2-3 chords at a time. 

I also would recommend focusing on your attack of each chord. I notice a lot of hovering above the keys (although subtle). This will cause tension in your arm, resulting in less security with nerves, less tone control, and possible injury. The hovering is happening between chords when you are thinking. I would recommend staying at rest on the keys while thinking and then making sure that you have one fluid motion into the next chord. We never want a sensation of pulling up away from the keys, it should aways be down and off. 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you for your feedback. I will definitely try to think about keeping my fingers on the keys if I pause while I am thinking. My only question is if you can clarify the difference between pulling up from the keys, versus off. 

Jessica Pizano there should never be a motion upwards or hovering above the keys. It is ok to slide off the key as though your fingers are sliding off into your lap. Does that answer your question?

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He I think so. This is not something my teacher has discussed with me so it is a new concept. I will work on it and see how it goes.

Victoria Macdonald Nice work! There are kind of two parts to the practicing, the one that focuses on phrasing and one that focuses on technique, both of which are necessary to improve the musicality of the section. 

The good thing you are doing is that you are not allowing any space between your hands and the keys and you are efficiently sliding to each next chord. 

What we want to work on is the release of each chord and how it begins that sliding motion. At the current moment, after each chord is played, there is a very brief moment of freezing on a chord position, followed by a release and super fast jerky slide before pressing the next chord. 

To improve the voicing and the tone (and to make it easier), you want to release your thumbs down towards your lap and flow them under your hand as fast as humanly possible after playing them. In this particular passage, the pedal will take care of any sustain needs we might have on an inner voice. Your LH will, as a result, do a somewhat clockwise motion and your RH a counter-clockwise motion (NOT initiated from the wrist), naturally resulting from the motion of your thumb. 

Meanwhile, you can find my TWI on vocal phrasing and dynamic control... you would want to apply those principles to the section, mapping out your phrasing in detail. Working on the amount of weight dropped in relation to each chord will help create better phrasing, in junction with the technique described above. 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you so much for the feedback. I sense the way I'm moving from chord to chord is creating the choppiness. Sadly, I'm not able to visualize your suggestion. Would there be a video that shows the proper technique, or is this something you will be covering in the upcoming week?

Victoria Macdonald Good questions. Unfortunately, thumb technique is a bit beyond the scope of this course... although it might definitely be a worthy topic for another upcoming TWI!

In the air, hold your hands out in front, palm down. Spread your fingers/palm wide into big stars. Then, relax all the muscles and let everything go in your hand. You will see that the resulting "position" is kind of like a sock puppet.... that your hand kind of mimicked and opening-closing tulip and that the thumb fell downwards towards the pinky. 

When you are playing, EVERY time you play the thumb, it should be played in a motion of sliding down the key into your lap, off the keyboard (exaggerated version of the correct motion) . As it finishes playing, its trajectory mimics what you did in the air, it will kind of move under the fingers towards the pinky. 

Hope this helps improve the visualization,. 

Dora Burak Very nice work! Things look great so far. 

1. I would practice by letting go of the inner voices quickly, allowing the weight of the hand to balance on the outer notes. Allow the pedal to sustain. It will just be another great way to practice motion, which you are already doing quite well. 

2. Notice that sometimes your transitions are wonderful and other times you can see that you freeze to think ahead or move the other hand first. Make sure to work in different small sections every day. Start on a random chord and go 3 chords. Do it by memory. Do it in lots of different ways with the concept being that every single time is fluid with transitioning motion between chords. The goal is to build in healthy consistent motor memory so that, when you go to play through the work, your muscle memory can help backup your brain whenever your brain needs to focus on something else. That will create the consistency and fluidity.