Group 1

Jeremiah great question! Yes, softer sounds are more difficult for this very reason... it is a difficult physical concept to absorb. 

Think about the hammer analogy... you can't modify the hammer itself. Likewise, if you try to manipulate any "portion" of the arm, that will not work. Also, if you try to control the speed of drop, that is not using gravity, as you are resisting. Gravity will always have the same rate of acceleration (yay, physics class, haha!). 

So, those two things considered, yes, you always are using the full weight of the arm. Just like the hammer, there are two things that you will do. One, is that the speed of the "move" motion off of your previous note will directly correlate to the speed with which the drop will happen. Think of an elephant walking..... there is a lot weight being lifted with each step (a heavy slow move) that results in a loud heavy drop. Two, is the height in which the drop happens from will influence the volume... think of how a hammer force changes depending on how far away you make its range of motion from the nail. 

Let me know if this helps! If not, please keep asking for clarification. It is a difficult concept to verbalize :) 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you! I went to my piano lesson and already my soft dynamics are considerably easier! This helped a lot!

Marc M Marc, you read my mind.  I was wondering exactly about how Claire H's approach (and other pianists like Tiffany Poon) who seem to employ graceful arcs in their playing. 

I recently started to try to learn more about Taubman with Jarred Dunn, and he's indicated that I should use an "under" arc shape (sort of like a smile) when addressing certain passages. 

It's all new to me, though, so I bet I am misinterpreting something.

Marc M great question! I actually discussed this in a lecture I gave for MTNA last year. 

What we SEE is not what we FEEL on the instrument. If we all tried to emulate LangLang's arm flailing and Horowitz's finger curling, we would all be a mess!

All these wonderful pianists are doing the rainbow NOT as a technical skill but as an artistic choice. Their technique is so controlled that they are able to add showmanship and movement as they desire. The rainbow can be a showmanship tactic (like LangLang does)... it can be an emotional outlet for the performer, it can be something that they feel helps them express the phrasing, etc. 

The moral is, that it is NOT a technique skill. Once you have mastered your technique, yes, you can add in whatever superfluous movements you desire for artistic expression. :) 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Ah ha!  That is so interesting.  I was thinking the rainbow motion was a way to relax the arm/wrist, not just something nice to look at.  

Gail Starr I have the same understanding re: the arc as well. I find a quick lateral move, esp in the context of a jump, without the arc cause tension in my forearm ... and by an arc I mean a curve that is not a huge rainbow arc but definitely not a straight horizontal line. I would very much like more clarification on that point.

Priya Viseskul any tension like you are describing in the context of a "lateral leap" is a result of improper Drop or Stay. If there is any freezing or pressing at the end of the first note's attack, there will be guaranteed tension in the Move. It can also be the result of not using you arm to shift your hand and attempting to use elbow or another incorrect portion of your mechanism. 

If you just rest your hand on the keyboard (or a table) without playing anything, with zero tension or effort, and slide your hand to the right or left up and down the keyboard, doing nothing with your hand, you should experience no tension and feel virtually no effort. That is the correct feeling of the lateral move. When Drop and Stay are done correctly, you will be at a complete state of rest before, during, and at the end of the jump, so it should feel identical to this exercise. 

Let me know if you need further clarification or send a video so that I can see what's happening to cause tension :) 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He - thank you for your diagnosis ... I will go back and see if I can understand what I do currently and apply your suggestions 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you, this is helpful clarification. I'll try to apply this to the Chopin 10 4 (maaaaybe beyond my skill level, haha) and little Scriabin prelude I'm working on!

Gail Starr Hmm, I just got an email about this reply you made 2 days ago, haha. Interesting thinking of it as an "under" arc...hmm.

In fact, I found out yesterday that Clair Huangci teaches the "leaps" section of the ToneBase practice plans (I'm a couple weeks behind in the practice plan challenge, I suppose). She minimizes any arc when demonstrating in that module. Something that stuck out to me was her advice against leaning much in when leaping, since that forces the neck to turn to see what you're playing. Better to be more upright to get an eagle eye perspective, so the eyes can flick around as needed.

Marc M You must have ESP because her video popped up NEXT in my stream to watch, LOL!

Sheetal Patel absolutely. Not a silly question at all! The drop becomes almost imperceptible as you achieve faster tempi, but it is there! That is why it takes time to really master the technique. 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He 

Thank you Leann.

I tried to incorporate your techniques, though watching it back I am not sure if I have fully grasped it - appreciate I can't achieve this overnight! Nonethless, I would  value any feedback you may in my attempt of a few bars in Chopin's Waltz in c # minor. Thank you  

https://youtu.be/TzU6fK2d78Q?si=97gYN68mPg80YsJc

Sheetal Patel nice job! Notice that, with your LH, your hand is doing quite well with the drop stay move because the music lends itself to it... there is a constant rhythm and your hand HAS to always be in motion to play. 

With your right hand, because there are longer note values and more complicated intervalic elements in the melody, you have the tendency to "prepare" your hand shape above the next note. The idea of thinking ahead is great but by preparing your hand shape ahead of time, you are locking into a position, not dropping and doing a press instead. Also, on a few of the longer notes there is sometimes freezing on the bottom of the key, as you focus on the LH.

Hope that helps! Pulsing on the longer notes in rhythm could prevent freezing. The dropping and preventing "preparing" the next chord shape with your hand is more difficult. Try working in smaller sections so that you can focus on each transition at a time. Let me know how it goes at the "office hours" checkin next week :) 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you, I am now finding I am bouncing a lot while I pulse away on the longer notes - presumably based on some of your responses earlier I imagine this will subside eventually. I will try to make it to the 'out of office hours' checkin - will be 4 am for me   

rebecca LAM I think next week's video discussing practice techniques will help clarify this.

As a preview:

Practicing hands separate is not very helpful. 

Start by, with both pieces, making sure you have fully mastered the Drop. Stay. Move.

We need to start by creating a baseline. Can you do the opposite of what we intend and play everything at exactly the same amount of forte? Often times, we will find that issues in the drop stay move are creating unintended fluctuations in dynamics and we can't even maintain an identical decibel level! Work towards seeing if you can control your drop stay move to achieve an identical motion (hence and identical dynamic level) on everything. 

Then, start working towards each dynamic direction slowly. Can you play ever so slightly louder/softer than this "baseline" dynamic you achieved, using the hammer analogy? 

Check your baselines in both pieces. 

With Bach, work in VERY tiny segments. Can you do opposite hammer motions for two notes at a time? Try four notes at a time, etc. Then link them together as they become reliable. 

With Beethoven, we will discuss a "percentage" sign practice method next week :) 

Hope this helps give a practice direction. Let me know if you have more questions!

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He I just practiced like what you suggested and really focused on the motion of drop/stay/move. I feel like I finally made some progress. here is the video on bach invention. thanks for the feedback. 

https://youtu.be/VJYZ18q_w_0?si=sTuQN_8IY9-aGeol

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He here is my practice on Beethoven.

https://youtu.be/f6UYmZkxGwg?feature=shared

rebecca LAM Nice work! At the moment, you are still creating an effort in "lifting" your arm off the keys at the end of the drop motion. Logically, it makes sense because you are trying to prepare for the next drop. However, we can never use effort in an upward motion. Instead, the end of each drop should result in completely being relaxed (as though our hand is just sitting on the piano) on the key. 

You could think of it as though the "move" motion needs to be more of a slide across the tops of the keys from a state of relaxation to another hammer drop, rather than a controlled arc from one note to the next. Tricky to explain in typing... feel free to ask more questions or bring it up in the office hours next week :)