Monday, August 29, 2011

Arm Drops

Teaching Arm Drops

Consider having the piano student use the large muscles first, then concentrate on the smaller motions used in coordinating finger action.

Supporting a finger and dropping with arm weight will give the student a feeling of security at impact, and it will give him the correct concept for holding his fingers in a curved position later when the support is not used.

Later, when learning chords, tell the student to prepare the chord in the air and drop on the keys, keeping the fingers well-curved. Fifths, sixths, (octaves later) may also be played like this.

Legato Touch

The legato and staccato touches in are taught in the first year of learning keyboard technique. Legato touch requires the student to play a key, hold it, and release it when the next key is played. It requires some finger coordination and can take time to develop. This is the most basic task of teaching technique to the beginner.

Legato can be explained as a person walks, one foot comes down, the other comes up, and the process is repeated over and over. This is like walking on the keys when one key is played and held until the next key is played, then the first key is released.

Staccato Touch

Have the piano student separate the tones so that they sound short. Another explanation is having the student bounce his finger on the key when a dot appears over or under a note. Some students will need to differentiate between a staccato dot and a dotted note dot. A bounce is not unlike that of a bouncing ball when the upward bounce is the result of the downward movement. To produce this on the piano, the student must imitate the upward bounce consciously.

For more information about piano instruction Basking Ridge, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

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