Phrasing Technique for Piano

Good phrasing technique does not come easily and naturally, even to gifted students. Piano teachers constantly must show students how to drop on the beginning of a phrase and lift the wrist at the conclusion of the phrase. The result is a musical sound that is something like taking a breath in singing.

To teach phrasing, begin with short slurred groupings. Piano instruction should include a "down-up" wrist movement. The down movement is on the first note (usually the strong beat) and the up movement is on the last note (often a weak beat). Second year students will find a variety of phrases which will include a combination of slurred and staccato groups.

Sometimes it helps for the student to verbalize or say out loud the phrasing: "down-up" for surs, and "up" for staccato notes. By saying the phrasing aloud the student will become aware of the correct hand motion for each technique.

Because of the complexity of hand motions and coordination problems in a piece that combines staccato with phrasing, the difficulty of such a combination is usually late second year or third year for students. Compositions of this type are excellent pre-literature studies for teaching various motions of piano technique. Piano teachers should assign a number of pieces like this before and even during the time standard piano literature is being assigned.

In combination studies, each hand should be studied independently (hands separate). By saying the phrasing in each hand, the student can begin to acquire the needed skills and feeling for the correct interpretation of these basics. Depending on the piece, it is possible to combine some counting with phrasing (down-up). Be sure the student phrases (lifts) both hands together when both treble and bass end on a phrase. The release of both hands should be simultaneous just like the individual voices in a choir.

The ability to play one hand staccato and the other legato simultaneously becomes increasingly more important for the correct performance of pre-literature pieces and some of the easier classical pieces. The main difficulty for students when first combining these two touches is coordination. Both hands "want" to do the same thing at the same time, and each hand must be trained to function independently.

For more information about piano lessons Millington, please contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

Major Key Signatures

First year piano students will most likely be playing in only three keys, the C major, G major and F major. One approach is to teach the order of sharps first and then teach the sharp key signatures. Next teach the order of flats, then teach flat key signatures.

A second approach is to teach the key signatures as they come up in the music literature for the level of playing that the student is currently studying. It is also a good idea to teach the associated scale to be played for one octave the first year. The student will already have been introduced to playing simple sharps and flats in the literature and learning the associated scales should be possible for most students.

Theory workbooks to learn to identify key signatures are usually presented beyond the first year.

Key signature flash cards are useful for drills both at home and at the lesson.

For more information about piano lessons in the Millington area, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

Beginning Music Theory

A first year theory program should include the following:

• Major 5-finger positions and major tonic chords
• Dominant seventh chords (inverted positions)
• Intervals
• The order of sharps and flats
• Major key signatures
• Minor 5-finger positions and minor tonic chords
• Subdominant chords (inverted position)

Ultimately, the piano student should know how to identify the key of the piece, understand the harmonic changes, and have some understanding of the structure of the composition. To get there, piano instruction should include theory from the beginning as an integral part of the piano lessons.

I make it a point to each one hour piano classes rather than half hours because performance, technic, theory, and aural training cannot be managed in only thirty minutes. Families with two students cannot always swing this, so I offer half-hour classes to these candidates. Written theory assignments can then be given and the piano teacher can check these in a few minutes during the lesson.

For more information about piano lessons in the Millington area, please contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

Double Notes Legato Technique

Although first year students won't need much drill on double notes, a few passages containing legato thirds are found in some of the music studied at early grades.

Similar problems happen between playing single legato notes and playing double legato notes; that is, connecting the fingers without blurring. It takes time and patience to apply the legato touch correctly to two notes. The student's tendency is to disconnect the tones. Double note exercises should be devised by the teacher to give the student experience playing them prior to use in first year and second year pieces.

Second and third-year piano students may find that simplified Chopin etudes and piano technique are good pieces to practice legato phrasing and legato thirds.

A good resource for short exercises is the Dozen A Day book series.

For more information about piano lessons Millington area, please contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

Beginners Technique

A few young piano students may have difficulty in finger and hand control, resulting in stiffness. Probably the student stiffens because he feels that what he is trying to do is very difficult and will require a lot of effort and concentration. This very attitude can result in stiffened muscles, and the harder he tries, the stiffer he becomes. It is very important to relax the student and explain that at first you are only going to ask him to do things that are very easy, until his hands and arms 'get into training.' Everything should be made to appear easy and natural No physical action should be beyond the scope of the child's hand.

In my experience I have noticed that big problems arise where students seem to be making a continuous effort to 'push down' the keys. Piano playing requires execution and release and the moment of release is usually the more important. For this reason, I would suggest that most early exercises are played gently without force. Encourage the student to move from one level of tone to another as soon as possible.

Beginners should not practice too long at first, perhaps no more than fifteen or twenty minutes. This is really long enough for eight years and under. Do not begin finger exercises at this stage. On the other hand, any young piano student who enjoys sitting at the piano and picking out little tunes he has heard, or making them up and trying out improvisation, should not be discouraged or corrected, even in the technique is not perfect. I think that in our eagerness to teach all things correctly, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that the piano student wants to play the piano. The assigned work must be carefully done first, but after that a young artist should be free to enjoy his own music in any way he wishes!

For more information about piano lessons NJ, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.

Dynamics

Crescendos, diminuendos, stresses and accents constitute vital piano dynamics in expressive playing. Like the inflections of the voice in speech, they point the meaning of the composition. Two successive tones should seldom be sounded with equal intensity. As in speech, there should be constant variation in the tone, volume, stress and accentuation. The possible variations in dynamic contrasts are almost limitless, but there should always be reason and purpose in the way they are employed. Ascending passages usually increase and descending passages decrease in volume, but sometimes the opposite procedure is all the more effective because it is unexpected. Of course the printed dynamic indications must be observed, but the student must be led to delve deeper into the reasons for contrasts in tone volume and must not mechanically follow marks and directions nor imitate blindly the playing of the piano teacher.

It is not uncommon for teachers to over-stress the importance of measure accents and in so doing to lose sight of the larger rhythmic units. Such constant pounding on the first beat of each measure is like the metrical sing-song way of reciting dull poetry.

Every phrase has its climax, and every composition has its principal climax. In longer works there is a series of climaxes which cumulatively lead to the principal climax. A great composer builds his climaxes with the same careful planning that is given by an architect to the designing of a building. The performer must realize the design in a musical composition, and must plan his dynamic scheme with care, so that each climax, subordinate and principal, may receive its due proportion of emphasis. This principle may be illustrated in the very simplest of little pieces, provided they are based on the principles of artistic design.

Children should be directed in their study of every composition to the consideration of the general dynamic effects of the piece as a whole, contrasts within the piece, and the relationship of primary and secondary climaxes.

For more information about how to learn piano NJ, contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.