meaningofwilderness.com

 

Learning or Relearning the Piano as an Adult: A Spiritual Endeavor

 

Scroll to the bottom of this page for more information on virtual pianos. Summary:

VSL also makes a Bösendorfer that was recorded the same way as the Steinway, but I prefer the Steinway now. The standard library is excellent but the full adds possibly some richness. The system requirements are very significant. You may need a new computer. I think most people would be quite happy with the standard, using the condenser and Mid 1 mics. I don’t care for the room acoustics at all which are found in the Room Mix, the Main and Surround microphones. If anyone wishes, please leave a message at the contact page and I will send them presets which do a great deal to even out the sound of the notes: there are many that needed a severe amount of needling to soften the felt, something I do to my own Baldwin grand regularly.

 

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Synchron_Pianos_Bundle/Concert_D

 

If you get it at B&H photo they may pay the sales tax for you (they are cheaper than directly from VSL).

 

(Make sure you get a keyboard with hammer weighted keys that simulate the feel of a real piano. It should weigh at least 38 pounds. Also make sure it has a variable sustain pedal which mimics more closely the effect of a real piano’s pedal. Mine does not have a soft-pedal, which I found I didn’t like on my Baldwin anyway, so I do without. A keyboard with a soft-pedal may be much more expensive.) Monitors (including a subwoofer that’s not entirely necessary but does add a little to the bass), digital to analog converter, and cables— all of the above through Sweetwater Sound. Make sure also to buy a good soundcard (mine — for two different computers — were about $100 each). The soundcard needs also to have inputs and outputs for MIDI, SPDIF, and analog sound, etc. The folks at Sweetwater will help. The two I bought included lite versions of recording software, so you don’t even have to buy that (I didn’t know that and wasted $175)— and it’s unnecessary if you don’t want to record, the virtual pianos can be played “standalone.” The software which I record into is Abelton Live 8 Lite, came free with the sound card and allows me to do virtually any editing imaginable when I record into a MIDI clip on it. Tempo, wrong notes, etc. etc. 

 

You will also need a good computer. The different virtual pianos will tell you the system requirements, but in my experience these are always understated (the minimum is almost certainly unacceptable; the “recommended” might be okay. What I ended up creating out of the Bösendorfer required me to upgrade to a six core processor, and I also increased up to 12 GB RAM, which was probably more than necessary (the original required considerably less; see the recommended requirements). If your processor is too slow you have to create greater latency, which means there is more of a delay between the moment you strike the note and the moment you hear it. This is something one can get used to — organists, I’ve read online, have to deal with the latency of one full second — but it’s better to start out with an adequate computer. I’m leaving out lots and lots of details which you’ll read in the manuals.

 

First, those who, like myself, don’t know where they’d be, if they’d be, if it weren’t for the greatest works of Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert, might be interested in my book, Cabeza and the Meaning of Wilderness: An Exploration of Nature, and Mind, (click here). While perhaps only 10 to 20% of the book directly concerns music, all of it, in one way or another, delves deeply into that wilderness of Mind from which all great art arises. Note that if purchased from this site, a risk-free money-back warranty (within 55 days from date of purchase) is offered — and you keep the book.

 

(If you wish to skip this “preamble” scroll down to the exercises, or further, to the discussion on pianos.)

 

The purpose of this page is to encourage and assist anyone with the slightest interest to take up or go back to the piano, for I feel it can be one of the most profound spiritual endeavors a human can undertake. For myself I find it an essential complement to the four hours of sitting meditation I do daily; they each complement each other and I don’t know where I’d be, if I’d be without either of them. I would be happy to communicate with anyone who is serious about the piano and has read Cabeza.

 

Also, in conjunction with this page one may also wish to read the pages “Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C Major,” “Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G Sharp Minor,” and “Weeping Willow, by Scott Joplin.” The “Music of Cabeza” gives suggested performances of what I consider the most spiritual works.

 

The first quote with which I begin my book, Cabeza and the Meaning of Wilderness: An Exploration of Nature, and Mind, is by Albert Einstein: 

A human being is part of the Whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us. . . . Our task must be to free ourselves . . .

 

Beethoven echoed this when he called us “finite beings with an infinite spirit,” and his very greatest music, along with the greatest of Bach, Schubert, and others, one could say expounds and expands dramatically on the quote of Einstein. Beethoven also wrote: “There is nothing higher than to approach the Godhead more nearly than other mortals, and by means of that contact to spread the rays of the Godhead throughout the human race,” and did precisely this in his last works: the Ninth Symphony, the last five string quartets, and the last three piano sonatas.

 

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler wrote, “Art [great art, that is] springs from spheres that are beyond the sphere of the will.” This really just echoes Beethoven: the sphere of the will is the finite being, and the spheres beyond, our infinite spirit. Cabeza: 

 

“The will. Yes. Experiments using MRI have shown that when people make decisions, the prefrontal cortex of the brain uses more oxygen. So if you want, pin it to that location. But Harvard University psychologist Daniel Wegner argues, “The average person’s sense of having a self that consciously controls his or her actions is an illusion.”(An illusion? Interestingly Einstein called our obsession with our individual self an “optical delusion of our consciousness.”) Experiments have shown that “although volunteers’ conscious decisions to perform a simple action preceded the action itself, they occurred just after a distinctive burst of electrical activity in the brain signaled the person’s readiness to move.” In other words, people “decide” to act . . . “after their brains [have] unconsciously prepared them to do so.” 
    On top of that it has been discovered that even though the conscious mind has not initiated the act, there is still time—one-tenth of a second—for the mind to intervene and abort it. Abstain from it. Dennett, Daniel, in “The Self As Responding and Responsible Artifact,” in The Self from Soul to Brain, edited by Joseph Ledoux, Jacek Debiec, and Henry Moss, p41, writes, “As the astute neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran once quipped, ‘This suggests that our conscious minds may not have free will, but rather “free won’t” !’  ” Interesting. . . . So . . . all our actions and thoughts . . . are unfree. The only freedom is “free won’t.” Which just happens to be what sitting, my kind of sitting, is all about.”

 

And this also happens to be, as I make clear in Cabeza, what great art, genuinely spiritual art — including the finest of piano playing — is all about. Johann Sebastian Bach, when asked how he managed to play unimaginably difficult works with the greatest of ease, replied: “All you have to do is hit the right key at the right time, and the instrument plays itself.” Here Bach is really telling us, by allowing the instrument to play itself, he is abstaining from acting on the impulses of what I call the unfree will, but rather allowing free won’t to operate . . . and thus the sphere beyond the sphere of the will is allowed to manifest itself. (For those seriously interested, I go into this in much greater depth in Cabeza.)

 

So this is the crux of the spiritual endeavor, whether through playing the piano, or sitting in meditation, or anything: To find freedom from what Einstein calls the “prison” of self, the “finite being,” the “sphere of the will” . . . and thus, somehow, approach “the Godhead,” “the sphere beyond the sphere of the will,” the “Whole,” our “infinite spirit.” The second quote with which Cabeza begins, is by Carl Sagan: “We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself. . . . that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.” This is just a slightly different way of putting it.

 

One motto I have for everything in life but it applies especially to the piano, is: “Give in, give up, let go of the whole thing.” Give in to the difficulty, let it just flow through you. Give up all the wanting and fearing of the unfree will. And let go of all trying. See if the music can just play itself without the finite being in the way.

 

It is often said of pianists that they “interpret” a composition. For myself this is totally off base. This body, this mind that is called Phil Grant is really just a vehicle that might, just might, be able to serve the “infinite spirit” and thus allow the most supremely spiritual works to manifest themselves. This is precisely what their composers allowed to happen: in their finest moments they accessed that sphere beyond the sphere of the will, that infinite spirit, knowing full well they were not “theirs.” The above quote of Beethoven makes that clear. Schubert said it in a simpler manner he: “I am here only to compose.” We have no words from Bach on this, but Charles Rosen wrote regarding his greatest masterpiece, The Art of the Fugue: “Nevertheless, if the work does not yield up its emotional secrets easily, it becomes in the end infinitely moving, with a pathos and grandeur given to no other work.”

 

What could be infinitely moving . . . but that infinite spirit.

 

Moving on to the practical details:

 

The following site may be useful, especially if you don’t know how to read music:

http://piano.about.com/

 

OVERVIEW INCLUDING MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

 

Although both my grandparents on my mother side were proficient enough to play Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata #23 (one of the most difficult works in the repertoire), and my mother had majored in music (voice) in college and had given my two older sisters piano lessons, probably because she was at perpetual war with my next older sister (who spent most of her short life in mental hospitals and halfway houses) she did not give lessons to me. But after I had flunked out of my first year in college because it was totally meaningless to me, and a friend introduced me to some of the greatest works of Bach, I decided to take it up on my own at age 19. My parents had a recording of the Bach Two- and Three-Part Inventions (which were written as teaching aids for his own children), and I thought to myself, “I can play these.” My mother sang in a choral arts society and asked friends to recommend a piano teacher, to whom I began going weekly for lessons.

 

I liked the fellow and I have to imagine he was quite good as piano teachers go, but what he taught me was essentially worthless or worse. For exercises, first he had me play a scale in a new key every week the full length of the piano. There is really no exercise that is worse for conditioning the fingers than this. The little fingers, 4 and 5, are by far the weakest. If you play scale the full-length of the piano you play fingers 1, 2 and 3 twice every octave, finger number 4 one time every octave, and figure number 5 once total, at most. He also had me play a new exercise in Czerny every week that wasn’t really much better. Both Hanon and Dohnányi (see below) emphasize how you have to play an exercise a certain number of times just to get to the point where you know it well enough to really begin conditioning the fingers. Switching to a new exercise or scale every week completely defeats this.

 

I did however, completely on my own, learn the Two-Part Inventions in C major and F major.

 

Six months later I made another stab at college (with the same end result) at the University of Michigan and asked at the school of music if there were teachers who could give me private lessons. There was one, so I saw her weekly. She prescribed pretty much the same exercises as the first teacher.

 

I gave up after another six months because it seemed so totally hopeless. (Note that virtually all piano teachers must have started playing at a young age and very likely had that virtually indefinable attribute called “talent,” which gave them the ability to “master” the piano regardless of how good or bad the method they studied was. Thus they are totally unsuited to advise someone beginning as an adult.)

 

So I am essentially self-taught, thanks to an almost infinite amount of trial and error — which included giving up the piano forever a score of times. Perhaps this makes me a bit more suited to be of assistance to someone in the same boat as I was back then. While this may not necessarily be the “perfect” piano method, I’m certain that if I had followed what is below from the beginning the process would have been immeasurably easier for me, and thus I would have persisted instead of giving it up a score of times.

 

Because the scales and Czerny seemed so useless, I stopped doing exercises entirely until at one point I discovered Hanon’s The Virtuoso Pianist at a yard sale. With these exercises I did feel I was at least doing something for my fingers. Many pianists swear by it. But I found it has two main faults. First, the core of the exercises is only on white keys, which makes them easy to learn, but limits their effectiveness. The greatest difficulties at the piano in fact arise from the black keys. Also, I found the great repetitiveness of them led to a buildup of tension, which is always counterproductive.

 

A few years later someone gave me their Dohnányi’s Essential Finger Exercises. These were a big step up from Hanon. I list several of them below which I feel are especially useful. But one fault I have with them is, to take for example the exercise on thirds, is they lead directly from the easy hand positions (mostly white keys, with perhaps black keys on fingers 2, 3 and 4) to the most difficult ones (black keys especially under the thumb and 5th finger). I personally recommend working on the easy positions for a considerable period of time before gradually moving on to the more difficult ones.

 

Another modification I suggest below is to play the left hand as a mirror image of the right. This not only makes it easier to learn, but since you are playing the same fingers with each hand at the same time, the finger work is self-reinforcing.

 

And many of Dohnányi exercises I just don’t bother with. But overall I’m very glad I found these exercises.

 

Dohnányi writes, “The exercises have to be played forte with all possible strength, slowly and with well raised fingers, as well as piano in more rapid tempo. For training, the forte and slow practicing is more beneficial. To practice too slowly is a waste of time. The most rapid tempo in which the exercises can be played faultlessly gives best results. Over fatigue must be avoided, and rest must be taken, when tiredness sets in.” [Regarding “all possible strength,” if one experiences any pain it is necessary to scale back the intensity however much necessary. Also, I recently developed serious pain in my left shoulder which I’ve self-diagnosed as rotator cuff impingement syndrome. I suggest doing regular exercises, which can be found online, to prevent this. That said, it was perhaps my tension that brought on the problem. I strongly suggest all around body exercises be performed regularly. Below I mention wrist exercises which solved wrist pain. Take off your watch, which may impinge the tendons.]

 

I more or less agree with this except I save the piano practicing for actual pieces. But most importantly I want to add that the exercises should be performed, to the extent possible, with relaxed strength, relaxed meaning that only the muscles necessary to perform the exercises are used. This is in fact very difficult to do; it means a complete relaxation of every other part of the body which almost no one is able to accomplish. For example, Pierre Aimard can be seen on this YouTube links both doing

immense work with his eyebrows and “chewing gum,” as one comment described it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QpgBVCexIE

 

One can also see Glenn Gould going through contortions at this link:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDSAXtsDB5k

 

For me though, this is the essence of the spiritual endeavor: relaxing all aspects of one’s body/mind except those muscles absolutely necessary for the performance of the piece — through free won’t. The reason why this so difficult I go into in depth in Cabeza, especially in one chapter “And Fear,” where I write most people have no idea how much fear they keep buried inside. Take Aimard: I’m sure if I told him he was afraid he’d say, “Who, me? Are you kidding?” But that’s what that eyebrow work and the “chewing gum” is all about. To keep the fear down. Plus I’m virtually certain there are all sorts of other tensions throughout his body. And the root of that fear (of which I only really touch the surface here but explore thoroughly in Cabeza) is that our separate self, our unfree will, is always on the lookout to protect itself against dangers that are really omnipresent and of necessity will eventually fully manifest themselves at the moment of our deaths. He works hard to keep these intense emotions of fear down; why else would those eyebrows be doing such a dance. (Likewise, Gould’s famous singing along with his playing I’m certain is just another way for him to keep the fear down. He died at age 50 of a stroke, probably caused by the multitude of prescription drugs he was taking at the time — uppers, downers, you name it.)
 
This is very clear to me because I see the same things happen in myself. I have all sorts of tensions, starting in my abdomen, working up my back, through my shoulder and down my right arm into my right hand especially. As a counterpoint, since it has nothing else to do, I may be vigorously tensing the muscles of my left foot. But if I do abstain, through free won’t, then the fear begins to come up and somehow I must just allow that to happen without reacting to it. Only in this way does my playing begin to approach what I know it is capable of — allowing the universe to know itself, to play itself . . . through my fingers.

 

Aimard and Gould are renowned artists, but in my opinion they fall far short of their own potential as they remain, to significant degree, trapped in the “prison” of self.

 

One ailment that is common among pianists and musicians in general is focal dystonia. Gary Graffman and Leon Fleisher were forced to devote themselves to performing only pieces for the left-hand due to this. If you look at Wikipedia you’ll see that the cause is not precisely understood. I think I have something like this (it probably originated with tennis playing in my teens) which gives me weakness in my right hand. This is one reason why I gave up the piano forever score of times: because this condition kept getting worse. But I am certain in my case, and virtually certain in others, that this is due to tension in the muscles of the forearm which, I speculate inhibits the free flow of nerve impulses. And that tension of course is caused by anxiety and fear. But no one wants to know about that so they get Botox injections instead which may, perhaps, marginally help . . . but no one dares approach the root of the problem. But this approach is in fact the most wonderful potential of both sitting meditation and spiritual endeavor of playing the piano. As Yogi Berra said, “Playing the piano is 90% mental; the other half is physical.”

 

EXERCISES: 

 

One hand exercise I find may be useful is place your hands on a pillow or a large piece of foam and splay out the fingers; then pull the fingers in slowly and forcefully. Repeat multiple times, possibly adjusting the orientation of the fingers.

 

Download the Dohnányi Essential Finger Exercises at:

http://www.4shared.com/file/hqDV99Vw

or

http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=7cc725360f9e575c4703c702bb97235e&topic=14597.0

 

There is tremendous difference of opinion about exercises. Some teachers say you should just learn pieces (but I wonder if this only applies if you start at the age of two like Lang Lang; for myself, doing without exercises is unimaginable). If you go this route, start, and stay with, Bach for a long time. But even Bach created exercises for himself! It may depend on temperament and the talent of the individual involved. I have just been reading an interesting book called The Sports Gene by David Epstein, which includes some discussion of musicians. First, there are an incredible multitude of genes — likely hundreds of thousands or more —with extremely complex interactions, which might affect musical talent. But one interesting point regarding athletes in all sports is that both the baseline ability of individuals varies dramatically, and also how fast they improve with training. And these are both independent. In other words, one might start out with a high baseline ability but then improve very slowly with training, or vice versa. The bottom line is not to compare yourself with anyone else (in athletics of course you might just want to give up the sport in which you are obviously no good at) and, assuming you love music the way I do and have some appreciation of its profound spiritual import, well, you just keep working at it. 

 

For myself, although I greatly impressed people during my first few years of playing, after that it seemed like my progress was glacial — until relatively recently when I started inventing some of the exercises (or playing them the particular way I suggest) below. 

 

Epstein also said training regimens really should vary with the individual. So see what works best for you. Perhaps the site below will be helpful:

 

http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=15543.0

 

Dohnányi suggests learning one hand at a time and then playing the hands together. I’m not sure if this is always necessary. See what works for you. But for many exercises the simplest thing is to play the left hand in contrary motion: the mirror image of the right. (Since this is rather cacophonous, I use earplugs; Vaseline makes them more comfortable) For example, if you start playing the first exercise on C with the thumb of the right hand, put the thumb of the left on the E below it and play down instead of up. This makes it easier to learn, and because you’re playing the same finger of each hand at the same time, the finger work is self-reinforcing. 

 

1 is the thumb, 5 is the little finger. The exercises in bold I consider especially important for conditioning. The others are either optional or can be done occasionally, or when necessary for particular piece. If you are a beginner, work on just the first 3 exercises for a while before moving on to the more difficult ones. The most important point is to avoid strain as much as possible (although probably some is inevitable — even for concert pianists when playing the most difficult works). Developing relaxed strength, independence, and facility of the fingers is the goal. And always keep one’s mind on the finger work, seeing if one can just allow the mind to be with everything that is going on — without effort, without reacting to the difficulty, without trying to concentrate. Dohnányi writes in the Preface: “It is absolutely useless to practice exercises in a thoughtless, mechanical manner . . . When playing, even the simplest of finger exercises, the full attention must be fixed on the finger work, each note must be played consciously, in short: not to practice merely with the fingers, but through the fingers with the brain.” I would add to this that it’s necessary to at least be aware of one’s entire body and any tension that may be arising, seeing if it’s possible to be let go of. This can be extraordinarily difficult, but just keep it in mind, doing the best one can. It may seem impossible at the beginning but it is something that can be learned over time: just relaxing into the exercises without strain, not fighting the difficulty. If interested see Cabeza. 

 

If you are like Lang Lang who was determined (or rather his father was determined) to be number one (see this link:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Thousand-Miles-My-Story/dp/0385524579  )

 

— maybe it’s not a problem doing exercises and working at the piano for countless hours. (But in this entire book he never once said that he loved a single piece of music. I listen to his recording of the Beethoven fourth piano Concerto, which is creditable — but it lacks fire in the cadenza of the first movement, the very part that shows what Beethoven went through to write the rest.) But for most of us all that exercise and practicing can really feel like suffering. Vincent van Gogh wrote, after the famous incident when he cut off part of his ear: “To suffer without complaining is the one lesson that has to be learned in this life.” Go to my Website page on Meditation / Sitting: 

 

Scroll down to what was added February 9, 2013 including the letter. This will shed more light on this “suffering without complaining” mind state that leads to freedom from the prison of self to the joy of knowing the Whole.

 

Regarding sitting position at the piano, when I was having problems with my wrist I saw on a website that the correct sitting position would be at a height so that the bottom of one’s elbows are about the same height as the top of the keyboard, with one’s forearms roughly level. I take foam carpet padding, cut it into the number of pieces necessary, and put them inside a pillow case on my piano chair to get me the right height (note this does compress over time). Also, this site mentioned that the rest position for your fingers at the piano should be slightly curled: let your hands hang down at your sides and notice the natural curl. Any movement away from that position, up or down, takes effort.

 

Choose from the following exercises the ones you feel most useful, or rotate through most or all of them. Make up new ones for yourself, too. The ones in bold I find most helpful for overall conditioning. Since some parts of certain exercises are more difficult than others, don’t feel you need to keep a constant tempo. Slow down as much as necessary. The others are optional to some degree depending on what music you are playing. Everything I write of below I most deeply wish I had practiced and utilized from the very beginning; it took an immense amount of trial and error to come to the point where I am now. Perhaps others can profit from that.

 

1. This exercise I made up: it’s easy to learn and can be transposed to a wide variety of key positions. Play 1234543212345432123454345434543454321 three times total. This starts conditioning the weakest fingers, 4 and 5, especially. (It may be helpful to do a variation on this exercise focusing on fingers 4 and 5).If you’ve never played before, start with this just on the white keys. Then, gradually add black keys for the easy fingers two and three, then the harder fingers four, five and one. Then add intervals, starting between one and two. Then play it on a diminished chord which starting on C is: C– E flat – G flat – A – C (a diminished chord is a succession of minor thirds). Then do it on the diminished chord starting on A, and then B, and then D. Then try on the diminished chords starting on all the black keys. This is quite difficult; don’t attempt it for quite a while. Then, assuming your hands are large enough, for even greater difficulty, play the notes over the interval of a 9th. Start with the thumb on B, and the other fingers on D, F, G sharp, and C. Then play the same notes but starting with the thumb on D. Then F. Then play F sharp, A sharp, C sharp, E, and G sharp. Then play G sharp, B, D Sharp, F sharp, and A sharp. You can also try the interval of the 9th on every other white key.

Accent every 4th note starting with 1. Then change the accent starting with 2 — this way the 4th finger (probably the weakest finger) is accented coming down. Also try playing in dotted rhythm.

 

1B. Play 12345123451234512345 accenting every 4th note so that every finger plays the accented note in turn. Repeat. Then play in reverse: 54321 etc.

 

2. Trills. One book I got out of the library made the point that the trill is the basic unit of all music, and recommended practicing 2- and 3-note exercises. This is very simple to learn, and it has the advantage of focusing on very specific fingers and getting them tired which is necessary for building muscles.

 

Again, start on adjacent white keys and first play 4-5, then 1-2, then 3-4, then 2-3, then 5-1 (crossing over the thumb, after you have practiced exercise 6 below for a while; do this first on adjacent weight notes, then at the 3rd) rotated with 1-5 at the octave, then 4-5 again. Play in triplets so you accent each finger alternately. (After playing 4-5 the 2nd time, do another exercise to give it rest before coming back to this one, starting with 4-5 again; 4-5 needs the most work.) Then play one white and one black key. Then play 2 black keys. Then start adding intervals: a 3rd or more up to as far as you can reach. If your hands are large enough work up to 4-5 at an interval of the 5th. There are places in music where it is helpful to be able to do this. 1-2 can also be played over a wide interval.

 

The way I suggest practicing is to, say, play 4-5 on adjacent white keys — 4 sets of 4 x 6 notes (2 triplets). Then play 4-5 on 2 adjacent black keys, also 4 sets of 4 x 6 notes. Then do the same with 1-2. Then 3-4. Then 2-3. Then play one white key and one black key, and then do the reverse. Etc.

You can make these considerably more difficult by moving the fingers closer to the fall board between the black keys, as if you are holding down other notes on the black keys.

 

Also, trill with every combination the fingers, i.e. 5-4, 5-3, 5-2, 5-1, 4-5, 4-3, 4-2, 4-1, etc.— on a variety of intervals and black/white key combinations. These I suggest playing 2 sets of 4 x 6 on each combination.

 

Generally I practice trills in contrary motion, but if you have a passage were you have to play trills simultaneously in both hands, then obviously practice that in parallel motion.

 

3. 3-finger exercises. Again, start on the white notes, practicing 3-4-5, then 1-2-3, then 2-3-4. Vary go to one ascendance which note is accented. I do this by accenting every 4th note: say, on 3-4-5, I will play accenting the 3 four times, then the 4, then the 5. Then I will play in triplets so that each note is alternately accented. Then I will play two of the notes versus the other in triplets in all three combinations. I play 4 sets of 4 notes accenting finger number 3, then 4 accenting 4, then 4 sets accenting 5. Then 4 sets of 6 notes (triplets) where the accent is alternating. Also play them just in each direction, i.e. 1-2-3, 3-2-1. Then 4 sets of 6 notes on the 2 versus 1. Also practice trills with an after beat, for example with the 1st 3 fingers play (with the right hand; play these in parallel not contrary motion with the left hand): 323232121 and 323232123 four times each in double rhythm, and then 3232323232121 and 3232323232123 and triple rhythm. Do this with 3-4-5, 2-3-4, 1-2-3, and 3-1-2 (right hand; left hand plays 2-1-3) with 3 and/or 2 on black keys. 

 

After doing this on adjacent notes you can then start adding intervals (but not for the trills with after beats), as far as you can stretch.

 

4. Thirds and double notes. On the white notes 1st, say, with the thumb on middle C, play 1-3 simultaneously and then trill with 2-4 in triplets. Then trill 2-4 with 3-5. Go back and forth. Then like on exercise 1. (This is my version of Dohnányi exercise 26. I also do exercise 27, which gives an alternate fingering for thirds. This one becomes quite difficult when you have either the thumb or the 5th finger on black keys, so, again, start out with the white.) Start adding black keys, intervals, and do it on a diminished chord, and then finally the cord over the 9th. Other 9th intervals I find it worth doing this exercise on are: G sharp — B — D – F — A, and G —B — D —F — G sharp.

Also do this broken, i.e. playing 1, then 3, then 2, then 4, then 3, then 5. After doing this several times then do it in reverse: 5-3-4-2-3-1. If you are a beginner you may wish to play it broken 1st. One may also find it useful to play 5-2 versus 3-4 in various positions, and also 1-4 versus 2-3.

 

5. Dohnányi exercises 1-7, which he calls “exercises for the independence and the strengthening of the fingers.” I do these all in contrary motion and on many additional note combinations than he prescribes. I find the combination trill exercises of 3-6 especially important and suggest they can also be done over every diminished chord where the thumb is on a black key (I suggest doubling the notes played in the triplet section of these exercises). I also do them over some of the intervals of the 9th listed above. Also, it can be helpful to place the thumb up to an octave away from the little finger, while keeping fingers 2 through 5 adjacent to each other, such as: F Sharp, C, D, D Sharp, F, and A Sharp, E, F sharp, G, A. Etc. If you have a problem combination of notes in a piece, it’s very helpful to do this exercise over those notes, as well as the thirds exercise. Since exercises 3 and 4 are very similar to 5 and 6, I alternate these pairs over different key combinations (doing, say, just 3 and 4 on one combination, and 5 and 6 on the next).

 

6. Crossing over the thumb. Play finger 2 on B and the thumb on C and trill in triplets. 4 sets of 6 notes. do again with finger 3 on B. Then finger number 4. Then 5. Then put 4 on A, and trill. Then 5 on A. Then 4 on B-flat. Then 5 on B-flat. Then the thumb on D and 4 on B-flat. Then the same with 5 on B-flat. Then the thumb on F-Sharp and 4 on C-sharp. Then thumb on F-sharp and 5 on D-sharp. If you prefer, do Dohnányi #14 instead; but I think the above is more efficient. At the last line of the Dohnányi which has the thumb periodically playing on a black key may be worth adding to the above. Or just trill with 4 on C and the thumb on C-sharp.

 

7. Now you are ready to start scales. Frankly, at the moment I don’t practice scales or arpeggios at all except in pieces. I focus almost entirely on the 6 exercises above, and exercises 9 and 15 below. See what works for you. Dohnányi exercise #18 has the fingering (but I suggest using Hanon — see below), but I suggest sticking with just one key, major and minor, for a while before moving to the next key. Here I’ll give some basics of harmony (for the diatonic scale):

Unison — the same note with itself.
Minor 2nd — the interval of a half step, or semitone, i.e. C to C-sharp.
Major 2nd — two semitones; C to D.
Minor 3rd — 3 semitones; C to D-sharp.
Major 3rd — 4 semitones; C to E.
4th — 5 semitones; C to F.
Augmented 4th or diminished 5th—six semitones; C to F-sharp.
5th — 7 semitones; C to G.
Minor 6th —eight semitones; C to G-sharp.
Major 6th —nine semitones; C to A. (this can also be called a diminished 7th)
Minor 7th —ten semitones; C to A-sharp.
Major 7th —eleven semitones; C to B.
Octave — 12 semitones; C to the C above it.

Major chord in the key of C major: C-E-G-C.
Minor chord in the key of C minor: C-E-flat-G-C.
Diminished chord starting on C: C-E-flat-G-flat-A.
In the key of C major the “dominant” is the major chord starting on G: G-B-D-G.
The “subdominant” is the major chord starting on F: F-A-C-A.
The “dominant 7th” in the key of C major is the dominant chord with the 7th — F — added: G-B-D-F-G.
In the key of C minor these are the same except for the subdominant, which becomes the minor chord starting on F: F-A-flat-C-F.

The major scale starting on C is just all the white notes up to the next C.
The harmonic minor scale starting on C includes a minor 3rd (E-flat), and a minor 6th (A-flat). 
The melodic minor scale starting on C includes a minor 3rd (E-flat) and a major 7th (B-flat) going up, and a minor 7th (B-flat) and minor 6th (A-flat) going down.

B-flat is called the enharmonic of A-sharp— the same note with a different name due to the harmony of the key it is presumed to be in.

I suggest you practice C major by playing up and down 2 octaves, accenting every 4th note, 4 times, then in triplets 4 times. Then play the harmonic C minor the same way. Then likewise the melodic minor.

I suggest obtaining the Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist (exercises 39-43) for the fingering for all the scales and arpeggios; it’s clearer than the Dohnányi. You can get it from this page:

http://www.pianostreet.com/index_sr.php?cx=006699662278131543491%3Aytxfri5hths&cof=FORID%3A10%3BNB%3A1&ie=UTF-8&q=hanon&sa=Search+pianostreet.com

Also practice the chromatic scale – exercise 40. I only do this one octave plus one note, going from B to C, starting with the thumb and ending with the 5th finger. Unless you’re planning to be a concert pianist I’m not sure it’s worth practicing any of the scales at major thirds, sixths, contrary motion, etc.

 

8. Arpeggios. Most exercise books I have seen have you do these starting on the tonic tone. But it didn’t take me long to find out that most of the time they really start on the 3rd or the 5th, etc. so I devised this way of practicing:

See Dohnányi exercise #for the fingering. For C major play C (1) — E (2) — G (3) — C (1) — E (2) — G (3) – C (5) (2 octaves) up-and-down accenting every 4th note. Play 4 times or more. Then play what is called the chord of the 6th: C (1) — E (2) — A (4) — C (1) etc. up and down 2 octaves.

Then play what is called a 6-4 chord: C (1) — F (2) — A (4) — C (1) etc.

Then repeat in the key of C minor changing the E to E-flat and A to A-flat. For variety play these in triplets. Play all of these 4 times or more.

Then play the diminished arpeggio starting on C: C (1) — E-flat (2) — G-flat (3) —A (4) — C (1) etc. for 2 octaves up and down. 4 times.

Then, if you are motivated (if not, wait until you have these in an actual piece), play the dominant 7th arpeggio starting on C: C (1) — E (2) — G (3) — B-flat (4) — C (1) etc. for 2 octaves up and down 4 times. Then you can start with the thumb on each successive note to practice it in every position.

 

9. Dohnányi exercise # 32: parallel sixths. Play this in parallel motion. You can also practice parallel sevenths just on the white keys. This stretch is needed in some pieces. try also playing 1-4 versus 2-5 over the interval of the 9th with either the thumb or the 5th finger on a black key.

 

10. Dohnányi #17 and #17a. Play these with the wrist. I play #17 in dotted rhythm going up, and reverse dotted (i.e., with the short note 1st) coming down.

 

11. Octaves. Dohnányi exercises #38-40 has you play these as scales and arpeggios. You can just practice them chromatically up and down one octave, using 1 — 5 on the white keys, and 1 — 4 on the black, 8 times on each note, using the wrist. Like the previous exercise you can play this in dotted rhythm. Also, coming down you might wish to play with the 3rd finger on the black notes and the 4th on the white (changing to 5th when there are 2 adjacent whites.) Also do this broken: using the thumb 1st going up, and using 3, 4, or 5 coming down.

I also play octaves going up the scale, say, starting with C, up the C major scale one octave and then down on the C minor harmonic scale. Then up and down C-sharp, and so on.

 

12. Repeated notes, Dohnányi exercise #15.

 

13. Chords. Play C major chord with the thumb on C. Then the F major chord with the thumb still on C (a 6-4 chord). Then back to C major again. Then a G major chord starting on B (a chord of the 6th). Then add an F to that making it into a dominant 7th chord. Then play the diminished 7th starting from B and go back and forth to the dominant 7th several times. Then back to C major. I suggest doing this in dotted rhythm, playing each chord with the long and the short note.

Then move up to E and play the C major chord of the 6th. Then the F major starting on F. Then the C major again. Then the G major chord of the 6th starting on D. Then the dominant 7th of G major starting on D, again alternating with the diminished 7th, and then back to C major starting on E. Then the C major 6-4 chord starting on G. Then the court of the 6th of F major starting on A. Then C major again, then G major starting on G. This time, after alternating the dominant and the diminished sevenths a few times, move down one note to F and play the G major dominant 7th from that position, again alternating with the diminished 7th. Then move up to the C one octave from where you began and play the progression in that position.

Then go back to the original C and play it all again in C minor (and F minor).

Transpose to all the other keys.

 

14. Dohnányi exercise #9. I suggest doing this in contrary motion. When you have it mastered you can switch to starting on a different note. Exercises #10 and 11 are also very important. These are very difficult, don’t try them for a while, but I consider them extremely important for developing the independence of the fingers. Take one at a time in order. Since some of the finger positions are very easy and others extremely difficult don’t feel you have to do the exercise at the same pace throughout. In fact one definitely should slow down dramatically for the difficult parts, not sloughing over them.

 

15. The chord of the 6th played broken consecutively (in contrary motion): play C — E-flat — A — C with fingers one, 2, 4, 5 — up and down 4 or 8 times. Then play C— E — A-sharp—C. Then move up to C-sharp and proceed similarly up to and including E.

Then do the same in parallel motion but playing the fingers and the order of 1, 4, 2, 5 repeating 4 or 8 times. Then do the same in reverse. Maybe this exercise is not necessary for those who do not have the tension I have that manifests when playing a stretch of fingers 4 and 5. Try it and see if that helps.

 

Learning Pieces

 

The link below goes to an article describing a study that shows caffeine boosts long-term memory:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270963.php

 

First, what to play. (Scores can probably be found online: search free scores.) I personally am only interested in the most spiritually profound music. For Beethoven this means the last 3 sonatas, 30-32, which are among the most difficult in the repertoire. I suggest bypassing them — although perhaps one might try a few of the easier variations in the last movement of the numbers 30 and 32 — until one is quite advanced. For Schubert I am only really interested in, also, his last sonatas, primarily the ones in C minor, Opus 958, and B-flat, Opus 960. These are also quite difficult, especially as a little finger of the right hand often has to play a melody with the other fingers of that hand playing a harmonic figure. I suggest bypassing these also.

 

That leaves Bach. Fortunately he wrote a large number of works that even a beginner could take up profitably. These include especially the Two- and Three-Part Inventions, written for his own sons, which are a great place to start. I suggest getting a recording and then playing the ones you like. I started with the one in C major which is a good place for anyone to start. Bach’s music is not easy, but almost all of it is spiritually meaningful and also makes demands on both hands almost equally, in a way that Beethoven and Schubert’s music often does not, so it is excellent for training — especially if one decides to try the route of not playing exercises. Bach also sounds great when played slowly.

 

After the Inventions there are numerous individual movements from both The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Partitas that are not too demanding. Again, I suggest getting a recording and then trying the ones that seem most appropriate for you. The Sarabande from the third partita is easy and very beautiful; the corrente could be tried very slowly. The first movement of the first partita is also not too difficult, Several of the Goldberg Variations are not difficult, also. Then work up to the more difficult preludes, fugues, and partita movements. One could also at this point try some of the easier fugues from The Art of the Fugue, especially the first one.

 

Regarding the Prelude and Fugue in C Major: the Prelude is so easy it’s incredibly difficult. The trick, as always, is allowing the music to play itself. You are just the vehicle. Took me an unconscionable amount of work more than I imagined. After getting nowhere for a long time I invented the following exercise: I took all the different figures in the right-hand and played them both hands simultaneously (the left-hand in mirror fashion), i.e. the six notes without the first two that are sustained in the left-hand. I played those six notes with the rhythmic accents they have in the piece itself eight times or more before moving onto the next figure, doing this for every unique figure up before the last line. For that, which was my biggest problem due to tension, I would practice for the first measure, F, A, C, F, up and down (again with left hand playing in mirror fashion), and then F, A, C, E for the second, numerous times focusing on strength and relaxation. I also found it necessary to practice the fingers 5 and 3, trilling them on adjacent white keys, with one note interval, and the two note interval. This really helped clear up my tension in that part of the hand.

 

With the fugue, there are difficulties with the thirds one must play with the thumb on black keys. Practice the Dohnányi exercise on thirds above in those positions. The other difficulty is the 32nd notes, especially where other notes must be played at the same time. Make these difficult parts into exercises and play them very slowly. The Dohnányi exercises for finger independence are a great help here, but don’t expect quick results.

 

The keyboard partitas are also excellent works and some of the movements are quite easy. Perhaps my favorite is the sarabande of 3. Below is one performance but I don’t like the tempos that much. Gould’s performance of 6 is unmatched, but some of the other ones I think he plays much too fast.

 

https://youtu.be/UK9xIEa15Ag?t=3177

 

This is my favorite performance of 3

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICUE1UWbRmE

 

 For a change of pace try Scott Joplin. Weeping Willow, The Nonpareil, Bethena, and Solace are my favorites. You could also play the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, but this doesn’t really do much to condition the hands. The Schubert Impromptu Opus 142, #2 in A flat is also not too hard, but, like the Moonlight Sonata, the left hand doesn’t do much.

 

As far as practicing itself — and I received no instruction on this from my own teachers — I have the following suggestions, repeat suggestions, meaning that you really need to find out for yourself what works best. First, the more complex a piece is, the more you may want to play each hand separately 1st, determining what fingering you want to use (what’s best for you could be quite different from the editor’s). Be sure to write the fingering you want down and use the same fingering every time. Then, at some point, start playing the 2 hands together very slowly. While learning I suggest playing, as much as is possible, every note deliberately and forcefully — both to strengthen one’s fingers and to help cement how they are being used into your mind. (If one is using the virtual piano it is easy enough to turn down the volume and the hardness of the sound so the result is not an unbearable cacophony. If you only have a real piano, see my suggestions below.) But focus on seeing if relaxed strength is possible. It may not be at first, but this is what one is working toward. Ultimately if one keeps working at it long enough (three or four decades; don’t forget Bach and Beethoven took as long to perfect their music), one may find that this extremely difficult work . . . becomes an utterly fulfilling, profound joy.

 

Other Considerations

 

1. When my wife and I go on wilderness trips — usually 3 weeks in length — I keep up my playing by bringing along a cannibalized keyboard that I cut so it just fits between the gearshift and the passenger side door so I can practice while my wife is driving. I only do exercises on trips. But recently I have found it helpful — don’t laugh! — to play on a pillow. (Actually, I have cut three pieces of two-inch foam the size of the pillow and put them inside a pillow case; I may put another pillow under it when I practice.) I have decided I like this so much that I now do my pillow practicing even at home, perhaps a half-hour a day total, often at the end of my four one-hour rounds of sitting meditation, two of which are just before my real piano playing. I like it because I can focus on relaxing, putting letting go of tension as the priority, and not being concerned with hitting a particular key precisely. And I can also focus on using all possible strength (with just the muscles involved) without worrying about hurting my fingers — due to the softness of the pillow. Because I have so much innate tension almost the most important part of practice is seeing if I can somehow let go of that. It may help to focus attention on the fingers if one keeps one’s wrist resting on the pillow to the extent possible, and seeing if one can just relax the rest of one’s body. This is not easy. At all. In Cabeza I explain why.

When playing on the pillow, especially trills, one can take advantage of the natural curve between the knees and outside the knees, and angle the hand in such a way that one can simulate playing a black key adjacent to a white key. You can also play chords on a pillow, twisting your fingers and all sorts of different positions to simulate the real thing.

 

2. My fingers are always cold when I start. I solve this partly by putting a hairdryer on top of my camera tripod and pointing it down along the keys from the upper end of the keyboard. I used to drill, very carefully so as not to damage the electronics, a quarter inch hole in the handle to screw onto the tripod post, but I discovered that Conair model 1875 already has a hole in the handle (for a screw), and that screws down perfectly on the tripod. Note that a Vidal Sassoon hairdryer I purchased burnt out very rapidly. The Conair lasts much longer. When I start I clasp my hands together squeezing the fingers against the back of the other hand — in front of the hairdryer. I am so dependent on my hairdryer I keep a spare on hand.

 

3. I do all my exercises on my Baldwin grand. Many years ago I acquired an old upright that, when you depressed the middle pedal, would lower a piece of felt between the hammers and the strings, muting the sound. When I got my Baldwin I rigged up a way, carefully sliding the felt under the strings, to do this also — manually sliding the felt out of the way when I wanted to play pieces. But the felt wears away quite quickly, so I took a bicycle inner tube and cut a 2 inch wide strip that I use instead. (But if one wants to play pieces muted, the felt is better sound wise, but it will disintegrate over time.) This not only saves your ears and those of anyone in the vicinity, but also cuts down the wearing and the hardening of the hammers. However I have since realized that while the hammers are preserved, albeit somewhat flattened and still need to be reshaped, there is still wear-and-tear on the rest of the action: notably the bushings, and the knuckles, and the entire regulation. Thus I suggest for exercises 1. Buy a cheap electronic keyboard, take it apart, and put foam under the keys, To make it harder to play, and exercise your fingers better. That’s the easy solution. The more difficult solution is 2. If you purchase a hammer weighted digital keyboard (not semi-weighted; it should weigh at least 38 pounds and more if there are speakers), figure out a way to put a ½ inch strip of bicycle inner tube under the keys so that first, the tension can be adjusted according to what you are playing and your preferences, and second so that the strip can be removed when you are actually performing pieces. I have done this by drilling out an oblong hole about half an inch by three quarters of an inch (horizontal with the keyboard), and another quarter-inch hole with a half-inch piece of plastic tubing glued in place through which I thread a piece of fishing line up and then over all the weights of the keys. This attaches to the half-inch strip which I then pull into position when I want to do exercises and can remove when playing pieces. Precisely how this is done you will have to figure out by taking the digital keyboard apart and examining the situation.

                Another problem I had with my digital keyboard was that the key dip (the amount the keys go down) was too great. This means that your fingers may catch on the edge of the keys. I have a key dip wooden chip that I use to regulate my grand and the digital. Keys should go down 3/8 of an inch relative to the next one. The black keys should go down to 1/8 of an inch above the whites. I solved this to a degree by gluing a piece of felt — after taking the whole thing apart — on the portion that comes down on the keys, which already had a red piece of felt in place but that just wasn’t enough. Unfortunately I still don’t even have this quite right after gluing in two different felt strips.

 

Another way to keep the volume down on a real piano while practicing (so you don’t drive your wife to divorce or your neighbors to murder) is to put blankets and quilts over it. You can also take a large piece of plywood, cover it with acoustical tile and put it behind an upright, or under a grand against the frame. I actually did this with my Baldwin (neglecting the acoustic tile) when I was living in a small apartment. This can be done by drilling small holes into the frame braces and screwing the wood/tile up tight. This may sound drastic but I just read that when 19th century pianist Hans von Bülow was preparing for a concert tour the neighbors above, and below, and on either side were complaining like nuts. I find real pianos unbearably loud unless they are in a very large space.

 

4. Also many years ago, after I’d first got my Baldwin grand, the action seemed quite stiff and heavy to me, so I asked at a music store if there was any way to rectify that (I was thinking of possibly more lead weights in the keys). The person at the store said they hadn’t heard of that, rather that the students at the Eastman School of Music (in Rochester where I was living) wanted to do the opposite — to make the keys harder to play in order to strengthen their fingers. So I decided if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I put a one and a half-inch wide (depending on the stiffness of the foam) strip of half-inch foam (reinforced with duct tape; with a sturdy cord attached at each end) about 50 inches long, under all the keys in such a way that I could pull it out at the bass end when it wasn’t wanted. To do this you need to know how to take out the action of the piano; I suggest obtaining a good book on piano tuning and repair. On a grand, when you pull out the action be sure not to depress any of the keys or the hammers will break off. Don’t ask me how I know. Under my action it was necessary to glue precisely cut pieces of plywood into the gaps so the foam could have a continuous surface to rest on. [I now suggest doing this only on a digital keyboard]

 

Also I cut my foam so it was somewhat wider at the treble end (since those keys are easier to play). This also allows one to pull the foam down towards the bass end more when your fingers have strengthened to the point where you want even greater resistance. With the foam I used it’s about three quarters of an inch wide in the bass, and maybe one and a quarter inch wide in the treble. I also removed the bottom two keys at the bass end to make it easier to pull the foam. Note that the foam I used was carpet padding foam — half-inch — that was not the composite type of foam that is used today, which is much firmer. So if all you can get is the composite, it will have to be narrower.

 

5. On a virtual piano using an electronic keyboard (assuming one has, as one should, a hammer weighted action) one can do one’s exercises at the bass end of the keyboard. And for playing Bach, since he uses only the 4 middle octaves plus sometimes a few additional notes, one can transpose down an octave backspace, playing on the heavier weighted keys. Several times I’ve taken my keyboard apart trying to figure out a way to put foam and to make it more difficult to play — in such a way that the foam could be removed one is playing pieces. But this seems impossible the way they are constructed. One might wish to pick up an old keyboard on eBay and put foam in permanently. [See 3 above]

 

For both 4 and 5 above I suggest just seeing what works best for you. There’s no point in making the piano harder to play if this just causes more strain and tension. Frankly, I go back and forth between having the foam and no foam. Fingers have to be strengthened, yet one simultaneously needs to learn relaxation of every other part of the body. This may seem impossible at times but it’s not. All one needs to do is to persist, day after day, after day after day.

 

6. First, I strongly recommend committing oneself to at least 30 minutes daily of physical exercise: strength training and aerobic. See my website page Exercise: A Spiritual Necessity. Besides reducing one’s risk of virtually every disease, adding years to one’s life, and slowing the effects of aging, it has been shown that exercising before performing a mental task helps one perform it, and exercising afterwards helps one retain what one has done. I always do a few minutes of intense exercise before and after the piano, and sometimes in the middle to release tension. See: http://www.themusiciansbrain.com/?p=2885

for more.

 

Specifically, I strongly suggest doing the wrist exercise. About 15 years ago I started having intense pain on the outside of my left wrist. I ended up giving up playing the piano for a month but even that didn’t help. The only thing that helped was discovering The Sports Medicine Bible, which recommended this exercise. I now do it daily and have no wrist problems: 

 

Take a hand towel (or two if they are thin), fold it, and then roll it up until you have a cylinder about 3 inches in diameter and 8 inches long. Hold it with both hands straight out in front of you with your thumbs together. Twist the towel back and forth 10 times. Rotate the towel 90° to the right and repeat. Rotate 180° to the left and repeat. Return to starting position and repeat.

 

I also suggest doing strength training specifically for the fingers. You might ask why, but the reason is essentially not only to make them stronger but to protect them from injury. I do this in this manner: I place my fingers on my foam pillow first in the “rest” position (sit or stand with your arms and hands totally relaxed and hanging down; notice the curve your fingers take naturally — this is the “rest” position”). Keeping all the other fingers gently on the foam, 1st press the thumb down into the foam as hard as possible for about 1 second. Then do all the other fingers. Repeat 5 times. Then stretch your fingers out and repeat. Then curl them in and repeat. Do the whole set two times. Start out doing this gently and work up to maximum force.

 

7. If tension starts building up in the forearm, one can stretch by gently pushing all the fingers back against the piano below the keys. One can massage across the tendons of the forearm to help release the tension, also. I do this sometimes while sitting in a chair or on my meditation bench: just gently rest my fingers, pointing forward, on the seat cushion behind my buttocks, and relaxed my shoulders and arms so that a gentle pressure is exerted on stretching the forearm.

 

8. It is essential that a mental connection be made with the fingers while practicing. Not trying to do anything, but just if one can allow the mind to be with them. This is, essentially, meditation as I do it. See Cabeza.

 

9. If one ever starts getting pain in the fingers, try easing off a little and see if it goes away, and continue playing just a bit more gently. This always works for me, but if the pain continues for very long it may be best to stop and come back to the piano later. See below regarding icing.

 

10. For myself it seems absolutely necessary to follow Dohnányi’s injunction to play with all possible strength. Unfortunately this can lead to swelling in the joints, which is especially noticeable when I wake up in the morning. Here I was going to describe how I would ice my fingers with specially made ice rolls, but I since learned that the latest research shows that the preferred treatment for injuries — RICE: rest, ice, compression, elevation — has actually been shown to delay healing. See the site below:

 

http://www.caringmedical.com/sports-injuries/rice-why-we-do-not-recommend-it/

 

 What I do now for my fingers is now just massage them, one hand against the other, sliding the fingers of one hand between the fingers of the other, and also squeezing on the back of the opposite palm. I do this at various times throughout the day. In between, I splay my fingers out as far as possible for a few seconds and then squeeze them into a fist, doing this about five times. According to the latest research, this type of massage, stretching and exercise stimulates blood flow and enhances healing. And my fingers are getting by. I just start playing less intensely if I start getting any pain.

 

11. Metronome (an electronic one will almost certainly come with your recording software): frankly, I hate it, but it has its uses. For example, after one has learned a piece reasonably well, the metronome can show you if you’re unconsciously speeding up or slowing down at certain places. For me it’s usually speeding up, always because of tension or anxiety in the difficult parts. But generally the mind needs to learn to keep its own time, which may or may not be metronomic precision. And slowing down or speeding up can be a sign that those passages just need more work played slowly.

 

12. The pedals. First, the soft-pedal: when I started playing it was always on uprights and because I was so embarrassed about how bad I was, I would use the soft-pedal all the time so people would hear me as little as possible. This is very bad because on an upright the soft-pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings, which makes the keys easier to play — so it’s bad for conditioning. Either throw a bunch of blankets over the piano, and/or see  number 3 above. On a grand, the soft-pedal moves the entire key bed slightly to the right so that in the part of the piano that has 3 strings, only 2 are struck. I have read that this is supposed to create an ethereally beautiful effect, but on my Baldwin when the dampers came down on the strings it would create an unpleasant twang because of the unequal vibration. I preferred just not to use it all. My virtual piano does not have a soft-pedal (I would’ve had to spend $1000 more) and I’m quite happy without it. 

 

The right pedal, variously called the damper pedal, the sustaining pedal, or the loud pedal: its use is very complex. If you watch artists on YouTube you will see most of them are using this pedal (when the camera is in a position that shows the dampers going up and down) almost all the time, often up and down very rapidly. Generally speaking, one could depress the damper pedal for a series of notes where the harmony is unchanging, letting it up when it does change. One can also do what is called “fanning” — going up and down very quickly which can add depth to the sound without blurring the notes. Or depress it with every beat. One can also depress it just before striking a chord, if there has been a gap in the sound. I don’t think I could begin to describe what I actually do, especially with Bach. Some artists such as Gould and Schiff claim to abstain entirely, but for me this makes a sound much too dry.

 

While one could maintain that there was no pedal on Bach’s instruments, in fact the organ and harpsichord have a much richer sound than even the best concert grand piano. Here, as in all aspects of piano playing, one must trust one’s own artistic sensibilities, and not be bound hard and fast to some supposed rule or idea. Beethoven and Schubert were very happy when the damper pedal was invented. I don’t see why Bach, who professed to like the early versions of the piano, wouldn’t have felt similarly.

 

My virtual piano has what is called a half pedal, which allows one to finely adjust the pedal effect to various degrees.

 

The middle pedal: on an upright (if there is one) this lifts just the lower 3rd or so of the dampers. On a grand, any note or notes you play and hold until you depress the middle pedal — those dampers will be held up, so those notes sustain. In the music I play there are very few situations where this is useful, so I don’t mind that my electronic keyboard does not have a middle pedal (if I’m recording I can create the same effect using software).

 

13. When learning pieces, try to play them as exercises: strike every note very firmly and with the mind’s complete attention. Go over the difficult parts one hand at a time, or both hands together very slowly, several times before playing through the whole piece. Avoid sloughing over notes. Go as slow as necessary. This may be extremely slow. Don’t worry about it. I’ve wasted immense amount of time trying to go too fast. Don’t follow my example. If necessary buy a parrot and train it to say: “Adagio, you dummy! Lento! Slower!” On parts where you can tell your fingers are not strong enough, make them into exercises playing the other hand in contrary motion (unless it’s too complex; then just play one hand at a time) and/or put one or more of the exercises above over the notes involved. That said, the entire hands may need considerable conditioning with the exercises above to play certain pieces.

 

Don’t force yourself to play something that is really beyond your hands’ abilities. This is another mistake I’ve made over and over and over (actually my mistake was in not making the very difficult parts into exercises and playing them very slowly). While I say to play pieces as exercises, it is still possible to play them expressively, not mechanically. In all great music, every single note has its own purpose and its own place and it is the performer’s job to realize that— allowing the music to play itself in a meaningful way. So many supposedly great pianists ignore this to one degree or another.

Then play them lightly and it may be possible for the notes to just roll off your fingers effortlessly, with the music just playing itself, without any trying on your part. Any trying actually blocks genuine feeling for the music from coming up into awareness, and limits expression. But letting go of trying is not easy the slightest; see Cabeza. Remember that your body/mind is just a vehicle for that infinite spirit. The unfree will has no role in great art.

 

One great thing about an electronic/virtual piano is you can turn the volume down and/or the hardness of the sound when practicing. Also, it’s very simple to record your playing — and you played back you may be just as appalled as I have been at times. I didn’t know I was that bad! Pieces I am now recording I’ve played back to myself at least 30 times so far and each time I hear new things that I see I need to correct. I find this an extremely important process, and probably helps make up for not having a teacher.

 

When practicing I also suggest emphasizing the left hand since it is frequently neglected. Simultaneously focus on letting go more in the right, since it is likely the one with the most tension.

 

14. I find turning pages a real pain. I tear out my music and copy each page individually, and then tape them together up to six or seven in a row. The music rack on my virtual piano I have made much wider with a piece of cardboard to hold these. I keep all the music I’m currently playing on the music rack — I put a little tab on each piece that sticks up to identify it.

 

15. Recently I developed a very painful condition where the flesh on the side of the 3rd finger of my left hand began to separate from the nail. I found this thread relevant:

 

http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=4770.0

 

This suggests that curling the fingers too much may be the cause of the problem, and recommends learning to play with flat fingers (FF), at least some of the time. This person’s problem seemed to be with the front center of the nail so it might not be relevant precisely to me. One of the persons who commented posted a link to their entire book on piano practice which can be downloaded:

 

http://www.pianopractice.org/book.pdf

 

 It mentions the flat finger technique. Perhaps the reader will find it helpful. I think possibly playing mostly Bach as I do may require more curling of the fingers. There is a tremendous amount of detail in this book, which I’ve only skimmed quickly. Since I am self-taught I see more the virtues of learning through doing and am just trying to write things here that may help one do that for oneself. Everyone’s hands are different in size and shape. There’s a book at Amazon called What Every Pianist Should Know about the Body. I scanned the reviews and most people thought it was great but the lone dissenter made me decide it didn’t really interest me. I think it’s mostly for people who were taught certain ways to hold their hands and move their fingers that were wrong. My own opinion is that every pianist must know about the body — but not through book knowledge, rather by directly experiencing and being aware of it. This cannot be taught or read about, in my view. 

My finger injury cleared up after several days (I continued to play carefully). At its worst I ordered 4% lidocaine by Ely from Amazon which I will try in the future to numb the pain. I will also try the suggestion from the above thread regarding New Skin by Band-Aid. I have since tried it using it on little cuts that would require a Band-Aid that would interfere with playing. Its biggest drawback is it smells for a long time.

 

I also tend to get splits in my fingers, especially when it’s dry. I keep little jars of mineral oil around and apply just a little bit to prevent this, especially after washing dishes or taking a shower.

 

16. Make sure you get enough sleep. This is necessary for memory retention. Don’t force yourself to play for too long, especially if you find yourself getting tense. Maybe one hour at a time is enough.

 

17. Regarding editions, you can download a lot of free music at the above-mentioned sites, but if you are serious you may want to get what are called urtext editions. You can check at the piano forum for people’s opinions. I suggest getting one with fingering — you can always change it, and it will give you ideas you may not have thought of. Fingerings can vary dramatically between editions — it might be useful to have to and compare. Note that many older editions of Bach have all sorts of editing regarding tempo, slurs, staccato, forte and piano, etc. almost none of which Bach wrote into the scores himself.

 

18. As far as sightreading goes, it is almost certainly a skill, as The Sports Gene indicates, that must be acquired before the age of 12. I’m extremely bad at it. It takes me an extremely long time to learn a piece of music, but all the music I play has the deepest possible meaning for me, so I really don’t mind that much. I find that by having to go over pieces so many times I find treasures overlooked by professional concert pianists.

 

IV Pianos

 

1. Acoustic, i.e. real, pianos. (If you have the space or the money you might try a Baldwin SD-10 concert grand piano which may have the finest sound of any. If necessary, replace the strings and hammers which will make it like new. They are no longer made. I liked my Baldwin 5'8" grand better than both a comparable Steinway and a Mason and Hamlin. I've read online however that — as Baldwin no longer makes grands, and all their pianos are manufactured in China — perhaps the finest small grand is a Mason and Hamlin.) These are a real pain. First, unless you have a huge space, they are too loud. My Baldwin 5’8” grand never sounded as good as it did in the showroom. You’ll drive your neighbors crazy. If you have a partner, they may decide to get out, like my 1st wife. (Okay, there were other reasons, too.) By great good fortune my spouse of the last 30 years, Anne, an artist of abstract watercolor, has severe hearing loss —she can just turn her hearing aid down. I don’t know if we would’ve made it this long otherwise.

 

Unless you live in a space with controlled humidity, they’re constantly going out of tune. My 1st piano, a small Baldwin spinet which I purchased new was out of tune when it was delivered — and I just couldn’t wait until I got my 1st free tuning. Oh joy! But the next day it had go started going out of tune again; the tuner had not set the tuning pins properly. I immediately got a book out of the library and learned how to tune myself, but it takes tremendous concentration, and for me a good 4 hours. At least. And I’m not that good at setting the tuning pins either, so I have to keep going over the tuning for the next several days. I devised a special method for keeping the humidity more or less constant, but even that requires regular observation and maintenance.

 

There are 2 aspects to the tuning. 1st the temperament — this tunes every note to its proper relationship to the others. All the notes that have more than one string have the others dampened during this process. Then a unison tuning is performed, making all the strings of one particular note exactly the same pitch — called unison tuning. Even if you have a piano tuner tune yours 4 times a year, you still may want to learn how to do unison tuning. Two thirds of the piano has 3 strings per note. It is relatively easy when one of these goes out of tune to redo it. Get a book on tuning and repairing your own piano.

 

The ideal humidity for piano should be 50%. If it’s been exposed to very dry air — such as in upstate New York where you have cold winters — the soundboard and the tuning block can dry out. I learned this from 2 old uprights I acquired after I sold my 1st Baldwin spinet (knowing I would never play again). I gave away the 1st old upright because I knew I would never play again too. The 2nd one had a very annoying buzz in the soundboard. Normally, this can be fixed with screws into the ribs, but on this one the crack was located behind the metal harp on one side, and one of the wooden braces on the back. It drove me crazy. Plus, because the tuning block had dried out and shrunk, the tuning pins were loose and it would go out of tune almost immediately. If you buy a piano used, check it out thoroughly.

 

But even my Baldwin grand buzzed — when it was brand-new! — and drove me crazy, too. I spent countless hours over many years trying to figure out what was causing it: I finally decided it was the hinge and complained to Baldwin, and they sent me a new hinge. But it wasn’t the hinge. I never figured it out. All I figured out was that it happened at about 50% humidity, and if I kept it at 57% it was okay. Usually. What a pain.

 

Then there’s the regulation. There are about 30 steps to go through — on every key — to regulate the action to make sure the piano plays evenly. The worst thing is the hammers start getting hard from play, and then the sound of some notes becomes harsh compared to the others. This is rectified by using the tool with needles to soften the felt, but it’s not easy to do properly. Eventually they either become too hard or too soft — after 30 years I replaced all of them in my Baldwin, as well as doing a complete restringing. This greatly improved the sound. If you consider doing this, Renner hammers are probably the best.

 

1 a. Hybrid pianos: I only saw a news report of these. They look like a real piano but inside they have pre-recorded sounds, amplifier and speakers. The main advantage to them would be you have a nice piece of furniture that you can turn down the volume on. I highly doubt the sound quality is as good as what you can get with the virtual pianos I discuss below, assuming you invest in a good playback system.

 

2. Virtual pianos. I looked into these when my 1st attempt at recording my Baldwin proved a complete flop. These have software which includes recorded samples— between 10 and 100 for every note — of concert grand pianos, supposedly using the very best recording equipment and studio environment. They are loaded into your computer and are played by connecting an electronic keyboard to the computer by means of a high-quality soundcard and a MIDI cable. More information is available at the websites of the individual pianos.

 

I will add that while I listened to demos online of all the virtual pianos below, it wasn’t until I actually had them at my own fingertips that I realized how good — or in most cases bad — they were. And of course I haven’t tried all the ones available, though I have scoured users’ opinions at various forums.

 

The only ones I recommend are from the Vienna Symphonic Library (a.k.a. Vienna Instruments). What I currently play is called the Vienna Imperial, a Bösendorfer, which at the moment has a list price of €495. (Most confusingly the Vienna Symphonic Library also sells a Bösendorfer Imperial which came out earlier, but it’s much inferior. Current price is €95.) I paid about $600 for it when it first came out. I put an immense number of hours in super-tweaking it and now I can truly say, after a lifetime of dealing with acoustic pianos, that it’s an incredible joy to finally have these wonderful sounds — always in tune! — at my fingertips. Unfortunately, I cannot pass on what I’ve done to others directly but if you get the update and play with the EQ as I describe below you should end up with a very fine instrument. Scroll down for more.

 

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Keyboards_Complete/Vienna_Imperial

 

But this one of a Steinway came out in December 2018, also by Vienna Instruments and is even better :

 

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Steinway_D?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl334_Steinway-D_Voucher&utm_content=Steinway%20DNews%20Button#!System_Requirements

 

Unfortunately, this plays very unevenly and I have spent many hours attempting to rectify that by various means creating a preset that incorporates that. If anyone would like that preset, leave a message at the contact page and I will email it to you. But this only works for the Steinway. They have made superb recordings of several other pianos and I’ve only tried the Bösendorfer — and I like the Steinway better. Listening to their demos I’m not inclined to try any of the others but some people like the new model Bösendorfer that I didn’t try better.

 

These are the others that I found lacking:

 

Akoustik Piano by Native Instruments. I think this is no longer available but it may have been recycled under another name. After I got it I was very disappointed that it played very unevenly and additionally had some notes that were slightly out of tune. I complained that there forum bitterly, and since I seem to know what I was talking about the monitor, Markus Kreig, very kindly provided me with a free copy of their sampler Kontakt (which Akoustik Piano played through) to fix it myself. I was brand-new to computers, not to mention music production software, so the learning curve was very steep, and I spent immense amount of time on this but I ended up with what is called a preset that fixed all the problems that was released with the next update. Most users seemed quite happy with it. See the webpage below for more:

 

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36607

 

But there was one problem I could not fix which I really only discovered after I dramatically created my sound playback system: the raw samples were not recorded that well. Some users were happy with it, but I felt it did not really sound nearly as good as my best CDs. So then I bought —

 

Synthogy Ivory. This was considerably better — except it also played too unevenly for my taste. It did not import into Kontakt so I painstakingly re-recorded most of the samples and map them in manually. Another immense job. But eventually I realized it still is not equal my best CDs, so I moved on to — 

 

Bluthner Digital Model One. The makers of this claimed other virtual pianos did not capture all the harmonics and provided a comparison of their piano with others at their website. After listening to these I concluded they were right and purchased it. But it played extremely unevenly, as well as having other problems, so I did the same job I done on Ivory. I was happy with this for quite a while, but eventually I decided I didn’t like the Bluthner sound. so then I purchased —

 

Galaxy Vintage D. This was recorded from an 80–year-old vintage Steinway that was said to be one of the most beautiful pianos in the world. I did the same number on it I done on the previous ones and I was very happy . . . for a while . . . until I decided it still didn’t reach the level of my best CDs. I recently tried it: it sounded like a toy piano compared to the wonderful Bösendorfer below.

 

Vienna Instruments Imperial. This is of a Bösendorfer Imperial, a piano used by two of my favorite pianists, but I like the Steinway mentioned above better.

 

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Synchron_Pianos_Bundle/Concert_D

 

If you get it at B&H photo they may pay the sales tax for you (they are cheaper than directly from VSL).

 

Equipment.

 

My keyboard is a Yamaha P90 was $1000; newer models may be even cheaper. (Make sure you get a keyboard with hammer weighted keys that simulate the feel of a real piano. It should weigh at least 38 pounds. Also make sure it has a variable sustain pedal which mimics more closely the effect of a real piano’s pedal. Mine does not have a soft-pedal, which I found I didn’t like on my Baldwin anyway, so I do without. A keyboard with a soft-pedal may be much more expensive.) Monitors (including a subwoofer that’s not entirely necessary but does add a little to the bass), digital to analog converter, and cables— all of the above through Sweetwater Sound. Make sure also to buy a good soundcard (mine — for two different computers — were about $100 each). The soundcard needs also to have inputs and outputs for MIDI, SPDIF, and analog sound, etc. The folks at Sweetwater will help. The two I bought included lite versions of recording software, so you don’t even have to buy that (I didn’t know that and wasted $175)— and it’s unnecessary if you don’t want to record, the virtual pianos can be played “standalone.” The software which I record into is Abelton Live 8 Lite, came free with the sound card and allows me to do virtually any editing imaginable when I record into a MIDI clip on it. Tempo, wrong notes, etc. etc. 

 

You will also need a good computer. The different virtual pianos will tell you the system requirements, but in my experience these are always understated (the minimum is almost certainly unacceptable; the “recommended” might be okay. What I ended up creating out of the Bösendorfer required me to upgrade to a six core processor, and I also increased up to 12 GB RAM, which was probably more than necessary (the original required considerably less; see the recommended requirements). If your processor is too slow you have to create greater latency, which means there is more of a delay between the moment you strike the note and the moment you hear it. This is something one can get used to — organists, I’ve read online, have to deal with the latency of one full second — but it’s better to start out with an adequate computer. I’m leaving out lots and lots of details which you’ll read in the manuals.

 

http://www.sweetwater.com/

 

They stand behind everything they sell and give you all the technical advice you need, through their highly qualified sales engineers. You can start out as I did just hooking up your current speakers to your computer. Since I had the money I decided to splurge and get a high-end system. But this system also revealed the flaws of the first four virtual pianos.

 

Keep the keyboard of your electronic piano covered. Otherwise dust will get inside contaminate the grease that facilitates the movement of the keys. The music rack on mine was pretty small so I added a piece of cardboard that I painted black and glued to it. As mentioned above I print out the pages and tape them together, and may have six or eight in front of me at a time. Because some notes were getting sticky I recently removed all the keys and read lubricated them with lithium grease. I looked online for instructions but ended up just figuring it out for myself — probably every keyboard is different.

 

Finally, I keep the following notes close by my keyboard just remind me of what’s most important:

“The only priority is not to fight the tension.”

 

“Relinquish. Relax every note. Give into it. Hard, loose, slow. Every note an offering.”

 

“Art [great art] springs from spheres which are beyond the sphere of the will.”— Wilhelm Furtwängler

 

“God is the only one who acts.” — English mystic Lady Julian of Norwich (whom I discuss in Cabeza), saying essentially the same thing as Furtwängler.

 

Finally, I would be happy to communicate with anyone by email who is serious about the piano and who has read Cabeza.

 

Good luck!

© Philip H. Grant

 

 Print | Sitemap
© Philip H. Grant