Klarinet Archive - Posting 000255.txt from 1996/08

From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Neckstraps
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 07:42:06 -0400

Greg Baker wrote:
>
> I am struggling
> with learning to play piano (some school requirement). My piano teacher says
> that the fingers were not meant to move by themselves. He says that muscles (?
)
> move against muscles. Instead, he says the movement should come from the
> elbow, and that weight is placed from the torso on each of th individual
> fingers. Furthermore, he says I am to unlearn the individual finger movement i
f
> I am ever going to learn to play piano.

Hmm. As a somewhat novice piano player, I don't quite understand what
your
teacher meant about "learn the individual finger movement". Piano
requires
complete individual control over each finger, allowing multiple lines of
music
to come out via rubato or volume. It is true that the weight you place
on the
keys comes from the torso through the fingers (for forte or fortissimo
passages.
The extra weight you use will strengthen the lower arm somewhat, but I
don't
think that's all such a bad thing.

My son has played piano for 8 years and clarinet for 4 - there's never
been
any real problem as far as I can see in the fingering. He practises both
daily
and I believe that the strength and dexterity required for piano playing
has
helped his clarinet playing (only a belief - I have not read any studies
confirming
this), but I know that the sight-reading abilities he's accomplished via
playing
piano has put him head and shoulders above those clarinet players of his
age who have not studied piano. One of his recital/competition pieces
this year was
the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C#m, a great piece to sharpen sight reading
skills for
a young piano player (four staffs to follow at once in places) along
with being
a bit of a "show-off" piece. The Gm Prelude he's working on now is more
pleasant.
--
Mark Charette "Don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers"
charette@-----.com - Firesign Theater