I have been spending at least an hour every day meditating, using Holosync® by Centerpointe.
One of the unexpected discoveries I have made is how weak my left hand piano playing was. My left wrist was injured years ago, and my left shoulder has been tense and sore ever since. I have tried many therapies and exercises to ease the tense muscles, Holosync® meditation has been the most help. Now, my left hand and arm feel the same flexibility as my right!
I am working very carefully at the piano to develop left hand technique, using Bach 2 part Inventions. Sometimes I go over a short phrase many times with the left hand to get the right feeling. I want to make sure that I am always releasing are weight into the keys from the shoulder, and never reaching for the keys with the fingers.
I am discovering many new sensations in the left hand, especially at the bridge, the base of the fingers. I must have been holding my arm and hand very rigidly.
I have been looking through music to find left hand sections to use to practice. One of them is from Debussy’s 1st Arabesque:
In the past, I was holding the bottom note and reaching with stiff, straight fingers, and was always struggling with this section.
Starting with the 3rd bar, I concentrate on moving the whole arm to the first note of each phrase, and lifting at the end of each. I make sure that I am moving the hand and arm to reach the keys as I hold the half notes. I make sure that my fingers are curved under as the hand rolls back and forth through each phrase.
I have worked on improving left hand technique for many years, but with little success. Now my left hand feels like it is waking up. I can’t know for certain, but I am sure that Holosync® meditation from Centerpointe has made the difference.
I have some computer problems so am not able to make recordings, but am playing as much as I can. I am working on Debussy’s Dr Gradus from the Children’s Corner. I have not been satisfied with the video I posted of that piece.
The challenge in Dr Gradus is to play the rapid notes evenly (no lumps) and with lots of dynamic shading…elements my recording is missing!
The problems I have had with hand position are either a tense arm and wrist or flat, floppy fingers. My recording shows the floppy finger problem.
I am working on keeping my hand position relaxed but firm, and moving the hand right over the keys with the arm. There is a really strong feeling when the coordination works, I feel totally in control, but am not scrambling to get the notes.
The metronome has helped a lot by keeping the pulse. All the little notes fit in when the pulse is strong.
One of the most common mistakes piano players make is to reach for the keys with the fingers. Of course, the fingers are “playing” the notes because they are in direct contact with the keys, but the fingers must be supported by the arm and hand at all times.
When practicing, ask yourself: Are you holding the arm and hand rigidly and striking the keys with the fingers?
Watch this video of Daniel Baremboim, notice the hand position. The hands are always moved over the keys by the arms, the fingers are never reaching to hit the notes:
I had the pleasure of attending a performance of Glorious! at the Arts Club, with the incredible Nicola Cavendish as Florence Foster Jenkins.
This brought back many funny memories of accompanying amateur musicians at the piano. I would play for weddings, and someone in the family would like to perform. Sometimes it was really fun, other times not!
At one wedding, the groom brought his violin and we performed the Meditation from “Thais”, without any rehearsal. For me it was the most satisfying kind of playing, I got lost in the music.
Another time, a singer made an early entrance after a piano interlude. She also didn’t get her pitch. I had to scramble, changing pages in my score, then pounded out the melody…it took us many bars to get back in synch. It would have been less painful if she had moved the mike away from her mouth until she got her pitch!!
In the play Glorious! it is great fun to laugh at the bad singing! But I also liked the affectionate tone of the play.
It is becoming more common for arm-chair critics to critique performances with a nasty and dismissive tone. There are performers I enjoy more than others, but I admire every one who gives the world their music.
When a pianist first looks at a new piece, there are usually technical challenges that must be figured out before the piece can be performed. In Debussy’s Clair de Lune, there are several:
- the dynamic markings are all piano or quieter, with only one forte which lasts for one bar. This tells us that Debussy wants an impressionistic wash of sound rather than big, loud effects, even when there are many notes. One pitfall for the performer is to hold back, tensing up the arms, trying and keep the sound soft!! Dynamics need to be considered in relation to each other - the forte needs to be louder than the piano. Also, this piece provides the pianist with an opportunity to play with a soft, but very projected sound. Controlling the playing with the entire arm from the shoulders enables the player to build up a rich wash of sound.
- The top melody note in the 3rds needs to ring out more than the lower harmony note. This is very much easier when the pianist’s shoulders and arms are free from tension. Throughout this piece, the pianist should feel the entire weight of their arm sinking into the keys from the shoulders.
- the most difficult challenge is in the middle section. The RH must bring out the top melody and play part of the inner accompanying figure. The difficulty is at the end of the phrase:
There is an A flat that is part of the inner accompaniment, and the very next note is a repeat of that note, but this time in the melody.
The clue to playing this is to observe the phrasing, and to play each phrase with one sweep of the arm. The first inner A flat will slip in on the upward motion that finishes off the phrase. Then there is a new downward sweep, which will bring out the second A flat, the first note of the next phrase.
To learn how to coordinate these motions, it helps to exaggerate the free sweeping motion while playing the phrases. Make a big down motion from the shoulders to start each phrase, and don’t worry about missing notes at first. Once the big whole arm motion is comfortable, getting the fingers to play the notes accurately becomes easy!
The Arabesque in architecture is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms, often based on plant and animal shapes. These design elements were the foundation of the Art Nouveau movement, from 1880-1914.
The Arabesque #1 by Debussy, written in 1888, was very much influenced by the idea that thought could be expressed by the line and the arabesque. It is interesting to note that this piece is built entirely on small decorative, repeating motifs which often build into long sweeping lines. This is an early piece, Debussy later took the abstraction of short motifs much further.
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The Arabesque in architecture is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms, often based on plant and animal shapes. These design elements were the foundation of the Art Nouveau movement, from 1880-1914. 
