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.

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!

When I learn a new piece, there is always a challenge to get it “into” my hands , my head, my being. Playing a familiar piece, (for me one is Debussy’s 1st Arabesque) I am able to get the best sound from the piano, and my coordination flows with the phrases. Even after working on a new piece for months, I still am playing “notes”, don’t have the satisfying sensation of sinking in and becoming one with the keyboard.

To play a piece properly, a player needs to have the sensation of “painting” the sounds. To do this, there needs to be a deep knowledge of all aspects of the piece.
There needs to be a long period (at least several months) of practice without the score. Take a break with the piece once it is memorized, don’t play it or look at the score for a week. Then, play it through without looking at the score, any places needing work will be obvious!
Play the piece through 4 or 5 times, aiming for perfect note accuracy. Use the metronome, no pedal, and no score. Playing the piece should feel so automatic that you are not thinking of getting the notes, you are just feeling the pulse. The metronone helps with this.
Go back to the score and correct sections with wrong notes.
Practice with the score once the notes are mastered by memory, watching every one of the composer’s markings.
Perform the piece often! Perform for friends and just for yourself. Think of performing and practicing as 2 separate ways of playing. When performing, have fun with the music.

Yesterday I was playing 4 hand piano with a friend, and found a short passage rhythmically difficult. We went over it several times, but I could not get it. Finally I somehow found the correct rhythm and we moved on to the next section, which went very well. We were sailing through, enjoying Mozart’s inventiveness, and kept playing without any troubles.
Interestingly, I had no trouble at all with the repeat of the difficult part, I just sailed through that part as well. I know that if I had thought about the hard part coming up, I would have stumbled!!! Since I was in the “Zone”, I was not “trying” to think about playing, and was able to play it perfectly.
So often, our playing is sabotaged by us trying too hard with our brains. I know that my best playing occurs when I feel very relaxed and enjoying the sounds, I will play a whole piece without “thinking” about playing. It is very much like driving along the highway - in a heightened state of concentration, but relaxed and enjoying the scenery.
Playing piano is so complex that we get worried about some aspect of our playing, but maybe concentrating on our mental state should be our goal. Before I start playing, I like to do some stretching exercises and then play a piece through, with the metronome, 4 or 5 times. I find that after a short time I am in the “Zone” - relaxed, centered, enjoying. When I have attained this, I am in my most productive state.

playing piano

I have been away from the piano for several weeks. Today I sat down and played Dr. Gradus without the score. I got through it, but with a few mix ups.
It seems that to really have a piece memorized, you have to have worked through it from many different approaches. It is very different to playing a piece through without the score after practicing it for a half hour, than playing it for the first time in several weeks!
There are places that I forget how the music sounds, others where I forget specific notes, and others where I need to memorize the chords.
I am back to daily practicing, will log my progress here.

After learning a piece through, it is important to be able to play and practice it without the music in front of you! I am still working on Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, I can play it through without the music in front of me, but stumble in the middle part - where is it going!!
I looked through it for patterns to be guideposts, it was easy to find a way to memorize this section. In the left hand part there is a little chromatic melody going from B to A, then up to C. When I memorized this little bit, the whole section came together!

Often it is the harmonic progression that helps with memorising, in this case I found help with a little melodic snippet. It did not help for me to analyse the chords, because where I was stumbling, the chords were in inversions or had upper structures with non-chord notes.

memorising music

What I find fascinating with this piece is that it starts and ends with satirical themes that are twisted versions of pianist’s exercises. The percussive themes satirize Clementi’s instructional pieces, but then they are transformed into something different. Is the music affectionately portraying a child pounding away at notes, or suggesting a nostalgia for lost days? Sometimes the music can be interpreted either contrasting way!

Here is a Wikipedia link explaining the Title of the piece

I have difficulty playing the beginning of the piece, it is so exposed - you have to jump right in! Often the first page is not as flowing as the rest of the piece, it is hard to get the pulse going. Maybe that’s because I am thinking too much about the line, my playing needs to be more percussive with this piece, especially at the beginning.
Having the piece going through my mind, I am analyzing phrases being in 1 or in 4 or in 16.

A very satisfying piece to play.

After getting my shoulders into a big knot, I have been experimenting to find out what the causes were. Obviously, it is easy to say, “OK, Stop Holding the Shoulders Up While Playing”… I have taught many adults to play the piano, and remember how difficult it is to change habits of posture!!
I started with the bench height. Being long in the torso, I could see that my elbows were high, forcing some tension in the wrists. Sitting on a chair is a huge improvement, now my forearms are parallel to the floor.
Here is a short video demonstrating help with sitting posture:

I am enjoying playing piano as a relaxing time, away from work pressures. Although I am not practicing to work up to a performance goal, I still do not want to become a sloppy player!! Playing for pleasure and not working on musical skills is a sure way for playing to get messed up with bad habits. Rhythmic instability and incorrect note readings creep in and take over over time.
There are many pieces I have learned and am playing through now, all of them need a little careful work to be ready for performance.
I am working on the Chopin C# minor waltz. The middle/fast section was a big mess, with missed notes and general lumpiness… a half hour with the metronome fixed that.
At first I tried one metronome click to the bar, but had to switch over to one click to the quarter note. The quarter note clicks were what I needed to get perfect note accuracy, then I switched back to one per bar.
The metronome helps with developing the musical line when the clicks are set to the musical pulse, such as here with one to the bar…which is the same as the musical pulse.
I played the piece through for friends and was very happy with my improvement. There were no missed notes and the fast section flowed smoothly. I felt centered and in control while playing!!

practicing piano