Does articulating bring rigidity? - stimulates "passive" contractions (unnecessary)? - limits the functionality of the entire apparatus (shoulder, arm, forearm, wrist)? - ergo: increases technical difficulties and depresses expressive possibilities?
What do you think of an approach that limits finger function to a minimum (i.e., to hand positioning on the keyboard) entrusting technique and interpretation to weight and wrist?
How should the teacher behave towards the child at the beginning of their studies?
I believe it depends a lot on the sound one wants to achieve. Technique is the mechanical means to give rise to the sonic image we have in our heads. Articulation produces a specific sound that cannot be obtained by minimizing movements. If I were working with a child, I would first put them in a position to know the various techniques and then know how to apply them within an author's composition. The equality of notes, clarity, and a certain characteristic sound of certain parts of Mozart's sonatas, for example, cannot be obtained except through articulation with a low wrist. We must not necessarily use weight when it is not needed; instead, it should be used when necessary in order to avoid useless muscular contractions, and even the sound changes despite using the same techniques, because the sound produced through muscular tension is not comparable in quality to that of the same amplitude produced with weight. This is my idea.
In my opinion, especially at the beginning, one must insist on weight technique, moving from drops and aiming to strengthen the fingers. At a certain level, the weight will only need to be dosed based on the contingent need required by that specific passage of that specific piece. In short, as TheSimon says, it is one of the tools that ultimately belongs to the performer... to be used when needed. At the beginning, however, one must also work to form a beautiful sound... round and avoid playing "on eggshells"
I agree with Simone and Marta. Sometimes I observe graduated friends who play very "on eggshells." Either you immediately understand the "weight" and the awareness of the bottom of the key, or you can no longer accept it. That "strengthening" of the fingers is nothing other than the "firmness" that the fingers learn to have when they can endure various composite gestures with other participating muscles. This well-distributed energy ensures that the entire apparatus is released from tension. Starting from "point zero" means understanding this balance. Only then can one begin to build the dosages. This is my thought
A clarification. In my first piano lessons, the Maestro would make me lift my fingers as much as possible while keeping the wrist rigid (I also remember the sensation of spasms I would feel).
A person who had studied with Maria Tipo told me (and so I don't know if they were talking nonsense) that the same thing (at evidently more advanced levels) was also demanded by the great pianist.
Of course, 30 years have passed since my studies, but I have still heard it said that articulation (to be understood as above) would be the first thing to teach children because it is propedeutic to everything else.
And what about this approach that would lead to playing on eggshells?
I am interested not so much for myself (I am beyond recovery now: rather than playing on them, I throw the eggs directly at whoever is listening to me) as much as for my very young children who are attracted to my "keys" and whom I was thinking of enrolling in a school next year, perhaps using the Suzuki method.
This "type" of approach or method seems quite contrary to the principles of technique to me... and I do not believe it could have been recommended to beginners by such a great name. In fact, the entire apparatus must be tension-free, as I show in one of my videos on Mozart's Sonata K330. When people talk about stiffening, they throw everything overboard. First of all, one must understand how to "gravitate" on the keyboard in order to then acquire the various necessary balances as well as the equitable distribution of the tasks of the participating muscles. In my opinion, it is quite the opposite: articulation can be developed—and not for a long time during execution—in the presence of advanced technique. And then, there is articulation and articulation. Apparently, even the simple "natural fall" of the fingers with their weight can be considered articulation. This is the technique to use in the two-handed variation of the second movement of Beethoven's Appassionata or in the Allegretto of the same author's Waldstein. In this case, the fingers are allowed to fall in a sort of jeu perlé with sufficient weight to make the hammer touch the string even before its "escapement" phase. No stiffness and no effort.
Developing healthy articulation (good for Bach, Mozart...) means perfectly perceiving the balance of tensions between arm-forearm and wrist-fingers. It is not easy at all and it is certainly not something for beginners. In my opinion, the beginner must be directed to immediately develop knowledge of the "bottom of the key" with minimal tension. Gradually, the fingers, more or less still but not "stiff," will learn to bear the relaxed weight of the apparatus. Only at a later stage will the knowledge and application of different weights, pressures, and articulations be developed, always with maximum attention to being "tension-free" (even if not totally). Starting with articulation and a stiff wrist means denying our proprioceptive system what we must put into practice. Where do we want to get to? To the muscles? To strength? To bodybuilding? Nothing could be more wrong. Then, perhaps, some disseminated principles are not, maybe, from the Greats at all, but are instead transmitted and repeated after having listened to some invented and/or "unproven" "story."
This "Type" of approach or method seems quite contrary to the principles of technique to me... and I do not believe it could have been recommended to beginners by such a great name...
Then, perhaps, some disseminated principles do not come, maybe, from the Greats at all, but are instead transmitted and repeated after having listened to some invented and/or "unproven" "story".
In fact, even though it was not a beginner, I too had been surprised and doubtful (I said so in parentheses).
Thank you for the accurate and, as always, interesting clarification.
Watch the tutorial on the anatomy of the shoulder, arm, forearm and hand. As a general rule, anything that brings excessive tension to the muscles and tendons is unnatural and should be avoided.
