PIANO TECHNIQUES: IMPROVING COORDINATION

BY MARIA SABOYA

When we consider what makes a pianist good or even great, we usually think of
her mastery of key aspects of piano playing: correct attention to the music itself,
its dynamics and phrasing, individual expression that hears and can evoke the
music and the silence between the notes, and command during public
performance. Together, these aspects contribute to what is called ‘good
technique’, where the pianist’s movements are measured and controlled. This
paper will address how a pianist can reach this level of equilibrium through
-contrary as it may first seem- movement, and by so doing, enhance her
musicality. This paper is largely addressed to those who have reached a certain
level of proficiency; though beginners too can no doubt learn from this approach.

Most pianists are taught to have fluidity in their hands but to keep their bodies
rigid. I will here be arguing that this approach often leads to bodily and mental
tension and playing which, though it may be note perfect, does not evoke a
response in either the player or her audience. I will further argue that rapid
improvement in technique can be made by making one major shift, namely, a
pianist’s centering her every action on the axis of gravity. Let me explain what I
mean by this: a constant adaptation of our bodies, i.e. moving our trunks
sideways, backwards and forwards, in conjunction with the movements of our
arms and hands on the keyboard. The aim of this body synchronicity is a deeper,
truer sound, a much freer and more expressive performance. The resulting
freedom allows for a very intimate contact with the music itself, and the
exteriorization of ones own emotions.

I am advocating a concept of freedom, in which the ‘right position’ is a position

that is never totally fixed. The great pianist Heinrich Neuhaus used to say that the
best position is the one that can be changed as fast and as easily as possible. (1)
Amongst the first things any budding pianist learns is that one must sit at the
center, in front of a keyboard. Our arms should fall parallel to the trunk in a very
relaxed manner, while the forearm is placed about the height of the keyboard.
The wrist should be slightly lower than the knuckles, while the fingers must be
fixed in a relatively curved position. This last aspect is in fact essential, because
the finger joints must learn to be fixed, as this is the only way they become firm
and resistant. These qualities are fundamental to good technique. If the fingers
have weak joints that ‘break’ easily, a pianist will never be able to control his
sound, nor build up a rich palette.

But all these aspects (apart from the fingers which should always be firm and
strong), undergo changes at every moment of playing. By attending to the axis of
gravity, both our hands and bodies connect, and hopefully, a different connection
is made with the music we are playing,
and the interpretation becomes fluent and clear.

A mechanical reading of piano playing says that a pianist presses down the keys
on a horizontal surface measuring about one meter and thirty centimeters long
and that each arm covers a distance of about fifty centimeters, with another
fifteen centimeters to reach the middle of the keyboard. But music is never
limited to such measures, and a pianist is often called on to play far beyond these
limits. She can go to the right or to the left with one hand, or with both, as for
example, in Chopin’s Etude Op. 25 No.12. The concurrent long stretches of the
hand this piece calls for also requires a changing movement of the trunk; also, the
opening and closing of the arms. This affects the wrist and the elbow, making
them move up and down or round. Indeed, the whole hand has to adapt its basic
position all the time.
Once we understand this, we see that a pianist needs to constantly adapt
and center her position. I hope that it is becoming clear from this that my concept
of equilibrium is in opposition to the more restrained idea of equilibrium that is
taught to most piano students. For me, equilibrium, answering, as it does, the call
to the axis of gravity, is not a fixed bodily state but a fixed, that is, centered,
mental state that leads to a resulting centered action. This is a major key to
coordination and to a free and excellent technique.

A second major element that enables us to attain better coordination is

closely related to the muscular work required during performance. The pianist
Thomas Mark, who dedicated a long period of his teaching career to a research
on the psychophysiological aspects of piano playing, points out the following
problems: (2)

1 – Co-contraction (i.e., the simultaneous and non-coordinated

contraction of the opposing muscles during one action.
2 – The wrong positions that lead the tendons to constant and excessive
contractions.
3 – The “ecstatic” muscular activity (when the muscles do not relax or do
not correctly pull in order to perform the necessary action)
4 – The excessive use of ‘force’. (Novice pianists tend to play very
loudly, thinking this is synonymous with great virtuosity). In fact, playing too
strongly is anti-musical and when practiced for long periods of time, day after
day, is a very bad habit that destroys the muscles.
Every simple action that we perform in our daily life asks for the
contraction of certain muscles. At the same time, the so-called ‘opposing’
muscles (antagonistic) must control the rate of the necessary tension required to
perform any movement, by setting up a certain resistance. If there were no
antagonistic muscles, we could not control our movements. For example, when
we lift an arm, if the antagonistic muscle does not offer a certain resistance to that
movement, the arm will be lifted without any control, and could potentially go
anywhere. The human capacity to master the body and its actions is closely
related to the perfect coordination between the active muscle (agonistic) and the
antagonistic.
As a dance teacher teaches his students to attend to their bodies, so
should piano teachers. This means that a piano student should learn a large
repertory of touch-forms and positions so that she can carry out the muscular
work required to play the piano. Once she acquires this repertory of "touchers"
and memorizes all the possible hand positions on the keyboard (with the
respective postures of arms and trunk) she is ready to perform in a very
coordinated way (in terms of muscular work)
Otto Ortmann was a pianist who also trained as a physiologist. (3) His
research on the physiological aspects of piano playing is the most complete to
this day. He insists on the importance of equilibrium between the agonistic and
 the antagonistic muscles. He explains that when the agonistic muscle is called to
produce a force of intensity “70”, the antagonistic has to produce a force of “30”
in order to maintain the equilibrium (fig. 2). Therefore, an antagonistic force of
“40” or “50” would be excessive, in the present case, and would prevent the
coordination of the gesture.
This is what Thomas Mark means when he speaks of “co-contraction”.
When he speaks of bad positioning he means the trunk, the arms and hands do not
correctly connect to the directions of the movement on the keyboard. This failure
forces the tendons to exert excessive twists that are useless and even dangerous.
At the same time, the muscles are forced to perform non-coordinated efforts. The
results of these errors can be a real disaster for a pianist, especially if repeated
over a long period of time.
Dr. Raoul Tubiana is one of France’s best hand specialists. He has treated
a great number of musicians, students and professionals who have had serious
ailments that forced them to stop playing. He says that “Wrong positioning is the
source, the main cause of ailments faced by musicians. When the wrong
positioning is not quickly addressed, treatment becomes extremely difficult.” (4)
He continues:
“Prevention is the only way to protect students and avoid
these conditions. We must alert music teachers in the
conservatories who usually do not receive any education
on the anatomy and physiology of the human body. These
teachers must understand the importance of observing
their pupils, in order to correct and change their dangerous
positioning from the very beginning.”

This show the importance of guiding students to learn correct positioning in order
that they can, as much as is possible, play on the gravity axis (where effort is
reduced to the minimum).
The worst possible positioning is that in which the trunk is rigid, tense,
fixed. This also concerns the elbow, the wrist, and the hands.
These issues must be fixed each instant they arise, but always keeping a
certain degree of flexibility, of mobility, so as not to lose the muscular work and
the speed which is required to play well. When articulation is rigid, it leads to
excessive tension of the muscles, and hence, to a lack of coordination.
However, we must also avoid excessive relaxation of certain joints; this
produces a surplus of contraction in the other joints. In most cases, it is the finger
joints which are not sufficiently fixed, and therefore this requires that as
compensation the wrist or elbow be fixed. The excessive contraction of these
joints will spread towards the muscles of the forearm, causing pain and forcing
the pianist to break from or in some extreme cases, even stop playing. Some
novice pianists believe that one should resist pain; they therefore force
themselves to go on playing. This only increases the tension of the sore/injured
muscles. With the passing of time, this practice will lead to serious ailments.
In conclusion, we can say that: the joints (or articulations) of a pianist
must be able to be fixed or relaxed at any given moment, but never excessively.
The finger joints must be fixed, but the hand knuckle and the wrist joint of the
hand must also be flexible so as to be fixed or relatively relaxed according to the
requirements of the score.
To improve coordination then, pianists should work on the following.
 - Finger techniques that help fix the finger-joints: the non-articulated
finger pressure technique; finger stroke technique that increases finger resistance
and power (followed by staccato technique)
- Balance (or shaking) hand and wrist technique to help liberate the main
articulations
- Rebounding techniques that allow weight transfer from one finger to the
other (or during jumps). It also develops and liberates the dynamic impulsion that
moves arms and fingers all the time during the performance.
- Staccato technique that helps fix the finger joints, improve the
flexibility of certain joints (hand staccato, for example). This aids in assisting
subsequent muscle relaxation
- Finally, the technique of rotation that liberates articulation and teaches
us the varied possible positions the hand, wrist and elbow can take.
These techniques, together with those designed to center the pianists
movements on the gravity axis, will offer us all the possible means to develop our
technical capacities, while protecting and assuring our physical integrity. The
pianist will feel at ease and free; and this freedom will allow her to express her
musicality as far as her craft and talent will take her.

Paris, October 2012

1 Heinrich Neuhaus, l'Art du Piano, Éditions Van de Velde, 1971, pp. 104
2 Thomas Mark, "Pianist's Injuries...",The Oregon Musician, Spring 1999, pp.11-
13
3 Otto Ortman, The Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique, E.P.Dutton, N.Y.
1962, pp.59-63
4 Raoul Tubiana, cité par Jean-Marie Gavalda dans "La Musique n'Adoucit pas
les Muscles", Midi Libre, Montpellier, 26/11/1994, lors des Journées "Main et
Musique“