Last Updated on 2022-11-30 | Originally Posted on 2021-10-25
Introduction
What is terrific technique? It’s an aspiration for any pianist at any level because it makes playing easier. What’s not easy is talking about it. I realized there must be a reason that I hadn’t covered this topic previously in my Practice Corner articles. Is it because technique is a given, and doesn’t merit discussion? Or is it just a harder topic to flesh out? I think it’s both!
Simply put, it’s the nuts and bolts of piano playing. But there’s a lot more. Theory. Injury prevention. The way to scale up to harder pieces. Let’s look at each of these a bit more.
Nuts and Bolts
Everything we study in technique is in preparation for playing repertoire. The seven animal techniques we study in Piano Safari are immediately followed by pieces that contain those elements. Five-finger patterns, diatonic and chromatic scales, and arpeggios show up regularly in piano literature. By learning these in advance, we can more easily tackle pieces that have these elements included.
Theory
Studying 5-finger patterns, scales, and arpeggios is a great introduction to music theory. We need to know what sharps and flats appear in each key and learn the triads (chords) that are commonly found in each of these keys. That leads to discussing simple chord progressions, and identifying these in the pieces we’re playing. This kind of theory work can also help in memorizing pieces. Often, just a basic awareness of chords can help in those transitions where different sections go in different harmonic directions.
Injury Prevention
When I Googled the topic of teaching technique, I was looking to make sure I didn’t miss anything obvious. Even though I’ve lectured on and written about the Arrau Technique, injury prevention wasn’t top of mind when I was determined to finally write this post. That sort of makes sense, because injury prevention often only comes to mind after the injury has occurred. People sometimes require carpal tunnel surgery. Other pianists go to study the Taubman technique post-injury. I was lucky to find a teacher and a way of playing that prevented those injuries in the first place.
Many pianists and teachers know how to play in a healthy way. One of the reasons that I wanted to learn more about Piano Safari is that the animal techniques are very sound and similar to how I was taught to play. I asked Julie Knerr where she developed these techniques, and she said that they came from a variety of leading pedagogues. That said, not every teacher is enlightened on how to play and teach healthy technique. Your body will typically give you plenty of warning if you’re on the wrong path.
Harder Pieces
Playing correctly and having good technique helps when it’s time to try pieces that are more difficult than what we’re comfortable playing. For the past many years, I wanted to learn the Goyescas of Granados, among other difficult pieces. Every time I approached the first piece, Los Requiebros, I only got as far as the third page. It’s just so hard. But, as I dug in a little more, I was able to work through that piece, and a couple of the others, even though only one of them is ready for prime time.
In Conclusion
Technique is one of the four pillars of my teaching, along with rote playing, improvisation, and note reading. Over time, as students pass from beginners to intermediate players, rote playing and improvisation fade to occasional treats. At that point, technique remains a part of lessons along with the study of repertoire. Acquiring terrific technique may not always be fun, but it is so worthwhile. Each higher level of playing opens a student up to a whole new set of composers and pieces to discover.