Piano Technique: The Weight transfer cosmos, and thumb fluid motions

In the course of teaching that encompasses interactive learning and partnered journeys of discovery, I find myself wanting to share pupil/mentor epiphanies that flow from lessons.

Most recently the subject of arm weight transfer in legato and staccato emerged from a cocoon of mystery for many. Some of my adult students kept saying, “I just can’t seem to integrate the idea into my playing.” In response, my problem-solving engine was ginned up to make a video that would bring what was elusive down to earth.

It turned out that I started with some upper body push-ups at the keyboard, leveraging weight into the keys, then transferring the energy through “chunks” or clusters of a F-Sharp Major scale. The chunks then transformed to “roll-outs” of black keys in the patterns of black triples and black doubles that are intrinsic to this pattern scale. I demonstrated what was full weight deliverance down my arms to half-weight funneled energy. I fleshed out the concept that transferred weight assisted variations in dynamics. (Forte, piano etc.) but the sculpting or shaping of phrases had to have supple wrist inflections, rotations etc. Weight transfer therefore remains part of a greater universe of choreographies.

Within the same footage, I explored finger, forearm and wrist staccato with infused variations of arm weight that create a panoply of shades and colors. The finger staccato is essentially a “snip out” of a well tendered legato whether big, soft or in between, so it still attaches the relevance of weight channeled energy.

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In a second video tutorial I unraveled the mystery of the thumb and how it has a certain independence related to its shortness and unwanted tendency to act as a hammered intruder instead of a buoyant, wrist driven propeller of beauty. How to tame the thumb and fold it into well-sculpted phrases became the theme of my second video which used the Chopin Waltz No. 19 in A minor, Op. Posthumous as a vehicle for finessed, exemplary thumb motions.

….onto perpetual journeys of discovery for teachers and students!

from Arioso7's Blog (Shirley Kirsten)
https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2022/01/17/piano-technique-the-weight-transfer-cosmos-and-thumb-fluid-motions/