PianoTechnique.net

This site aims to offer a comprehensive survey of approaches to piano technique from its inception to the present day. It’s a new site, one that is growing slowly, organically. Many articles still remain to be written, but there are already several items of special interest that you can find on the side bar to the right…

Alan Fraser writes:

Our allegiances

“We normally feel a special allegiance to the teachers and methods that nurtured us personally, but this process need not be exclusive. I was brought up in the Cortot tradition, but this doesn’t lead me to vilify Tobias Matthay or Leschetitsky. Studying with a genius such as Phil Cohen doesn’t set me, like a knight in shining armour defending his king, against all the other approaches! The more I investigate other approaches as I prepare future articles for this site, the more my own ideas are stimulated to further development. There is a wonderful process of cross-fertilization that can take place when we evaluate clearly and precisely what each school has to offer, and integrate this new wisdom into what we do already at the piano. There’s only one small drawback: each new discovery means I am spending more time at the piano working out the technical details for myself, and less time finishing the articles!

Inclusion vs. exclusion

‘PianoTechnique.net aims towards impartiality, to be inclusive, and is based on the idea that we are all aiming towards the same high goal: to play the piano really well, to make it speak, sigh, sing and to recreate the plethora of colours and emotions that an orchestra produces. I feel a strong kinship with all my colleagues who have embarked on the same strange path, to make this beast of metal, felt and wood express the most sublime sentiments and characters - who am I to judge that ‘my way’ is ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than hers or his?

‘Two truths can be totally contradictory without either being untrue. Each is true in a specific context, for a specific person who has a specific set of past experiences, neuromotor patterns that guides him or her in playing. I think it is natural that so many different schools developed: there are so many marked differences between the many people who play piano, and any one single approach is going to fall far short of fully defining this amazingly complex process!

Exact language

‘Investigating the various approaches to piano technique partly necessitates evaluating the language used. Here we try to grasp what each school is really saying, and establish a standardization or equivalency between various schools so we can evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each dispassionately, soberly, and clearly. We hope thus to empower all pianists to communicate more effectively and amicably, and in the end perhaps come closer to a really comprehensive approach to piano technique.”

Recent additions

Our most recent addition is Alan’s personal account of his first meeting with Kathleen Riley who has developed an exciting new procedure for using biofeedback effectively in the development of one’s piano technique. Another article recently put online is Michael Kurstner’s fine explanation of the Lumbricals and Interosseous Muscles, whose right work is so crucial to a well-developed piano technique. Also relatively new are the special listening experience of Wanda Landowska Playing Mozart Sonatas, and the detailed review of Thomas Mark’s book, What Every Pianist Needs to Know about the Body. We think you will also find of special interest the article on Antecedents of Piano Technique in the Harpsichord and Clavichord.

Email notification

If you would like email notification when a new article comes online, please register/create account (make sure you check the subscription box) to be added to our mailing list. This list will remain in-house and we promise that absolutely no outside party will be privy to your contact information.

The planned site will eventually include the following sections:

- A Historical Survey of Schools of Piano Technique
- A Comparative Look at Current Trends in Piano Technique
- Mp3 Downloads
- Piano Technique Forum
- Piano Technique Chat Room

Submissions

The Webmaster welcomes suggestions and especially contributions from those interested in helping make this site more comprehensive: we aim for it to be eventually a sort of mini-Wikipedia for piano technique. Each historical category will be the subject of a full-length article, and there will be a comparative table cataloguing and comparing the characteristics of each approach. If you would like to make a contribution, please email us at jocahdj@pianotechnique.net