Playing With Fire #9: Part One - Bad Teachers

I am often told that I am harsh, unfair and judgmental toward piano teachers. It is true. While many teachers may have much to teach regarding the artistry of playing the piano, it is also true that many of them do not know what they are doing mechanically. The body is a machine with levers, pulleys, rubber bands, torque and fulcrums. We learn about these things in Physics and Biology classes and it is too bad that our educational system doesn't use Physical Education class to combine it all together. It is also too bad that our teachers only know what they are taught and do not seek answers to problems other than relying on what they were taught: practice more, relax, work on finger exercises, build strength and endurance, you have no talent or, they just keep taking the students' money. Often, the cure for technical inefficiency or various syndromes is an adjustment to our movement but that is rarely addressed because a teacher only knows what they were taught and often that is practice more, relax, work on finger exercises, build strength and endurance. I have a friend who can't play tremolos because he tries to play them from his fingers. If he played them from his elbow, they would be instantly effortless. But, what do I know, his teacher told him to practice more and build strength.

I may not be able to pick up and move an 800 pound boulder across my yard but, with a crowbar and another rock, I could make a fulcrum and inch it over. Better yet, if I can nudge it up onto a dolly with wheels, I can then easily roll it over. My strength and endurance doesn't change, but how I use the laws of physics can make all the difference.

I took lessons from one of my area's leading concert pianists with the sole intention of improving my technique. He was one of those virtuoso pianists who simply moved properly. He had an ergonomic technique and didn't know how or why he could play with great ease. He called it talent. Students flocked to him hoping to become as good as he but he didn't know how to help his students find their true potential. Many of his lessons were spent with him playing hoping his students would imitate him but, the actual movement of playing is invisible and shared by several muscles many teachers are oblivious to because they don't know they exist. We think it is the fingers that play the piano but, it is first and foremost the arm. The unenlightened teacher focuses on the fingers, which have no muscles BTW.

This teacher has long since died and his daughter has taken over teaching. I had the opportunity to work with one of her students and his technique was dangerously close to crippling him. Sadly, he only wanted a magic lesson so he could play well and didn't want to put in the work of relearning how to move. There was nothing I could do for him. In order to relearn how to play one must abandon all previously learned movements and start over, which many pianists are not willing to do.

This kind of teacher may be fine for the student who just wants a taste of music, learn a little theory or be able to plunk out some notes for themselves but, a teacher's ignorance can stifle a student's progress, enthusiasm and even set them up for eventual injury. Mediocrity is not related to talent, it is a symptom of teachers who don't know about the physics of movement and our skeletal system.

You would not take your car in for an inspection only for the mechanic to tell you your brakes or tires are going bad but you can get a few more months out of them. Well, actually people do. That mechanic is putting your life and everyone you share the road with in danger because you probably won't come back in in a few months. Sure, you are saving a few bucks today but at what cost in the future? If your brakes are bad, get them fixed, don't drive more. Driving more won't fix them. If you technique is bad, get it fixed, don't practice more. Repeating improper movement only hard-wires it into the brain.

A piano teacher who does not understand that a student is using the wrong muscles or how to teach them to use the correct muscles is setting them up for problems or a career of mediocrity. Every technical problem has an ergonomic solution, and it isn't “practice more.” If walking knock-kneed causes knee pain, the solution isn't to walk more, it is to walk correctly. If your pinky and ring finger feel weak and in-coordinate, you don't need to strengthen them, you only need an adjustment to your forearm alignment.

I have had all the wrong teachers and although they made me who I am today, they set me up to be crippled with pain and to struggle with a mediocre technique. It has taken me years to relearn how to move but I am now pain free and syndrome-less because I stopped fighting the laws of physics and started using them. Although I have much more work to do, my technique has improved significantly.

Playing With Fire #8

Look down at your fingers. If you haven't noticed they are all different in length. Many pianists and typists are taught to equalize their fingers by curling them so that all five are touching the keys at the same time. This places your fingers in a constant state of flexation. It is impossible for a musician to relax their fingers if they are holding them in contraction. In addition, you can only move a bone in one direction at a time but we all have several muscles that can pull them in several opposing directions. So if you are trying to move a finger up or in a certain direction but another muscle is pulling the hand in an opposite direction, there is going to be strain or at the very least, in-coordinate movement. This is why some pianists struggle with scales, arpeggios or speed.

It behooves the pianist to play on the edge of the keys for the keys are lightest on the outside edge. If you have ever played on a see saw as a child, you know that regardless of weight, if one kid sits on the outside edge of their seat and the other kid is sitting forward, the kid on the outside will “weigh more.” Just like the see saw, the piano key is a fulcrum. Such as using a board and rock to move another rock, the further out you are on the board, the more power you will have. Your shoulder, elbow, wrist, knuckles and each phalanx of your fingers are all fulcrums.

If you were to place your middle finger on the outside edge of a white key, all your other fingers will be hanging off the keys in the air. This is counter intuitive to most teachers but by using your shoulder and elbow to move in and out to place each finger, it not only reduces how much you need to move a finger but, it gives the finger the power and weight of motion and gravity without having to use the sluggish flexor muscles. Indeed, the piano is forward so the pianist or typist needs to have a constant forward shift momentum to their movement. If they static load, since the body wants to contract, they risk falling off the keys or cramping. When that begins to happen, the pianist contracts even more in an effort to grasp at the keys and this just creates a downward spiral of technical inefficiency and tension.

To equalize the length of all your fingers you need to get in/out motions into your arm. The pianist who does not risks playing on the inside of the key where the keys are heavier, thus is born, the myth that the pianist needs more strength to play or, they might complain that the action of the piano is stiff. The keys feel stiff because the pianist is playing too far in. Again, this is counter intuitive to most teachers but the arm is much faster at placing a finger than a flexor is at playing.

Using the C scale, place your thumb on the outside edge of the C. When you play the index finger, come out from the elbow and play straight down. Because you are coming out, you need to replace it with a forward shift. The arm will come out, up and forward all at the same time. This is where the wrist and forearm work together. It is also what gives many pianists a look of grace. Even though you are coming out, you are also moving in, up and down. When you play the middle finger, you come out even more. When you play the ring finger, you simply shift forward without needing to use the actual flexor. The same thing happens with the pinky. You just shift inward but stay on the outer edge of the key. Be careful you know about forearm alignment first. I'll discus that later. That is another fulcrum.

Every scale has different patterns of in/out. Actually, many scales are easier to play because the black keys are already forward so there is less “out” to employ. However, since the black keys are higher, you need more forward shifting with an “up” in order to come straight down on the key. This too is where pianist create tension grasping for keys. The finger does not strain and stretch to reach keys, the arm places them where they need to be which is directly over the key. Singers are taught to sing higher than their target note so they don't sing flat. Likewise, when you walk up stairs, your ascending foot raises higher than the next step then comes straight down onto it. Notice also that when your leg raises up, the down muscles are actually relaxed and your up muscles are engaged. Then, you don't stomp on the step but rotate to the next leg. This is important for the pianist to know. They can only relax if they play up then let gravity play down. The moment they press down into the key they corrupt the arms ability to go back up. A dual tension occurs and anarchy of technique ensues.

Without up/down and in/out, the musician will risk strain and uneven playing. Up/down and in/out movements give the arm (fingers) a lot of power allowing the pianist/typist to truly relax the fingers/hands/long flexor muscles. Most hand and wrist strain is caused by using more than one muscle at a time to move one bone in two or more directions simultaneously. It is imperative to learn to use one muscle at a time. This can only happen by relaxing the flexors which are the very muscles most pianists are taught to use.

When you walk, you don't flex your toes with each step. The toes just go where the leg places them. Likewise, the fingers go where the arm places them. The fingers don't operate independent to the arm and they surely don't drag the arm behind them. When you are washing a window, writing on a chalk board or waxing your car, the hand goes where the arm places it and the fingers do as they are told, with no effort.