SECTION I - LYING DOWN
SECTION II - THE THUMB
SECTION III - STANDING UP
SECTION IV - FROM WALKING TO RUNNING
SECTION V - FROM RUNNING TO ROTATING
SECTION VI - HOPPING & LEAPING
SECTION VII - RETURN TO THE FINGERTIP
SECTION VIII - THE WHOLE BODY
TEACHERS' MANUAL VIDEO TUTORIALS.
Are the Pianimals exercises unclear to you? Get a better understanding by watching these short video tutorials embedded in the page below. You can also go directly to the YouTube Playlist to browse them there.
The raison d'être of Pianimals is explained in clear, concise language.
Floating the arm relaxes it without it becoming heavy and cumbrous - for a magical, glowing, hypnotizing sound.
Sinking the heel into the white keys offers the hand structural stability - like a baby lying down. From that position of security we can do various things with the fingers - like swatting the keys with a "seal flipper."
Pecking the keys with an ultra-firm bird beak hand while the heel is sunk in the keys gives the brain a new neuromotor image of security and capability.
Curling the fingers works best when the metacarpal-phalangeal joint, the "hand's hip joint," doesn't collapse. Sinking the heel into the white keys offers the MCP joint so much structural support it can't collapse.
The reflexes learn best when sensations are varied. Sometimes we'll create a strong, skeletal-structural sense in the hand; at other times we'll soften it completely making the bones "dissolve" within - as in this lesson where the hand rolls around on the keys like a semi-hibernating bear.
The thumb is the powerhouse of the hand, but often seriously underused in the young pianist. If your pupils are lifting their thumb thus disempowering the hand, this exercise is for them.
The bird beak is a feeling of tight (but not tense) hand capability. There are many versions to adapt to many different pianistic situations.
Sliding on key is one of the best ways of finding that delicious state of hand where it is neither too tight nor too loose. The arm as well gets a clear sense of its optimal mobility - shaping phrases and sonorities with precision instead of waving around trying to relax.
It seems the list of possible bird beaks just keeps expanding...
Making the hand into a crocodile jaw gives thumb and fingers the snuggest possible interaction, optimizing hand tonus.
The alligator jaw is a more triangular structure, preparing thumb and fingers for more active, potent movement on the keys.
The thumb generally needs he most improvement, but it also empowers the entire hand the most - once that improvement has been reached.
Float the arm as we did in the first exercise, but now sound the note moving from low to high instead of playing as you waft down.
One of the strangest ways to instil the sense of skeletal power in the hand and arm is to walk on the knuckles using the arms as stilts.
Seeing how all the parts of the hand correspond to parts of the entire body brings us to an entirely new understanding of how the hand can move on the keyboard.
If you could walk without bending ankle, knee or hip joint, you would get a clear sense of how the torso is supported by each leg in turn - and how to manage the transfer of weight. This lesson does this for the fingers & hand.
Can an amoeba play the piano? Yes if it is a cat amoeba.
Children love this lesson, which teaches bonging, not banging. The clangorous, free vibration of the sound board is achieved by eliminating all the "down" from the arm's movement. The hand is as compact as a bell-clapper, but there's no compression.
Make yourself one with the key by grasping it, moving it, sensing it three-dimensionally. Feeling as if you're in it instead of on it gives you greater tactile control.
Experience the difference between falling into a key and standing up on a key by practicing these two actions with the whole body: "Frankenstein-walking" and "swan-gliding."
This is another version of that strange, straight-legged walking - here sped up and helped out with more rotation.
The thumb needs to stand well, always, if the hand is to move well. Here we galvanize the thumb to do its right supportive work by bringing a quick snapping movement to a scale - just for a moment.
Imagine a heron stretching one leg out for an eternity before it finally takes a step. Now stand on your 2nd finger and stretch the thumb out. When you take an eternity to make your step, you feel how to do it without the thumb collapsing in the slightest. For many this is a totally unfamiliar feeling.
If you whip your hand up above your head while playing a few notes of a scale, they sound incredibly quick, light and sparky. The reflexes experience the joy of playing fast with none of the stress.
Sometimes a hidden collapse of the hand arch ruins our legato sound unbeknownst to us. Overholding helps us weed out those hidden collapses by making us feel them.
As Matthay said, rotation is always present in piano technique. This lesson helps develop the feeling of how much rotation is needed, and when, by solidifying the hand - shifting all the movement to the forearm.
When you leap from stepping stone to stepping stone crossing a creek, it's the legs that animate the movement and make it accurate. They ensure that you don't end up with a dunking. Leaps work better when the fingers animate them than when the arm carries the neutral hand.
Investing a "down" motion in a forte is the surest way to ruin ones sound, and also the most widespread. This lesson creates glowing, intensely singing fortes that are distinctive for their complete freedom from compression.
Octaves present the greatest danger of stiffening the hand, because it must be in extension. This lesson shows how to keep the grasping action potent and vital even when playing octaves, larger intervals, and chords.
Once we have reviewed all the parts of the piano-playing mechanism (finger, hand, wrist, arm), we return to the fingertip - the ultra-important point of contact - your interface with your instrument.
The hand is a mini-body, but we also play piano with our whole body. This lesson empowers the relationship of the real pelvis & torso to the movements of the hand & arm on key.
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