Playing Softly on the Piano: Does Banging Out the Notes Help?

 

    A pianist writes:  "My piano has a heavy action  and tone production is a challenge - either too loud

  Hans von Bülow

 or no sound. I found this comment from Hans von Bülow (writing on Chopin's etude Op. 25 No. 2): 'That an ideal pianissimo, an accentless equality, can only be the result of loud and strongly accentuated practice, needs no explanation.' I find this works like magic - I don't even have to do it for very long. My question is: Is there any other solution to this problem?"

     

    My answer:  Yes, there is another solution. Let me say first, though, that if you've found something that works, I don't want to be the one who takes that away from you. However, what you describe sounds as if you are practicing X in order to achieve Y. This is the long way around the barn. 

     Hans von Bülow was a very distinguished pianist and conductor of the nineteenth century. A student of Franz Liszt, he was the first to perform Liszt's B Minor sonata. I find myself wondering how Mr. von Bülow came to the conclusion he reached. He was a child prodigy and likely had many natural gifts, perhaps only later attempting to figure out what it was he did. My correspondent finds that over-playing works for him. This leads me to think that it is more the working-in, the learning of the notes that is involved here. Playing with extra weight does not teach the playing apparatus what it feels like to play with the correct weight.

    When pianists have trouble controlling dynamics at the lower end, it is usually because they resort to fingers only, cutting off the forearm, which is the limb that controls downward weight.  Arm weight, by the way, is the result of a forearm rotation into the key; it is not an up and down movement. (For a demonstration of forearm rotation, see under the iDemos tab.) Even in soft playing, we still have to depress the key to just beyond the point of sound, where the finger is at rest. (I can hear my teacher now, "Dear, the piano is down.") The softer dynamic is controlled by applying less forearm weight, not by withholding it, resorting to fingers only. This is like walking on eggshells. Again, we don't change the way we depress the key when changing the dynamic.

    The action of a piano should not feel "heavy." Legend has it that when choosing a concert piano, Martha Argerich blows on the keys to test its response. If your piano is not well-regulated, your attempts to control lower dynamic levels may be thwarted because each key has a different point of sound.