Legato Playing

Legato at the Piano, A Snippet                                                                          

In a discussion on legato, a contributor to Piano Forum opined that she didn’t accept the notion that the piano is a percussive instrument. This is like not accepting the notion that the earth is round. I have my faults, certainly, but I’ve learned to accept and deal with the laws of physics. When my head stopped spinning I thought to myself, well, she is probably lost in that world where we artistic types often go, the world of wishful thinking. I responded: “My piano has hammers that strike strings. What does your piano have?” I heard back: "Good point. My piano has a choir inside, with an organ to accompany it. Sounds like yours has a wrecking crew. What the heck, to each his own." This was a good response, I thought, and quite funny. And food for thought.

That writer has identified the place where opinion and fact collide. Or to put it in more useful terms, where imagery and practice collide. On the one hand, imagery is great. It can help us to conceptualize a desired result and for some pianists, some of the time, that may be enough. But if it isn't enough, what then? For me, knowledge wins out over fancy; I want to know how.

Legato on the piano is an illusion at best because the piano is a percussive instrument. Some of the advice offered in the forum discussion was right on the money, i.e., a finger legato is about over-holding until the next note is depressed. There is another important factor, though, and that is how the finger connects with the key. For a finger legato, always play from the key, not from above the key. This cushions the attack and makes the connections seem more legato. Since "quality is determined by the number and prominence of overtones," the faster you strike the key, the more the upper, more dissonant partials are set in motion, making an even more percussive sound. Isn’t physics a great science?

Consider  playing succeeding notes in or under the decay of the preceding note. This will give a very nice
simulation of legato; it also implies a dimenuendo, which may not be called for. In any case, take care to consider where in the phrase hierarchy each succeeding note belongs. After a long melodic note, for example, listen well to how the phrase continues. Does the phrase require a new impetus? Or should it sound like a continuation of the long note? Is the phrase rising dynamically or falling? Music is not a democracy; not every note gets an equal vote.

Finally, perhaps more importantly, it's the legato pedal, sometimes referred to as syncopated pedal, that needs particular attention. The pedal gives us the ability to over-hold a particular note while moving away from it, thus creating a sense of legato. The way in which the key is depressed is still important. With the pedal down, strike the next note with just enough weight to override the reverberating sound, to give the illusion of connectedness, the new note floating above the din.

Another contributor to the forum remarked, somewhat haphazardly, that everyone plays legato all the time and it isn’t necessary to practice it particularly. He maintained, “if it isn’t legato, it’s staccato.” At first I opted to let this go as, well, sloppy thinking, but it began to eat away at me.

Does everyone play legato all the time, even in Czerny studies (shudder), as he says? We know that up to Mozart’s time the default articulation was detached, changing with Beethoven, who reportedly quipped that “Mozart’s playing sounded like so many chickens dancing on the keys.” Since Beethoven’s time pianists have worked to develop a singing style, a legato touch. I think here the operative word is worked. I decided that arbitrarily putting one finger down after another thoughtlessly won’t necessarily produce the illusion of legato. It’s important to consider 1) over-holding slightly; 2) the manner of attack, i.e., from the key, not from above; 3) where the note comes in the musical hierarchy of the phrase; 4) how to use the pedal.                                        
     
Armed with this information, when imagery isn't sufficient, we can perhaps use the laws of physics to our advantage and bring that world of wishful thinking closer to a musical reality.

BOOK REVIEW

TEACHING PIANO IN GROUPS

By Christopher Fisher

Oxford University Press

Back in the days when piano instruction at the University of Southern California took place in the faded parlors of Clark House, a West Adams Victorian mansion, and practice facilities were located in old army barracks just off Exposition Blvd., I had my first piano instruction. It was summer. I was only ten and perhaps a touch more anxious than my age might suggest, but I was nonetheless a reliable ten and was allowed to take the red car by myself all the way to Exposition Park. I felt ever so grown up.

The trauma of that first day, though, found a place in my memory that no amount of therapy could possibly treat.  My mother read the announcement aloud: “Group piano instruction offered free of charge to children age 12 with no previous music training. The purpose of the class is to demonstrate group teaching techniques to university pedagogy students.” Well, I couldn’t contain my excitement. Piano! Finally! I’d been begging for years. Once when I was eight I underscored my frustration by announcing to my parents that “here I am eight years old and can’t do anything.”

One Saturday morning mother loaded us into the Plymouth, my older brother and me, and drove us to the edge of campus where a squadron of institutional green, wood-frame buildings stood. Miss Bishop greeted us on a landing at the top of stairs worn thin from the repeated scuffing of combat boots and led us inside. We were the last to arrive. She wore a gray skirt cut at the calf and a white shiny blouse, just like the pictures I’d been drawing from magazines, and there was a brooch pinned above her heart. I had plenty of time to study her, from her bobbed salt and pepper hair down to her sensible shoes, because she began with the first to arrive, the ones lined up at the other end of the room. There must have been eight or ten children and their mothers all waiting to be interviewed.

“What is your name?”

This part hadn’t occurred to me, the questioning. And as I was already an anxious child, I began to feel apprehensive.

“And how old are you?”

There it was. The question I hadn’t anticipated.

“Twelve,” came the reply. They were all twelve. My brother was twelve. You had to be twelve!

Miss Bishop came, one child at a time, closer to where I crouched behind my mother as I tried to disappear. But I wanted to be there even though I didn't belong. Well, the conflicting emotions became too much for me and just as Miss Bishop stepped up to me, to my mother really, looking around behind her, before Miss Bishop said a word, I started to cry. These were desperate, bitter tears, you understand, tears of complete and utter desolation because all hope of ever playing the piano was now surely gone. I was only ten. I was too young for piano.

Later when I entered the university as a piano major, Miss Bishop and I had a good laugh over that episode. And yes, she let me stay in the class. It was a wonderful experience. We made thunderous sounds that first day up and down the keyboard, two kids at each gnarly old upright. The class was taught by Bernice Frost from New York, if my memory is correct, and whatever her approach was, it worked for me. We began reading immediately from her book called “The Adult at the Piano.”  

I belabor all this here, excessively maybe, because some people feel that learning piano in groups lacks seriousness or effectiveness. I think Fisher’s book serves to dispel those notions. He introduces the topic with a history (but I searched in vain for a recounting of my own experience), including references to classes taught by Liszt, Chopin and Schumann. From there he continues with practical matters such as class sizes and logistics and a discussion of learning theories. All age clusters and levels of maturity are considered, including college-level major and non-major applications.

The writing style is academic; it smacks of the doctoral dissertation and is therefore on the dry side. But the information is valuable and considerable, well referenced and, though academic, clearly expressed. There is a passable index. The meat of the book, I think, is the section called “Instructional Strategies.” Here Fisher deals with the nitty-gritty and the esoteric. You’ll find strategies for teaching rhythm, ear training, reading, all aspects of keyboard harmony including improvisation and composition, repertoire and technology, including “Integrating Technology in the Group Piano Classroom” and “Videoconferencing Technology.” Many of these teaching strategies are appropriate in the private lesson, as well. I think this book is worth a look.

LEAPS DEMONSTRATION

ON LEAPS (With Video Demonstration)

A student came to a lesson and said, “Look how far I can stretch my hand.” I thought, ouch, are we doing yoga?

Then he said, “I measured it; I can reach a 10th.”

Oh no, I thought, it’s a competition.

Well, here is a student new to my studio, a rather advanced pianist already, who suffers from a fairly common malady. Somewhere in his early studies he developed the notion that stretching is better than moving, when in fact the opposite is true. It is more efficient and healthier to move than it is to stretch. I know this may seem counter intuitive to some, but stay with me. I don’t mean that the hand can’t be open, it can, and flexible, of course. But anytime the hand is opened to an extreme, danger lurks in the effort. (We select fingering to avoid a stretch, but that’s another topic.)

Let me explain. If our objective is to learn how to play the piano using the body according to its design, then we must exclude efforts that act against it. (Of course, there are many accomplished and successful musicians who play the piano using various technical points of view, or more likely, no point of view at all. We wish them all the best.) Well, what are some efforts that act against the hand’s design? Opening it so wide that it feels tense is one. Lifting the fingers individually away from the hand, especially the fourth finger, which has tissue on top that prevents it from lifting away, is another. 

 

So, here’s a useful question to ask, “What does the hand want to do? “ It wants to be in a relatively closed position. Try this: Drop your arm to the side and let it hang freely. Notice how the hand feels. This is what it wants to feel. Can we achieve this feeling in the act of playing the piano? The simple answer is yes, as long as we don’t fall victim to suggestions in the notation that seem to be saying “stretch, pull.” (More about “notation bound” in another blog.)

So how do we play the piano without acting against the hand, without turning it into a gnarled claw, veins bulging with tension?

I’m glad you asked.

One way to use the hand according to its design is to learn how to negotiate leaps. Other issues are at work, too, underlying tools that also contribute to efficient hand use. But for now let’s consider how to leap. By my definition, a leap takes place whenever the hand moves from one five-finger position to another without a thumb crossing, a shift if you like (as in string playing). It doesn’t matter whether the leap is to the very next note, i.e., if you want to play stepwise with the same finger, or if you want to leap several octaves.

 

Here is the rule: The note before the leap gets us the distance. That is, the last note in the group of notes before a leap takes us to the first note of the new group. It’s that simple. (Well, almost.) Anxious about making a leap, pianists very often neglect to finish playing the last note of a group; they tend to skip over it. This is a pity, sometimes even tragic, because that last note is the all-important springboard for negotiating the distance to the first note of the next group. So don’t be in too big a hurry.

 

It is just as futile to cling to that last note, losing the advantage of its thrusting power. With a well worked-in and coordinated combination of springing, forearm rotation and walking arm, leaping great distances feels like going next door. So don’t be afraid to jump.

Okay, I know I sprang some new terms on you. But I promise that leaping is a simple and safe movement, all of which will become clear when you view the demonstration video below.

A word of caution: Notice where you want to land before you leap.

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

Some years ago I came across an article on a topic dear to the performer's heart. It is a very good distillation of what I teach and practice. That is, when we walk out on stage we need to have a good conscience; we shouldn't judge ourselves (the post mortem comes afterward); we should focus and concentrate, staying in the moment. Remember, too, that the body communicates to the brain what it is experiencing during performance; the brain may get the message that something didn't sound right because it didn't feel right. (More about this in another blog.) Did I just hear someone sigh, "easy for you to say"? You can read the article here: Six Golden Rules for Conquering Performance Anxiety.

ON PRACTICING

Neil Stannard Piano Studio

Please Read Me First

            There are three main types of practicing, and many variables. The first type of practicing is employed in learning a NEW PIECE (or a new technical concept). The second type is for a piece that is IN PROGRESS; the third type is for a FINISHED PIECE, one that is ready or nearly ready for performance. In an ideal world, there will be fewer new pieces at any given time than in-progress or finished pieces. All practice requires intense focus and concentration. But I find that the concentration required in the solving of problems in a new piece can be the most intense and should therefore come at the beginning of the practice session, when the mind is fresh.

            Psychological impediments sometimes stand in the way of good practicing, or of even getting started. I call these psychological impediments “the committee” that sits on our shoulders giving negative feedback. “Just sit down whether you want to or not,” says cellist Gordon Epperson. And he’s right. The ritual of preparing to work itself can be cathartic.

            But there’s more to it than that, of course. While getting set up, think about a basic plan, i.e., what types of pieces will you practice: new, in progress, finished. Where will you start and what is the first thing you will do and how will you do it? In other words, THINK FIRST before the hand touches the keys. It is the thinking process that protects us from falling victim to what I call MINDLESS ROTE, which is when automatic pilot takes over from the deliberate act of thinking about what you are doing. If you find yourself thinking about what’s for lunch, take a break: a short walk, go for a coffee, read a chapter, play solitaire (but don’t wear out your thumbs texting). For most types of practicing, one hour at a time with a 10 or 15-minute break between hours is ideal. At the end of the break start the THINKING over again: where will I start, what will I do and how will I do it---WHERE, WHAT, HOW?

THE BASIC PLAN

NEW PIECE

1.  SCAN. Play through the piece at a comfortable tempo, stopping and starting as necessary, not to amaze yourself with what a fine sight-reader you are, but rather to identify problem spots. MARK THE HARD SPOTS.

2.  FOCUS. Having located spots that need extra attention, figure out possible fingerings, several even. WRITE THESE IN THE MUSIC in pencil. You won’t remember them, I promise. When deciding on fingerings, try to keep the musical intentions of the composer in mind. (See “Fingering Concepts.”)

3.  LIMIT. Reduce the amount of information you process, even down to just one interval or one leap. Start this very slowly and GRADUALLY, increasing the tempo to as close to the performance tempo as you can, but not faster than you can at this early point!

4.  PROCEED.  Go on to the next hard spot. Do not try to put the measures together yet. Make notes in the margin if you have questions about technical or musical issues. Do this very detailed work for as long as you can concentrate fully. (This type of practice has a learning curve, but in the long run it will cut your required practice time for a successful performance by at least 50%, probably more.)

5.  CONTEXT. Once a particular spot is feeling EASY and rather consistent, even if not quite up to tempo, try putting it in context with the material immediately before it and immediately after. Do this several times. DO NOT FORCE THE TEMPO. A good technique is one that feels easy, never rushed, even in speed.

6. TEMPO. Hard spots must be worked up through several tempos from very slow to the performance tempo. When you’re ready to work up the tempo, that is, when you have solved the technical problem(s), remember to play NO SLOWER THAN YOU NEED TO but NOT FASTER THAN YOU CAN. The metronome can be useful here to keep track of your progress.

7.  MUSIC. The objective, always, is to make music. Keep in mind the quality of sound, the type of articulation required for the musical effect, the dynamic variety.

A PIECE IN PROGRESS

1.  EVALUATE. Make conscious decisions as to what sections need the most technical work. Start with those sections, working through several tempos. Most work should be under performance tempo. Keep in mind that the technique should always feel easy and unhurried.

2.  PERFORM. Try playing at tempo or near tempo in PHRASES or larger MUSICAL SECTIONS. For example, look at the musical form and select part of a section such as a first theme group or the development or the “A” section. This is also a good tool for examining the overall structure or architecture of the piece. Do not play through the piece non-stop at this point.

3.  SHAPES. Look for musical shapes. Where are the highest points in pitch? The lowest? What direction does a line seem to move over all? One approach to bringing the music to life is to play with increasing intensity as a line moves up and less intensity as a line moves down. This is just a starting point, of course.

4.  ARTICULATION. The length of individual notes has a great deal to do with musical expression. Should a group of notes be played very short or played with exaggerated length? What combinations of notes can be grouped under the hand without a thumb-crossing? The composer or editor often makes these decisions, but they are not cut in stone.

5.  DYNAMICS. Make some clear choices about how loud or soft a given passage will be. Where is the loudest place in the piece? The softest? Where are the crescendos? Are any passages especially accented?

FINISHED PIECE

1.  MUSICAL OBJECTIVE. As you worked through the previous section, particularly on SHAPES, ARTICULATION and DYNAMICS, you will have begun to form opinions about the meaning of the music. Ask yourself what the piece is about (happy?sad?). What is it that you like about it? How will you make your listener hear what you hear?

2.  PRACTICE PERFORMING SECTIONS. At this point it is time to start playing in large sections, i.e., an entire exposition or from point A to point B, without stopping. Try to incorporate everything that you have considered in the above. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t come off as planned on the first try. Keep in mind that the technique should always feel easy, unforced, unhurried.

3.  PRACTICE PERFORMING. Play the entire piece through up to tempo without stopping no matter what happens. This is a diagnostic tool and sometimes it can be helpful to record the effort. Afterward, consider how close you came to meeting your goals. It won’t be 100% the first time. Don’t expect it to be. Do whatever cleanup is necessary. Make notes in the score. Try again, but not more than 3 times in one sitting. After the final try, do whatever cleanup you need, i.e., slow technical work. Then LEAVE IT. Go on to something else or take a break.

4.  PRACTICE PERFORMANING SLOWLY.  Play the entire piece as a performance, but well under tempo. This removes much of the tactile memory, requiring more thoughtful, deliberate playing. It is also a very good test of memory

NINETY PERCENT OF PRACTICING IS SLOWER THAN THE PERFORMANCE TEMPO.