Scales on the Piano: Do I Have To?

A student writes:

   

"I am reading your excellent book at the moment. I like this idea [of practicing technique in the music]. I mostly play Bach and I would love to practice specific technical skills by practicing specific Bach pieces. Unfortunately, no one has yet written a book covering all relevant technical exercises, in [progressive] order, using only Bach.

      Anyway, my question is then: Does your idea go for scales as well? Should I never practice scales?"

My answer:

       The simple answer to your question is no, you don't have to practice scales, but you do have to know them. As you rightly point out, scales and arpeggios are the building blocks of music, and the techniques—particularly the thumb crossings—are quite similar. So, as a matter of keyboard harmony and understanding the topography of the keyboard, it is important to be able to play fluently all scales in major and melodic minor keys for at least two octaves. I don't stress the practicing of arpeggios particularly because there are different fingering possibilities—better to practice these in the music itself. The purpose of learning scales is for the thumb crossings and the hand coordinations to become automatic. Drilling scales on a daily basis (once learned) for developing "strength" or "independence" is in my view not a good use of time.

   My new book, Mystified No More, Further Insights Into Piano Technique includes a chapter on increasing speed in scales and arpeggios, including video demos on how to do this. Suddenly I feel like a book salesman (well, he did ask), but I also have two other books, The Pianist's Guide to Practical Scales and Arpeggios, which is a collection of scales and arpeggios as they appear in repertoire. It includes quite a number Bach works. You can look through the index at Amazon.com. The other book is called The Pianist's Guide to Practical Technique, a collection of graded excepts from the repertoire. There is also a scale routine outlined—octaves, sixths and tenths—for those who want to organize a scale routine. However, as I said before, I don't think it's necessary to practice scales routinely once they are securely learned.

     Side note: The chief challenge in Bach is coordinating the counterpoint, the vertical-ness of the lines—feeling the points where the hands play together.

Brahms Op. 118, No. 2: On Voicing at the Piano

   

Brahms at about the time of Opus 118

A student brought in this wonderful and ever so popular intermezzo from Brahms' opus 118. There is much to consider here in the way of voicing—by which I mean featuring the essence of a particular line—but my student missed completely the structure of the passage at  piú lento.

Brahms Intermezzo Op 118, No. 2
(Double click image to enlarge.)

   It's one thing to think in terms of featuring the soprano line, located as it so often is in the fifth finger. (There are those of us who ponder whether God actually meant us to play the piano, having put all of those luscious melody notes in that tiny appendage.) If we always feature the soprano, we would probably be more often correct than incorrect. However, in this case there is more going on that met my student's eye. Do you see the canon with the tenor voice in the left-hand thumb? 

Brahms Intermezzo Op. 118, No. 2 Canon
(Double click image to enlarge.)

     Our job as pianist's—as musicians—is to first show what's there and then what's different. This passage functions as a transition to the return of the "A" material. But isn't it more than just a transition? Using the material of the previous eight bars, a section of subtle anxiety, Brahms takes us—now in F-sharp-major—to church and a moment of refuge before the greater storm emerges. What could be more liturgical than counterpoint? In this case, showing the canon gives us more than a singable hymn, and takes us not only to church but references an ancient time.

The chiroplast, a hand stretching apparatus
similar to the one Robert Schumann may
 have used, causing irrevocable injury.

    As a matter of technique, though, do not suddenly become an organist. The poor organist doesn't have the advantage of a damper pedal, which more often than not results in a lot of stretching and pulling in an effort to sustain these chords. True, this is hymn-like, but I rather imagine a brass choir playing somewhere off the nave.

Mystified No More Now Available

                                     
Get it today                                                               HERE. Amazon will also have it.

       Knowledge is a wonderful thing. Have you ever noticed, though, that the more you have, the more you seem to need? 

       In an earlier volume, PianoTechnique Demystified: Insights into Problem Solving, we learned that it is more efficient to move than to stretch to an extreme and how to make decisions regarding fingering. We learned how to "get after" a passage and to play "honestly." We learned that mindless-rote is more likely to produce technical vagaries than reliable passage work. Perhaps most importantly we learned that if a passage doesn't feel easy, then we haven't solved it. 

     The essays in this book—along with the 141 musical examples and over an hour of YouTube iDemos—are like mini private lessons. You will find here brain teasers drawn from concert repertoire at intermediate to advanced levels that are designed to develop an instinct for building a practical technique. You will learn more about solving technical problems, the point of which is to make music with ease and efficiency. Knowing how it is that you do what you do is the objective. There is really nothing more satisfying than that.

     Praise for the first volume, Piano Technique Demystified: Insights Into Problem Solving: "This book is a delightful collection of helpful insights. A terrific aspect is its inclusion of online video demonstrations. Many of the fingerings, note-grouping concepts, rotational ideas and so on make the passages in the examples easier to play than when approached with more traditional ideas." American Music Teacher, Feb./Mar., 2015.***"This is an excellent book. Whether you are an advanced pianist or a novice, the concepts shared in this book will bring your technical skills at the piano to a new level," Ashley Rose, March, 2015.***"If there is 'A' right way to play, you will learn it here, because Stannard's tips are based on the body biomechanics principles," Flavio Chaperone, August, 2015.                                                      

Dear Readers,

   Some of you have asked for the parts to the latest string trios, 11 Fugues and 2 Preludes by J.S Bach. I am happy to report they are now available at Amazon and the "Look Inside" feature should be available in a few days.

    Also, I plan to post new blogs soon in answer to piano questions, which, of course is supposed to be our topic.

    Also, also, watch for a new book, a sort of sequel to Piano Technique Demystified: Insights into Problem Solving, which will be called Mystified No More: Further Insights into Piano Technique, in which I offer more on developing a practical technique, practicing in general, geography of the keyboard, folks unclear on the concept (Hanon and Czerny), finding and using scales and a wealth of other topics of nagging interest to pianists. I solve the case of the missing thumb, point out where the small notes go and (sigh) once again address the topic that won't die: stretching exercises for pianists. There are at last count 136 musical examples and iDemos too numerous to count. But that's not all...

More Music for String Trio

     Since many of my readers moon-light as string players, I announce here a new volume of string trios, 11 Fugues and 2 Preludes for String Trio by J.S. Bach.          
     The two books of 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys have become the touchstone for keyboard players desirous of developing a sense of Baroque style. They were indeed conceived originally for a keyboard tuned with more or less equal intervals, but as always in Bach’s keyboard works, their probative value reaches far beyond the mere pressing down of keys in the proper order.
     Bach sought to teach the complete musician in his Clavier Übung, of which the Well-Tempered Clavier is a part. Übung is translated for our purposes not just as practice in the general sense of learning technique. It also means emersion in the essence of the art, as in the practice of medicine or law. These pieces are about learning composition and a cantabile style of playing, and, in short, how to bring music to life.
     We know that Bach transcribed not only his own works for

different combinations of instruments, but also the works of other composers. I include here all of the three-part fugues and two preludes from Book I, some of which appear in Bach’s hand in earlier versions and in different keys. This tilted the scales in favor of my offering more amiable transpositions for strings of some of the gnarliest keys. For the intrepid, I have also included those pieces in their original keys. It has been speculated that transcribing works was for Bach a method of study or an effort to make rare compositions more generally available to the public. Possibly. I am more moved, however, by Albert Schweitzer’s assertion that “this was his way and it gave him pleasure.” It is in the latter spirit that I offer here these tasty morsels.