Slurs

 

When you see a curved line over (or under) two notes it is called a slur. It's an unfortunate term for this musical effect because it is not at all like when you slur your words, for example, making them indistinct and muddled. A slur in music is not that.

When I ask students who were self-taught or had previous lessons what a slur is, they either don't know, or answer that it means the slurred notes are played legato. Legato is pretty much the "default," that is, it's what you'd assume unless the notes were marked staccato. (See my previous post.) So a slur would not mean the same thing as you would do anyway or it would be meaningless.

A slur is very specific. It is emphasis on the first note and de-emphasis on the second. So yes, they are legato (usually -- see below), but not evenly stressed. Think of how you say most two-syllable words: there is more emphasis on the first syllable than on the second. If you were to emphasize both equally it would probably sound robotic. So a slur is a very natural sound. It is often graceful, as you mind find in music of Mozart, for example. 

If you ask someone how to achieve this effect, they might say just play the first note louder. Technically, the first note would be louder, but if you try to achieve this effect with just fingers, the notes won't likely have the graceful sound that a slur should have. If you had a long quick run of slurred notes and tried to do loud-soft-loud-soft etc. with fingers alone, it would be difficult. Again, this is a technique which requires the arm. The weight of the arm on the first note gives it the desired emphasis, and the "release" on the second note gives it less than the first. You could do this motion many times in a row with consistent evenness, speed, and no strain.

Students sometimes confuse a slur with tied notes or phrase markings. A tie is between two notes that are the same note, and indicate the second note is held but not played. A curved line over a group of notes means they should sound, well, like a group! It is not the same as a slur but people will tell you, incorrectly, that it is. I like to call a grouping of notes a "phraselet" -- a mini phrase -- which would be within a larger phrase. Again, spoken language would have many instances of something like this.

Chords and octaves can also be slurred. The same concept applies: emphasis/de-emphasis.

Can a slur occur on two of the same note? Yes it can, and you'll find many instances of this. It would be essentially the same as with two different notes; the weight of the arm on the first, and the release of the arm on the second. Try doing it with fingers alone and you'll see it's very awkward, but with the arm it becomes quite simple.

I'm currently playing a piece by Ravel entitled Oiseaux Tristes ("Sad Birds"). It is an amazing and haunting piece which beautifully evokes the calls of birds. The primary motif, which opens the piece, is a slur on two of the same note. In addition, both notes are marked staccato (see my previous post for in-depth discussion of this). You might think this is a contradiction, since a slur is normally legato. To play this as Ravel intended, you would have the tiniest of detachment between notes, but it still sounds slurred because the first note is emphasized. Ravel even puts an accent over the first note, but I believe this is redundant, since a slur already has more emphasis on the first note. Throughout the piece, this motif is played ranging from soft (p) to extremely soft (ppp). The action of the arm must be delicate and extremely precise to achieve all of this together. It just can't be achieved with finger action alone. On top of all this, there would be pedal applied. You might think the "staccato" would be lost if it is pedaled, but in fact it is not; you can still hear the tiniest release of the note. As you can see, this situation has multiple layers of nuance. If you listen to a recording of the piece you will see what I mean. I give this example here to emphasize that musical terms such as "slur" are nuanced and can't be defined in an overly-simple way. Slurs require a technique which integrates the fingers, hand and arm.

Legato, Staccato, and everything in between

 

As you are probably aware, legato means smoothly connected without breaks between the notes, and staccato means the notes are detached. However, there is a great deal more to know about this, but most importantly, how to achieve these sounds.

In all likelihood, at your earliest piano lessons, your teacher showed you how to play legato by holding your finger on the key until the next key is played, thus having no gap of silence between them. If you lift your finger off the key, the damper comes down onto the string and the sound stops. So therefore you'd want the second note to be played just as the damper is going to come down on the first note, not too late (creating a gap) or too early (blurring the two notes together). While technically correct, there is a LOT more to playing true legato. You could hold each note until the next one plays, but if you play with exaggerated separate finger actions, or a separate hand/arm action on each note, you get what I call a "note-wise" sound. This note-wise sound is the hallmark of an absolute beginner. It may technically meet the definition of legato, but the music would have no "flow," no phrasing, no forward motion. It would lack "musicality." To create and convey a legato sound in the larger sense, there needs to be connection between the tones which is created by an integrated technique of arm, hand, and fingers. The legato would be heard in the phrase, not just from note to note.

We could say that legato is the default. That is, if the composer has not indicated otherwise, we assume we want a connected sound.

When your teacher taught staccato, she may have said to hop quickly off the note, or use your finger in a plucking motion, or any number of other descriptions as to how to achieve a very short sound, meaning the damper comes down quickly and stops the sound. However, I always like to ask "how staccato is staccato?" It can be very short, moderately short, or only slightly short. The little dot above or below the note doesn't tell you which; it is up to you. It depends on the music. If it is in a very fast piece, it is likely to be quite short. If it is in a slow piece, it may be only slightly detached. Your musical judgement will come into play. I prefer the word "detached" to the word staccato because it implies there is a range, not just one value.

You might assume that to detach the notes you'd need finger action. However, detached (or staccato) is just an absence of holding they key. Is not essentially a different technique than playing legato. If you are "hopping" off the key, or trying to "pluck" it, or doing other extraneous movements with your fingers, you are going to have a choppy sound. And, you are being quite inefficient, and would have trouble doing staccato at a fast tempo.

Even with staccato, we want a feeling of legato underneath it. We still want the music to have the flow and the phrasing mentioned above. We don't want it to sound mechanical just because the notes are detached. In other words, staccato passages must still be beautiful. The fingers, hand and arm are in a coordinated technique just as they are for legato playing; the fingers are not working in isolation.

In my next post, I will discuss slurs, which are widely misunderstood.

The Wrist

 

In previous posts I've discussed issues surrounding pain, and even injury, that can result from using improper techniques at the piano.

Unfortunately, some of those techniques are actively promoted by many other teachers and so-called experts.

I just happened to come across a blog post by someone who teaches (I'm assuming), who talks about the importance of the wrist. Although he is a big proponent of finger-based technique, he does admit that you can't use just fingers for octaves and big chords. He says for this you must use your wrists. He gives an exercise to do to strenghten your wrist. He says you "must not use the arms" and also that the "arm is not fast enough."

After reading his post, I felt compelled to immediately write this post.

Sorry, but there is no way "not to use your arms." I often say your hands are not going anywhere without the arms taking them there. Can you do a jump from the lower register of the piano to the upper without using your arms? Or an ascending or descending broken chord or scale that spans a few octaves? Of course not. (If you want a simple illustration, take one hand and hold your other arm very tightly at the forearm so it cannot move at all; then try to play. There is almost nothing except a simple five-note melody you could play, and even that will be awkward and stiff.)

Your arms are your "power source." The upper arm is not only strong, but efficient. If you want fortissimo chords or octaves, for example, there is simply no way to get them with the wrist alone. You need the power of the arm.

The exercise he gives for the wrist is very dangerous. I cannot stress this enough. The wrist is a somewhat delicate joint. You cannot strengthen a joint! The only thing that can be strengthened is a muscle and that is not going to happen with the exercise he suggests. (I cannot resist adding here that he doesn't seem to understand basic music terminology; he uses the word "diatonic" to mean all the white keys, which is absolutely incorrect. So this makes all his advice suspect, in my opinion.)

Almost everyone probably knows someone who has had carpal tunnel syndrome, or tendinitis in the wrists, or even a broken wrist from a minor fall. People who work at a computer keyboard for hours a day know that they must support their wrists, to prevent them from sinking below the hand, to avoid problems. If it's true for the light touch of the computer keyboard, imagine how much more important it is for the piano.

The wrists needs to be aligned with the forearm, without twisting side to side, close to 100% of the time. In effect you are using the arm and hand as one unit. The wrist needs to be elastic, not rigid, and will definitely have some flexing and extending (so that the hand points up or down from the wrist) to a moderate degree. However, if your hand and forearm are at a 90 degree angle to each other, you are over-flexed. This will cause strain if you do it too much.

I realize that my advice is the complete opposite or what some others may say. This is a conundrum for someone studying the piano. I address this is my previous post titled "Who Can You Believe?" I strongly urge you to read that post now to help put this whole discussion in perspective.

How Do You Measure Your Progress

 

Most people are interested in making progress, whether at the piano or other aspects of their lives. Of course there are many who just enjoy playing the piano and are content to just do things as they have always done them. There is no problem with that. After all, having fun and enjoying your music-making is the best reason to do it.

However, if you are taking lessons, or even if you are not, you may wish to improve your skills, deepen your knowledge, and be able to play progressively more difficult and challenging repertoire. It stands to reason, then, that you will want to assess whether this is happening, and at a rate which is encouraging rather than discouraging.

For classical music, many people assess their progress by the percentage of "right notes" or "wrong notes" they have. (Jazz pianists and others who improvise would probably not have this view.) Fewer wrong notes means you're getting better, right?

Unfortunately, no. I would ask, fewer wrong notes at what cost? If you have to play the piece, or the passage in the piece, dozens or even hundreds of times in a sitting, that is a terrible trade-off. More often what happens is that in the pursuit of 100% correct notes, the musicality of the piece is lost. There is no room for expression -- for nuances of timing, phrasing, and dynamics. There is almost always a lack of real "flow" or continuity. You may feel anxiety over the "notes" and your muscles may be tight, which can lead to other problems. And probably the "fun" aspect is also gone.

Instead, I would offer these metrics for assessing your progress.

1. Continuity. Are you able to play the whole piece (if it is short) or at least a large section of the piece, without stopping, pausing, or back-tracking in order to "fix" notes? Whether or not you are interested in performing, or even playing for friends, surely everyone would agree that this is how the music is meant to be heard. No one enjoys hearing someone play in fits and starts. Playing start to finish may not sound that difficult, but if you have made a habit of stopping and "fixing," you will see that it is not so easy. Focus on changing that habit more than the notes themselves.

2. Musicality. This is that word which can be hard to describe, but you recognize it when you hear it, or when you don't. If your playing sounds stiff, mechanical, even somewhat harsh in tone, then you aren't playing musically. See some of my previous posts for more discussion of this issue. But it is safe to say that if you don't have continuity (see above), it is even harder to play musically. I like to say that no one cares how many right notes you hit if the playing is mechanical and unpleasant to listen to. Focus on always playing with 100% emotional engagement regardless of right or wrong notes. If you feel you cannot play musically until the notes are all correct, you will never play musically. Your habits of playing without it will be too strong to overcome. Love the wrong notes as much as the right ones. That is my mantra.

3. Ability to play more challenging music. If you have a teacher, she/he should be selecting music which continually exposes you to new challenges, and of course, teaches and guides you in developing the physical techniques which enable you to play the music. If you are working on your own without a teacher you may not be sure how to do this. When people come to me for lessons after having worked on their own, they almost always have chosen pieces that are too difficult. Naturally, in the struggle to learn "the notes," everything else gets lost. If it's too much struggle, they may not actually gain the technique they need which would make it easier because they resort to methods which don't work, such as playing too slowly too much of the time, too much time spent hands separately, too many repetitions, and all of the above at once. You may notice when you are struggling for notes, the actual listening takes a back seat or gets almost completely lost. If you are not listening to your own playing, how could you possibly assess your progress?

4. Fun. Last but certainly not least, don't forget the reason you are doing this: fun. Or maybe, more than fun, a deep-level satisfaction. If you don't have continuity, expression, some level of feeling "relaxed," and true, open listening, you probably aren't going to be having fun. You know the saying: "If it ain't fun, you're doing it wrong."

If you make these your priorities, your technique and your ear will improve, and, ironically, you will have a greater percentage of "correct" notes. 

Pain

 

Many pianists ask if it is normal to have pain while playing the piano. The answer is unequivocally NO! If they are asking, chances are they have already experienced some pain. 

Many people might assume that having some pain while playing is to be expected, as it might be when doing an athletic activity or a workout where you are building muscles. They may assume that when their muscles get stronger, the pain will go away.

However, this is far from the truth. As you've read in previous posts, learning to play is NOT about building muscles. If it were, you wouldn't be seeing the amazing young children who are playing Chopin and Rachmaninoff and all the difficult pieces. They simply do not have large muscles. And they can play pieces which last 30, 40 minutes or more, and have no fatigue. If you have pain and fatigue, it is not because your muscles need to get stronger, but because you are over-using certain muscles and using them in the wrong way.

The most common pain pianists get is in the forearm. This is because they are over using the small muscles in the hand and fingers. It is not due to your forearm muscles. Although many people think the fingers are doing all the work, this is not true. You may already have been instructed to do finger exercises to get them stronger. You are probably never going to have highly-muscled fingers, and even if you do, that still would not give you the ability to play much of what the piano requires. If you are working on building muscles in the fingers, you might expect to have pain in the fingers themselves. Yet I've never encountered anyone who gets pain in the fingers themselves, or in the palm. The pain is almost always felt one level "back" up the arm, so to speak. Thus, over-use of fingers is felt in the forearm.

Another place where pain may be felt is in the wrists. Again, it has nothing to do with your wrists not being strong enough. Most likely you are sitting too low (or slouching as you sit) and letting your arms sink below keyboard level, which strains the wrist (and can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome). You could get pain from sitting too high and having your wrists higher than your hand, but I've never actually seen anyone have this issue. You could also be twisting your wrists and pivoting them back and forth, which also is a strain on them. You may have been taught techniques which employ a wrist twist, but these are not good techniques.

If you have pain in your shoulders, you don't have a muscle definiciency. Most likely you are hunching your shoulders up when you play. Consistently reminding yourself to let the shoulders down will remove the pain.

I am not saying that no muscles are used. Of course they are; muscles must move the bones. However, the muscles of your upper arm are already strong enough from your day-to-day activities to play the piano. The technique that I teach relies much more on the upper arm and less on the hand and fingers. The fingers do transfer the power of the upper arm to the keys themselves, but do not initiate the movements. This concept may not be easy to understand just from reading about it. You need to experience it yourself, and you will probably need a teacher who can guide you in order to change to this type of technique.

Please don't subscribe to the "no pain, no gain" philosophy when it comes to the piano. Having pain is the signal to you that something is wrong and needs to be changed.