{"id":361,"date":"2013-06-27T12:30:01","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T19:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/?p=361"},"modified":"2013-07-23T09:03:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T16:03:00","slug":"playing-softly-part-2-of-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/archives\/361","title":{"rendered":"Soft Piano Playing, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More things I&#8217;ve found useful for soft playing.<\/p>\n<p>V. Vertical motion of keys is what creates sound. If you&#8217;re moving too fast to play softly, &#8220;use up&#8221; some of your velocity by changing the finger&#8217;s angle of attack. Toboggan down a sloping hill to the key instead of diving vertically. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>VI. If a passage is intractable, try it in a different octave to see if the problem&#8217;s in the piano and not the pianist.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>VII. If you happen to play a note too softly, hold it for an instant after the other notes release, so it will be heard.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>VIII. Immediately after striking a long note, reduce the stabilizing force to the point where the key almost starts to come up, and you&#8217;ll save energy and reduce tension. This exploits the fact that the force needed to <i>keep<\/i> a key down is far less than what&#8217;s needed to <i>push<\/i> it down. Practicing this feels nifty.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>IX. This video shows the benefit of extending dynamic range downward:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YQ7hB95zj-M?start=23&#038;end=250\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>X. The <i>impression<\/i> of quietness comes either from actually playing softly or from playing with no &#8220;bumps&#8221; in dynamics. If your soft playing is lumpy and bumpy, but smooths out when you play a bit louder, then <i>play<\/i> a bit louder, and you&#8217;ll better convey a sense of quietness! (Oh, you want to play smoothly <i>and<\/i> softer? Good!)<\/p>\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>XI. Alexander Technique is not a piano technique, but a general approach to using the body effectively. In my first Alexander lesson with Los Angeles teacher Pamela Blanc, I was playing a soft passage from Schubert&#8217;s B-flat sonata, with Pamela occasionally just touching my neck or shoulder. After a few bars, I was giggling. She asked why, and I said, &#8220;Because I&#8217;ve tried for years to create a living, breathing pianissimo&mdash;and here it is!&#8221;<\/p>\n<center class=\"jb-trill\"><img src=\"\/trill.svg\" \/><\/center>\n<p><i>A mind for practicing:<\/i> Don&#8217;t you love that feeling of being mentally fresh and sharp at the piano? But even when we&#8217;re sleepy and slow, we can still find our way to beautiful playing by dreaming as we play. If you think this always results in sleepy, slow playing, you have a pleasant surprise coming! <span class=\"jb-end-of-post\"><img class=\"jb-end-of-post\" src=\"\/Mordent.svg\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More things I&#8217;ve found useful for soft playing. V. Vertical motion of keys is what creates sound. If you&#8217;re moving too fast to play softly, &#8220;use up&#8221; some of your velocity by changing the finger&#8217;s angle of attack. Toboggan down a sloping hill to the key instead of diving vertically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":99,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}