Advanced Piano Technique

1. Introduction: Hello, I'm Benedict Lewis Smith, and I'm a pianist and conductor based here in London in the UK. And I wanted to put together a course on advanced piano technique. I think the course is probably most suitable if you're like an intermediate player. You've been playing for a few years, but you want to take your piano technique to the next level, and that's what this course is really about. I'm going to go through some specific exercises, some finger drills to improve the independence of the fingers. We're going to talk a little bit about some scales, some arpeggios, and some general technical exercises. That will continue to improve your playing. So I hope you find this short course useful. I've been teaching now for over ten years. I studied music at the University of Oxford here in the UK, and I continue to run a private studio working with musicians both online and also in person here in London. So I really hope that you find this course useful, and you don't need to have a piano, but a keyboard will be useful. There's no specific music that you require, although you'll find a lot of these techniques apply to different genres of music in different ways. So I hope you find the course useful, and this is piano technique. 2. Five Finger Exercise: So first things first, I've got a five finger drill or warm up that is most appropriate when you sort of first get to the piano and those first couple of things that you play. So, it doesn't actually matter what notes you play. I'd stay on the white keys. And with your five fingers, you're going to place the five fingers down, and then we're going to slowly alternate between the fingers while keeping all the fingers down. So for this instance, I'm going to use the left hand. My little fingers going to be on the notes C. So I'm going to be a C D E F and G in the left hand. I'm going to put the fingers down, and then While keeping 543 down, I'm going to slowly alternate 1-2. Now, it's so important that you keep 543 down, the finger 543. The thumbs are always one just to clarify. It's important you keep those fingers down because this is how we maintain independence. Once you're confident with one and two, then you want to keep 14 and five down and you want to alternate 2-3. Again, then three and four. Then four and five. You probably find four and five the most difficult because that's where we sort of lack the independence of the fingers, but the most important. Now, ways to practice this. If you find that too difficult to start with, try scato very short, so we push all the fingers down. And we try staccato 1-2. A further technique. I find a lot of sort of beginner students. The key that the fingers come a long way away from the keys, and they're really rising up. Try to keep in contact with the keys. I think it's important just to not be too far removed from the surface of the keys. So again, one and two. Try that with five and four. I can't stress enough. As you're doing this, keep the other fingers down because then you're really working the independence of those fingers that you want to work. Eventually you try it very quickly. Aren't you happy with the left hand, try the same with the right hand. So, for in the right hand example, my thumb is going to go on to s. I'll start, Sicaty. Aren't you happy then two and three? The three and four. And then back down. Let's try that a bit quicker. Funny, my D Key is a little bit sticky. You know the expression we have a poor workman blames his tools. I feel I might be doing that here, but it was sticking a little bit. Oh. Anyway, so just a really basic finger drill for when you first get to the piano, it's good if you're trying out a new piano as well, so you have a concert coming up and you want to just gain a bit of confidence. That's a really good starting point just to get used to the kind of pianos action. Cause every piano is slightly different from an upright piano has a certain touch, a grand piano, you know, much more luxurious. I mean, the best really to play a Steinways. But the thing is, if you can play on a piano that's let's say, a little bit older and not quite as forgiving, then you'll be able to find when you take your pieces to bigger concerts and better pianos, the piano just plays itself. If you do have a Steinway at home, I'm very jealous, and that's a wonderful thing to do. This finger trill, very important, doesn't really matter which notes you play. I just had my little finger on C in the left hand and my thumb on C in the right hand. A about the independence of the fingers. Remember, keep all the fingers down apart from the ones that you are alternating between. So I'm down on C D E F G, and I'm just moving F and G. Got to keep those other three fingers down. That's the tricky bit, and a lot of people can just sort of vaguely do it. But no. Another technique for getting it going slow, really, really slow. You don't want to be rushing in and trying to risky ko, the flight to the bumblebees. No, no. Slow it right down so you're giving yourself time to work on the independence of those fingers, excuse me. So slow deliberate practice, trot Staccato. Nice and short. Another possible variation is to try a dotted rhythm, for instance, like this. Also, just have a look at the hand shape, the wrist should ideally be in sort of level and the elbows should be kind of level with the keyboard, maybe slightly above, slightly below. And the fingers should be curved, nicely curved round. We don't want any flat fingers like that. You'll make this excise really, really difficult. A lovely curved hand and just gently sort of placed on the keys, not forced down there. That's the first rhythm drill, which I hope will be helpful for the independence of the fingers. 3. Scales: Next up, we've got everybody's favorite subject, scales. Now, I have a lot of students and they go, Oh, do we have to do scales? I just want to play pieces? I want to play pieces. The thing about scales is, they'll open up new repertoire, new pieces. If you can play scale fluently, efficiently, and professionally, then you'll find that that more complicated repertoire becomes much much easier. So scales are a really, really good warm up. And there's far too many scales to cover everything here. But just some general pointers, I think, on how you practice scales, how you play them. The absolute sacrosanct thing is to stick to one set of fingering, getting the fingers in the right place every time. Because then when you're under that bit of pressure in a concert situation or like a workshop or something, you're going to know that this is how you've always played it and how you've rehearsed it. So get yourself a scale book available from all good bookshops and stick to one set of fingering. That's slightly different for different people. And the arpeggios will discuss in a minute. They throw up different options. But Yeah. So key thing, stick to the finger. Also, practice hands independently. For instance, you know, let's take a C major scale. We start with a left hand little finger on C. The fingers want to remain in contact with the keys. We don't want any jumping away from the keys, keep the fingers curved and in contact with the keys. Try and go for a lovely evenness. I think the key thing about a good scale is that it's kind of even across the entirety of the scale. If anything, a slight crescendo towards the top can just give a bit of shape. One thing I find is that when you're slightly under pressuring, you're playing a scale, you sort of you know jump in and bump that first note. Try to imagine you're joining a train that's already moving, so the train's coming through and you're joining it. So there's already motion there. A da da da da da da da da da da and play the first note. Da da, da, da. Yes, there's no bump at the beginning. No, no. We don't want that. Yeah, ad. As if it was almost coming from nothing, the very starting note. I think the thing people forget about the piano is it's a percussion instrument, as in the hammers inside hit the strings. And whereas on a violinfern, since the bow can move from pretty much nothing over the string. You get a really gentle onset. Again, with singing, you can take the breath and start a note really gently on the piano, there's always going to be that percussive elements. We just need to fight pretty hard. Another danger is that when you get to the thumb, we get that unevenness and jerkiness. That generally happens because people tend to stick the elbow out by this. When the third finger, for instance, comes over the thumb. So be aware of those sort of those dangerous moments within the scale where there can be unevenness of tone. So we practice hand separately. We've we've done our left forgive me, we do our right. I need to get my piano tuned. Forgive me. We moved house recently, so it's a little bit fruity, but we'll sort that out soon. I'm sure. So we've done the left, we've done the right, then we put them together. Again, going for evenness of tone. Now, you might find that the hands are moving at slightly different times. Most people have a dominant hand. I'm actually left handed. I don't know about you, but if you're finding that's happening, slow it right down and strike stick it. Really deliberate. The thing about Staccato playing is there's nowhere to hide. You really commit to a note and you play it. And it's good for checking the ensemble between the hands, the togetherness, because if there's any inconsistency, for instance. That's actually quite difficult to. But we hear it immediately cause when you're stato, it's very it's like shining a giant spotlight on somebody's playing when you play Scato. So so kind of helpful. Try the minors, as well, Melodic minor, for instance. Now, do I propose every morning you play through every single scale? No. It would take you a long time, and you'd never actually learn any pieces. But what can be useful is looking at a work that you're studying, say you're playing, I don't know. The B flat major. Sorry, a little bit sloppy, but never mind. Imagine you're playing that. Well, take the B flat major scale. So tailor the scale work and peggio work to the pieces that you're playing because it sort of gets you in that harmonic frame of mind, to be working in that key area. There's no point of playing sort of random scales with have no purpose. Again, if you're doing it, we have the associated board of the Royal School of Music here in the UK, and people take these exams, and they go, Shall I play my pieces first or do my scales? I always say to students, do the scales first. It gives you a chance to get on the piano, have a warm up, and then you come to your pieces a little bit more relaxed and ready. So if you ever have the option, get the scales out of the way. It makes the fingers feel kind of warm and nice and ready. So yeah, have a look at the repertoire you're working on and then work on the scales accordingly. Again, you can do the arpeggios as well. So B Flat Major. Slightly strange, the B flat major because we start on the second finger in the right hand, one, two, three, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, one, two. And in the left hand, three to start, then the fourth comes over. Slightly unusual scale that in terms of starting on a black key, and often when you're starting on the sharp or flat, you do have that slightly strange fingering. Again, try dotted practice is good for scales. It's quite tricky. You can.it that way. Long, shot long, shot log or you can do shot long. And keep it really, really, crisp. Really rhythmic. There's no point, just going. Like you're in some dodgy jazz bar. You know, no, no. It's got to be crisp. Yeah, x x days goal. So we've got different methods of practice on the scales. We've got Staccato practice to ensure the ensemble between the hands. We've got dotted practice, to make sure that there's rhythmic confidence and rhythmic impulse. But again, with the dotted practice, make sure it's crisp, but the rhythms are crisp. They're not sloppy. They don't become you know, too jazzy. All of that stuff will come later. Yeah. Amazing. So that scales. Again, there's an infinite number of scales. You also another thing is scales in thirds. Strikes horror into most people. Again, really good, though, the proximity of the hands and just getting used to that connection scales in sixth. And all of that. Tricky. Once you've mastered a scale just in octaves, try in six, try in thirds one handed scales. You in thirds to try and get Legato, you can never get perfect legato on a scale in thirds, because there's always got to be that moment where we've only got five fingers. It's difficult. A way to practice the third though is to make sure that one of the parts is Llegato. As long as one of the parts is legato to the ears, the whole thing sounds legato. Yeah, so maybe the upper part. Again, going for a lovely evenness of tone across the range, but that's a little bit on scales. 4. Arpeggios: So we've covered the five finger exercise, and we've looked at scales, the evenness of tone there. So let's look at arpeggios. Apaggios are often the things that are totally forgotten by performers, but actually the things arguably that come up more frequently in pieces. I think of I mean, for goodness sake, the major prelude is a constant arpeggio. Beautiful piece as it is. And to achieve evenness is probably the most difficult thing in patio. The thumb will often drop. Now, there's different schools of thought on how to get that. Excuse me, how to get that even. My belief is you want to just raise the wrist a little bit as you're approaching the moment where the third finger comes over. Like suspension. If you don't raise the wrist, you get this. Cause you've quickly got a jolt, so you're creating space. Again, this depends slightly on the moment in the piece where it comes. But just a general idea. You want to avoid any sudden jerky changes of hand position because that's what will impact on the tone. And we want this to be totally even. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't be able to tell which note it was well. So start slowly. Now, there's different arguments on the fingering. I would recommend 532. Five, three, two, one, three, two, one, three, two, one. Some people use a four, five, 42, one, f two, one. Never quite found that comfortable. Again, it depends on your fingers and the size of the hands and all of that. And younger players might find it slight It's slightly different. Again, Stochato is good here. With Sakata, keep in contact with the keys. I'm always harking on about this to my students, because I see a lot of them going. The trouble with that is you become very inaccurate in your playings. You want to really Keep in contact with the key, all of the energies going directly into the key contained within a small area. Them. I mean, it might look impressive, but actually, it's, it's not good technique on to stay in touch. As if I like to imagine that the key is very, very hot, and you can only touch it very very briefly. So then we put the hands together? Forgive me. Yeah. O pages are difficult and they take work. Don't forget to build them into your practice. So we've talked about the thumb falling, and we've talked about the togetherness. Again, you can dot the rhythm. If you really want to challenge, try one hand scat, one hand agate. And then swap. Now, why I hear you say. Why make things more difficult than they already are? I can hardly play the bloody thing. Fair point. Once you've mastered a skill on the piano, you want to then try and make it difficult again. Because you're constantly striving to further your technique and further your playing. Or in my opinion, that's the most satisfying thing. When you know, when you've got a really difficult piece in front of you and you think, I've got no hope with this. And then a month, two months, a year later, you've conquered it, you played it in a concert. And that that process is so rewarding. Like many things in life, these days, it feels like we want quick quick results on the piano. I want to be able to play Greek piano conczi. By next week. The reality of it is, you know, it's very small, and I don't think people realize the amount of work that goes into it. Professional concert pianists when they learn a panic construct, they learn it so slowly and methodically. And the trouble with today's pace of life where everything is packaged into these, you know, short births. We got to put the effort in, we got to put the work in. I'm sorry to go off on a rant here. And I think if you're still watching at this point, you're probably somebody that understands the technique and the small games, those small wins. 1% a day, being able to play this arpagio more smoothly will benefit you as a player in the long term. So don't be afraid of, you know, sticking with these challenges to try and keep improving your play. So that's arpagios. We can talk a little bit about kind of broken chords. You can try different figurations. Another thing that seems to be invoked now is first inversion arpeggios, as in we missed the tonic note out, start on the third. So, for instance, D flat major. Rather than starting We're starting on F. I think routinely, that's a good thing to practice, cause in pieces, you rarely get a lovely pagio that starts on the tonic. Oh, thank you so much, Mozart or Beethoven or whoever. You know, you give me a lovely pago. Starts on the tonic, ends on the tonic. No, rarely happens there. You get funny figurations, don't you? So, just practice starting on the third, starting on the fifth, if you want to try a second inversion, Apago as well, trying them in their different forms. Again, once you gain comfort in one, perhaps in its root position, try in it first inversion in its second, just to add that little element of challenge and keep your playing progressing. 5. Applied to JS Bach : Now, it's all very well playing these technical exercises, and we could do that till the cows come home, as they say. The thing is, without applying them to pieces, it's almost like, you know, we're in dry dock. Sometimes you got to take the ship. Got to take it out into into the ocean. Do you know what I mean? You can't just keep working on it forever. So, one of the French suites here. This is the Gavott, JS Bach. And let's just have a think about if I was learning this piece for a concert, how I might approach it and how I might use the technical exercises that we've covered to improve my playing and inform my play. So the pieces in E major. So I'd start E major scale. E major Peso. Now, not perfect. You'll hear. So I'd work on those first. I wouldn't even hit the piece I could I crack those. Let's have anther ga. Sit properly. Better, not perfect, better. Be tough on yourself. You know, when you're doing these exercises, they need to be flawless. So E major, we've got four sharps, F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, and D sharp. So I played the scale, play the arpeggio. Try them in Dota rhythms. Sorry. Ah. Oh, my goodness. It's good to uncover imperfections in your playing cause there's always something to work on. So I've covered that. I'd then tried just the right hand alone. Oh. Now, you hear a lot of that. There's sixths, there's chords in the right hand. And a lot of, you know, variety of articulation. Most of it probably editorial. Bach wouldn't have specified all these moments, Decato and Legato. Often, it was just sort of left to the p. So try the right hand on the left hand. Hands together. So, you see one of the features here is the quick twiddles. And they're easy to miss. So I take that figure out. I trusts to cut it. Sorry. To get the independence. Again, this connects really well back to the first excise. We did the five finger thing. This is where 90% of your money when when you're paid to be a piano player. Most of your money is in the right hand, fifth finger. That's where the melody is. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely, the strength of the fifth finger is so imperative in what we do here. And embark, especially tucking in those little figures. So, I take out those kind of challenging moments, and then I'll be practicing them using those exercises that we've looked at. Remember, E major. Try that key. Also, perhaps in the middle, we move into the minor a little bit. A little for into F sharp minor. To try those keys as well, F sharp minor. Goodness me. F sharp minor, harmonic, melodic, all of those. Goodness, me, they're a bit of a challenge. I think that's striked fear in most people, when you hear, right? We're going to try the F sharp minor. It shouldn't because a scale is just a scale, isn't it? It's a combination of tones and sem tones, but there's something about certain keys. They're fearful. We've got to get over it, really. It's just another key. It's just another exercise. Again, slow it down. O. Don't let the psychological complexity of it sort of throw your play. I do feel a lot of performing is confidence based, whether you'd be a singer or a guitar player or a pianist, whatever. You've got to put the work in, yes, but then when you actually come to the performance element, you have that confident that you've done all the work and you've calm and collected. You know the expression like a duck, calm on the surface of the water, but addling like heck underneath, and it's that kind of that kind of feeling to it. So we've covered the scales, we've covered the arpeggios. We've looked at a couple of the technical moments. Metronomes. We haven't spoken about metronomes, and now is a good point. Metronoms are great. A lot of people don't lie them. You say, The metronomes, getting out of time. The metronome does not lie. The metronome. Unless it's broken. You can get a fine app now minus called Pro Metronome. I'm not sponsored by them. Imagine if they were sponsored by P Metronome. That will be a great, little side hustle. Anyway, So get gas of a metronome and try at different tempos. Don't become wedded to playing a piece at one speed. If you end up stuck at Crochit, 80 for the rest of your life, well, you know, it's not good. So go slow go medium go fast.G slow, go medium go fast, and make a note of where you're playing. So Sam Crotchit, 100. Oh. I have no idea if that's 100. I've lost my metronome. Only joking. But yeah, metronome practice is really good. Staccato with the metronome, dotted with the metronome, try at different speeds, again, don't you know, Once it becomes too familiar, too easy, then start pushing. It's like, you know, building muscles. You've got to keep the muscles sort of as you can tell, I don't have the fitness lingo, but you've got to keep pushing pushing to develop the muscles and, you know, all of that. So bark, beautiful bit of bark. In your practice, try learning different genres of pieces. If you're just playing for fun, have a bit of bach, have something more modern, Chopin, Rakamaninov, whatever, and then have something old. I think it's good to have some baroque music with some romantic music. If you just play the same stuff Brahms or you know, Beethoven, you become that kind of player, but just try and challenge yourself with different areas of music. The other trap to fall into or not fall into is the pedal, the sustained pedal, especially. People can push that down, covers a multitude of sins. I shall demonstrate. Clouds over everything, Clouds your judgment, so keep the foot off the pedal when you're practicing, especially Bach. Eventually, you know, use it. But for now, just keep it pure and get it right. 6. Miscellaneous: So this has been an immense amount of fun, and we've covered a lot, five finger exercises, scales, arpeggios, how to practice them, a little look at some bach and how these things are relevant. And as we approach lunchtime, No really, but as you know, the days hearken on, I wanted to do a little section miscellaneous. And this is the things that maybe players forget just to give you the edge. Chromatic scales very important from the Greek chromos color. As in on the page when you see a chromatic scale. Very colorful shots flat shots flat shots. Good one to practice. Keep in contact with the keys. Keep in contact with the keys, don't be coming away. Chromatic Contrary motion scales, chromatic or other Really, really good practice. There's something about that mirror image that's very satisfying with the metronome to ensure that there's an evenness of tone. Often, when the thumbs go down. We get that jerk. So just being really, really careful with that as that happens. So we've got chromatic. We've got contrary motion. You can do a contrary motion major. You see that, my three, four, five, are just starting bunched together a bit. We get this sort of kind of kind of lacking in rhythm and lacking in clarity at the end. So again, take it back to Stocat. Stacata encourages a strength in the fingers that when you play Legata, you can sort of bypass, and we need that strength in the fingers. Who was it that invented the machine? It was either Greg or Brahms, I think. They invented a machine anyway for the to exercise their hands. Ended up damaging them. So do be careful. And if it feels uncomfortable, you feel tension, especially in the wrists. You know, stop, stop, shake the arms out. With practice, the best strategy, in my opinion, is little and often, as well. If you're trying to practice for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours, just to transmas something. You can't mentally focus, let alone physically keep up with it. So try little bursts of practice. That's often the best the best sort of strategy there. But if you feel pain or tension in the arms, you know, stop, shake them out, have a break, have a kit cat, and start again. So, Yeah, so miscellaneous, so we've got chromatic, we've got contra emotion think you know, a lot of the things I always come back to other the strength in the rhythm through metronome practice, through staccato practice, through dotted rhythms. The dotted rhythms allows you time at certain moments, but takes time away from other moments. So it's sort of like it's like going through the scale with a fine tooth comb to check whether you've got strength in the fingers to be able to deliver the ultimate thing. I think set yourself goal as well. There's no good getting the scale book and going right. I'm going to play 100 different scales today. It's just totally pointless. L, on one day, perhaps, say, Today, I'm doing major scales. Whatever. You don't need to be that quick, but just get through all your major scales. As a circle of fifths, maybe as you have C major. G major. G major. A major. E major. B major. F sharp Major. C sharp Major. And forever, forever going on. Circle of fifth, quite a nice way to practice. I never thought about that. So Circle of fifth, where you go C G, D, A, E, B, F Shop, C shop, G shop. Like, orchestra tuning. Yeah, that's a fairly nice way. And then you could do the same with the flat keys the next day. E flat, B flat, F. Whatever. So yeah, finding those little different strategies and ways to practice. But short bursts. If you're experiencing the hands and wrists feeling uncomfortable, you find a lot of players getting that repetitive strain injury in conservatis. So just yet, not overdoing it. Little short bursts can be the most effective way. 7. Conclusion: So, this has been great fun, and I hope that you found it useful. We've talked about finger exercises, independence of the fingers, through scales, through arpeggios. We've applied that to a little bit of bach. We've looked at the sort of miscellaneous section, chromatic scales, metronome practice, dacato practice. The key thing is to keep your technical exercises balanced with the repertoire. Some people argue you learn enough technique going through pieces, and I saw is, but in my opinion, it's like, you know, sailing to sea without having sort of You know, boats, they do a sea trial first. They go out for a couple of days, then they come back, work on everything that's not quite worked, and then they go on their long voyage. I think we do need to do that. We need to do that technical work in dry dock just to ensure that what we're doing is sort of working for the particular piece.