Piano Basics Part 1

In today's article I want to go over how to get started at the piano. I already covered how to determine the correct seat height which is a crucial first step in a complete piano technique. Now we can actually start playing notes. The video lesson is about dropping into the keys.  This is the first finger/hand/arm motion you need to master in order to start developing a complete technique.  The key take aways are:

• Make sure you finger hand and arm drop freely into the key with nothing impeding the motion. You can practice this motion by dropping your arm in your lap.
• When you land on the keys check your wrist? Is it flat to your hand arm and fingers?
• Do you feel like the weight of your arm in balanced over your fingertips. The finger should feel solid on the bottom of the key.
• Knuckles - is your hand collapsed and floppy or is there a pronounced knuckle at each join in your fingers. 

A lot of these things take time to develop and feel. It helps if you can be in person with me so I can check your hands and make sure the motions are correct but hopefully this video helps.

Left Hand Voicing Technique

This video focuses on some technique aspects of playing left hand rootless voicings smoothly and comfortably. The 3 key take aways for playing left hand voicings:

• Don't curl your middle fingers. They can play very far inside the black key area.
• Measure the ideal key spot by determining if your thumb needs to play on a black key. Generally speaking a lot of left hand voicings can be played inside the black key area.
• Make sure the arm motion feels like a down. There should be no feeling of pulling up.