Practice Tips - Piano Technique Tutorial #04
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- "Thinking out loud" to camera about the 2 single short lessons I found the most helpful in art and music. The piano practice tip demonstrated in this video was passed to me by a well known concert pianist. This practice tip works on all 10 fingers equally when practicing. Sometimes students practice long hours but become frustrated their playing is still uneven. This is often because their practice is uneven. This video addresses this common issue and offers a simple, and I hope effective, solution.
To see Yundi Li in close-up use this technique: • （fixed-camera postion）...
facebook: / paulbartonpiano
(I prefer to be discreet about the pianist's identity mentioned in this video. I hope you understand. The thoughts expressed in this video are personal and the practice tips suggestions only)
Some things I learned for anyone learning this technique who is struggling:
I attempted this technique for a few months back and it made my hands/forearms very tired. The problem was that I was basically driving my finger into the keybed in a stressful, isolatory way. I was following the advice to press "through" the keybed a bit too literally.
The solution I arrived at recently, after about a a month of self-studying the Taubman approach, is that you do not want to press deliberately into the keybed using only the action of the finger, but rather you want to totally relax your hands and fingers (obviously there is a little bit of muscle activity but surprisingly minimal) and you want to position your arm weight over the finger so the center of balance is over the one finger. If you relax your arm, its weight will naturally bring the finger "through the keybed". You can then make small rotations with the forearm to transfer this arm weight swiftly and gracefully from finger to finger so that your fingers themselves don't need to work very hard. This I believe is how Paul is able to play with such clean releases from note to note, the center of balance is shifting so the previous note ends immediately before the next one begins. And it's also I believe why his fingers usually remain in contact with the keys, gravity keeps them there.
Obviously there is probably a lot more going on than what I just described, but the gist is to use your arm weight and don't isolate the fingers when trying this method.
I was one of those students who never concerned themselves with practicing finger exerces when learning and I am now feeling the effects of malnourished fingers. So these tips are incredibly helpful for strengthening my accuracy and speed. Thank you!
Every time I watch a Paul Barton video, I learn more. You have really improved my playing.
So you're both a painter and musician? ... Art Reloaded !!!
As a person who has never really touched a piano, i'd really love to find a place to start. These videos are great =) I really appreciate it
This works really well ! I have been trying it for a few days and am already getting results ! Many thanks !
Thanks for the great lesson Paul! This fits in with what I've been learning recently, that practising slowly and deliberately, transferring arm weight to each key being played leads to better results.
Dear Paul, thank you so much for this tip together with so many others ! Just great !!!
Please do more technique videos!
I love your library.
I like your style paul
I'm not engish (french), and for me it's perfect Paul !
Great advice! I haven't tried it yet but I know it's good.
Every time I watch your videos I always wonder how you get your fingers to move so smoothly, I am slowly getting there. The tutorials help alot thanks. If I could also make a request for one of your next videos maybe Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 by Liszt my favourite piece by far i'm just starting to learn and it will be great to see how you play so I can learn of you, Thanks your awesome
Very good tip. I'm gonna follow it..
This technique reminds me a great deal of what Cecile Genhart used to teach at the Eastman School of Music. She called her method the "thumbtack" touch, replicating the action of pressing a thumbtack into a bulletin board.
Karlakor- was her idea the same to press the keys all the way down to the key bed like that? Rub the key with the pad of the fingertip like that?
Amazing video! Very useful, thank you so much 😊🙏 🙏🙏! Does this method of "pressing down on the keys and rubbing them as you release" stay the same irrespective of how fast or how heavily/lightly one is playing? Thank you once again!
Clear, precise and interesting. I'll try it.
wow thanks a lot for these short videos!!!
Paul, you are a God.
Great advice! And I agree!
Have you ever thought about doing a tutorial on sight-reading? Thank you for all of your great videos.
Maravilhoso ! Sugiro que os vídeos tenham opções de legendas.
Very good
Paul is a damn inspiration
Amazing.
thank you very much.
Real artist.
hello Paul
thanks for your "nec plus ultra" videos !!
I wait for a long time, as promise, tips on prélude 3 opus 28 and, generally, on how to play repetitive quick patterns (as in this prelude en G) without tension ??
one more time, thanks !
christian from France.
FACINATING STUFF!
Thanks Paul but can you help by giving some advice to counter-act the newly developing forarm/wrist tension that pressing down into the bed of the keyboard is having??
Thanks ever so much!
I wonder what the dotted lines on the cube mean! Probably, he meant that without these we see a hexagon and not a cube. So, one has to find a way to make the portrait look 3D and not flat. I wonder what you have to say about this Paul. Am I on the right track?
informative, thank you!
Hi Paul, I love your channel... but maybe here I miss the point. the tip is to press the key ??
It is about how you press the keys. I think it's supposed to teach you how to move/use body parts like fingers, wrist, arms to improve sound quality and make sure you don't hurt yourself by practicing (physically) the wrong way.
Thank you!
Hi!, I've learned many songs which are way beyond my level a half year ago, now I can play pieces of the same level but i still make many mistakes playing the pieces that i've learned a half year ago. Do you have any tips to correct those mistakes?
james xia I also have the habit of learning which are above my level.The same thing happens with me.I make mistakes too.But it helps me in becoming better.You will eventually see improvement in those pieces if you keep practicing them.
PaulBarton İts so good name for a pianist ^^
Sometimes sounds like he speaks backwards, if you understand what i mean
Stop and go speech.
Back in ... phhh ... many years ago ... // I love that story. However pressing the fingerprints deep down on the keys sounds odd to me. I think you had a non-verbal sentiment of what this pianist meant about how to move about the keyboard.
My personal view is that I improved my hand movements immensely when I began to arrange my violin-etudes for piano and exaggerated the phrasing very much, (I felt soft or supple in my wrist and fingers) and I had to jump a lot, not big leaps as "Campanella", but small rational movements when the fingering demanded.
not sure i got it right. when you say rub key to release, it's like slide? (your fingers seems to slide on the key). rub (pressure with movement).. ok i got it. i'll try this :)
ممتاز جدا معلومات رائعة
Thanks laul
how do you get rid of tendonitis if you play piano??? (I hope Paul Barton SEES THis)
Acupuncture helps, from what I hear. Aside from that, you can just rest the fingers that are stressed out and apply ice to them. So long as it isn't serious, your fingers will go back to normal soon enough. Otherwise, I'd just ask your doctor about it.
Rest the hand for 1 month or more to allow complete healing. If the tendonitis is in one hand only, you can continue to practice with the other hand alone. Apply heat before practicing, ice after.
For tendinites, ask for Fruit bromelain in your pharmacy (this isn't a medicament, but a very curative enzyme ).
Thanks :)
subtitles or traduccion please
Monsieur Barton bonjour ! juste une petite remarque gentille : un grand regret que vos explications qui doivent être si intéressantes, mais les sous-titres non disponibles en français ! je regrette amèrement, mon anglais est assez lointain !!!! mais cela ne fait rien je vous écoute tout de même. Merci
How far away was the mic? Greenland?
1980
I cannot understand the way you word your explanations. Good luck...
Paul ,
can you translate in french please
Perhaps you - really - need to stop - talking - like this... Otherwise, I love your videos! =)
What if he can't help it? :o
Obviously he can't help it. But he can certainly improve it...
Sounds like a more serious studder that he has mastered to these pauses. Its kind of beautiful that he struggles to speak but can play the piano with such power and flow
salut Paul c'est marvin de boubers sur canche j'espér que tu te souvient de moi?? =)
sa me fais plaisir de te voire méme si c'est par youtube =)
hey Marvin! I just noticed your comment today - 3 years after you made it. So sorry! If you want you can Email me at paulbartonpiano@gmailcom we would love to know about your news. Khwan says a big hello too!