Could you do a video not on musicality and technique but improving the physical aspects of playing music? Like coordination, endurance, stamina, mulitasking, etc. Also how do you play octave scales when handspan dont even reach an octave? (Its kinda preventing me in going further RCM wise)
I share your frustration on the octave thing! I can only play the octave on the edge of the keys with my hands stretched to the fullest. Jumping octaves is just impossible without hitting the neighboring keys. If you haven’t heard of the slim keyboards please check out www.paskpiano.org It’s the website of an organization of mostly small handed pianists advocating for alternative sized keyboards. For people like us who have difficulty playing an octave on the “standard” keyboard that has 6.5 inch on octave, there is a slimmer keyboard where an octave is only 5.5 inches. There are videos of personal stories of pianists with the 5.5 keyboard you can check out! paskpiano.org/personal-stories-from-pianists/
I know it's been like 2 years, and perhaps you can reach an octave now, but generally judge/adjudicators will understand you not being able to reach an octave, so you can just stick to playing the bottom note. (or top whichever sounds better.
I needed this video SO badly - my 4th finger especially RH goes mushy and not responsive enough to do my scales cleanly much above MM 4 notes=80. I'm am definitely incorporating these - thank you so much Allysia!
Merci beaucoup for this. I sent this to my daughters who have more musical talent than I do. BTW they are fully supportive that I am starting the piano after my retirement. One played the harp for 4 years and the other is playing ukulele. They love your exercises.
I have just practiced these exercises. I d like to tell you that the second one, Biehl one, is just for me. At first, it was impossible to keep the fourth finger pressed on the key. I had to keep it on the key with my right hand fingers. Several minutes latter, I could manage it playing very slowly. That's really what I need....! THANKS AGAIN. I love you...❤️
Hi Allysia. You must have read my mind...! My level is ,I guess ,lower intermediate. I have problem with my fourth finger. And I am not satisfied with Neither Hanon nor Czerny concerning this fourth finger. Thanks a lot... Really, you are a very good teacher....
Do you also have exercises for the 5th finger (pinky finger)? Because I hate it that my pinky finger in the left hand is always flying. Sometimes, I wanted to add weights in my pinky finger to keep it close to the keys.
As someone else suggested, it is most likely due to tension in your hand. Make sure (and I mean SURE) that your hands are as relaxed as possible. Play the easiest pieces you have played and try to focus your attention on the tension in your hands. To have a good idea of what tension-less hands should feel like, breathe in and out very slowly through your nose and relax every muscle in your body (you could lie down). This should force your hands to be relaxed too. Now, be conscious of this feeling in your hands. Now go back at the piano and play whatever your were playing, but focus on your hand, wrist and forearm tension. Whenever the feeling is different from the one you experienced when relaxing every muscle of your body while lying down, stop. Relax your muscles again and resume playing. If your muscles re-tension, stop again and relax them again. Do that as much as you can, at least to the point where you can play a short piece without tension. Also, you can try to be more self-conscious anywhere (not just at the piano). For example, since I've been playing the piano, I realized that I was contracting muscles that I didn't need contracted. Whenever I was simply walking around or handwriting, I noticed useless tension in my leg and back muscles as well as my forearm muscles. I focused on having these very muscles as relaxed as possible and it (mostly) fixed my tension problems :)
I'm looking for an exercise where I can practice tetrads. My fingers already are strong. I want to get my hands used to all the different positions. I seem to be having problems finding any exercises for this.
I've planted myself on the simple 5 note scale, and am figuring out what the hardest challenge of that is (where #4 works worst). Instead of splaying my hand at all, the hardest thing is to keep all fingertips on their key while doing the 5 note scale. I try to isolate the #4 finger, making it do all the work it is supposed to do, without messing up the fingers on either side of #4. Is this a good way to work at getting control on #4?
I have been told that the 4th and 5th fingers are actually attached via the same ligaments/tendons, making it harder to have finger independence in those two fingers. Have you heard this before?
That is really very beneficial Allysia.. Thanks a lot. I searched and found the rest of Biehl 30 in archives. They are very good for the finger strength.
Hi! This is so unrelated but I have no idea where to post this.. So I'm preparing for Grade 8 Trinity and the goal is to play at the end of the year. One of the pieces I chose is Allegro, First Mov from Sonata in B flat K 570 Mozart. My question is this... How do I get the speed and accuracy to play the piece at that tempo? Scales?? Or playing small parts over and over until muscle memory takes over?? Any help would be much appreciated!! Regards from South Africa🙃
Guys, be very careful with this "watching TV" thing. I did it once with a silent piano, which means that I was pressing the keys and no sounds came out. So first, I didn't pay much attention to how I was playing because of watching TV, and second I wasn't aware of how "loud" or hard I was playing, since there weren't any sounds coming out of the keyboard. That day I hurt my arm, so be careful, if you do this, at least leave the sound on, even if it's annoying and doesn't let you hear the TV properly.
love what you doing ... keep on girl doing your valuable work for the community 🌍
The clap at the first second was really dramatic. I loved it.
Could you do a video not on musicality and technique but improving the physical aspects of playing music? Like coordination, endurance, stamina, mulitasking, etc. Also how do you play octave scales when handspan dont even reach an octave? (Its kinda preventing me in going further RCM wise)
I share your frustration on the octave thing! I can only play the octave on the edge of the keys with my hands stretched to the fullest. Jumping octaves is just impossible without hitting the neighboring keys. If you haven’t heard of the slim keyboards please check out
www.paskpiano.org It’s the website of an organization of mostly small handed pianists advocating for alternative sized keyboards. For people like us who have difficulty playing an octave on the “standard” keyboard that has 6.5 inch on octave, there is a slimmer keyboard where an octave is only 5.5 inches. There are videos of personal stories of pianists with the 5.5 keyboard you can check out!
paskpiano.org/personal-stories-from-pianists/
I usually play animenz unravel for like an hour non stop that works for stamina
I can play octaves no biggie 😝😝
I know it's been like 2 years, and perhaps you can reach an octave now, but generally judge/adjudicators will understand you not being able to reach an octave, so you can just stick to playing the bottom note. (or top whichever sounds better.
are you a midget
For more advanced students I reccomend Dohnanyi exercises. They really make your fingers strong and agile like a Lion King 😎🦁💪🎹
Thank you so much! This was REALLY helpful. This is exactly what I needed.
I needed this video SO badly - my 4th finger especially RH goes mushy and not responsive enough to do my scales cleanly much above MM 4 notes=80. I'm am definitely incorporating these - thank you so much Allysia!
Merci beaucoup for this. I sent this to my daughters who have more musical talent than I do. BTW they are fully supportive that I am starting the piano after my retirement.
One played the harp for 4 years and the other is playing ukulele. They love your exercises.
I have just practiced these exercises. I d like to tell you that the second one, Biehl one, is just for me. At first, it was impossible to keep the fourth finger pressed on the key. I had to keep it on the key with my right hand fingers. Several minutes latter, I could manage it playing very slowly. That's really what I need....! THANKS AGAIN. I love you...❤️
Wow, this is excellent! Thank you!
These things need time just play and have fun and fingers become strong and independent in time
Hi Allysia. You must have read my mind...! My level is ,I guess ,lower intermediate. I have problem with my fourth finger. And I am not satisfied with Neither Hanon nor Czerny concerning this fourth finger. Thanks a lot... Really, you are a very good teacher....
Do you also have exercises for the 5th finger (pinky finger)? Because I hate it that my pinky finger in the left hand is always flying. Sometimes, I wanted to add weights in my pinky finger to keep it close to the keys.
Personally, my pinky flies when there's tension in my hand, not because it wants to
As someone else suggested, it is most likely due to tension in your hand. Make sure (and I mean SURE) that your hands are as relaxed as possible. Play the easiest pieces you have played and try to focus your attention on the tension in your hands.
To have a good idea of what tension-less hands should feel like, breathe in and out very slowly through your nose and relax every muscle in your body (you could lie down). This should force your hands to be relaxed too. Now, be conscious of this feeling in your hands.
Now go back at the piano and play whatever your were playing, but focus on your hand, wrist and forearm tension. Whenever the feeling is different from the one you experienced when relaxing every muscle of your body while lying down, stop. Relax your muscles again and resume playing. If your muscles re-tension, stop again and relax them again. Do that as much as you can, at least to the point where you can play a short piece without tension.
Also, you can try to be more self-conscious anywhere (not just at the piano). For example, since I've been playing the piano, I realized that I was contracting muscles that I didn't need contracted. Whenever I was simply walking around or handwriting, I noticed useless tension in my leg and back muscles as well as my forearm muscles. I focused on having these very muscles as relaxed as possible and it (mostly) fixed my tension problems :)
Great video!
Alicia, your four finger exercise (2-3-4-5) reminded me of the riff from the Prokofiev 3 first movement. See Rick beato with Nahre Sol.
Love these little exercises. Thanks so much for sharing Allysia. 🤗
I'm looking for an exercise where I can practice tetrads. My fingers already are strong. I want to get my hands used to all the different positions. I seem to be having problems finding any exercises for this.
I really enjoyed the video but am unable to find the pdf. Please can you tell me how to access it.
same here
i desperately need this plz
What do you think about synthesia?
Could you do more videos about ear training?
Do a video for the fifth finger too please.
I've planted myself on the simple 5 note scale, and am figuring out what the hardest challenge of that is (where #4 works worst). Instead of splaying my hand at all, the hardest thing is to keep all fingertips on their key while doing the 5 note scale. I try to isolate the #4 finger, making it do all the work it is supposed to do, without messing up the fingers on either side of #4. Is this a good way to work at getting control on #4?
Make sure you do these exercises on different octaves! Don’t just train at center, my flexor muscle grew more sore towards the ends of the keyboard.
How long should one do the exercises for, each day?
I have been told that the 4th and 5th fingers are actually attached via the same ligaments/tendons, making it harder to have finger independence in those two fingers. Have you heard this before?
The 4 finger exercises sounds like the opening to Bach's Invention number 1 in C.
One of the most effective way of training fourth finger to me is repeatedly playing river flows in you
That is really very beneficial Allysia.. Thanks a lot. I searched and found the rest of Biehl 30 in archives. They are very good for the finger strength.
Just play Goldberg Variation 26 and you are good :)
I can't lift my 5 finger left hand. It bothers me and it's awkward to play some pieces... Any suggestions, mates?
Is amputation out of the question?
I have LOESCHHORN fixed hand excercises, they are HARD.
They are progressive. I don't know if you know it
Even for experienced pianists these exercises are hard
Hi!
This is so unrelated but I have no idea where to post this..
So I'm preparing for Grade 8 Trinity and the goal is to play at the end of the year. One of the pieces I chose is Allegro, First Mov from Sonata in B flat K 570 Mozart.
My question is this...
How do I get the speed and accuracy to play the piece at that tempo?
Scales?? Or playing small parts over and over until muscle memory takes over??
Any help would be much appreciated!!
Regards from South Africa🙃
Try playing in different 16tb note rhythms as well as slow practice and gradually speed up
Allysia, bonito nombre ... si tuviera una hija podria llamarle asi, es un lindo nombre
Guys, be very careful with this "watching TV" thing. I did it once with a silent piano, which means that I was pressing the keys and no sounds came out. So first, I didn't pay much attention to how I was playing because of watching TV, and second I wasn't aware of how "loud" or hard I was playing, since there weren't any sounds coming out of the keyboard. That day I hurt my arm, so be careful, if you do this, at least leave the sound on, even if it's annoying and doesn't let you hear the TV properly.