I play a bit of piano - I studied for five years with a concert pianist, and I still play at least a few hours a week. Piano teachers always describe proper hand position as holding imaginary round objects (some use oranges; I use tennis balls). This keeps your fingers curled, and directs the force down toward the keys.
Good to hear that you enjoy the piano too, Tom. :D I took piano lessons for a while, but never got much good. I do still play a little though - just enough to add a bit of this or that to a song, and to use a midi keyboard. I hold my fingers in a similar way too, but there doesn't seem to be universal agreement on curling your fingers for piano either. In some ways it seems to be almost the equivalent of the thumb debate for guitar.
Here's a random quote from a jazz piano site:
Many years ago I read an interview with Andre Previn in which he was commenting on differences between playing jazz and classical piano music. He stated that it takes him an hour or two to move between classical technique and jazz technique. His main point was that playing piano jazz required a flat finger technique, whereas in classical playing his fingers remain more curved. If you are playing jazz with a curved hand position this may lead to tension and tight wrists.
That might sound fairly convincing - Previn was very well placed to know what he was talking about - but right below it was a post from somebody who didn't buy the "jazz style" idea! :mrgreen:
Here's a quote from another site:
“Round fingers for Mozart, flat fingers for Chopin,†my piano teacher used to say. To a 10-year-old aspiring Rubinstein, these instructions made sense—at least as they helped me produce the different “atmospheres†(as my teacher put it) of Mozart's mischievous piano sonatas and Chopin's moody nocturnes.
Now that's pretty easy to find support for - just go to Youtube and watch legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz playing Chopin. Plenty of pretty flat finger technique on show there. Then check the difference when he plays something else. And of course if you look through some of the well known exponents of jazz, stride, rock, etc you can see flat fingers, curved fingers and ... well... Jerry Lee Lewis even using his feet too... Whatever it takes.... :wink:
Personally, I'm a welded on devotee of playing piano with curved fingers. It feels "against nature" for me to try and play with flatter fingers. But that's my loss - I can't argue with the results that some extremely talented pianists get with very different hand shapes to mine. :D Interesting comment about timing though. I'll have to bear that in mind when I'm experimenting.
Cheers,
Chris
Well if you use the golf swing analogy as posted earlier it all comes down to where your fingers are when they contact the fretboard.
If you've ever watched golf and the discussions of the different swings, no matter how un-conventional they may be, at the moment of impact which is THEE most important part of the swing, the clubface is ALWAYS square regardless of how they got there.
I would imagine this would be very similar to what is going on while playing, maybe your hand isn't in the conevntional position but at the moment it is needed to fret a note all good players would have it there regardless of how it looked before that.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Fun post, Chris C. :)
Stevie Wonder is another example of a flat finger extraordinare.
My sister's classically trained and the rock 'n' roll guy with classical technique she always points to is Leon Russell. 'He would have got 100 on almost any exam!'. :lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RnjWLVyMps
(Would probably get docked a few marks for the cig)
Don