Soft staccato and … piano action?

iternabe

I thought I’d breeze through the “F Major Scale” page in my method book. Well, I’ve been stuck on it for over a week now. At the end of the page, it says play the scale hand separate, one octave, one note per beat, at 88, 122, 144 bpm, legato, then staccato, in forte, and then in piano. It’s the staccato in piano part that I am having a real hard time achieving evenness and control.

I’ve been trying all kinds of things: play close to the keys, finger bounce, wrist bounce, finger scratch. It’s so hard to not get a ghost note, or not get into mp occasionally.

I am also beginning to wonder if the action in my digital piano is playing any role here. I have a FP-30X with PHA-4 action. I hope the answer is no, and it’s just me. With practice, I can feel some improvement happening, but no light at the end of the tunnel, yet.

candela

I have the same piano. I do find it a bit heavy and sluggish at times, like trills, but we work with what we have.
What if you tried to come up with different mental images like tapping gently on egg shells without breaking them or trying to avoid getting burned on a hot surface or whatever? Play around and see if something produces the desired sound. It often works for me when I try to broaden how I interact with the instrument.

candela

In Molly Gebrian terms I believe she might say to have more of an external focus and not be so wrapped up in the internal body motions or trying to micromanage each muscle.

BartK

Staccato + piano is the most difficult combination.

Start with "portato" (also called "portamento"), where you play detached but hold down the note for the full length instead of playing it very short. Make sure you feel good support of the full arm weight while also playing softly. It's only once you can consistently get an even tone with this touch that you should speed up and gradually shorten the note length.

keystring

BartK Staccato + piano is the most difficult combination.

I'm wondering about the instructions themselves. Are they realistic and well thought through?

iternabe

This is the page. It’s the “Metronome Practice” at the bottom. It did not specifically say play at those speed AND at different dynamics, though. So maybe I was trying something that was not intended at this stage?

I do appreciate all the help and tips from you all. It’s good to realize the difficulty and the need to work on this some time in the future.

Pallas

iternabe I see two separate exercise, one on dynamics, and a different one on tempo and articulation. I think these things are easier to study in direct comparison, like running scales crescendo on the ascending and diminuendo on descending than playing the whole scale piano, then the whole scale again forte. You can do legato on the ascending and staccato on the descending on the second exercise, to get a nice sense of direct comparison in the articulation.

twocats

Your piano could definitely be a limitation for soft staccato!