Releasing arm weight

Greg_R

My playing tends to get very fingery, especially under stress or fast runs. I've been working on releasing my arm weight more consistently but tend to then droop my wrist. This is particularly noticeable on something like a 4 octave A major scale where the thumb needs to cross under the 4th finger.

Does anyone have exercises they'd like to suggest to get the hands more free? I'm working on polishing Chopin Nocturne 9/2 and want to get the left hand touch under more control.

pianoloverus

I don't follow your post. I think scales should very fingery but you seem to imply otherwise. I also don't what making your hands more free as you mentioned in the second paragraph has to do with what you talk about in the first paragraph. What do you mean by making your hands more under control? Why would you tend to drop your wrist when passing the 4th finger underneath the thumb Since that would make it more difficult to do?

Since it's quite difficult to discuss technique with just words, perhaps posting a video playing an A major scale or the Chopin Nocturne would be helpful?

Greg_R

Here's a video of my form breaking down.

BartK

First of all, I think you're sitting a little too high. Try lowering your bench to have your forearms about level with the top of the keys.

I don't think your problem is releasing arm weight but rather smothly passing the thumb without the up and down motion. The first thing I would do is to practice thumb passing exercises back and forth between 3 and 1 and between 4 and 1 (even between 5 and 1 once you get comfortable) VERY SLOWLY and focus on the smoothness of the movement. Think of it more as a lateral movement than an up and down one. There is a slight up movement but you have to minimize it if you want to play smooth scales at a fast tempo.

Also, minor point but to me it sounds like you're starting on an up beat and the scale is a jumble of notes instead of a clear line of 16ths. Having a strong rhythmic backbone will make your scales sound much smoother.

Greg_R

BartK thanks for your thoughts. I'll experiment with the bench height and work on smoothly passing the thumb.

pianoloverus

I think you should play, practice, and demonstrate scales at a speed where you can do it successfully(in terms of getting the notes right and not stopping and starting again) almost every time. Except for professionals, almost everyone's scales will break down at a certain speed so I'm not sure why posting that makes sense?