Let's talk about technical exercises
Maybe you’ve heard whispers of these maybe you haven’t.
What are the technical exercises?
Well they fall into different categories there are mechanical technical exercises like Hanon there are more technique-based exercises like Brahms 51 exercises, Liszt exercises, Czerny technical exercises Geoffrey tankards exercises even down to a dozen a day for beginners.
So, what do they do and why is there such a divide about them?
To put it bluntly technical exercises without the guidance of a teacher to hear how you're progressing every week to spot errors as they occur can be of benefit. Without a teacher to guide you technical exercises can lead to bad technique as it is very difficult to spot your errors, unless you record and critically listen to each practice.
A teacher can guide you towards what technical exercises you specifically need at this point in time there's no point in doing technical exercises on tremolos if you don't have your trill down.
There are many technical exercises and each one has a specific purpose.
This is why you have the argument that you should just use the music repertoire that you are learning as your technical exercise. If it is too much of a leap, look for a piece with the same techniques in a lower grade, working on that in order to build up to the technique that you need in your current piece that you want to learn. The more music you play, red and are exposed to the better a musician you will be.
I think people feel that technical exercises are shortcut if they can do them enough, then the door will be unlocked to all this technique. You could do the exact same with scales and arpeggios as with technical exercises in Hanon and Czerny for example. Don’t ever feel like you have to do technical exercises unless your teacher has given you or you have been given a guided through some in your past with a teacher.
However, I am here to help!
I understand that not everybody can access a piano teacher, I am currently giving online lessons and have dedicated online times so email on my contact page if you would like a lesson.
For those of you still curious and wish to pursue technical exercises on their own, here is my guide:
All technical exercises are just that technical exercises they have no musicality in them they cannot teach you how to be a musician they cannot teach you how to interpret the music all they can teach you is how to be more comfortable controlling your fingers in various situations. However, they do have their place as once you learn the pattern of a technical exercise it is a small chunk that you can repeat this allows focus on technique and touch. Technical exercises usually focus on just that one technical move repeating it over and over.
So, for example you have Scales, & Arpeggios, Hanon, Czerny, Geoffrey Tankard, a dozen a day or anything else that is a technical exercise currently in front of you.
How should you be using this technical exercise and how should you be implementing it in your music?
That it should be your first thought.
You are trying to get something specific from this exercise in the case of scales besides the scales being smooth and even there is some other techniques you want to achieve, like soft legato, or bouncy light stacatto. Have that in mind, do not just play an exercise automatically you need to be paying attention.
Now with what you want to achieve clear in your mind; begin the exercise.
Start it very, very, very slow. As slow as you would if you were doing Tai chi and control each finger, slowly complete the exercise paying close attention to each finger and how it is behaving.
Note fingers where your notes values are shorter than intended, your finger comes down quicker than you wanted it too, or the note is not an even tone and quality to the note before it, notes clumping together, accents on turns or thumbs.
This will show you your weak fingers for some people it will be all your fingers for most it will be the 4th and 5th. Do not lose hope, you will improve quickly now you have drawn your attention to it.
You need to keep the exercise this slow until every note is comfortable and even and there is no tension in your hand this could take weeks but it is much better to start off slow and keep it slow until there is no tension before speeding up. You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great.
If you speed up before it is completely even all that will happen is your hand will compensate for your weaker fingers and this weakness will rear its ugly head at some point or repetitive strain injury might. Your body is wonderful at compensation but it doesn't need to compensate if you take it slow and do the work on the 4th and 5th fingers at the very beginning. When you speed up the exercise, scale or arpeggio process will be much easier.
You do not need to go out and buy a book of technical exercises if you have scales and arpeggios. Technical exercises are usually in one key C major, these very quickly lose any benefit because we don't just play in C major.
We need scales and arpeggios and we need to learn them so that our fingers will then know exactly where to go and what's the most comfortable position to play in any key. Anyone who accompanies singers would be able to tell you that there is very common keys that you usually wouldn't be playing in say a piece of classical solo piano repertoire that you would play in if there is a singer simply because of the range of a voice.
So as soon as you've learned a technical exercise In C major slowly and are comfortable with it. Move it to another key and practice in that key at the slow pace only when everything is even should you attempt to speed up.
For scales and arpeggios, they're already in different keys you don't really need to do anything different however what you can do is a few of these simple tricks:
Scales major or minor similar motion or country motion
1. Play your scales third part
2. Play only the right hand or the left hand on its own very slowly, pay attention to the tone you are creating, if the tone or rhythm is at all uneven you need to slow it down further. Hands separately and then together. Do this for medium piano level dynamic.
3. When you have it at a normal piano dynamic and you're comfortable, make it as soft as you can, as legato as you can. Go slow again soft soft soft soft soft play the scale left hand and right hand separate, you can keep working on it slowly until it is as soft as you can make it and then put it hands together. Then try to speed up without increasing the volume.
4. Play your scale with the right hand at 70% volume on the left hand 30% volume and then switch to the right hand 30% volume on the left hand at 70% volume
5. Play your scales and ghost the left-hand, play on the right hand, swap over. Ghosting - meaning you press the keys, but you don't make a sound you press them so lightly, the hammer never strikes.
6. Play your scale staccato but do not try to speed this up, keep it less than half the speed you would play legato. Engage your wrists and fingers in the staccato for a more consistent result.
Arpeggios
7. Hands separate and hands together 3rd part 6 depart
8. super slow and staccato and soft – loud
9. Slow legato soft – loud
10. Play just the turns of the arpeggio’s hands separate, then hands together.
11. Focus on eliminating all accents on arpeggios before you speed up
All the above suggestions can also be done with technical exercise however do change them from the key of C major.
There are technical exercises in various books that help with the techniques that are required above grade 6. These would be long trills, tremolos, double octaves, double thirds to name but a few. For example, a lot of Debussy's work only comes in at around grade 7 or 8 level, Chopin around the same.
The best way two really learn these advanced skills or techniques would be to learn them through repertoire, after you have finished your grade 6 or 8.
I do understand that people are keen to improve, these really shouldn't be attempted until you are already up that level. A lot of the exam boards start bringing into the scales and arpeggios sections, after grade 5 these some of these techniques and include them in the repertoire so you get exposed to them with a teacher. You can easily look up your local exam board requirements and base your self- learning off that.
Any of these exercises should be started extremely slow with the teachers’ guidance as they can really do damage these advanced ones if not done correctly.
If you're ever worried just bring it back to super slow, repeat the exercise really focusing on your fingers and what they're doing on your shoulders on your neck on your back is your posture correct?
Are you tense anywhere?
Do you feel you have control over your fingers in is super slow speed?
If you don't have control of them or they're feeling weak or not responding like you would like, they probably need work, but the work is done by keeping it slow and laser focusing on them.
Not by repeating exercises ad nauseum, with zero attention paid. Just take 10 minutes daily and slowly move and train your hands and your fingers to move the way they should, relaxed, loose and tension free.
When you then start to speed up it shouldn't be as difficult as all your fingers are already controlled.
With speeding up tension occurs, so every time you speed up allow it to rest for a while at that speed. Pay attention to it make sure it is even in rhythm and tone and that you feel comfortable and you feel loose playing, before upping speed again.
Technical exercises can be brought into a practice session as an extra work on a technique that you want for your repertoire, it could take your couple of months slow deliberate practice before you're ready to tackle the piece at any kind of speed. Technical exercises should not be done aimlessly and without any point as you'll end up just automatically playing the exercise and it is of no benefit in fact it is a detriment. If time is short scales & arpeggios are technical exercises all-in-one, benefit is that you would have the turn in the scale & Arpeggios.
Technical exercises are also good for someone who has not used technical exercises before, perhaps falling into bad habits and lazy techniques wishes to correct them with something fresh and something you that you can pay attention to rather than the same old routine you have to be using. Technical exercises that would target your lazy habit and then slowly but surely fix them.
I see a lot of tension in people's pinkies and incorrect rotation or no rotation forearms and different things that I am also guilty of doing myself. So I take a technical exercise every time I spot it and I work and use that technical exercise e.g. specifically on my fifth finger on my left hand and that is done the first moment I sit down at the piano to kind of re calibrate my hands before anything else.
I also use a Hannon exercise a very basic one because I don't have to think about the notes. I use that to release tension and also adjust and re focus my touch of my piano first thing. This is also done extremely slowly. Then I launch into scales in arpeggios then I do some improvising and warm up and then I go into my repertoire.
Well thanks for joining me for another blog post I had to take May off, but everyone will know why you're all in the same boat and things got a bit chaotic.
I wanted to do a post on technical exercises as a lot of people are at home without access to their teachers, for various reasons. With spare time on their hands maybe thinking of starting a practice regime with these elusive technical exercises. I wanted to give some practical advice and breakdown of what they actually are.
I hope this helps anyone who needs it, and I will see you again for my blog in July in the mean time check out my YouTube channel- click the link below in the stay connected section for music posted weekly, and everyone have a relaxed, musical June!
Hopefully we are on all on to better and brighter things.