Forearm Rotation at the Piano [Foundations of Technique, Part 3]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- #pianolesson #pianotechnique #thepianoprof
In this video I discuss forearm rotation at the piano: what it is, how it works, and how it can help you play with more ease.
This is from my series: Foundations of Piano Technique - the Top 5 Technical Things I work on with my students.
00:00 Introduction
0:19 What is Forearm rotation?
1:22 How forearm rotation works in the arm
2:07 The 2 most common mistakes I see around rotation
3:14 How forearm rotation works at the piano
5:21 A few pointers about forearm rotation
6:52 Forearm rotation at the piano
7:58 3 ways using rotation at the piano helps you play with more ease
9:12 Examples of forearm rotation in piano literature
10:52 “Fun facts” about forearm rotation
👉DOWNLOAD MY FREE PDF TECHNIQUE PRACTICE COMPANION
thepianoprof.com/PracticeComp...
Link to the book mentioned in this video:
What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body: Thomas Mark - amzn.to/3qAbVIi
Other videos in this series:
Series Intro: 5 Foundations of Piano Technique Overview: • 5 FOUNDATIONS OF PIANO...
Hand Position: • Hand Position at the P...
Alignment: • Finger Alignment at th...
How to Stop Over-Curving Your Fingers: • How to Stop Over-Curvi...
Arm Weight: • Arm Weight Exercises a...
Weight Transfer: • Natural Arm Motion at ...
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![Arm Weight Exercises at the Piano (5 Steps) [Foundations of Technique, Part 4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/um-GKUCZef4/mqdefault.jpg)
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Adult learner here. Thank you for creating these videos. Wonderfully clear and concise information, well presented.
Thanks!
Thank you for your generosity in sharing these wonderful pieces of teachings, clear and to the points. I am an adult student . I can’t stress enough how important it is to start with the right and healthy way in playing. It would have saved so much frustration and the risk of getting injured. I believe there will be more successful adult learners if there are more teachers like you, very good at explaining and demonstrating all these important fundamentals!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!
I am so glad that I discovered your channel yesterday! Watched a couple of videos then, and I've been working through these technique videos this morning. Thank you for providing such a great resource!
Welcome aboard! Glad to hear you're finding it helpful! I organized my videos into several playlists to help make it easier to navigate. Enjoy!
This is the best to interpret rotation!
Wow - thanks! Good luck with your piano playing!
Thank you. No many people are teaching techniques. You are an experienced teacher knowing what is needed to accomplish better piano playing. Thank you. I am a beginner. So I am si happy with your approach.
Thanks so much - I'm glad you're finding this info helpful!
Thank you Prof! New adult learner here, and had lot of difficulty in hand positioning causing wrist pain and tension in the arm. Thank you for your videos!
You're most welcome! You got this!
Dr. You are So helpful with what you are saying. Many thanks!! Your advice is helping me and others to dodge hand/wrist injury at a future unknown point. Never having one lesson myself, your information is truly golden. Thanks again.
Wonderful - much appreciated! Good luck in your piano studies!
This is phenomenal. Great thorough explanation that is immediately applicable. Please do make a video on double rotation!
Thank you so much! I'm delighted you found it helpful. I'll plan to make a double rotation video sometime soon!
Very helpfull, especially the advice to keep the ulna stable when the radius turns around it when pronating. I suppose you also have to keep the radius stable when suppinating? In that case the ulna turns around the radius?
Wow!! thank you so much Dr. Boyd for a wonderful clarification of the rotation technique. It’s one of the clearest explanations I’ve heard. It gives me excitement as if I was back studying(1997-8) at Jordan Hall again. ❤🎹
Very helpful! The rotation around the pinky really helped me focus on speeding up my octave tremolos that I’ve been struggling with in my left hand. Something else that I think is helping a lot are shoulder and arm stretches. Really stretching my upper chest and back out as well…it’s noticeable that I can rotate my hand faster and get that ‘loose’ feeling. It’s slightly the same motion in my right hand picking on mandolin…but I’ve always felt my left hand and forearm was very stiff. Then when I began piano I learned they are definitely tense. I think this is going to solve a lot of my problems. Thanks…
Thanks for your comment - glad it was helpful!
Excellent, K! Thank you so much for the clear descriptions and visuals!
Thank you so much, Amy! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Prof, it is So helpful to re-watch your videos. Thanks!
Thanks! Glad it holds up! 😊
Thank you for doing these great and informative lessons! Would it be possible to do a video on applying forearm rotation to practising scales , perhaps demonstrating it on a few different keys? thank you
Great suggestion! I will plan on making a video about my technical approach to scales and do some demonstrating in various keys. Thanks for the idea!
@@ThePianoProfKateBoyd You're welcome!
Thanks!
Thank you so much!! Thanks for watching!
Very Helpful !
Glad to hear that!
Love your style of explaining. Your videos are interesting and I learn alot. You don't have a lot of traffic, but I have a feeling if you continue doing videos, they will come. Anyways, I am currently learning Czerny op 849 no 1 and I think it would be a good video to make to help us with when to do wrist rotation. Thank you and keep the videos coming!
I appreciate that! Thanks for the suggestion to look at Czerny Op 849 No 1 - I'll take a look at that after I get through the next series I'm working on. My quick answer is that I don't see a lot of single rotation in that piece - the notes go around and around, not back and forth. So the RH technique I'd use is more focusing on using impulses on the 5th finger, dropping weight into the keys every 2 beats, and releasing it over the course of the half bar, while focusing on maintaining a loose thumb. It's the "drop and hoist" idea I talk about in my video about weight transfer: th-cam.com/video/RBoBNG82iCE/w-d-xo.html Hope this is helpful for now!
Hi Prof. Boyd! I've found your videos incredibly helpful. Thank you for taking the time, it is much appreciated. I am an accordion player and have been rethinking my technique a lot...
Could you perhaps advise on how the concepts of in-out/rotation/circles might translate to the accordion and pipe organ? The keyboard touch is obviously very different from the piano, and I'm wondering what your take is. Thanks again and all the best!
Thanks for your comment! Glad you're finding the videos helpful. Honestly, I don't play accordian or organ, so I'm not aware of how these principles apply. I imagine there are some carry-overs in terms of not wanting to isolate the fingers and using your hand/wrist to group notes, but the issue of weight transfer is totally different, and there is the need for legato touch in a different way, so I think there are significant differences in that arena.
When I have watched people play the organ (or dabbled myself) I have noticed that there is less wrist motion. Organists and accordian players: feel free to chime in - any thoughts?
Thank you Prof Boyd for your wonderful video. You have given us non-music degree student a real gift! I play for pleasure but was lucky enough to once had a retired music professor / concert pianist as my teacher before he became too ill to teach. I had since (15 years ago) stopped practicing / learning new pieces as I couldn't find anyone to help me do them . Your videos remind me of much he had taught and more besides. Your methods are instinctive and practical. This 2 note rotation video is helping me through the Op 13 passage like a dream - This was the last piece my late teacher & I had started before stopping. Do you have any tips on the next jumping passage? The Dohnanyi series is fantastic. Do you plan on doing videos on other classic teaching aide such as Chopin's Etudes? Once again, thank you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge!
Glad you're finding the videos helpful! Can you tell me the measure numbers of Op 13 that you're looking for tips for?
A friend and colleague of mine, Jocelyn Swigger, made a wonderful series of videos about the Chopin etudes. You can check out the playlist here: th-cam.com/play/PLG3ZEdYdKJEVjnEqsm3f6APIYyxuCRxOt.html&si=yDGKhmUhayDvEpyH
@@ThePianoProfKateBoyd Thank you for your reply, so kind of you to take the time! I will have a look at the etudes videos. You might find it strange but I never used the metronome (because I had trouble listening to it over the piano) so my teacher used to tell me the speed and count me in... I suppose, in my head, it is allegro? We never got very far with this movement as I didn't understand what my teacher called "roll" the left hand part (which you have very helpfully solved for me with this video). When I try the next part, my right hand often got caught while leaping over the left hand or got so high I lost my way. I know it's probably not very clear what I'm asking but I never learned the normal way and my teacher was very indulgent.
So helpful!!!
But can you clarify, what you mean when you say that "rotation helps bring the weight of the hand behind the fingers", and where it's applied? This phrase really puzzled me😮
When you rotate your hand into the keys, it provides momentum, or weight, to make the key go down and your finger doesn't need to press into the key. Therefore the rotation motion allows the weight of the hand to put the key down, rather than the weight of each individual finger. A really good (very detailed) resource I'd recommend is What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body, by Thomas Marks. Here's a link to my resource page with all my book recommendations: thepianoprof.com/books/
Good luck!
Thank you so much for taking time and explaining this. The thing I do not understand well is where to put my three middle fingers when I am doing rotation between 1 and 5. I see that people put them simply on the white keys and do the rotation without pushing those three fingers down. They just stay there. But when I try to do rotation I automatically lift those three. I would appreciate any information
Thanks for your question. It really depends on factors like the span of the interval you're rotating around, the speed you're playing, and the black key-white key patterns you're playing. I would say that the most important thing to keep in mind is to not flex or tighten your 2-3-4 fingers. For me, if I'm rotating a 5th between 1 and 5, my 2-3-4 fingers are slightly elevated, because if they were to rest on the keys, my hand would not be able to rotate freely. Hope this helps!
@ThePianoProfKateBoyd thanks for answering my question. Knowing what I am doing or not doing wrong stops me from worrying and I actually got a lot better at playing. If it wasn't for the good people like you learning would be extremely hard for people like me who cannot afford a teacher. Please keep making videos about tips and tricks that beginners should do
Is it possible to use wrist circles for alberti bass ?
Regards
I teach rotation for Alberti bass. Here's a short I made about it: th-cam.com/users/shortslKcScA8uCrk
Thanks!
Wow, thanks so much! Glad this video was helpful! 😊🎹