# Piano Technique...what does that mean to you?



## ifiwereu (Nov 18, 2016)

Piano Technique...what does that mean to you?


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## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

uhhhhhhhhhhh what?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Please explain a bit more if you can.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

Ashkenazy said: "Piano technique is rhythm."

...tens of thousands of words can, (and have), been written about piano technique. 

What does it mean to you?


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## ifiwereu (Nov 18, 2016)

Well...is it the dynamics, pedal use, body posture, how well notes are executed or is it a strategy for handling pieces..scales...I'm not sure?


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## ifiwereu (Nov 18, 2016)

Pugg said:


> Please explain a bit more if you can.


Pugg, I'd like to hear some of your pieces.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

The term "piano technique" refers to a pianist's mechanical ability to play the notes in the score in the manner specified there. There are many skills which have to be developed to enable a pianist to do that (control, speed, stamina) and "piano technique" is a collective term for the whole package of them.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ifiwereu said:


> Pugg, I'd like to hear some of your pieces.


I know my limitations, composing is not for me.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

Animal the Drummer said:


> The term "piano technique" refers to a pianist's mechanical ability to play the notes in the score in the manner specified there. There are many skills which have to be developed to enable a pianist to do that (control, speed, stamina) and "piano technique" is a collective term for the whole package of them.


I played piano earlier in my life. The technique are acquired by a pianist during his/her studies. I consider this technical skills, many world class pianists excel in this area. However, there is another dimension that cannot be acquire in studying music, that dimension is the experience of life. I call it transferable skills. This is beyond technique. This is the ability integrate feelings, emotions and life learning into music and communicate in a way that echo with their audience. Only a portion of the world class pianists can excel it and become a class of their own - Brendel, Horowitz, Rubenstein, Barenboim - just to name a few.


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## ifiwereu (Nov 18, 2016)

Pugg said:


> I know my limitations, composing is not for me.


Pugg,

I'm so sorry...what I really meant was your performances...not compositions.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

As a teenager, I had piano lessons from a man who had received some tuition from Benno Moiseiwitsch. According to him, Benno reckoned that the difference in technique between competent and great pianists was not how they played the notes, but how they played the spaces in between. 

As a listener, what I most admire in a pianist is the ability to conjure from the instrument the full range of voices of which a concert grand is capable, but not doing so at the expense of the music.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

ifiwereu said:


> Piano Technique...what does that mean to you?


That the piano disappears as it's being played and only the sound floating through the air remains. Other than that, piano technique is probably nothing but a disreputable crutch to hide behind.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Technique means that the pianist's hands are able to obey his brain. A pianist with excellent technique has the physical skills to convey his musical ideas to the listener - which notes to bring out, where to speed up, exactly when to release the pedal, etc.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

ifiwereu said:


> Pugg,
> 
> I'm so sorry...what I really meant was your performances...not compositions.


Late October I will perform in Antwerp, accompany a group of singers which include my mother, they are doing Schubert part songs.


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