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Gallery of Frequently Used Abbreviations in Solfeggio and Applied Piano
Gallery of Frequently Used Abbreviations in Solfeggio and Applied Piano
Abbreviations in Solfeggio
and Applied Piano
When fingering the scale in the right hand, start with your
second finger (index finger) on the A flat followed by the third
finger to B flat. From there, move your thumb under and use it to
hit the C key. Use the second and third fingers for D flat and E
flat, respectively. Bring your thumb under once again to hit the F.
You can now finish the upward portion of the scale by hitting the
G and A flat with your second and third fingers. Coming down is
the opposite.
For the left finger you are going to want to start the scale
with your third finger on A flat. Using your fifth finger and your
thumb, hit the B flat and C notes. With your thumb on the C note,
cross your fourth finger over to the D flat. Play the next notes in
order, finger after finger, until your thumb lands on the G. From
there simply cross your index finger over to hit the final A flat.
Coming back is just the opposite.
Practice this scale over and over until you feel comfortable
not only with playing it, but with knowing the notes that you are
hitting and where you are on the keyboard. After you feel you've
got it down, come on back. I've got lots more scales to show you.
Hands Separate
Hands-separate piano practice doesn’t seem to help with
hands-together playing.
Your experience is quite typical. Playing two hands at the same
time is completely different than playing both separately.
But the point of learning parts separately is NOT about making it
easier to play both hands together. It's about learning all the
"other" stuff (like correct hand position, articulation etc.) without
having the distraction of the second hand.
Hands Together
Playing the piano with both hands together, is considerably more
difficult than just right-hand playing. But no matter how much you
enjoy playing melodies with the right and left hands separately,
the time comes when you have to get these two great friends
together.
Kirnberger’s II Temperament
Kirnberger's first method of compensating for and closing the
circle of fifths was to split the "wolf" interval, known to those who
have used meantone temperaments, in half between two different
fifths. That is, to compensate for the one extra comma, he
removed half a comma from two of the formerly perfect fifths in
order to complete the circle. In so doing, he allowed the remaining
fifths to stay pure. At the time, however, pure thirds were more
valued than pure fifths (meantone temperament had eight pure
thirds and sacrificed four entire chords to achieve this end.) So,
Kirnberger allowed for three pure thirds, the rest being slightly
wide and the worst being three Pythagorean thirds (22 cents
wider than pure) on the opposite end of the circle from the pure
thirds. To put it graphically:
C-----G-----D------A-----E-----B-----F#-----C#-----Ab(G#)-----Eb-----
Bb-----F-----C
p p -1/2 -1/2 p p p p p p p
|__________pure 3rd______|
|__________pure 3rd______|
|_______pure 3rd________|
|__________Pythag. 3rd_________|
|_________Pythag. 3rd___________|
|________Pythag. 3rd___________|
Speed Wall
What are speed walls (SW), how are they created, how
many are there, and how are they overcome? There is always a
maximum speed that you can play. When first learning a piece,
this speed is often below the final speed. If practiced incorrectly,
the speed does not increase beyond a certain value no matter
how hard you practice – this is called a speed wall. SWs are
caused mainly by stress and bad habits, and are therefore
erected by the pianists. There are as many SWs as bad habits, so
there can be an unlimited number of them. Clearly, the best way
to avoid them is not to create them in the first place. HS practice
is one of the best weapons against SWs because most SWs are
HT SWs. Outlining is another effective weapon because it allows
the large motions to be correctly played at final speed, thus
avoiding the SWs in these motions. Quiet hands is also helpful for
similar reasons. Parallel sets are useful because you immediately
start at speeds above the speed wall, and come down in speed.
Relaxation is essential at all times, but especially necessary for
avoiding SWs because stress is a major cause. Any method for
increasing the efficiency of motion helps; thus, mixing flat finger
and curled positions, keeping the fingers on the keys, and the
various hand motions, such as glissando, cartwheel, arm rotation,
flick, wrist motion, etc., are all needed to prevent SWs. Musical
play is not possible at SWs because any SW will be audible; thus,
in principle, if you always practice musically, you will never meet a
SW. Clearly, practically every recommended practice method in
this book is aimed at preventing speed walls.
There are two ways to play the scale. The first is the well-
known “thumb under” method (TU) and the second is the “thumb
over” method (TO). In the TU method, the thumb is brought under
the hand in order to pass the 3rd or 4th finger for playing the
scale. This TU operation is facilitated by two unique structures of
the thumb; it is shorter than the other fingers and is located below
the palm. In the TO method, the thumb is treated like the other 4
fingers, thus greatly simplifying the motion. Both methods are
required to play the scale but each is needed under different
circumstances; the TO method is needed for fast, technically
difficult passages and the TU method is useful for slow, legato
passages, or when some notes need to be held while others are
being played.
First play the chord and bounce the hand up and down at the
frequency at which the quadruplet will be repeated (say, between
one and two times a second); this teaches the hand, wrist, arms,
shoulder, etc., what they need to do for fast repetitions, and to
exercise the appropriate muscles. Note that the fingers are now
positioned correctly for fast playing; they are resting comfortably
on the keys and slightly curled. Slow down and speed up the
bounce frequency (even beyond the required speed!), noting how
to alter the wrist, arm, fingers, etc., positions and motions to
maximize comfort and avoid fatigue. If you feel fatigue after a
while, then you are either doing something wrong, or else you
have not yet acquired the technique of playing repeated the
chords. Practice it until you can play without tiring because if you
can’t do it for a chord, you will never do it for quadruplets.
Conjunction (C)
Spider Position
The pyramid position, you can bend the fingers at the first
joint from the knuckle. This will be called the “spider position”. The
critical point here is that the last joint (closest to the fingernail)
must be totally relaxed and allowed to straighten out when you
press down on the key. Thus, the generalized definition of FFP is
that the third phalange is totally relaxed and straight. Phalange
(also called phalanx; plural is always phalanges) is the name for
the small bones beyond the knuckle; they are numbered 1-3
(thumb has only 1 and 2), and the 3rd phalange is the “nail
phalange” for fingers 2-5. We shall call both the pyramid and
spider positions “flat finger” positions because all three FFPs
share two important properties: the third phalange of the finger is
never curled and is always relaxed, and you play with the
sensitive palm side of the fingertip
Speed