Introduction: Playing the piano – you touch the key, the sound comes out of the piano.

Simple,
right? Yet, over my years of study, I have heard some rather shocking statements from my
teachers – “play with weak and empty hands”, “feel your vocal cords vibrating”, “there’s no
magical technique for piano playing”, and “you play with your mind, not your hands”. These
statements may sound odd when discussing piano playing, and what I am about to share with you
may come as a surprise – but playing the piano is all about imagination and mental strength.
Here at Belmont, I am sure many here are musically inclined and I am also sure that many here
struggle with piano; but it doesn’t have to be like that. I am a classical piano performance major,
and even though I only started in 7th grade, my intuition and expertise of my teachers led me to
playing college repertoire within only three years. So today, I will be briefly discussing the
theory of piano playing, then how the mind is so vital in piano playing, and finally how one
could apply these principles to their own piano playing journey, no matter the stage you are in. I
hope to show you all that piano isn’t supposed to be hard, and that it can be really quite easy.

1. When it comes to piano playing, the Russian piano school has paved the way for modern
ideas on piano technique. A Russian teacher, Emma Leiuman, has explained to me over
the past years revolutionary ideas about piano. To start, she recommends that one always
approach the keys with weak and empty hands – literally like you’re sick and just have no
strength. With this weak sensation, one should press a key and get no sound out – until
one imagines the sound. Our bodies are smart obviously, and inner sensations imagined
in the mind will affect the touch, which affects tone – the foundation of piano playing is
your ability to imagine sound. Another key in piano playing is the ability to feel free
energy in your body, from your feet all the way to your arms. This is called “Russian
weight playing”, and this adds yet another sensation in piano playing – as if your arm is a
faucet and the music is the water that flows through. The final important facet of piano
that I want to discuss is how to further connect one’s musical ideas to the instrument –
through internally singing. We are built with an excellent instrument within us already,
our voice, and this is the ultimate bridge between the piano and imagined sound. When
one is able to sing their piano music internally (not producing any sound, but only feeling
the muscular sensations), this creates healthy tension in the muscles, and along with
imagined sound, give life to their music. This is the theory, but how exactly does
imagined sound and internal singing affect piano playing?
2. I will now give a brief explanation on how the central nervous system controls tone
production. Imagining sound connects our imagination with our body. When one
imagines sound first, our central nervous system directs how our fingers strike the key. In
touching a piano key, various processes occur within our nervous system – namely
inhibition and excitation. Here’s the basic procedure: one will imagine any note and using
the free energy of the body, will raise their arm to the keyboard. With that clear sound
still in the mind, the pianist will then drop their arm into the keys. The central nervous
system is directed here by our imagination, and excitation occurs the moment we press a
key, followed by quick inhibition of impulse by transferring the energy to the wrist like
this (demonstration). Carrying over to the next note, the pianist will imagine a glissando
 between the note before, sending impulses to the next finger, and when the note has
finally been imagined, the process repeats. Soon a chain effect will happen where one is
able to pre-feel the next note, as if you are always playing with your mind a few
milliseconds before your finger even touches the key. Finally, internal singing with
glissando and resistance adds like I mentioned earlier healthy tension to one’s arm and
over time, a controlled and singing quality. While this information may be overwhelming
for some, there is an easy way to apply these techniques and see drastic improvement
within days.
3. My first piece of advice would be to spend time away from the piano practicing your
music. Our imagination controls our playing, and so it should be made clear that
musicality is the ultimate piano technique. Having a clear musical idea of whatever your
working on, like tone, dynamics, articulations, and even making a story with the music,
will make learning the piece so much easier. It is important to set a distinction between
analyzing your music, and learning it, yet so many people combine these two into one
t879process, with either mechanical or sloppy playing. It is also beneficial to mentally
practice piano, imagining yourself vividly playing will further condition your central
nervous system for when you actually sit down at the piano.
Conclusion: Piano playing is all mental, contrary to the idea that there is some perfect
mechanical technique out there. Today, I talked about new discoveries in piano theory,
proper tone production, and how using your imagination and internal singing can transform
anyone’s piano playing. Piano is often dreaded by students all over the world, but I hope with
this new perspective, you will go out, give it a try, and see for yourself how rewarding piano
can be.