Essay

On how to play the piano

By Alvaro Metzger & Hannah Tomasini

This is an essay that discusses all aspects of playing the piano, and also how to teach these to
prospective students. We will systematically describe all issues, using the list of topics we discussed
during the methodics classes, starting with piano technique.

Piano technique

Teaching proper piano technique can be a very abstract thing to analyse, and in reality there
is probably no pianist who has a perfect technique. In general, teaching piano is about encouraging a
natural and good technique, while preventing students from developing bad habits, which might cause
stress and injury in the long run. We will now discuss the many facets of piano technique.

Hand position

Angle of the hand in relation to the keyboard

The wrist is held only slightly above the knuckles and fingers. So that if you pour a bit of water
on your hand, it would glide down your fingers. Shoulders should be relaxed, and the elbows are
slightly opened to the sides of your body. Arms are practically parallel with the ground. Other angles,
often more tense alternatives, should be corrected from the very first lesson.

The three hand position depths

The C major position is when you have all the fingers on white keys, so that the fingers are
more placed next to each other and the hand is more in a closed position. It’s important with beginners
not to only play in this position because they will not be taught to open their hands while playing black
keys. The C major position is not a natural position of the hand, and will lead to inflexibility when taught
too early and too much.
The A major position or whatever position involving the third finger on black key and thumb
and pink on white, is the most natural position, because the middle fingers are longer than the thumb
and pink, and are therefore placed further on the keyboard. For beginners it’s most easy to start
playing in an A major position because it encourages a relaxed and natural posture.
The E-flat major is the most uncomfortable position because it involves thumb and pink on
black keys and the middle finger on white. So that means that the shorter fingers need to reach while
the longer fingers stay back. Here the hand would be in the most closed position and it requires more
work on flexibility of the player.
It makes sense to explore these hand positions with students in order of difficulty, finding or
writing small pieces that are written in the appropriate tonalities.
The fourth finger and the black key: anatomy of the hand

Anatomically, the fourth finger is the least independent of all fingers, because it is connected
to the middle finger and therefore hard to use individually. Also it is less strong on its own, and requires
more attention to sound like the other fingers. Extending the fourth finger to the black key requires
flexibility and adjustment of the hand placement on the keyboard. Slightly extending the elbow to the
side and placing the hand in an angle makes it easier to play fourth finger on a black key.

Order of difficulty of the scales

Scales are a nice exercise to practice flexibility of the hand and a correct hand position. Scales
can be combined with explaining theoretical knowledge about tonalities, but they are also nice to learn
by ear. They are explained here in order of difficulty.

a. 3 or more sharps or flats: This category of scales is considered the easiest because it
is adapting to the most natural position of the hand. Thumb and pink can play white
keys while the longer three fingers in the middle can play mostly black. Also it is easier
to change position with the thumb because it can reach under the longer fingers
without having the necessity to change the whole hand position.

b. 1 or 2 sharps or flats: This category is considered slightly harder because the hand is
more closed, but it is still quite comfortable. It is necessary to adjust the hand position
more often because longer fingers play white or the fourth finger plays black on its
own. B flat major for example requires the player to start the scale with the second
finger, which might require some extra motorical development.

c. no sharps or flats (C major): Even though it is very easy to read, it is also the most
unfortunately placed scale to play because of the absence of black keys. The hand is
completely closed and it is hard to make the position shifts. The thumb is being
blocked by the longer fingers and you need to adjust the angle of your hand in order
to achieve the same continuity of the scale.
It seems logical to explore these scales in order of difficulty.

Position shift

The general idea of position shifting is that a piano player develops ways to change the position
of his hand on the keyboard in a balanced and controlled way, ensuring that the quality of the music
does not suffer because of technical difficulties. There are many different ways to practice this.

Scales/arpeggios

Converging and diverging scales

There is a difference in difficulty comparing converging and diverging scales to regular scales
with two hands. It is motorically simpler playing symmetrically with two hands than it is to playing in
only one direction (unison). Converging and diverging scales are a nice step in between from playing a
scale with one hand, and playing a scale in unison with two hands.

Thumb under method (what is the effect?): To make the line of a scale continuous and even sounding,
you need to place your thumb under your other fingers while they are playing. Chopin talked about
scales in his method and said it was like one continuous movement, making an arpeggio being like
smearing butter on a baguette. The player needs to combine a constant movement of the arm with
the constant expansion and contraction of the fingers and adjustment of the angle of the hand. This is
already quite technically demanding, and should be practiced slowly and with care with beginner
pianists.

Expansion and contraction: how to prepare scale playing: Expansion and contraction is essential for
scale playing because it allows the hand to smoothly shift its position while playing. Easy exercises to
practice contraction are smaller four tone scales which are continuously moved up by one tone. So:
1234234534564567. When this is going well, the gap can be expanded.
For expansion you can play intervals up, for example broken chords, so that you need to
expand your hand every time you have a new position.

Chromatic octaves using 4th and 5th finger

It’s crucial when we play parallel octaves to create the idea of legato playing in the top line by
using the 4th and 5th finger consecutively. This requires a very developed flexibility of your 4th finger.
Because we cannot make legato with the thumb, often we can create the idea of legato by gliding the
thumb down the keys. To not lose speed or continuity, it is important to make the movements of the
fingers as small as possible, to save energy and time.
Playing octaves like this is an advanced piano technique because of the huge demand on the
th
4 finger, and should be introduced late in the course of piano lessons. Especially for children, playing
an octave will be challenging enough without trying to play legato as well.

Parallel thirds, sixths, octaves

With parallel octaves, the fastest and easiest way to play them is to only use the movement of
the arm and have the hand in a fixed position. Here it is important to keep the movement of the arm
as small as possible to increase speed.
With parallel sixths it depends on whether it is filled with a chord or not, and whether it is only
on white keys or also on black. When it is filled with a chord or only white keys, you can use the same
technique as explained with the parallel octaves. If there are also black keys and the sixths are empty,
then you have to use an appropriate fingering to achieve the best result.
With thirds it also depends on whether you use only white keys or both. But in general thirds
allows you to use a combination of fingers that can be used repeatedly.
Within teaching, it might be easiest to start with the smaller intervals, working up to the bigger
ones. It is important to teach students to make their movements slowly at first, not taking the risk that
they develop enormous tension in the hand or use completely irrational fingerings just because they
want to play a tempo at once. To teach awareness of both movement and correct fingerings will
definitely pay off in the long run.
Skips (Chopin waltz)

Skips are mostly applied to left hand technique, using a large amount of expansion and
contraction. The bass is played by the fifth finger while the hand is fully expanded, after this the hand
moves and contracts at the same time so that it can play the chord that follows.
Again, students should first practice these movements slowly, because these skips combine
several different piano techniques that need to be executed correctly.

Spatial orientation

Spatial orientation is a very important skill because it enables piano players to move quickly
across the keyboard. There are various ways to spatially orientate yourself on the keys, and also various
ways to practice this skill. Of all four ways mentioned, conscious visual orientation seems to be the
‘safest’ way to learn and play music, but the other ways are also successfully used by musicians
everywhere.

Conscious visual orientation (finding the keys visually)

For a beginning player it is very important to know the way around the keyboard. The keys are
divided in patterns of two and three black keys, which divide the white keys in smaller fragments. The
repeating pattern consists of an octave, or twelve keys. After gaining experience, a player can add
visualization to remember and read music successfully. You can try to create awareness of this visual
orientation method with students by constantly pointing out patterns and forms within the music.

Tactile approach (Matthay): feeling your way around the keyboard

Matthay focuses on the use of bodyweight while playing the piano, for example, lower on the
keyboard the keys are heavier to the touch than the higher notes. Also, when you play bigger chords
or with a forte sound, you use more weight, and this is something your body remembers while
studying. When someone starts playing the piano, it is important to introduce them to all the registers
on the piano and how they feel. The whole of the keyboard should feel comfortable, not only the
middle section.

Blind sight/non-conscious perception (playing with the eyes open but not looking at the keys you
play)

Here the focus is less on bodyweight, and more on automatizing movement, like extension and
contraction of the hand. We still see the keys, but are not conscious of exactly which keys are being
pressed. We are more conscious of how the movement feels, and keep repeating the movements until
they are memorized.
Kinesthetic memory (playing in de dark)

This is very similar to blind sight/non conscious perception playing, the only difference being
that the player cannot see. We know this is still a perfectly acceptable way of learning spatial
orientation by listening to blind players, who have never learned otherwise.

Finger independence

Finger independence is a skill all beginning pianists struggle with because playing the piano
requires a much greater finger independence than any other daily activity. Students need to learn to
combine any possible finger combination, but also to use different amount of force per finger and how
to articulate with fingers in different ways. There is a big difference here between younger children
and other age groups, because their motorical development is still very much in process. Younger
children will therefore have greater difficulty with developing finger independence and this will have
to be taken into account while picking out repertoire.

Grasping reflex

The use of intervals to prepare finger independence: The player should develop a grasping reflex and
not a pressing reflex regarding how they ´press´ the keys. One way of doing this is to let them play
intervals with the thumb and another finger, so that the movement of grasping becomes more natural
and the fingers seem to move toward each other.

The use of finger + thumb together on one key: Another exercise to create a grasping reflex is to make
the beginner put his thumb and another finger together slightly rounded and make them play keys like
this. This will make sure the student wants to play the key with the tip of this other finger, making a
naturally rounded movement inward (grasping, instead of pressing). This also encourages the player
to have nice round fingers while playing. We also talked about using a djembe or other kind of drum
to demonstrate the fact that if you want to make a nice sound with an instrument, that you have to
also move away from the surface after ‘hitting’ it. Just slapping a drum will make a flat and dull sound,
while bouncing of the skin will give a nice and full sound. The same goes for playing the piano.

Independence (between hands/within the hand)

Dynamic independence: how to approach it

Between hands there needs to be a difference within the amount of velocity that is being
exerted on the key. For that we need speed and control of the force we put in our motions. To create
differences it is always helpful to enlarge them, students could start by clapping or tapping on their
knees, with one hand completely relaxed and the other very strong. Once a student is comfortable
making a large contrast, you can diminish the size of the contrast, fine tuning their independence.
When clapping and tapping goes well, these motions can be translated to the keys.

Independence within the hand is considered more difficult to learn. Again it is useful to make
big contrasts, exaggerating movements and difference in sounds. A student could play the loud notes
legato and strong, while playing the other notes staccato and light, repeating this until it the fingers
recognize the contrast. Also one could consider playing slightly unsynchronized so that the loud tone
could go first, followed quickly by the softer tone. After doing this for a while they could come together
again and the fingers would make the difference. Another exercise would be to slightly tilt the hand
toward the ´important´ finger, putting more pressure and emphasis on the note of that finger, and
automatically less on the rest.

Rhythmic

This could start again with an exercise where both hands tap a different rhythm. The student
should be able to play different rhythms between the hands. In some point of the development, fingers
need to be rhythmically independent too so you can play polyphony within one hand, but most of the
time rhythmical differences will be between the two hands, not necessarily fingers.

Articulation

This is probably one of the most tricky parts because naturally your brain wants to unify
movements and be symmetrical, so it takes time and effort to produce different articulations. The first
step would be to articulate differently between the hands, for example staccato in the left hand and
legato in the right. The next level would be to produce different articulations within the hand, for
example while playing polyphonic music.

Double independence

Mirror movement (same finger of each hand together): This is the most natural thing for beginners to
practice, because it feels the most logical to use the same fingers at the same time. In essence,
practicing this is not really about developing independence, since this is what the body likes to do
already, so the hands are not really ‘independent’ at all.

Spatial dependence (same spatial location: LH 5 together with RH thumb): Players need this
independence skill to produce unisono melodies with both hands. In the beginning this might be
difficult because the body likes to make mirror movements instead of this kind of spatial dependence.
But, when the skill is learned, it won’t feel like independence between the hands anymore, because it
will feel like a natural thing, even more natural than the mirror movement.

Touch

Touch, and the sound that comes with different kinds of it, is probably the most difficult thing
to master in piano playing. It is important to teach students awareness of touch and how it can be used
to influence the sound we produce on the piano. In the end we are using our bodies to make something
that is not physical at all. It is important to always use our ears, not getting too lost in the physical
details of the movement itself.
Double function of the key (hammer/damper)

Playing a key does two separate things. Pressing a key makes the hammer hit the string(s) of
the piano, creating sound. Releasing the key makes the damper touch the string, stopping the sound.
We do not often perceive these two things as separate, but actually we should be aware of this.
Intuitively we are constantly manipulating the sound by the timing of the release of the key, but this is
a thing that is learned naturally while playing piano and listening, not learned explicitly by sharing this
knowledge.
These two functions of the key can be separated consciously in the beginning by letting
students play with pedal, and after that making them feel and hear the difference playing without the
pedal.

Strong finger flexors vs. weak finger extensors

The muscles on the inside of our fingers, that we use from very early age to grab things with,
are very strong. Especially when we compare them to the muscles that we use to extend our fingers,
spreading the hand. A nice example is the beak of a crocodile, who is very strong biting down on
something, but if you would sit on his beak, he would not be able to open it again. Our hands work in
a similar way. When we play the piano, we use these strong finger flexors to ‘press’ the keys.

Strong finger flexors vs. weak muscles of the hand

So while the strong finger flexors provide the force of touch, the weak muscles of the hand
enable us to contract and extend our fingers, creating different intervals while pressing keys.

Second law of Newton (force = mass x acceleration/difference between mass and weight: enlarging
either mass or velocity to increase force)

The difference between mass and weight is that weight is a combination of how gravity
influences the mass of something, while mass is just the amount of matter of a thing. The second law
of Newton says, that if you want to increase force (and with that, increase sound in piano playing), you
need to increase either the mass or the acceleration. Since we cannot instantly increase the mass of
our limbs, we need to increase the acceleration when we move towards the key.

Gravity: exponential increase of speed while falling (for every object the same, no matter how large
the mass): downward movements are therefore easier to accelerate than upward movements.

Naturally, something that has mass will, thanks to gravity, have the tendency to go downward.
So it is easy and natural for our hands and arms to move downward, which will not cost us a lot of
energy. Going upwards means moving against the gravitational forces, using our muscles to do so.
When a stuffed panda bear falls of a shelf, not only the mass of the bear, but also the gravitational
forces ‘pulling’ the bear towards the ground accelerate the fall. When you throw the bear into the air,
the acceleration is negative, because gravity is pulling the other way. This is why downward
movements are easier to accelerate than upward ones.
Force

The momentum of your hand equals mass of the hand multiplied by the speed of the movement. This
is a fact. It is the same as the second law of Newton. Though the momentum of two moving objects
may be the same, the force they exert is also dependent on:

The amount of time it takes for the force to be absorbed by the key:

Soft fingertip versus hard fingertip: You can choose between shaping your fingers like bridges, making
the tips stable and stronger. Also you can also flatten the fingers to make your tips bend slightly
outward, creating a less stable and forceful tip. The stability and compactness of the tip influences the
force, mostly because the force is more concentrated on one point when a pianist has a stable and
compact fingertip.

Flexibility versus inflexibility: In the beginning we talked about using a djembe to illustrate the correct
movement of touching a key. Using the movement towards the key to also move away again, creating
this ‘trampoline’ effect. To bounce or not to bounce, that is the question. When we choose to move
away again, the same force is exerted in a smaller amount of time, creating a staccato sound. This kind
of sound may come across as more forceful, though there is not truly more force to the movement.

Weak versus strong finger muscles: This makes sense, when you have weak finger muscles you can
exert a smaller force than when you have strong ones. Little children often have trouble exerting a
large force on the keys because they have small and weak finger muscles. By training the muscles they
will slowly be able to exert larges forces on the piano.

Weak arch versus strong arch: The forcefulness of the tip and the shape of the finger are two things
that are very much connected. We already talked about the effect of a strong finger arch when we also
talked about soft and hard fingertips. Without a strong foundation a fingertip cannot be forceful, that’s
why we need to learn students from the beginning to round their finger arches (bridges), so that they
are physically able to make a strong sound.

Pedal

While the very specific types of pedalling are only useful for advanced players, it is nice to learn
beginners the use of the sustain pedal quite soon, so that they can use it for spatial orientation and
touch purposes. Also, it is interesting for them to know the workings of the una corda and sostenuto
pedal, even if they are not yet playing music that requires the use of them. Further down the road,
there are several ways and effects pedalling that can be introduced to the student. In the end, though
it is nice to have this theoretical information, pedalling is mostly about using your ears and listening if
the created sound is truly the kind of sound we want and like.
Types of pedalling

Register pedal (organ stop): With register pedal, you pedal down before striking the key. A similar
effect exists with playing organ when you open the stops which are the harmonics of the note. In the
piano you let the dampers of the strings, allowing them to vibrate together.

Takttreten: In this pedalling you accentuate certain notes by pressing the key and the key down at the
same time

After pedal: In after pedal you pedal down after hitting the key.

Effect of the timing of the pedal

No pedal: By not using the pedal you have a larger amount of control, that means you can decide when
to stop the sound. In short distances you can create a similar pedal effect just by doing a legato with
your fingers.

Pedal down after striking the key: Sound wise, you sustain the sound you have already made purely
with your fingers. This can be helpful when your fingers already need to be somewhere else, but you
still want to keep the sound.

Pedal down while striking the key: Pedaling down while striking the key gives extra resonance to the
sounds you produce. It is great for accentuating important harmonies.

Pedal down before striking the key: It creates a bigger resonance and richer harmonic pallet.

Spatial orientation

Use of the whole keyboard right from the beginning

It´s important to use the whole keyboard right from the beginning because it increases the
understanding of tonality, octaves, and different patterns on the keys. If a student is comfortable early
on experiencing all the keys, it will not be hesitant later to use the whole range of the keyboard.
Improvising on chords is a really nice exercise to promote the use of the whole keyboard, gradually
learning that with only three notes, you can play the entire range of the piano. This chords concept
can be combined with an early use of the sustain pedal, adjusting students to the sound of harmony
(and disharmony when they make a mistake).

Legato

Real legato is impossible

Because of the fact that the piano is a percussive instrument, it is impossible to actually play
different notes continuously. On a melodic instrument, like violin or clarinet, you use the bow or
breathe to continue from one note to another. Because of physical reasons, this cannot apply to the
piano.

Tension created by holding down the keys

So by holding and releasing the keys on the right moments, we create the illusion of legato,
´gluing´ the notes together as it were. Tension is created by holding down the key, prolonging the
sound, even though it will always diminish naturally.

Holding down the keys makes it more difficult to move the hand
Holding down the keys creates immediate tension in the fingers, naturally making it more
difficult to move around freely. It´s important to still keep a relaxed hand position while playing
´legato´, not creating more tension than necessary and maybe forcing the hand.

Ergo: postpone legato until basic piano technique has been acquired
Because legato is an illusion, and creates more tension in the hand because of fixed fingers, it
is important to first have a good fundamental hand position and use of fingers, before trying harder
techniques like legato, where you have to combine relaxation and tension in the hand. Some students
though already play legato independently from the beginning without instruction. When this happens,
and they keep their good position, there is not really an issue.

Audiomotor integration
Audiomotor integration has to do with practising listening to sounds (your own as well as other
ones’) and executing proper movements that have to do with playing the piano. Playing the piano is
about making physical movements that translate into sound. In the beginning this will feel strange
because of unnatural movements, and that we are not used to the fact that these movements produce
a certain sound. We will have to get used to proper movements and gain control over what sounds
they will make, before we will feel comfortable with the instrument. This will happen naturally when
a student has spent enough hours behind the piano.

Reading music notation

Postpone reading until audiomotor integration has been achieved

Reading notes takes up a lot of brain activity, which naturally then cannot be used for other
processes. If audiomotor integration has not been achieved, a student simply won´t be able to combine
all these processes. Reading will sabotage their attempt at proper listening and moving, which will
decrease the quality of their playing, without them even noticing.

Reading readiness: learning to identify musical events

Rhythmic building blocks: To learn to read in an energy saving, systematic way, students can first learn
to read rhythmic building blocks, so that they can later recognize rhythmical patterns and not have to
read each of them individually. To make it easier, a teacher can use only one note, and increase the
number of different blocks slowly to let the student adapt properly.
Intervals: Reading intervals can also add to a systematic way of reading. A student can work on reading
one specific interval at the time, like for example a third. If a student can recognize a third without
actually reading the notes, he then only needs to read one of the two. After doing several intervals, it
is also valuable to start with triads, especially in the F cleft.

Melodic motives: After the rhythmic blocks and intervals, the next step would be to integrate these
things into a melody. Parts of melodies will be scales going up and down, with jumps in between which
will mostly also will fit the tonality. Students will have to recognize uninterrupted ´scale´ playing and
the size of the jumps. Once they can, they will also recognize the repetition of themes and other
material they have already played earlier in the piece.

Reading
It is interesting to note that most methods focus mostly on general structure of learning how
to play the piano, not necessarily on how to learn children the basics of reading notes. It makes more
sense to see these two learning processes as very different things, and to think about how to give this
information in a proper and systematic way. Both the Suzuki and Bartok methods we analysed are not
reading methods at all, so teachers would need to find or make their own materials when it comes to
reading, focusing for example on the ‘building block’ structure we talked about previously.

11-lijnige notenbalk: To prevent confusion about theoretically overlapping staffs, in the beginning you
could add a eleventh line between the two staffs, where the middle C is. Doing this might create a
better overview, and also simplifies reading the F cleft, because you can ‘count downward’ from the G
cleft, instead of seeing it as a completely different thing.

First tonality: While hand position wise it is unwise to start with a C major tonality, it is easiest to read,
because there are no accidentals in the scale. So when it is time to learn how to read notes, it makes
sense to start in C major, then introduce accidentals, and only last introduce other tonalities.

Gestalt psychology: wholes not parts (note names): While it is of course important to know the
theoretical approach and knowledge to read notes, it is not important to always know specifically
which notes you should play. By looking at shapes and distances, you can for example read one note
of a chord and play the rest while only seeing the shape, instead of realising first exactly which notes
are notated.
This can be applied to chords, but also to specific intervals, such as recognising thirds and
fourths; so it is about recognising a form, a gestalt, not notes.

Practising

Practising is very important when it comes to developing and maintaining piano technique. By
practising, we spend time creating new connections in the brain, expanding our motorical skills. Piano
playing requires a lot of very unnatural movements, which are very specific and artificial, and aren´t
required in any other situation. So when a student starts, even if they are already well developed
motorically, they will still need to practice these new motions often before they will manage well. Also,
learning music, like songs and chords, by heart, takes practice as a skill in itself. Many are impatient to
spend a lot of time on one piece, feeling that it is taking them too long or frustrated because they are
making many mistakes. It takes time to learn how to practice efficiently and slowly, so that you make
the most use of your time behind the piano.
In the basis, it is important to learn what you have to play in slow motion: the notes, dynamics,
articulation, fingerings etc. After that, all you have to do is increase the speed in which you carry out
your motions. Unfortunately, this method takes a lot of self discipline, which most people (both
professionals and amateurs) lack. Every time you make a mistake, you will need multiple times of doing
it right to ´reset´ your brain correctly. When looking at it this way, it´s more time efficient to take your
time and not make any mistakes at all.
In teaching, while trying to instill this philosophy, it is important to keep encouraging students
to keep studying with awareness and focus as a teacher on the positive things. Students tend to
diminish their accomplishments and enlarge their mistakes, which is demotivating in the long run.
Teachers should try to highlight the accomplishments and simultaneously motivate the student to
work on their ‘shortcomings’ in a positive manner.

Expression and interpretation

Although playing the piano brings many technical difficulties to the beginning student, first and
foremost music is a personal language. The expressive nature of music can sometimes lose its meaning
when we get too caught up in the technicalities of playing. It is important to talk with students about
music as a language from the very beginning, relating playing to songs and texts they already know,
making it feel like the music is theirs from the start.

Singing

Music is all about singing. Singing is the real deal. Singing should be mandatory for everybody
since it is the most direct form of expressing yourself and actually the purest. So whatever instrument
we play we should imagine that we are singing. The breathing is also very important because at the
end we are just speaking a language, so you have to form the correct pronunciation of your sentences
and the proper breathe and rest between phrases.

Using texts

Using text is a very convenient way of making a melody come alive, especially for younger
students. Sometimes notes in a melody can still feel like an abstract thing which is hard to remember,
while it´s easy to remember a song when you have lyrics to combine the melody with. You can apply
this to any piece you give a student, just find a topic and let them think of the words themselves, which
increases the chance of them remembering it correctly.
Also learning rhythms can become easier when using words. For example the fruit thing, where
we use ´pear´ as a quarter note, ´apple´ as two eight notes, etcetera. For children, knowing these words
really well and applying the number of syllables automatically, it becomes less abstract than some
notes on paper or just clapping a rhythm.
Dancing and moving on music

To feel the beat of a piece, and to understand well what is an upbeat and where a new bar starts, it is
nice to use movement as a natural indicator. For example, a student could be asked to sing a melody
and walk in the right rhythm simultaneously to really feel with his body how to count while playing.
With younger children you could make it a nice diversion in the lesson by making them jump and dance
around, which will help them focus better afterwards.

Other forms of art

Obviously, playing another instrument than the piano also helps in understanding how music
should be played and what sound you would like to hear from the instrument. Other disciplines in art,
like dance or theater, will help enormously when it comes to expressing meaning or movement. Also
visual arts can aid to express meaning in a piece, as often pieces have very clear imagery or topics.
These topics we have to express develop our sense of artistry or imagination, which of course will help
in playing the piano.

With all this information about piano playing, it would be nice to remind ourselves and our students
often that music is foremost a thing to enjoy. To balance all these aspects we talked about is a hard
thing to do, for both student and teacher, so let’s not forget that we play the piano to make ourselves
and others happy.

Special thanks to gravity.