Scales: Correct Use of Rotation

In this excerpt from the Taubman Techniques video series, Edna Golandsky demonstrates how to use forearm rotation to play scales freely and quickly.

The complete video series is available at www.taubman-tapes.com and offers exhaustive lessons on what underlies a virtuoso technique. Countless musicians around the world have witnessed dramatic improvements to their playing ability thanks to the technical savoir-faire, musical insights, and knowledge taught in these videos.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• taubman
• golandsky
• piano
• classical
• jazz
• injury
• virtuoso
• technique
• lesson
• rotation
• scale

[ronstab]

I think it is very easy for certain people to become inflexible when "following" a certain method or system. However, the people I know who are great teachers of this work are flexible in their thinking. That's how the work has progressed. These people are not attached to dogma. The question is always "what must I do to get the musical result I want with the least effort?"--not "how can I possibly get the result I want without breaking the rules I know?" The approach is diagnostic...(cont.)

[ronstab]

(Part 2 cont.) The approach is diagnostic. The teacher is there to address YOUR complaints about your playing, not to tell you they think you're doing it all wrong. As long as you come back with more questions, the teachers will attempt to give you the tools to attempt to resolve the problems, but it is acknowledged that it is ultimately up to you to decide how much you want from this work. The great teachers of this work love people who ask questions and think for themselves. (cont. again!)

[she2302]

The video is half the price I paid for one hour lesson and is definitely more valuable. One suggestion: Could you make a short preview on the online store so it's easier to see what the content on DVD is?

[robertslistening]

For fast octave exercises I find thinking of it something like picking a guitar with downstrokes only helps minimize the wrist movement but still allows enough for speed. I play a fingers only chromatic scale in the right hand, and octaves only in the left hand. I find I can keep up with my fastest right hand chromatic scale in the left hand octaves. I don't play this between the keys.

The mind helps prepare the hand motions when seeing cluster groups.

Gb scale (Gb Ab Bb B) (Db Eb F)

[robertslistening]

I found an interesting opposite to this idea. Playing Gb(finger 4) Ab(finger 3) Bb(finger 2) Db(finger 3) Eb(finger 2) and repeat in ascending motion it seems to work out better with more of an opposite rotation. I try to keep the hands fairly level, but when I get to Db after the Bb, it seems continuing the rotation in the same direction causes slips. It seems to work better like an opposite change of direction rotation. This might be because of the skips from Bb to Db and Eb to Gb.

[musicisasuperpower]

@ronstab The great thing about this system is most of it can happen underneath other techniques they are used to. With scales I agree very much with her, but with octaves I like to add a bit of wrist bending [wrist does not move, just bends hands up slightly] and it adds speed, and it has the same effect as her "plucking of the fingertips". Again it is very very slight movement, but the more muscles you can use the less stress put on a single one.

[slapmyfunkybass]

there is no such thing as correct fingering, only recommended... it isn't whether the correct finger is used, but whether the correct note was played

[mauriciostarosta]

Very interesting lesson. I never thought about using my forearm in this way. It seems to help a lot!

[ronstab]

(Part 6!!) Just one more thought...cziffra1980 has me stimulated...I think "what you're really doing" (at the end of Part 5 of this thread) was not a good way for me to end that last sentence. I think "what is happening" would have been better. I think the larger rotation in the practice phase is a means to learn rotational freedom so that, in speed, the arm is free to respond rotationally to things like the impetus of the fingers, the return force from the keys, etc. Ah--WORDS are difficult!

[ronstab]

(Last part! Part 5 Phew...) I guess my point, cziffra1980, is that if you were hypothetically to take a lesson with a great teacher of this work and you were already able to transfer arm weight as you walk from finger to finger in speed without strain (if I may borrow some of your descriptions of playing), I doubt the teacher would say a word to you about rotation unless you asked. I wouldn't get too bogged down with whether or not "rotation" accurately describes what you're really doing.