The damper of the piano is the only means of stopping the string's vibrations, which would otherwise continue, longer than is wanted. In violin playing, the same stoppage of tone takes place when the player stops drawing the bow across the strings.
The continuance of the tone, in the case of the piano, depends only negatively on the action of the damper. Positively, it depends on the vibrations of the strings, assisted and reinforced by the large surface of the sounding board, over which they are stretched.
The key, as long as it is kept down by the finger, exercises a restraining influence on the damper, and the finger may therefore be considered to have some slight extra resistance offered to it by the weight of the damper. If this resistance were great enough to be perceived by the finger while keeping the key down, some extra force would be needed to counteract it; but as the weight of the hand and arm are far more than sufficient to resist the weight of the damper, added to that of the key, no extra pressure on the ivory is necessary to keep the damper away from the string.
The hold that the hand keeps on the key after the push, must be accompanied by no continuous clinging pressure, as this after pressure destroys the looseness or elasticity of
the muscles, and makes no greater impression on the damper mechanism, than does a hold of the lightest and loosest description.
The finger work consists of two elements, namely, the push, necessary to make the hammer strike the string, and the hold, necessary to prevent the damper from stopping the
tone. The impulse used in delivering the push should always be of a momentary duration, as the work done by it, namely, the hammer stroke is instantaneously accomplished.
The rapidity used in delivering this push varies, according as the tone is wanted to be either soft or loud. The push ought never to be accompanied by any feeling of strain in the hand or arm, however loud the tone, or long continued the passage to be played, may be. If a strained feeling accompany it, the push has then been made faulty as a real impulse is, strictly speaking, too short lived an action to leave behind it muscular exhaustion.
The second element in the finger work is the hold. This, for want of a better word, must be taken to signify the keeping down of the key by the finger after the push. It consists of no impulse, nor pressure, nor grasp, nor anything else which could mean forcible expenditure of strength. It must consist only of the most studied inactivity of arm and hand, and is thus the opposite of the push.
Clinging tightly to the key after the finger is down does the greatest harm to the hand, and is an instance on the piano of that superfluous energy which accomplishes nothing artistic. The hold must be dissociated entirely from every idea entailing rigidity of hand or arm.
If the student will devote a little time to acquiring a practical mastery of this most important point in the technique of the piano, he will have made himself the possessor of what will, more than anything else, give his playing an appearance of ease.
Article Source: http://www.artsymmetry.com
Michael David Shaw runs music websites
www.mikesmusicroom.co.uk and
www.keyboardsheetmusic.co.uk
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