FROM LEFT AND RIGHT Tonality or sound

FROM LEFT AND RIGHT

Tonality or sound

 

«The theatre hall determines the fullnen and on many occasions the quality of sound».

 

1. The sound that you produce using your fingers, wrist and hand as a whole, should primarily have depth. In order to achieve this your fingers should maintain a good contact with the keys.

2. The piano is an instrument having a wide sound range; for this reason it can produce the sounds of all other instruments. The artist should, therefore, try to produce, depending on the range within which he is performing, the sounds of several instruments, thus creating the impression of listening to a whole orchestra playing.

3. On many occasions the several melodic lines are in the form of questions and answers between the several orchestral instruments (flute, violins, horns, violoncellos, etc.).

4. When a piece belongs to the romantic era, join the various notes so as to produce a very good «legato». When, however, a piece belongs to the pre-classical or even the classic era (Mozart, Haydn), perform the piece playing «non legato».

5. When having to perform a piece containing chords for the right hand score, then, a special tone must almost always be given to the highest melodic note. A good exercise for achieving this end-result is to shape your palm and fingers above the chord notes, yet only playing the highest note.

6. Most of the times the low notes are played by the left hand (just as the double bass in an orchestra). It is then that one must produce a really beautiful and whole sound and tone, so that an entire series of harmonious notes can be consequently produced from within the soundboard.

7. A view exists, which I also share, that the left pedal usually serves the purpose of producing, according to the piano that is, a dull, gloomy sound or tone; for this reason it should not be frequently used, unless of course, one wishes to produce that particular sound effect.

8. The sound that must be produced varies according to whether we are performing in a small room, a concert hall or a spacious hall. We should always, therefore, keep in mind that it must, qualitatively and quantitatively, be analogous to the room in which the pieces being prepared will eventually be performed.

9. Generally speaking, the sound produced by the piano should be resemble to that produced by the harp, not that produced by percussion.

10. Iron bars inside the piano prevent the sound from escaping to the outside. This opposes the sound of the harp, which possesses an element of freedom, and is much more melodic and clear.

11. We should try to adopt the character of the era during which a piece was composed, yet it is impossible to produce the same sound by means of the modern day piano; this can only be done by using instruments of that particular era.

12. To produce the sound desired, you should try to imagine the tone that various instruments produce; if a piece is melodic, a good thing to do is to sing the various melodies.

13. When performing a composition that has the style of a song at a slightly slower tempo, the sound produced should be fuller and more complete than when performing it at a faster tempo. Performing a piece at a slow tempo is much harder than performing the same piece at a slightly faster tempo - when this is, of course, possible. For this reason, when learning a slow movement of a piece (such as, for example, the first movement of the Sonata Opus 27 Number 2 of L. v. Beethoven), it is preferable to play this faster to begin with, then gradually adopting a slower and more expressive tempo as your performance matures.