(11) Basic Key Stroke; Legato, Staccato

The basic keystroke consists of 3 main components, the downstroke, hold, and lift. This might sound like a trivially simple thing to learn, but it is not because each component has a method and a purpose, and the pianist must know how to use the keys to manipulate the jack, backcheck, and hammer shank flex ( Askenfelt, Anders, Ed., ). The fact is, few beginners do it correctly.

The downstroke is what creates the piano sound; in the correct motion, it must be a single accelerating motion, yet with control of the volume. The timing of this downstroke must be extremely accurate. The suggestion to "play deeply into the keys" means the downstroke must not slow down; it must accelerate all the way to the bottom so that control over the hammer is never lost. Practice this by starting the keystroke slowly rather than accelerating the end.

The Steinway "accelerated action" works because it adds acceleration to the hammer motion by use of a rounded pivot under the center key bushing [see item 5 in (80) Grand Piano Action Diagram , where it is just a felt bushing instead of a rounded pivot]. This causes the pivot point to move forward with the keydrop thus shortening the front side of the key and lengthening the back side and causing the capstan to accelerate for a constant keydrop. This illustrates the importance piano designers place on accelerating the keydrop in order to produce good tone. The effectiveness of the "accelerated action" is controversial because there are excellent pianos without this feature - in which case the acceleration is entirely controlled by the pianist. Obviously, it is more important for the pianist to control this acceleration than to depend on the piano. Nonetheless, this factor might explain the overwhelming preference of concert pianists for Steinways. Adding accelerator features to digitals should be trivial, but may be meaningless because there is no hammer shank flex effect. Fast flexor muscles must be developed for the downstroke, as well as rapid relaxation after the downstroke.

The hold component holds the hammer still using the backcheck [item 26 in (80) Grand Piano Action Diagram ] to accurately control the note duration, which means that the pianist must maintain a downward force during the hold. Without the hold, the hammer can flop around and cause problems with repeated notes, trills, etc. Thus the hold is important in a trill. Beginners will have difficulty with making quick transitions from the downstroke to a relaxed hold. Do not push down on the key during the hold in an attempt to "push deeply into the piano", because this will result in stress, pain, and even injury. Although you may not press down firmly as a beginner, a student can end up pressing with incredible force after years of this bad habit. Gravity is sufficient to keep the key down and hold the hammer still with the backcheck. The length of the hold is what controls color and expression; therefore it is an important part of playing musically, and may be the most difficult component to control.

The lift causes the damper to fall onto the strings and terminates the sound. Together with the hold, it determines the note duration. The lift must be fast in order to control the note duration accurately. If the damper is not returned rapidly, it will make a buzzing sound with the vibrating string. Therefore, the pianist must develop fast extensor muscles. Especially when playing fast, many students forget about the lift entirely, resulting in sloppy play.

In normal play , the lift of the previous note coincides with the downstroke. If you had never practiced these components before, start practice with fingers 1-5, C to G, C major scale, and apply the components to each finger. To exercise the extensor muscles, exaggerate the quick lift stroke; practice rapid lifts with immediate relaxation, not an isometric high lift and hold.

This basic keystroke practice is much more important than most students realize. It is obvious that you aren't going to play piano this way, so why practice it? With a minimum of practice, it quickly becomes an automatic part of how you play everything, because you will hear the difference in the music. The basic keystroke is another justification for the slow gradual approach to pianism used by many piano schools such as the arm weight, Alexander, and Feldenkrais schools.

Keep all the non-playing fingers on the keys, lightly. As you speed up the down and lift strokes, starting at about one note per second, stress may start to build up; practice until the stress can be eliminated. Then gradually speed up to some comfortable speed at which you can still practice each component. What is so magical is that if practiced diligently, the basic keystroke will be automatically incorporated into your play when playing at regular speed. There is no need to worry about losing these motions because the difference is clear: the music will deteriorate if they are not properly executed.

Now do the same with any slow music, such as the 1st movement of Beethoven's Moonlight, HS. If you had never done this before, HT will initially be awkward because so many components in both hands must be coordinated. However, with practice, the music will come out better, with more control over the expression and the music. The performances will be consistent from day to day, and technique will progress more rapidly. Without a good basic keystroke, different pianos, or pianos that are not in good regulation, can become impossible to play because the hammer will flop around uncontrollably.

In the old schools of teaching, students were taught to execute correctly by striving for good touch and tone, without worrying about jacks or backchecks. Today's better educated students must deal with the reality of what is happening in the piano because that provides more precise instructions on how to execute. For example, the implications of the basic keystroke change for digitals because they don't have jacks, backchecks, or hammers, which is one reason why advanced pianists prefer acoustic pianos. Still, the basic keystroke must be practiced with digitals because it is part of good technique and it is clearly audible.

Legato is smooth play. This is accomplished by connecting successive notes – do not lift the first note until the second one is played. Fraser recommends considerable overlap of the two notes. The first moments of a note contain a lot of "noise" so that overlapping notes are not that noticeable. Since legato is a habit that must be built into your playing, experiment with different amounts of overlap to see how much overlap gives the best legato for you. If you have already developed your own habit, it may be difficult to change; be prepared to work on this over a long time. Then practice until the optimized motion becomes a new habit. Chopin considered legato as the most important skill to develop for a beginner. Chopin's music requires special types of legato and staccato (Ballade Op. 23); you should listen to recordings and practice them using this Ballade.

Staccato: Astonishingly, most books on learning piano discuss staccato, but never define it! In staccato, the hammer is bounced off the strings and the damper is returned immediately onto the strings so as to produce a brief sound with no sustain. Therefore, the "hold" component of the basic keystroke is missing and the hand is held above the keys after playing the note, not resting on the keys. There are two notations for staccato, the normal (dot) and hard (filled triangle). In both, the jack [#1 in (80) Grand Piano Action Diagram ] is not released. In normal staccato, the key drop is about half way down. In hard staccato, it is less than half way; in this way, the damper is returned to the strings faster, resulting in shorter note duration. The finger moves down and up rapidly. Because the backcheck is not engaged, the hammer can "bounce around", making staccato repetitions tricky at certain speeds. Thus if you have trouble with rapidly repeated staccatos, don't immediately blame yourself -- it may be the wrong frequency at which the hammer bounces the wrong way. By changing the speed, amount of key drop, etc., you should be able to eliminate the problem.

In normal staccato, gravity quickly returns the damper onto the strings (grand pianos; in uprights, springs are used). In hard staccato, the damper is bounced off the damper top rail [ (80) Grand Piano Action Diagram , click on more detailed diagram link at bottom], so that it returns even more quickly. At string contact, the hammer shank flex can be negative, which makes the effective mass of the hammer lighter; thus a considerable variety of tones can be produced with staccato. Therefore, the motions of the hammer, backcheck, jack, and damper are all changed in staccato. Clearly, in order to play staccato well, it helps to understand how the piano works. Don't blame yourself when something unexpected happens because staccato is too complex to figure out; your only option is to try different things to see what works. Staccato is not just a very short note!

Staccato can be divided into three types depending on how it is played: (i) finger staccato, (ii) wrist (or hand) staccato, and (iii) arm staccato which includes both up-down motion and arm rotation. As you progress from (i) to (iii), more mass is added behind the fingers; therefore, (i) gives the lightest, fastest staccato and is useful for fast, soft notes, and (iii) gives the heaviest feeling and is useful for loud passages and chords with many notes, but is also the slowest. (ii) is in between. In practice, most of us probably combine all three.

Since the wrist and arm are slower (heavier), their amplitudes must be correspondingly reduced in order to play faster staccato. Some teachers frown on the use of wrist staccato, preferring mostly finger staccato because of its speed or arm staccato for its power; however, it is better to have a choice (or combination) of all three. For example, you might be able to reduce fatigue by changing from one to the other, although the standard method of reducing fatigue is to change fingers. When practicing staccato, practice the three (finger, wrist, arm) staccatos separately before deciding on which one to use, or how to combine them.