(28) Jumps, PP, FF, Feeling the Keys
Accomplished pianists jump effortlessly, playing rapidly and accurately no matter where the notes are. Students with no jump training can't figure out how anyone can do that. They have trouble because they tend to move the hand along an inverted V motion that makes it difficult to hit a note accurately because the hand is coming down at some arbitrary angle that changes with every jump. These changes increase the possibility of missing the notes, and the keys are played by a sideways motion instead of straight down. Another difficulty is that fast jumps are impossible because they can never get there in time.
Jumps (leaps) consist of four motions: (1) the takeoff, (2) a horizontal translation of the hand to the correct position, (3) feeling the keys at the destination, and (4) the actual downward motion to play. The combined motion should look more like an inverted "U" than an inverted "V". This inverted U has short legs and a flat top; that is, do not raise the hand far above the keys, at least in the beginning; the one exception is when you need to go over the other hand.
Get into the habit of making quick takeoffs regardless of the speed of the jump. There is nothing wrong with getting there way ahead of time. Even when practicing slowly, you should practice quick takeoffs so that the skill will be there when you need it. Start the take-off with a small downward and sideways kick of the wrist, launching the hand towards the destination. Unlike the downward motion at the end, the take-off does not have to be straight up, and you immediately start towards the destination.
The most important skill to practice is to make the horizontal motion as fast as possible so as to reserve enough time to locate the keys after the hand reaches its destination. You may be amazed at how much faster you can move horizontally with only a few days of practice -- something some students never achieve in a lifetime because they were never taught this motion.
To practice fast horizontal motions, sit anywhere with the elbow straight down, forearm pointing forward, fingers spread out in piano playing position. Quickly move the hand sideways, parallel to the floor, as in a jump motion. Move the hand rapidly away from you and stop, then immediately relax; the shoulder does not move. Then move rapidly back to its original position. Practice these out and in motions, as fast as you can, but completely relaxing after each motion. Most of this motion is a swinging rotation of the forearm around the upper arm, with a small motion of the elbow. From day one, you should see immediate improvements in your jumps if you had never practiced this before; but in time, this horizontal speed will increase so much that jumps will quickly become easy.
Feeling the keys can be executed surprisingly quickly. There is usually plenty of time to do this. Therefore, it is a good policy to always feel the keys because it guarantees 100% accuracy. There are a few instances in which there is no time to feel the keys, and those few can be played accurately if you had located most of the other jumps accurately by feeling them. The habit of feeling keys improves your general accuracy for locating the keys even when not feeling them because you develop a more precise map of the key locations in the mind.
Now that you know the components of a jump, look for them when watching concert pianists performing. You should now be able to identify each component, and you may be amazed at how often they feel the keys before striking them and how they can execute these components in the blink of an eye. These skills will enable you to make long jumps, even without looking at the hands.
In order to reduce stress, relax all muscles as soon as the horizontal motion is over, and as soon as the notes are played. Frequently encountered pieces to practice easy jumps are: (1) for the LH, the 4th variation in Mozart's Sonata in A, #11 (K331); this variation has large jumps in which the LH crosses over the RH and (2) RH, 1st movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata (Opus 13), right after the LH octave tremolos (after bar 50), where the RH makes jumps crossing over the LH. A more challenging passage is Chopin's Ballade Op. 23, at the end, the LH jumps in the first half of the "Presto con fuoco".
Use the easy jumps to practice accelerating the horizontal motion, stopping over the correct position, and feeling the keys before playing. The idea here is to establish a habit of always getting to the destination ahead of time. Once the quick horizontal motion is satisfactory, speed up the tempo and combine all four jump components into one smooth motion. Now your jump looks just like those of the concert pianists you envied. Better yet, jumps are now easy and fun!
PP, FF: Practicing loud or practicing on a piano with heavy action is bad for technique. Some pianists ask their tuners to add extra weight to the action, in the mistaken belief that this will strengthen their fingers; it certainly will, but it will also limit technical development. It is impossible to practice PP on such pianos, and FF will not be as loud because so much energy is wasted in pressing the keys instead of moving the hammers faster.
It is difficult to play softly (P), and PP is impossible, on a piano that is out of regulation or not voiced. Most uprights fail on both PP and FF tests, and this is one of the major differences between uprights and quality grands. The fact that it looks like a grand does not automatically qualify it as a true grand. Practically all baby grands are not true grands. If the instrument can't produce PP or FF, you can't practice them! This is the main reason why so many students cannot play PP or FF; it is not the students' fault.
Except for high quality grands that are properly regulated, most acoustic piano actions are too heavy because of the difficulty of producing responsive mechanical actions that are lighter. Chopin and Horowitz's pianos are famous for their light actions.
Digital pianos do not have this limitation and therefore have lighter actions. They must have a certain minimum weight so that the pianist practicing on a digital can also play on acoustic pianos with their heavier actions. Today, they may still be too heavy for optimum weight, but this point is controversial because action that is too light is less forgiving in some respects: depending on the action and the pianist, a heavier action can give better results for difficult material because of the possibility of accidentally hitting wrong notes when the fingers are flying all over. This is one reason why quiet fingers [Quiet Hands & Fingers] is so important. Therefore, the question of what key weight is best has not been settled, and probably depends on the individual; however, today's digitals, with their lighter actions, may be closer to the optimum than acoustic pianos.
Unfortunately, the lighter action of digitals does not mean that they are better in terms of response, PP, and FF. The more expensive digitals have better responses. To really test them out, they should be hooked to quality audio systems, especially the speakers. This is why many digitals are sold today, bundled with sub-woofers. PP is best practiced using staccato practice [(25) Staccato Practice, Soft Practice].
FF is a new skill; learning FF and technique at the same time is difficult — learn technique first, practicing at P, then add FF. FF is produced by the force from the shoulders more than the hands. It is a forceful acceleration during the keydrop. It is not necessary to lift the hand high above the keys; the acceleration during keydrop is the key. Relaxation is especially important for FF because any tension will siphon away the energy that you need.