(30) Thumb Under, Thumb Over, Glissando Motion, Pivoting

Scales and arpeggios are the most basic piano passages; yet the most important method for playing them is often not taught! There are two ways to play them. The first is the well- known "Thumb Under" (TU) method and the second is what I have named the "Thumb Over" (TO) method.

In the TU method, the thumb is brought under the hand in order to pass the 3rd or 4th finger for playing the scale. This TU operation is facilitated by two unique structures of the thumb; it is shorter than the other fingers and can be moved under the palm.

In the TO method, the thumb is treated like any other finger and is not moved under the palm, thus simplifying the motion, as discussed below. Both methods are required to play the scale but each is needed under different circumstances; TO is needed for fast, difficult passages and TU is useful for slow, legato passages, or when notes need to be held while playing other notes.

For lack of a better terminology, I have named the TO method "Thumb Over" which is an obvious misnomer and might make it harder for a beginner to understand how to play it. I have tried other names, but none are any better; one advantage is that this outrageous nomenclature is can call attention to the existence of TO.

Before about 2010, many piano teachers were unaware of the TO method, even at conservatories. This presented few difficulties as long as the students did not progress to advanced levels. In fact, with sufficient effort and work, it is possible to play fairly difficult passages using the TU method and there have been accomplished pianists who think that TU is the only method they need, because that's all they were taught. In reality, for sufficiently fast passages, especially for the chromatic scale, they have learned to modify the TU method in such a way that it approaches the TO method. This modification is necessary because for such rapid scales, it is impossible to play them using TU.

Many students practice slowly initially and then ramp up the speed. They do fine using TU at slow speeds and consequently acquire the TU habit and find out, when they get up to speed, that they need to change to TO. This change can be a frustrating and time consuming task, not only for scales, but also for any fast run or arpeggio -- another reason why the ramping up method for increasing speed is not recommended; speed is increased by finding new motions.

The main piano playing muscles for the thumb are in the forearm. However, the thumb has other muscles that move it in the TU method. These extra muscles make TU a more complex motion that slows play, creates speed walls, and causes mistakes. Teachers who teach TO claim that, for those who use TU exclusively, 90% of their flubs originate with the TU motion (Whiteside, Abby,).

The disadvantages of the TU method can be demonstrated by observing the loss of thumb mobility in its tucked-in position. First, stretch all fingers out so that they are in the same plane. All the fingers, including the thumb, have mobility up and down. Now, wiggle the thumb up and down rapidly without forearm rotation -- it can move 3 or 4 cm vertically with ease (rapidly). Then, while still wiggling at the same rapid rate, gradually pull the thumb under the hand -- as it goes under, it loses vertical mobility until it becomes immobile, almost paralyzed, when it is under the middle finger. Now stop the wiggling and thrust the thumb down (without moving the wrist) -- it moves down! This is because there is another set of muscles for pushing the thumb down. Then, using these new muscles, try to move the thumb up and down rapidly -- you should find that these new muscles are much clumsier and the up and down motion is slower than the wiggle rate of the thumb when it was stretched out.

TO is easier to learn than TU because it does not require the sideways contortions of the thumb, hand, arm, and elbow needed for TU. Beginners should be taught TU first because it is needed for slow passages and takes longer to learn. The TO method should be taught as soon as faster scales are needed, within the first two years of lessons. For fast learners, TO must be taught within months of their first lessons, as soon as they master TU.

Because there are two ways to play the scale, there are two schools of teaching on how to play it. The TU school (Czerny, Leschetizky) claims that TU is the only way that legato scales can be played and that, with sufficient practice, TU can play scales at any speed. The TO school (Whiteside, Abby,, Sándor) has gradually taken over and the more strict adherents forbid the use of TU, under any circumstance. Both extremes are wrong because both skills are necessary.

The TO teachers are understandably frustrated by the fact that advanced students passed to them by private teachers often do not know TO and it takes months or years to correct hours of repertoire that they had learned the wrong way. Students should standardize to TO and use TU as an exception to the rule. Chopin taught both methods (Eigeldinger, P. 37).

Although the TO method was rediscovered by Whitesides, etc., the earliest account of its use dates back to at least Franz Liszt (Fay). Liszt is known to have stopped performing and returned to improving his technique for over a year when he was about 20 years old. He was dissatisfied with his technique (especially for playing scales) when compared to the magical performances of Paganini on the violin, and experimented with technique. At the end of this period, he emerged satisfied with his new skills but could not teach others exactly what he had done to improve -- he could only demonstrate on the piano (this was true of most of Liszt's "teachings"). However, Amy Fay noticed that he now played the scale differently; instead of TU, Liszt was "rolling the hand over the passed finger" so that the thumb fell on the next key. It took Fay many months to imitate this method but, according to her, it "completely changed my way of playing" and resulted in a marked improvement in her technique generally, not only for playing scales.

How to play TO: consider the RH, C major ascending scale, played 1231234. The thumb is played like the other fingers; it is raised and lowered without the sideways TU motion under the palm. Since the thumb is shorter than the other fingers, it can be brought down almost parallel to the passed finger without colliding with it. Move the hand so that the thumb moves towards its new position. The forearm should be almost 45 degrees to the keyboard (pointing left); this also moves the thumb in the right direction. For scales such as the C major, both the thumb and passed finger are on white keys and will necessarily crowd each other, so that you need to curl the fingers. The hand is rolled over the passed finger by using the passed finger as a pivot. The passed finger must then be quickly moved away as the thumb comes down. It is not possible to hold the passed finger down until the thumb plays, unlike the TU method. When you first try the TO method, the scale will be uneven and there may be a "gap" when playing the thumb. Therefore, the transition from passed finger to thumb must be quick even in a scale played slowly.

Glissando motion: When playing fast scales, the hand/arm orientations should be similar to those of a glissando, with a small forearm rotation (RH ascending, supinated [(36) Hand Motions]) so that all fingers point slightly backwards. This motion positions the thumb closer to the passed fingers, making the pass smoother, and the fingertips move backwards with each keydrop. This backwards motion helps to keep the fingers on the keys as the hand moves forwards. This was one of the most important motions taught by Chopin (Fraser). In TO, the hand is always moving smoothly forward, yet the vector force on the key is straight down, because of the glissando motion.

Pivoting can be used to play legato TO, without having to use TU, a method taught by Combe. In this action, the fingers and hand are pivoted around the tip of the passed finger so that the passed finger stays on the key as long as possible. The pivoting motion requires a clockwise forearm rotation (supination, RH ascending). Practice passing and pivoting of finger 3 using 123123123123. . . . fingering on just the white keys (C major). Similarly, practice pivoting on the 4th finger using 1234123412341234 . . . . fingering. Because a skilled pivoting motion can produce excellent legato, especially for slow passages, some teachers claim that TU is unnecessary.

Beginners find TO to be easier than TU, but those who learned TU for many years may initially find TO clumsy, uneven, and difficult to understand because changing the TU habits is so difficult.

For the RH descending scale, you pivot and roll over the thumb, which is easier than pivoting and rolling over the passed finger for the RH ascending scale. The glissando motion is now reversed, so that the fingers are pointing to the right (hand pronated). The 45 degree forearm position does not change.

For TO, the movement of the thumb is controlled mostly by the hand whereas for TU, the combined motion of the thumb and hand determines the thumb location. Because the hand motion is smooth, the thumb is positioned more accurately for TO than for TU, thus reducing mistakes. The ascending scale becomes similar to the descending scale, because you always roll over the passed fingers. Playing hands together becomes easier since all fingers of both hands are always rolling over. Another bonus is that the thumb can now play a black key. For students who know only TU, the thumb is not "free". We shall see that a free thumb is the most versatile finger [(31) Thumb, Most Versatile Finger, Power Thumb].

The LH is the reverse of the RH.

Because some students have difficulty visualizing TO, I have posted a video of "TU- TOscale" on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLTbURVEEO4

The video shows the RH playing two octaves TO, ascending and descending, played twice. This is then repeated using TU. To non-pianists, these may appear to be essentially the same, although the TU motion was slightly exaggerated. This illustrates why videos of piano motions are not as helpful as one might think. The TO motions ascending are basically correct. The TO motions descending has one error -- a slight bending of the nail phalange of the thumb. At these moderate speeds, this slight bending does not affect the play, but in strict TO, the thumb should remain straight for both ascending and descending play. This example illustrates the importance of learning TO as soon as possible. My tendency to bend the nail phalange is the result of using only TU for many decades, before I learned TO. Watch the lessons on scale playing on Youtube by others and you will see that most of them teach only TU. However, when they play scales fast, they use motions close to TO. To see those videos in slow motion, go to YoutubeSlow. Motions not demonstrated in my videos are glissando motion and the pivoting action on the passed finger for TO legato.

How to practice fast TO scales: The RH C major ascending scale consists of the parallel sets (PSs) 123 and 1234. First, practice a fast 123, with 1 on C4. Then practice 1231 with the TO motion. The last 1 in the 1231 is the conjunction (continuity rule). Repeat with 1234, with 1 on F4, and then 12341, with the last 1 rolling over the 4, and landing on C5. Play fingers 234 close to the black keys in order to give the thumb more area to land on. Turn the forearm and wrist so that the fingertips of 2345 make a straight line parallel to the keyboard. The forearm should make an angle of almost 45 degrees to the keyboard. Then connect the two PSs to complete the octave. After you can do one octave, do two, etc.. Always play with the tip of the thumb, towards the front of the thumb nail.

One fast octave (about 1 octave/sec.) should be achievable after a few minutes of practice for anyone who has been practicing piano for over a year (let's not worry about evenness yet!). Practice relaxing to the point where you can feel the weight of the arm. When you become proficient with TO, long scales should be as easy as short ones and HT will be easier than with TU. There is never any need to practice fast scales HT and, until you become quite proficient, fast HT scale practice will do more harm than good because it wastes too much time for little gain, and causes stress. Most advanced teachers (Gieseking) consider practicing fast HT scales to be a waste of time.

To speed up the PSs, RH 123 and 1234, play them with one down motion of the hand, including the conjunctions. To connect the two PSs, you can either rotate the forearm or lift the hand at the end of the first PS. The up and down wrist motion is preferred over the forearm rotation because it is simpler, and the rotation can be reserved for other uses (Sandor). If you now try to play several octaves, it may initially come out like a washboard.

The fastest way to speed up scale playing is to cycle only one octave, up and down, continuously. Once you are up to the faster speeds, cycle 2 octaves up and down. At high speeds, these shorter octaves are more useful because you need to practice how to reverse direction at the top and bottom. The way to play fast reverses at the top and bottom is to play them with a single downward pressure of the hand and reverse the glissando direction before you reach each end. For example, to reverse at the top, play the last ascending PS, the conjunction, and the first PS coming down, all in one downward motion. In this scheme, the conjunction is effectively eliminated by incorporating it into one of the PSs. This is one of the most effective ways of playing a fast conjunction -- by making it disappear! At the same time, reverse the glissando orientation before you reach the top.

Thus the glissando motion allows the hand to glide smoothly. Practice this motion when cycling one octave up and down; the glissando motion should resemble the sideways body motion of a skater, with alternate feet kicking sideways and the body tilting left and right. The hand should pronate or supinate with each change of direction of the octave. As in skating, where you must lean in the opposite direction before changing the direction of motion, the reversal of glissando hand orientation must precede the change in direction of the scale at fast speeds.

For the RH descending TO scale, practice the PS 54321, and the other relevant PSs, with and without their conjunctions. Make a small modification to avoid letting the thumb fold completely under the hand while the next PS is rolling over the thumb. Lift the thumb as early as possible while keeping the scale smooth, by raising and/or rotating the wrist to pull the thumb up -- almost the reverse of what was done for the ascending scale. If the thumb folds completely under the palm, it will become paralyzed and difficult to move to the next position. For TU play, the thumb can be allowed to fold completely under the palm. Because this motion is somewhat similar in TO and TU, and differ only in degree, it can easily be played incorrectly. Although the differences in motion are small visually, the difference in feel to the pianist should be like night and day for fast passages.

It is instructive to practice the B major scale for practicing TO. See Table 1.1 [(29) Scales: Nomenclature and Fingerings] for scale fingerings. In this scale, only the thumb and pinky play the white keys, except for the bottom starting finger (4) of the LH. All other fingers play the black keys. This scale has the following advantages:

(1) It is easier to play, especially for those with large hands or long fingers. Each key falls naturally under each finger and there is plenty of room for every finger. For this reason, Chopin taught this scale to beginners before teaching the C major scale.

(2) It is used to practice playing the black keys using flatter finger positions. The black keys are more difficult to play (easier to miss) using curled positions because they are narrower, and require greater accuracy. Beginners often dislike the black keys for this reason. The flat finger positions completely solve this problem.

(3) The flat finger positions are better for practicing legato and tonal control. This builds confidence in playing black keys.

(4) TO play is easier with this scale. This is why C major was used to illustrate the TO method: with B major, it is more difficult to see the difference between TU and TO because TU is not needed. However, once you understand the difference, B major is better for practicing TO because it is easier.

(5) The LH, RH thumbs are synchronized in the B major scale, making it possible to practice HT, PS by PS. Thus HT play is easier than for the C major scale. Once you become proficient with B major HT, learning C major HT becomes easier, saving you time. If you want to show off how well you can play scales, use B major!! Thanks, Freddie!

Those who learned only TU must now learn TO. At first, it might feel as if the fingers get all tangled up and understanding TO is difficult. Good news: you already know how to play TO! Play a very fast chromatic scale, starting with C, (RH): 13131231313 . . . . . If you can play a fast chromatic scale, the thumb motion is the same as for TO because it is impossible to play a fast chromatic scale TU. Now slow down this fast chromatic thumb motion and transfer it to the B major scale.

Once the B major TO is mastered, apply this motion to C major. The only difference between playing a TO scale and a fast chromatic scale is that you can play the chromatic scale with the hand almost perpendicular to the keyboard, instead of almost 45 degrees for the scale. You will find the glissando motion useful for the chromatic scale also, but the hand rotation is much smaller.

Those who are new to TO, and have learned many pieces using TU, must convert everything to TO. One way to accomplish the switch is to practice scales and arpeggios first so that you become comfortable with TO. Then learn a few new compositions using TO. After about 6 months or so, when TO has become comfortable, start converting all old pieces to TO.

TO and TU are the extremes of two ways to use the thumb: there is a continuum of intermediate motions between them. Learning TO will improve how you play TU because the thumb becomes more capable: it becomes free. This freedom transforms the thumb into a most versatile finger (next section).

We can never play scales well enough. When practicing scales, always try to accomplish something -- smoother, softer, clearer, more authoritative. Be sure to practice staccato after practicing with the PSs. Make the hands glide, the scale sing; add color, excitement. There is no such thing as a maximum speed in parallel playing. Speed and accuracy can be increased all your life -- which is a lot of fun and is certainly addicting. To demonstrate speed or to impress an audience, you can use scales and arpeggios at least as well as any piece of music, provided you had practiced musically all the time.