How to Play: Burgmüller Op. 100 No. 2 "Arabesque" | Application of "Hanon-Faber" Gestures

[@louisebailey3342]

Another great intro for your new course Charles. I’m heading over Thinkific for the entire course material 😊. More Masterclasses on Burgmueller pieces, would be appreciated. Burgmueller beats the heck out of Hanson exercises. Practicing technique does not have to be boring.

[@PianistAcademy1]

Absolutely!

[@jowr2000]

😁 in Taubman technique, the wrist never drops below level position because the wgt, instead of being transferred to the key, is dissipated at the wrist, compromising the unity of finger, hand, and forearm. There are over and undershapes for sure, but most of the time barely perceptible, esp in speed. Edna Golandsky would say it's "as if" an underhape to avoid the dropping of the wrist. I had a teacher long ago that would have me practice with an exaggerated wrist drop. She didn't take it too kindly when i pointed out that when she plays, her wrist never dropped that low. 😂 ah, technique! so necessary. Edna would say the way we move is the way we sound. There's the connection bet technique and music.

[@PianistAcademy1]

Haha I knew you'd appreciate if I chose this segment of the class to share!!

[@jowr2000]

​@@PianistAcademy1 gonna pull out my Burgmuller and play thru it.

[@christophmunch4796]

Doing the gesture in this way is a start (for the student to feel the movements of his arm and hand), but not sufficient. The wrist and upper arm motions are too big to get the "stability" and "focused momentum" for playing it really cleanly and energetically at any dynamic level. Taubman technique gave me the crucial hint: You have to start the motion out of a (outward, of course) forearm rotation (focus on the point on top of the part of the forearm which is thickest, not far away from the elbow, and start the movement from there) so that, while you indeed feel an "undercurve" for an "outward" melodic movement, wrist and elbow movements remain small and the forearm-hand unit remains intact instead of breaking the energy flow by moving the wrist too much out of the neutral position AND the upper arm doesn't feel "active" or "involved" but just loose and free.

[@PianistAcademy1]

You’re absolutely right, this is just one aspect. I included it here for free instead of other technical things I cover in the full paid course because this is usually the component I see most missing and most causing the tension problems that lead to 3 4 and 5 not executing well. Students that don’t learn to exaggerate the movement easily fall right back into “holding” the hand after just a few attempts at a passage. Every time that happens, we have to almost start back at square one. Whereas, if we learn to freely exaggerate at a slow tempo, as tempo speeds we can learn efficiency of motion and reduce the movement until it’s nearly invisible but still present and aiding playing. I think I even mention it at the end of this video, but I definitely mention in the course that one technique without the others I teach doesn’t give us the full picture. All of the aspects need time to be focused on one at at time, but leave any out and we have an incomplete use of the playing mechanism.

[@christophmunch4796]

@@PianistAcademy1 Yeah, that's right. In my own teaching, I, too, let the students exaggerate the movements first so that they really feel the involvement of all the body parts and how they work together and can reliably feel and see whether they do the movement correctly as I showed it to them. This phase must be kept short, though, IMO.

[@TiagoPiano]

buying,

[@PianistAcademy1]

Hope it helps you on your journey!!