Piano Technique: Spring forward wrist/bounce motions applied to piano literature

http://arioso7.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/piano-technique-spring-forward-wristbounce-motions-applied-t...

I use Edna-Mae Burnham’s Dozen a Day exercises with my adult students because of their application to the piano literature. Naturally, pupils transpose these warm-ups to all Major and minor keys around the Circle of Fifths though these short romps are written within the scope of five-finger positions.

A particular favorite is “HOPPING” (in staccato)--see attached- which I have students play first in quarter notes with a wrist spring forward motion for each impulse, followed by their playing the same warm-up in 8th notes, where the wrist springs forward for the first 8th, and bounces like a rebound effect into the second.

This very motion, when mastered, is perfectly applied to the bass line of Tchaikovsky’s NEW DOLL from his Op. 39 Album for the Young, and in the embedded video, I demonstrate its pertinence and transference.

http://youtu.be/h_0UpDP22FM

(Nearly every day, I set a goal to be a quick but thorough study, “reading” through new material, and affording myself opportunities to transpose.)

I recommend the same for my students.

Play through NEW DOLL

http://youtu.be/S2L4gpIHRyo

P. 1 of “NEW DOLL,” by Tchaikovsky, Op. 39 (An excerpt from Rada Bukhman’s collection, The Magic Link, Piano Albums by Schumann and Tchaikovsky)

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