| This article will hopefully give the piano student a better | | | | parallel with this opinion runs the generally accepted |
| idea of how to acquire the knowledge, which is | | | | one that touch, or, the method of producing correct |
| necessary if the piano student wants to play the piano | | | | tone, cannot be taught, and is entirely a "gift." |
| well. That is the knowledge to produce a good tone. | | | | When a great pianist plays, there is a beauty, delicacy, |
| It is necessary for the piano student to observe, and | | | | and richness of tone in what the piano player |
| learn fully and precisely, as much of the mechanism of | | | | produces. This is usually thought to piano players touch |
| the piano as possible. It is only with careful study that a | | | | being born with the player. Or to the fact that his |
| scientific knowledge of piano-touch can be attained. No | | | | fingers have been for so many years never off the |
| piano student, however musically gifted they may be, | | | | keys, or to his large hands, or long fingers. Or to some |
| can, in these days of "higher development," afford to | | | | other qualification possessed only by pianists of similar |
| depend solely on the aesthetic side of his nature for | | | | rank, and quite out of the reach of less gifted players. |
| the cultivation of his technique. | | | | In examining the question of how one may learn to |
| If the technical study of the piano is approached in a | | | | produce good tone, the following fact should offer a |
| spirit of calm inquiry, there is no reason why a study of | | | | foundation for observation and reasoning, that is to |
| the piano should not brace the mental system of the | | | | say, that both the great artist and the poor player |
| student, and do him as much good as would a careful | | | | have one common field of action in the external |
| study of grammar or geometry. And although this | | | | mechanism of the piano, that is, its Keyboard. |
| technical study is not sufficient of itself to make an | | | | The great artist and the poor player may both be |
| artist, still the benefit derived from it will be always at | | | | seen at work, and notes may therefore be taken of |
| hand to help the piano student unravel many difficulties | | | | their different methods of using the means given them |
| which otherwise could cause a great deal of | | | | for the production of tone. The hands of both obey the |
| frustration, and would slow the learners progress. | | | | same primary laws of muscular movement and the |
| Of all musical instruments, the piano is perhaps the one, | | | | piano, is a keyboard instrument that will reproduce |
| which a player can, quite easily misuse. The pianist has | | | | accurately what is being played on it, good or bad, and |
| an almost unlimited freedom of movement for the | | | | no respecter of who is playing. It is simply the |
| body, arms, and hands; and the instrument imposes | | | | acted-upon, and not the agent. |
| few conditions to its use. Therefore, it is necessary for | | | | When therefore the great artist is seen to use his |
| the student to have a knowledge: | | | | hands differently from the poor player. The reason of |
| (1) of the correct use of his limbs, | | | | the different character of the tone must partly be that |
| (2) of how to use correctly the mechanism peculiar to | | | | the method of touching the instrument is different. Part |
| the piano, and | | | | of the reason lies, of course, in the fact, that the great |
| (3) of how to adapt the one exactly to the other, | | | | piano player starts with a greater degree of musical |
| before he can acquire an un-exaggerated style of | | | | talent than the poor piano player does. |
| playing. | | | | But as this article discusses not so much musical |
| It is unfortunately a commonly accepted idea that the | | | | feeling itself, but rather the expressing of musical |
| piano, like the organ, is dependent for its quality of tone | | | | feeling, and as it is very evident that the great piano |
| on the manufacturer alone, and that "Broadwood" or | | | | player does use the hand differently from the poor |
| "Bechstein," as the case may be, is wholly responsible | | | | piano player. |
| for the kind of sound, which the player produces. And | | | | |