Make sure you think about the 'In And Out' movement at the piano
Channel: Tommy's Piano Corner
Date: 22/10/2019

This video looks at the importance of the 'in and out' (or forward and backwards) movement of the hands towards the and away from fallboard at the piano.  This is a movement that I had never really made much of a feature of my piano practice sessions.  However, it's a great way of fixing some technical problems

Our hands need to move both towards and away from the fall-board as we play - we all know it.  To an extent, we do this intuitively - especially at slower speeds.  However, it is a movement to which I have never paid any conscious attention.  I always just let my hands move in and out in a subconscious manner, without realising that, especially at speed, I wasn't making the adjustments necessary and this caused problems.

I had often noticed that top flight pianists often play with their thumb hanging totally off the keyboard - but never really thought more about it.  Then, I saw the video below from Josh Wright where he interviews Robert Durso about the Taubman Technique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o17KXUfioR4

In this video, Dr Durso talks about the 'in and out' movement as an essential consideration for good piano technique.  This made a connection in my mind and I started to consider more fully what I had seen with famous pianists.

I have now discovered that in fact my failure to consciously pay attention to this was indeed causing a number of technical issues in my playing that I have since been able to overcome.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

EQUIPMENT:
Fully details of all equipment used are available on my blog at the address below:
http://tommyspianocorner.com/youtube-equipment/ 
Filmed on an iPhone 8+ - using the Filmic Pro app
Audio captured on an iPhone 6S using a Shure MV88 Microphone
Vocals captured on a Rode SmartLav microphone plugged into an iPhone 4S
Video editing done using iMovie
Audio editing done using Garageband

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