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VIDEO. Helping Your Students With Hand Position: Part One

March 3, 2011

How To Teach Piano, Technique

A few weeks ago, I asked you to submit questions about teaching piano to the blog.

Two people submitted questions on the blog, and one via email – and to my surprise, they ALL had something to do with correcting bad hand position on the piano. (Thanks Tami, Lynn and Renee for the questions!)

So I am going to do a series of posts all about helping to correct student’s hand position on the piano.

While doing these posts, I’m also just going to be playing around with different ways of sharing these tips. For this clip;

  • The footage of the student happened spontaneously during his lesson (recorded on my iPhone).
  • The next day (today) I quickly scatched out a simple script/commentary to describe what was happening during the lesson. (You may want to catch the ending)
  • I had fun reading the script from a few different angles directly into my MacBook
  • I quickly edited it with iMovie, and uploaded it to YouTube

So here it is, hope you enjoy it and I hope it helps! Stayed tuned for more ideas on helping with hand position!! And thanks for those questions!!!

Please feel free to leave a comment, let me know if this is helpful or if this is something you’ve also tried before.

Thanks!!

Transcription of the script:

HI FOLKS

A FEW WEEKS AGO ON MY BLOG AT WWW.EVOLVINGMUSICEDU.COM I ASKED PEOPLE TO SUBMIT THEIR QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING PIANO

I DID THIS TO SEE WHAT WOULD BE REALLY HELPFUL FOR OTHER PIANO TEACHERS OUT THERE

I RECEIVED A FEW QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS AND VIA EMAIL – AND TO MY SURPRISE, ALMOST ALL OF THEM HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH HAND POSITION!

SO I AM GOING TO DO A SERIES OF POSTS (ALL PROBABLY WITH SOME SORT OF VIDEO) ALL ABOUT HELPING YOUR PIANO STUDENTS PLAY WITH GOOD HAND POSITION

IN TODAY’S VIDEO YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE ONE TRICK THAT WORKED WITH THIS PARTICULAR STUDENT

HE WAS PLAYING THE NOTES AND RHYTHMS REALLY WELL, BUT WAS OFTEN SLIPPING OUT OF POSITION, USING THE WRONG FINGERS OR HIS FINGERS WOULD STICK UP IN THE AIR…

–FIRST CLIP—

HOPEFULLY THAT CAME ACROSS IN THE VIDEO.

NOW YOU’RE GOING TO SEE ME HAVE HIM MOVE HIS LEFT HAND DOWN AN OCTAV AND HIS RIGHT HAND UP AN OCTAV

–CLIP 2—

I GET GOOD VISUAL AND VERBAL FEEDBACK FROM HIM THAT IT FEELS MORE COMFORTABLE. HE’S MORE ACCURATE WITH USING THE CORRECT FINGERS AND HIS FINGERS STICK OUT LESS.

WE ARE TRYING TO CREATE A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE FOR HIM, OF WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO PLAY WITH GOOD HAND POSITION. WE’RE TRYING TO FIND ANY MODIFICATIONS THAT WILL NATURALLY GET HIS HANDS PLAYING WITH GOOD TECHNIQUE.

THIS SEEMS TO HAVE WORKED PRETTY WELL, SO NOW WE MOVE HIS HAND OUT ANOTHER OCTAV

–CLIP 3—

THIS WORKS GREAT TOO. AND HE’S HAVING FUN.

SO HOPEFULLY THIS HAS HELPED GIVE HIM A GLIMPSE OF WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO PLAY WITH GOOD HAND POSITION

THIS CAME FROM JUST HAVING FUN AND EXPERIMENTING!

SO THAT’S ALL FOR THE FIRST POST / VIDEO IN A SERIES ALL DEDICATED TO HELPING YOUR STUDENTS WITH THEIR HAND POSITION

THERE WILL BE LOTS MORE TIPS TO COME!

THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE FOR SUBMITTING QUESTIONS, AND YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE BLOG AND SIGN UP FOR THE EMAIL LIST AT WWW.EVOLVINGMUSICEDU.COM

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  1. Helping Your Piano Students With Hand Position: Part Two | Evolving Music Education - March 4, 2011

    [...] which comes from a deeper CAUSE. Search for what is causing poor technique. In my last post, where I help a student play with better technique, we found that moving his arms outward to the outer octaves of the piano instantly improved his [...]

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