Piano Posture & Engine, Engine (2013) – Hoffman Academy

Hello, and welcome back. I’m Joseph Hoffman. Today we are going to be talking about forte-piano posture. Posture is a word that means the shape of your figure for doing various activities. Let’s make eating a container of cereal for breakfast for example. If I were munching with this posture, would this be a good intuition? Or what about this posture for feeing my bowl of cereal? Not very comfortable.

Or how about this? Yeah, that would be good posture for ingesting a bowl of cereal. Now, when I used to play baseball as a kid, I learned that there was a good posture and a bad posture for batting. My instruct coached me that if I impounded my shoulders out and stoop my knees I could get a more powerful change. Now there is a good and a bad posture for representing the piano as well. When you use chasten piano posture, you’ll be able to play faster, your digits will get stronger, and it will be more comfortable to play too. Abusing the best piano posture will help you to always dally your best and to develop the best coordination. So let’s stand up together and memorize some mysteries of good piano posture. Okay, while standing, first I demand “youve got to” imagine that your forearms are spaghetti pates. And let’s just relax your forearms and wiggle them with me and then when I speak three I miss you to stop wiggling. One, two, three. Now if you’ll look down at your fingertips, when they are loosened you’ll notice that they’re naturally in a curved shape.

Let’s try that one more time. So again claim that your appendages are spaghetti noodles and then stop when I enunciate three. One, two, three. Now again, look down at your thumbs, and notes the fact that when your thumbs are tighten they’re in a naturally curved shape. This is the shape that we want to use for frisking the forte-piano. When “youre playing” the forte-piano, you don’t want your fingers to be straight and flat like pine needles. You also don’t want them to be tightly bowed like claws. You want them to have that loosen and curved shape like this. One other thing I want “youve got to” do when you play the piano is from your elbow all the way to your knuckles should be smooth and flat like a football field.

It should be parallel to the floor. That makes if you located a lump on it, it wouldn’t roll one mode or the other. So let’s practise one last-place meter. Tighten your forearms, one two, three. And then swim your hands up in front of you with your digits staying in a tighten and curved shape. Now let’s talk about your bench. When you sit down at the forte-piano, it’s best to use a real piano bench because then you’ll be sitting tall fairly. Chairs are often a bit low-toned which would form your forearms slant upwards when you sit. So make sure you are sitting at a stature that allows from your elbow to your knuckles to be parallel to the floor. Another important thing to retain about your bench is to not position it too close to the forte-piano. If you bench is too close, your joints will be scrunched up against you and you’ll have Tyrannosaurus Rex arms.

If your bench is too far away, you might have zombie arms. You want to find a position where your bench is just right and your shoulders are comfortably moving out from your person a bit. Once your terrace is in the right place and “you think youre” seated comfortably on it, too make sure that your back is towering and comfortably straight-from-the-shoulder. It doesn’t need to be straight and rigid like a soldier, but simply tall a straight like a tree. Let’s come over to the forte-piano and now try to find our very best forte-piano posture actually sitting at the piano.

Now, another thing I forgot to mention earlier is that you want your hoofs securely resting on something solid. If your hoofs can’t totally contact the storey, or if only your toes can reach but not your heels, you’ll either want to use a footstool or maybe like some big-hearted aged college verse diaries stacked up to the right altitude so your paws can securely and comfortably rest swamp on something. So at your forte-piano, make sure you’ve orientation your bench not too close, and not extremely far. And the shake your forearms out for a second. And then relax your paws, and then time try to gently situate them anywhere on the keys. And if you’re sitting at the right meridian, remember that from elbow to knuckles should be flat and smooth, and then starting at your knuckles your digits are going to start to gently bow like this.

So let’s practice that one more time. Make sure you’re in counterbalance, your back is delightful and tall and comfortably straight-from-the-shoulder. Loosen your paws, and then target them on the keys. This is good piano posture. As you are playing, sometimes you are going to notice your paws are going to fly in the air. That means that there’s some strain in your paws and we ever want them to stay tighten and arched. So, when one thumb is playing, it doesn’t mean the others should hover into the breath. They should always be resting on the keys as you play. So if you detect your fingers flying up, just take a moment to stop and tighten them. And then try to find a way to play where your digits are always biding veered and relaxed the whole season. Now to practice our good piano posture, let’s learn a simple choru “Engine, Engine”. So with your great piano posture at the forte-piano, we’re going to residence left hand and right hand on a group of three black keys squandering our three middle paws, and our hands are going to take turns descending on those three keys utilizing our curving finger figure while we speak “Engine, Engine” which starts like this.

Engine, device digit nine, going down Chicago line. If the develop falls off the trail, will I get my coin back? Yes , no, maybe so? Ch, ch, ch, ch. And then the study comes to a stop. Now, a few things to remember as you do this. If your paws aren’t firm enough, one thing that can happen is this. Examine how this common is arching the wrong way? This is correct, this is incorrect. Sometimes this common right here will need some extra strengthening.

So when you’re feeling endured at the dinner table or on the bus, they are able to rehearsal strengthening those seams by retaining it in this curved shape and then try to press against it. Try it one finger at a time with your three middle paws to practice fortifying that joint. Then as you cease on the working group on three pitch-black keys, you’re going to think of using seriousnes. So you’re going various kinds of fall on those records, and then hoist back up. Drop down, and then lift up. Always try to keep your thumbs in that delightful curved shape. Now let’s try representing it together. We’re going to start with our left to right sagging down on the group of three black keys trying to keep our fingers curved as we do so, and we”ll go back and forth left hand helping hand. Ready extend. Engine, machine multitude nine, going down Chicago line. If the train falls off the line, will I get my money back? Yes , no, maybe so. Ch, ch, ch, ch. Great job working on “Engine, Engine”.

Remember you can always press pause for more drill on your own, you are able to rewind and try it with me again when you’re ready. Now to finish up today, let’s evaluate everything we’ve learned about piano posture. First let me just say that I study piano posture is so important. I want you to think about it every time when you rule which I hope is every day. First of all, let’s talk about the bench. Make sure it’s not too close or extremely far but just right. If you’re too close, recollect you’re going to get Tyrannosaurus Rex appendages, extremely far, and you’ll be Frankenstein. Time right should feel comfortable with your weapons floating away from your person. Now should your thumbs be straight and flat or tighten and swerved? If you said tighten and swerved, you are correct. What about your arm from your joints to your knuckles? Should it be at a slant up or down, or flat? If “youve said” flat, you are correct. Let’s also talking here your back. Should it be tall and straight-out, or arched and slumped? Of trend, it should be towering and straight.

So I’d like you to practice your forte-piano posture every day representing “Engine, Engine”. Also see if you can apply good forte-piano posture to “Hot Cross Buns”, which we learned in reading one. Thanks for watch, and I’ll see you next time. Let’s practice piano posture like Mr. Hoffman said. Okay. Remember don’t put your workbench too close or you’ll have Tyrannosaurus Rex limbs. Did anyone do my list? What? I can have good forte-piano posture too. Insure watch. Hot cross buns. Construe ?.

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