Hand

The word 'natural' must be the most overused word in piano technique; when something is so described the implication is that everything else is unnatural and, by definition, wrong.

Few would disagree with the following:
A NATURAL POSITION IS A POSITION FROM WHICH THERE IS NO TENDENCY TO MOVE. These clips show how to find the open natural and closed natural positions. It follows that any position between these two extremes can be described as natural.

Thumb

Notes: The thumb is able to reach away from the rest of the fingers, and it has an extra dimension to its movement compared to the fingers. It can move up or down, left or right, and can combine these actions in a circular or elliptical movement.

It's end joint, however, can only move in 1 plane relative to the other joints of the thumb- usually from making a straightish line with the main thumb joint to form an angle of approximately 45 degrees. When this back and forth movement (flick) is combined with the elliptical action of the other joints it will be seen to have a great amount of power to be directed at the key. This power can be obtained by flicking in either direction, i.e. from the centre to 45 degrees or from 45 degrees back to the centre.

Fingers

Repeated Notes

The remainder of the clips are at the keyboard; it should be remembered that the sensors could not be attached to the points of the fingers/thumb which contact the keyboard, so the point of actual contact is slightly beyond the sensor.

The sensors are coloured:- blue thumb, red 2nd finger, turquoise 3rd finger, green 4th finger, yellow 5th finger.

It can be seen that the fingers move in a wave, with no isolated or separate action, rather there is a blending of the movements of the fingers one after the other. The finger moves like a tangent along the key, drawing away from the key allowing it to rebound for the approach of the next finger. The fingers do not reach for the keys, but the hand aligns each finger in time for it to complete its movement of playing the key.

Articulations

Chords

Octaves

Broken Octaves

Scales

By adopting this fundamental finger technique as shown in the above clips, rapid scale playing can be achieved easily and quickly.

In a scale, for example, using the combined movements results in the tip of the thumb moving across the key. (as opposed to the fingers which move along the length of the key) This movement is from the right side of the key to the left side during an ascending scale in the right hand, or a descending scale in the left hand. The movement across the key reverses when the scale reverses in direction.

To enable the thumb to move easily in both scenarios, it is necessary to introduce a vertical element to the position of the thumb- this can be achieved by allowing the wrist to rise only as far as to make the reaching of the thumb possible. Keeping the thumb horizontal will not facilitate achieving complete freedom of thumb movement.