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Incorporates instructions by Graham Williams

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Piano Technique
 PIANO LAB

  1. Lessons Overview
  2. Practice Schedule
  3. Long Term Schedule
  4. Scales & Chords
  5. Technique Exercises
  6. Digital Patterns
  7. Song Files
  8. Play-a-Longs & Metronome

    Subject Index - Topic Index

    Article

Lessons
Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Songs | ? ?


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1. Lessons Overview

    Introduction

  1. Concept

  2. Anatomy of the Hand

  3. Warm Up

  4. Scale Practice 1 - (4a : Stages of Development)

  5. Scale Practice 2

  6. Fixed Hand Position Exercises

  7. Fluency Exercises

  8. Arpeggios practice

  9. Digital Patterns

  10. Seventh Chords Practice

    Song Explanations


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2. Practice Schedule

Record all practice times in your LOGBOOK.

Reread the Lesson section for each technique element from time to time, to ensure that you execute all parts of the exercise correctly. One usually does not absorb all the important points the first time.


Item

Schedule 1

Schedule 2

Schedule 3

Booster Session
Warp Up2 min. 2 min. 2 min. 2 min.
Scales Practice12 min. 25 min. 25 min. 7 min.
F.H.P. Exercises4 min. 8 min. 8 min. 4 min.
Fluency Exercises12 min. 25 min.25 min.7 min.
Written Pieces
Improvisation
Comping		30 min. 60 min. 120 min. (10 min.)
TOTAL60 min. 120 min.180 min.20 - 30 min.


  1. Aim to practise at least 1 hour per day, 5 days per week (take 2 days rest).

  2. On days you "just have no time to practise", be strong and squeeze in a short Booster Session.
    This is still beneficial, keeps your practice momentum going and is a real morale booster.
    The longer you maintain a solid run of practices the more motivated and determinend you become.

  3. For practice sessions longer than 2 hours use the first hour for technique, the remainder for pieces, improvisation, chords, etc.

Do not be discouraged !
Progess is a very very subtle process, which you may barely be aware of yourself at the time.
The development process involves two stages :
  1. Stage 1 - building up strength of the interossei muscles within your hand.
    This is the easy part. Just continue with regular practice of the exercises in this Course and the muscles strength will gradually build up.

  2. Stage 2 - the psychological process of the mind, having to hand over control of the finger movements from the flexor muscles (located outside the hand) to the now strong and capable interossei within the hand.
    This is the difficult part. It is a matter of relaxing, letting go, and trusting your fingers. This may take a while, but sooner or later will suddenly happen. Once this has occured you will never revert back and continue to make progress for as long as you keep playing the piano.

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3. Long Term Schedule

This Course contains many practice routines and exercises.
Introduce new material in the following four stages.

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Warm upYescontinuecontinuecontinue
Birds claw exerciseYesno
Major scalep.1 - p.2cont.cont.cont.
FHP No.1p.1 - p.2cont.cont.cont.
FHP No.2p.1 - p.2cont.cont.cont.
Fluency No.1p.1 - p.2cont.cont.cont.
Fluency No.2p.1 - p.2
p.3		cont.cont.cont.
(Poisot No.1 & 2)Optionalcont.cont.cont.
(Czerny No.1 & 2)Optionalcont.cont.cont.
Harm. minor scale - p.1 - p.2cont.cont.
FHP No.3 - p.1 - p.2cont.cont.
FHP No.4 - p.1 - p.2cont.cont.
Fluency No.3 - p.1 - p.2
p.3		cont.cont.
Solid Chords - p.1 - p.2
p.3 - p.4		cont.cont.
(Poisot No.3 & 4) - Optionalcont.cont.
(Czerny No.4 & 5) - Optionalcont.cont.
Arpeggios - - p.1 - p.2
p.3 - p.4		cont.
Symmetric scales - - p.1cont.
Blues scale - - p.1 - p.2cont.
Fluency No.4 - - p.1 - p.2
p.3 - p.4		cont.
Fluency No.5 - - p.1 - p.2cont.
II-V-I Progression - - p.1 - p.2cont.
(Poisot No.5) - - Optionalcont.
(Czerny No.3) - - Optionalcont.
Pentatonic scales - - - p.1 - p.2
Digital Patterns - - - Yes
Five Beers exercise - - - Yes
Scales in Octaves - - - Yes
(Poisot No.6 - 8) - - - Optional
(Czerny No.6 - 10) - - - Optional

Take as much time as you like for each stage.
Wait until you are comfortable with all previous exercises before moving onto the next stage.


Suitable material you may add if you wish.

Charles Poisot's Etudes Quotidiennes de Mécanisme - Fixed Hand Position Exercises No.1 - 8

Carl Czerny's School of Velocity (Opus 299) - Fluency Exercises No.1 - 10


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4. Scales & Chords

Practice Folder - Print out (PCs print at 140% or 150%)

General files : Practice Logbook - Hand Position & Circle of 5ths

Major scaleTextDemop.1 p.2
Harmonic minor scaleTextDemop.1 p.2
Blues scaleTextDemop.1 p.2
Pentatonic scalesTextDemop.1 p.2
Chromatic scaleTextDemop.1
Wholetone scaleTextDemop.1
8-note Dominant scaleTextDemop.1
8-note Diminished scaleTextDemop.1
ArpeggiosTextDemop.1p.2p.3p.4
Seventh Chord QualitiesTextDemop.1p.2
Chords in Circle of 5ths orderTextDemop.1p.2
IIm7 - V7 - Imaj7 Chord ProgressionsTextDemop.1p.2
Blues Chord VoicingsTextDemop.1

How to print out the lesson material (GIF) files.

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5. Technique Exercises

Fixed Hand Position No.1TextDemo p.1 p.2
Fixed Hand Position No.2 TextDemo p.1 p.2
Fixed Hand Position No.3 TextDemo p.1 p.2
Fixed Hand Position No.4 TextDemo p.1 p.2
Fluency Exercise No.1 TextDemop.1 p.2
Fluency Exercise No.2 TextDemo p.1 p.2 p.3
Fluency Exercise No.3 TextDemop.1 p.2 p.3
Fluency Exercise No.4 TextDemop.1 p.2p.3 p.4
Fluency Exercise No.5TextDemop.1 p.2 p.3


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6. Digital Patterns

Digital Pattern No.1TextDemo p.1 p.2 p.3 p.4
Digital Pattern No.2TextDemo p.1 p.2
Digital Pattern No.3TextDemo p.1 p.2 p.3 p.4
Digital Pattern No.4TextDemo p.1 p.2 p.3 p.4
Digital Pattern No.5TextDemo p.1 p.2
Digital Pattern No.6TextDemo p.1 p.2 p.3 p.4
Circle of 5ths PatternsTextDemo p.1

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7. Songs

Velocity BluesTextDemoP-a-Lp.1
Blues ChromatiqueTextDemoP-a-Lp.1
Peak TrafficTextDemoP-a-Lp.1
The CyclistTextDemoP-a-Lp.1p.2
ReflectionTextDemoP-a-Lp.1p.2
Friends ForeverTextDemoP-a-Lp.1p.2
Bop ItTextDemoP-a-Lp.1p.2

Play all songs both without and with the backing tracks.



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8. Play-a-Longs & Metronomes

12 bar Blues in CP-a-L (Basic Blues progression)
12 bar Blues in CP-a-L (Embellished Blues progression)
Fluency No.3P-a-L (IIm7 - V7 - Imaj7 : over 2 bars)
Fluency No.4P-a-L (IIm7 - V7 - Imaj7 : over 4 bars)
Circle of 5ths PatternsP-a-L (major & dominant)
Circle of 5ths PatternsP-a-L (minor)

Metronome TextMM 50MM 55MM 60MM 65
MM 70MM 80MM 90MM 100
For Scales and FHP exercises use tempos MM50 - MM65 only.

For Fluency exercises use tempos up to 100 bpm.


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Copyright © 2001 Michael Furstner (Jazclass). All rights reserved.