Hi all, do hope I am asking this in the correct forum! here goes...

Recently, I tried recording my piano playing on my mobile phone and I was horrified to hear that my piano playing sounded really heavy-handed. It felt as if I was 'shouting' on the piano. I have had lessons for many years but none of my teachers pointed out any problems of 'heavy-handedness' when I was studying with them. Thus, I am wondering now if I have picked up this bad habit after I stopped piano lessons about 4 years back.

I have been trying to experiment on my piano, trying to play as softly as I can, however, it still sounds loud to me. I am thinking of resuming piano lessons again in the next 6 months once I get my schedule sorted out, but meanwhile I am wondering if there is any way I can learn to improve dynamic control on my own? Is there any technique exercises that I could try to curb this "heavy-handedness"? Would really be grateful for any advice!:)

Hi HH - This may sound daft but practice playing loudly. When you get that under control practice a bit quieter, then quieter, then as quietly as possible. That way you'll start to get a degree of control over how loud you play. Also try playing with somebody listening and get them to set the volume and tell you to play quieter if you get too loud. Also get them to keep telling you to play lightly or gently if they hear you getting heavy handed. Good luck, its practice, practice, practice.

Just (I hope) a reassuring thought - it may at least partly be to do with the recording levels on your mobile, which are not designed to make a good recording of piano playing, or to play it back with good sound quality. So it's unlikely to be as bad as it sounds on there.

Other than that I can't help because I'm always being told I play too quietly....

Yes as Sarah said the fact that you made your recording with you phone probably gave a bad representation of your real playing. Maybe you can try making a recording on a better quality recorder, your computer probably (There are lots of topics here about how to do that). Good luck!

That is exactly the same thing my VIOLIN teacher always tells me: learn to play as loud as you can at first as then it is much easier to 'tone down', he reckons it is far more difficult to learn to be loud if you start off playing quietly...
I wonder if this then also applies to piano playing??
thanks lostchord

Thanks for the replies!

Initially, I was hoping that it was the bad quality of the recording made by mobile phone too but when I asked my sister about my playing, she told me frankly that it was a little loud and lacking in dynamic control. She also noticed accents in all the peculiar places and I suspect she does get headaches sometimes from my playing. Oh no...

It's quite ironic actually, when I was younger around grade 5-6, my teacher also used to complain that I played too quietly and now it's way too heavy. Argh!

I have tried to play more softly by using less strength but the sound is quite feeble and I don't seem to have much control. I 'll try what lostchord and jojo suggested during practice tomorrow. Are there other ways to improve dynamic control?

Are you a bit tense when you play? I find I tend to bang on the piano when I am not relaxed. Perhaps try some relaxation, arm drops etc before you begin.

It is quite difficult to record a piano anyway, but the chances are it is the mobile that is responsible for a poor quality recording. I'm hoping that is the case as I recorded myself playing the sax on my mobile and it sounded so bad I almost gave it up!


Is there any chance it could be your piano that is causing the problem? If possible, you should arrange some lessons - it's possible your technique has lapsed since you last had lessons.

I was going to say the opposite - play very very slowly (and I mean VERY!!!) using the correct finger for each note and try to make each note ppppppp - and be very strict with yourself - if it's not ppppppp, keep repeating until it is...... (yup, can be frustrating, I know, but believe me, I've been there - and still occasionally practise like this if I'm not satisfied that I'm achieving the softest tone necessary for certain passages.....) Once you can achieve this kind of control, you can then relax a bit - the dynamics will naturally increase slightly when you resume normal tempo, but you should still be able to see a big difference.

Heavy-handedness... Hmmm... Your weight distribution of arms may be at fault...

For a starter, how about this. Elbows out, wrists level with your lower arm... then try "tickling the keys"... then gradually use more movement from your fingers...

hero

The piano is intrinsically a fairly loud instrument: I find that in an effort not to blast people out (Me? shy? surely not!) I often play far too quietly, sometimes hitting the keys so gently they don't play at all. In consequence I sometimes feel that when I'm playing properly I'm playing too loud, even though I'm not. Find a teacher and ask. Until then don't worry about it.

Loudness and harsh tone are not synonymous, as I am sure you know. One can play with immense volume while still maintaining a beautiful tone colour! Achieving this colour at different volumes is one of the huge challenges of the piano!
This being said, I believe that you need to hear yourself on a better quality recording. Honestly, phones and video cameras do NOT do instrumental playing justice and often depth of tone comes across as banging.
To avoid a "hitting" sound, always touch a note before you play it. Although you can approach a note from the air, before actually playing it, make sure you make contact with the keys. This helps a lot.
Also, make sure that you are not experiencing tension, especially in the forearms. (This contributes greatly to harshness.) Play using weight from your back and upper arms.

Good luck in your studies!
*Sarice*

This will possibly sound funny, but if you can get near one try practicing on a keyboard without weighted keys, as they are extremely sensitive, so are harder to play softly, therefore, if you can practice playing softly on hear, it will be better when you get back to the piano.

Hello!

Been trying out all you all have suggested during practice over this 2 days and so far your suggestions have been quite helpful. So far, 'forcing' myself to slow down and playing really softly while listening very carefully has worked a little for me. Thanks chocolatedog for your advice! I think I have gotten a little lazy along the way and stopped paying attention to how my playing sounded like after I stopped lessons. The slow practice is really quite tedious but I am paying more attention to my playing now. So it's a good thing!

Yup Sarice, I also realized that touching the key before playing it, slows down the speed at which the hammer hits the strings, so the end-result is a softer sound. But it is quite hard to achieve at faster passages though. Will continue with practice and see how it goes!

Thanks all for your replies once again. Really appreciate them!

I find that lowering my wrists gives a better tone.

I think that this is excellent advice. The only thing I might add (and this is a very personal observation which my teacher always maintained): in order to CONTROL p or pp playing, it may be necessary to have more tension in the wrists and fingers to ensure that (as someone mentioned above) the note DOES actually sound. Louder chords can sound richly if shoulders, arms, wrists and fingers (and all the various sub-sections of each of these limbs) are loose and relaxed. Getting your weight (rather than tension of muscles) above the keys is ideal for ff notes and chords.

LR

Playing ppp was something I struggled with right up to about Grade 8. To say 'just keep trying it till it works' sounds ridiculously simplistic, but none of the advice that I was given seemed to work until one day I just seemed to do it right, and after that my ears seemed to tell my fingers/arms/wrists what to do. It's like playing a melody cantabile with a quiet accompaniment; once you've done it (in my case by accident) your body and muscles will remember how to perform. So if you find yourself hitting it right - then just sit there and keep doing it till it's cemented! Different approaches seem to work for different people anyway, judging from my own pupils. Some lean down closer to the keys as if needing to listen more intently, being, as LR said, I think, tenser than when playing loudly. Personally, I find that achieving a delicatissimo touch comes more easily if I move more onto the pads of my fingers and away from the tips - but my point is LET YOUR EARS BE YOUR TUTOR. When you find something working - stick with it, because it's the sound you're producing that's important - not how you produce it.

Well said, Dulciana! Listening to your own playing is the key to it all.

C'est le ton qui fait la musique!

Dulciana's wise advise is also a great way to learn to pedal properly.

Hey, I love you both!
About the pedalling - nobody ever taught me that, incidentally! I left one teacher after a year or so when he moved away and taught myself until my parents fancied forking out for another one. I just pretended that I'd been taught how to pedal, because I didn't want to back-track, and I got away with it!

My teacher tells me off for dropping my wrists
Bev.

There's a difference between dropping and lowering your wrists.

Ah. Thanks. I am a very beginner and didn't realize that. I'll ask her the difference.
Bev

Hello,

Hmm, this applied to me most of the time.

However, in order to overcome this, i always try to relax and more over 'pretended' that my palm is holding an egg. I hope you get what i am trying to say here.

I remember my first piano lesson ever when my teacher told my the same about the "pretence" thing. It was an apple not an egg though!

Can someone explain this apple/egg thing, i don't understand Sounds helpful though.

The apple/egg thing is just about getting your fingers in the right relaxed position - if you are an adult with average sized hands, holding an apple/egg/tennis ball will give you approximately the right finger position. (Lots of people tend to play with very stiff straight fingers when they start). Obviously you need to put the apple down before you play, but try and remember the position.

Thanks SueHM - I am glad you said about putting the apple down, but I had a giggle at a mental picture - should this be a challenge for the picture thread - someone playing the piano while holding apples??

Ok, now i get it. I was having strange mental pictures of playing the piano while holding apples too.

I remember being told to put my hands on my lap, totally relaxed - as in, not outstretched - letting the fingers point downwards as they do when you're not using any muscles at all. Then imagine that a wee man up on the ceiling is your puppeteer, and that the strings are attached to your wrists. Imagine that he's pulling your hands up with these strings and then leaving your fingers to rest on the keys, without you using any muscles at all. He only allows your wrist to drop to the point at which the flat part of your hand is about horizontal. You'll find that if you don't straighten your fingers out, your wrist will need to rise slightly in order to allow your muscles to play notes, ending up, I suppose, as if you're holding an apple!