A lot of people, mainly teachers, on here seem to refer to pupils coming to them with 'bad technique'. Could someone clairfy what that means? Because i've never done any technical excercises in Piano, so I hope i'm not picking up any bad habits.. Thanks =)

I always thought it meant things like poor seating position, not keeping hands over the notes, not playing with much finger strength - little things which people who aren't being taught can pick up, but which are bad. I'm not sure it has much to do with technical exercises (although they would hopefully improve your technique).

A couple of self taught people I have had would do things like crossing over finger when not necessary, not using the thumb much but letting it hang off the keys.
They also have been unable to keep a 5 finger position when only playing 5 consecutive notes.

Luckily the latest child I have like this is actually keen enough to want to take notice and correct the problems. (a previous one did not!)
Would have been a bit easier if the oarents hadn't left him doing his own thing for more than a year before they decided he might benefit from lessons...

If you look up technique in a dictionary it will say something like
Main Entry: tech·nique
Pronunciation: tek-'nEk
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from technique technical, from Greek technikos
1 : the manner in which technical details are treated (as by a writer) or basic physical movements are used (as by a dancer); also : ability to treat such details or use such movements <good piano technique>
2 a : a body of technical methods (as in a craft or in scientific research) b : a method of accomplishing a desired aim

so, referring to piano I would say....
1 you should be able to perfectly balance your arms and hands without playing the notes or feeling any tension at all.
2 Fingers should be naturally curved, playing on the tips of the fingers or fleshy part next to your fingernails (keep your fingernails trimmed).
3 Knuckles should not be caved in or too high. Knuckles could be fairly flat, but just slightly up, like a bridge. The same with the wrists and elbows.
4 Wrists should be even with the white keys, never too high or low
5 Elbows should be out from the body, allowing the weight of your arm to travel freely to your wrists and allowing for horizontal movement across the keys.
6 Always sit up straight, shoulders back, create a small arch in the middle of your back. Imagine a string going up through the center of your body, out of your head. Your pelvic bone slightly turned in towards the piano
7 You should sit far enough from the piano so that your elbows are slightly towards the front of your chest.

I also count the ability to play any technical difficulty you may come across at your level both loudly, softly, legato,staccato as part of technique (if I made any sense...), and also pedalling, fingering, etc


There are some essays on piano technique that I found on the internet, you might find them interesting...

theyre here http://www3.sympatico.ca/norma.barr/library/piano/index.html

Hope this helps.....

oooo this is a hard one! I recon bad technique is when you get sore at the piano, or your hand/arm/body (etc) position is making it hard for you to play a piece well.

Basically when a teacher says you have bad technique (in piano) it's usually:

(note: these are BAD supposedly)
dropped wrists
flat fingers - not playing on the tips or curving the fingers
having stiff arms and elbows
feet tucked under the stool (rather than out front near/on/next-to the pedals
not sitting up straight
leaning over the piano with a bunched back and neck (like in the movie 'Shine')

Supposedly good technique (for piano) is
fingers curved, playing on fingertips (to an extent)
wrists held up (not dropping down and squashing the space between your hand and the keys)
relaxed (to an extent) elbow and arm/shoulder
straight/relaxed back
feet out in front of you near or on the pedals
good feeling of space between body and the keys - imagine there is a tree between you and the piano and your arms are hugging around it

however I am by no means a master of technique. I have broken lots of bones - my wrists twice each plus my elbow and my knee and my back. Because of these injuries I have had to make up my own sort of technique because of physicality issues of how the boes and muscles have recovered.

So back to my first sentence, good technique is when you can play a really really hard piece and (a) make it feel easy/effortless, and ( not get sore!! Technique is just what you DO NATURALLY when you are trying to express yourself in music.

Hope that helps

Bad technique is easy to spot but impossible to define in a few words.

No answer, I know, but that is because one does not exist.

Steve

I thought I understood the point of 'good' technique: to make people play better. But then I listened to Glenn Gould and saw a picture of him playing, and now I'm not so sure.

Sometimes players with fine technique play badly. That is down to bad taste. When players with good taste play badly (which is more often the case) that can only be down to bad technique.

Yes, I know what you mean - my teacher practically sits under the piano when she plays too !

I'd say that bad technique arises from poor analysis of what one should be doing while playing a note/chord/phrase/scale/arpeggio/piece. It has to include anticipation and 'follow up' and needs a fair amount of experience and good guidance and if it really doesn't work, go back and think again.

For example, playing fast convoluted arpeggios like the cadenza in the Ravel Concerto in D probably needs a different approach from the pedestrian arpeggio playing required in grade 4.

Wow, thanks for all these replies ;o I understand now I think the only one I may have been having trouble with is sitting straight.. but i'm working on that one I'll also make sure my wrists and elbows are in the right position- never thought about that before. Because I only use a keyboard with no pedals at home, i've got into the habit of crossing my legs underneath my stool.. so I guess I might have to change that too I'm checking out the link you gave me, chopet =)
Thanks for all your detailed responses

xx

hey i would say these two are not neccessarily all bad. sometimes dropping your wrists to put weight in is good. and sometimes playing passages lightly with flat fingers (not floppy, just flat!) is not bad. The only time these techniques are bad is when they are used out of laziness, for instance, by a beginner, who should learn to play with a more natural wrist position and curved fingers as if they were holding a tennis ball.