hi hi,

anyone know what it means by cantabile touch and any advice on how to teach this?

cantabile means literally to sing in french or sumin, but your in luck i had a lesson on this not that long ago with my teacher! cantabile touch is generally only possible with a single melodic line in one hand, i.e. impossible with chords, and my teacher taught me that you need to put all your arm weight into the note (this is a piano qestion I hope!), I taught a little to some of my students, and first i get them to rest their finger on my hand, and then drop their arm so that there is load of pressure onto my hand, if they're not getting it then I demonstrate on them, then transfer it to piano and hopefully get a lovely rich cantabile sound! hope it helps and is mildly correct!

Never heard or the "sumin" language before - is it a European language???

Cantar is to sing in spanish. Cantabile I think is usually interpreted on music as 'in a singing style'.

Yep, Latin roots - the verb 'cantare', meaning 'to sing'.

As for teaching playing in a cantabile style - first and foremost, the pupil has to listen to their own playing. Preferably from a few metres away. For pupils who aren't Mr Tickle, this is best achieved with recording and playing back. It's something that develops more than is taught in one or two lessons, choose pieces which will sound good if the cantabile tone is used and let the pupil's ears do the rest with the odd bit of coaching.

Oh, and a phrase I think helps 'prepare the sound'. Consciously hesitate for just a fraction of a second before depressing the note and coaxing the sound out of the instrument.

Ditto

I had to read it twice - bit of a double take, "what did YAP just say???!"

ooo the use of the arm weight idea sounds interesting....i was also reading abt using more of the flatter portion of the finger to play so as to create the cantabile sound as there is more surface area for the sound to sound and was wondering whether anyone actually used this idea....does this work or is it just too theoreotically correct?

agreed on the point of critical listening....guess that is the more reliable way of ensuring a cantabile sound.

i think using the pads instead of the tips of your fingers gives a different sound rather than a cantabile touch, its kind of less clean i guess!

So you extend your fingers straight out to use that part of them, thereby destroying 90% of your control? Nah.

I don't know what you've been reading, but it sounds like it could be useful for lining the bottom of a hamster cage.

If you really want a cantabile sound, play the melody line slightly louder than the others and make sure it's very legato.

I remember my teacher told me to play deep down into the key. Another way is you sing the tune while playing....practically in a singing style