181217 Playing with Piano Fitness' awareness

Piano fitness plays the piano.

Connection of the musical machine to the musical mind occurs at the finger pads, resting on the key surface, and includes awareness of connecting to the earth through the feet, hips and finger pads .

Feeling heavy in the feet and hips permits muscles to seek satbility on the bench from balanced sits bones.  With the neutrally braced core,  finger movement originates from between the navel and pubic symphysis.  Observe feeling and seeing the transverse abdominals engage when intending the finger(s) to move.

Fingerpads connect intentionally from lightest to heaviest  at the key surface.  Power to play is activated as the zyphoid process engages up and back - creating space at the arm pit and promoting ease for the upper body to move in any direction.  The balanced shoulders release the mass of the arms into the powerfully supported heart center through the sterno-clavicular joints.  From the sterno-clavicular joints, feeling of the fingerpads on key surface is intended.  From lightest to heaviest, at (or above) key surface before playing. Always as light as possible after playing, essential when resting fingerpads on the key bed for legato touch awareness.

In rehearsal, vocalizing the count helps establish truthful steady rhythm and improves mind/body mapping when mindfully counting in performance.  Truthful intuition, observed from the mind’s eye, learns to listen with the whole mind/body connection.  Facing the truth honestly, accessing what is good and what needs more rehearsal. 

In performance, pure awareness observes ourselves playing our best for present enjoyment. 

Piano Fitness maps the mind/body connection and plays the piano.

181124 birthday presence

Piano Fitness is observing yourself playing.

Today i watched 2 play !!  I know it will take more than 10-20 rehearsals to observe this until it is unconscious but piano fitness is fulfilling    Since June 2012 the awarenesses have been revealed and the solutions have been incorporated so every day on the bench is a present to myself.

181122 -FULFILLING THANKSGIVING

Piano Fitness is fulfilling.   Two days before my 65th birthday, 2 map was connected.  Allowing the creative energy to flow throughout November,  the inclusion of the forearm drop from a releasing elbow gleaned from Harold Gray lesson in Portland in October, has brought fresh new awareness of the complete piano fitness map.   The released forearm has freed up 2 & M which i have recognized as the lynchpin long ago.  This also clarified the upper arm epiphany from earlier post-i was ignorant of the locked elbows.  Harold’s other observation of playing with extended fingers was further indication of the unreleased elbow in the sagital plane.

180920

piano fitness is completed

Inclusive rehearsals of 2 pads highlights the awareness of the sound connection of feeling and listening.  Waiting till the 4th step of problem solving is implemented....

180918 piano Fitness hypothesis completed

Piano fitness is completed by finding a new sweet spot on the pad of 2 from reheasing the released crux since Tim Armstrong’s birthday 8 17 18.

The shoulder alginment at rehearsal for friends of YMCA from the forced folding chair sitting must also be  included to complete the hypothesis.


Feeling the connection of the pad on the key has changed the angles of the body mechanics.

180817-crux of the linchpin

piano fitness’ crux of the linchpin is the ability to move the shoulder up/down and the upper arm forward/backward while releasing 2nd bridge knuckle.

180528 piano fitness - i have contact !

Piano Fitness is key contact connection.

The results of 3 deep tissue massages brings improved awaress of contact to the earth through the 3 points essential for the pianist: the feet on the floor, the sitz bones on the bench and the fingers on the keys.  More conscious of my left hip/right shoulder crossover link, i was able to find deeper release of the right shoulder through a heavier connection of the left sitz bone, more ease for inward rotation of the thigh bone and more weight on the left foot*.   Since about 2 months ago, April 1st-Piano Fitness Day,  my 2nd map connection awareness continuously strengthens.  It was about 2 weeks ago, awareness to release trapezius tension by balancing the shoulders both front/back and bottom/top**,  opened the back of the heart center.  Only a couple of day ago, for the first time, i was able to consistently focus on my hands on the keys through the glossy black mirror of the fallboard***!  It took concentration to not let my eyes dart from hand to hand, but instead, observe both hands (especially both leaders) at the same time !

In this morning’s rehearsal, with weighted left hip, released right shoulder, and with the most ease ever, i observed my hands playing the piano in the fallboard****.

When mapping the mind/body connection for piano, learning to listen to your body as well as the sound your body produces through key contact must be yoked***** with the mind observing the self PLAYING !




      * go into the pain to heal the pain-bikram mantra
    ** “sit like a king.”
  *** “it’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” Thoreau
 **** “Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts.  You are what observes, not what you observe.”  -Anonymous                                                                                                                                  
***** yoke-used of something that represents a bond between two parties.  I.e. the mind and body.                                                                          

180430 April = Piano Fitness Month

Piano Fitness includes 3 Balances:

1.  Mind/Body - connects through breath
2.  Man/Music Machine - connects through fingers
3.  Sound/Rhythmic Time - connects for music

1.  Connection to the earth:  Balanced hips on the bench, a braced core, and an elevated heart, maintain wide scapula with thoracic spine extended and slightly retracted shoulders to “sit like a king”.

Allow outward rotation in the upper arm to maintain a neutral elbow. Let the forearm supinate slightly, promoting a 5 orientation.  The wrist remains neutral side to side, while the hand/elbow allow the wrist and upper arm to circle freely from the shoulder.  (Circles = the balance of the 3 ways the body moves).  The fingers connect either on the key surface (space) or the key bed (earth).  How light or heavy the fingers rest on the key surface is intended through the sterno-clavicular joints at the heart center.  Rest on the key bed is ALWAYS light.

2.  Through the fingers, connection is made to the most complex human powered machine on earth. The beloved piano is a music machine.  Once connection is mindfully observered, the pianist intends the sound for every note.  Intention includes how the light/heavy fingers will deliver their mass through the point of sound to the key bed light resting. Options for delivery include:  the finger, the hand, the forearm, upper arm and shoulder. Intention also includes the slow/fast acceleration through the point of sound to the key bed. (F = M x A)

3.  Music is sound in rhythmic time.  Sound balanced in time includes dynamics, phrasing, melodic line, harmonic rhythm, voicing etc.

When all 3 balances are present, intended sounds, heard in time, connect to the part of the musical mind that observes yourself playing the piano.

All month long, clarity continues with the 2 map.  The Mind/Body connection with  L is the fundamental essential for promoting ease when playing.  Still learning to listen.

180405 Piano Fitness History

Piano Fitness History

June 2012

The origins of piano fitness from obtaining “What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body” by Thomas Mark

September 27 2014

Mapping the Mind/Body Connection is developed

180401 Piano Fitness Day

Piano Fitness Day is April 1, 2018

The most significant awarnesses for mind/body harmony and sound technic have occurred within the last year:

May 1, 2017

Braced neutral spine insights- a strong core maps, from Stable hips, connects Creativity to Power !

July 3, 2017

Comments rom my Facebook post in Piano Technic Discussion group of Chopin Opus 53, brought improved awareness of finger activity and the releasing of the right leg for pedal improvement.


October 2017

Epiphany for mapping from the Heart to the fingers. Connection of Leader and 2nd, through hand corner alignment of their bridge knuckles, strenghens the map through the arms, shoulders and sterno clavicular as awareness of ease is finally observed.

February 17, 2018

Neutral wrist insight from a post in the  Facebook Piano Technic Discussion group- the inside and outside of the soft wrist must remain balanced as possible when playing.

April 1, 2018

First EVER consistent observation of Mapping  the Mind/Body connection to the 2nd  throughout Chopin Opus 10 No.3

2nd has been my problematic lynchpin for as long as I can remember.  Even as a 12 year old beginner, I intuitively knew my fingers didn’t “feel” right.

Significance of Number 2 in my life:

2nd boy in my family
2 head truamas in 2nd grade result in 2nd cervical vertebral misalignment and reversed cervical spine
(Improvements began about 20 years ago, practicing headstand on the intuitive mind’s eye) & lead to
2nd fingers frozen bridge knuckles with unconsciously elevated frozen shoulders.
No 2nd life-partner - living 87% of my life as a single man shapes my “odd” life perspective:
                   
                                                  my life partner is the piano

180310 piano fitness hypothesis update

Piano fitness  IS !

2/22/18 began the clearer mapping of the 2nd fingers.  Awareness  with inclusion of  neutral wrists along with helper orientation of the forearm, outward rotation of the upper arm, heart centered alignment of neutral (or extended?) shoulders, with braced neutral spine and balanced hips brought ease and mobility to number 2s...

With a few weeks of rehearsal and this updated piano fitness mindset, the intentions of the musical mind are ever more clearly heard.  Conscious correction  of the right shoulder’s alignment from rounding forward to wider clavicle with neutral and extension releases from the inner upper  arm through the elbow and neutral wrist allows clarity in the mind and freedom in the body for the 2nd finger to release tension and move with ease.  The leader and middle fingers release in response and the square hand corners soften.  The transfer of balanced arm weight through the fingertips is smoother especially L-2-M in both directions.

I am certain piano fitness hypothesis- developing mind/body harmony with consciously correct muscle rehearsal for sound technique  - is improving the ability to intend the sound and play with more ease.

Since 2/22, when rehearsal resulted in muscular fatigue,  I rested and stretched/strengthened until awareness was pain free.  The sensations from the 2nd fingersthrough the hand, forearm, upper arm, shoulder, chest and back continue to develop- feelings never felt before!

I’m still learning to listen when the right shoulder starts to “speak” due to forward rounded misalignment.  Over the few weeks of mindfulness, this happens less as neutral shoulders become the norm.