On my way home from the Bay area on Amtrak 712, I grabbed a few extra table napkins from the dining car, and let my imagination run wild as I scribbled some notes to myself. “Wild” should be emphasized since I had some pent up frustration related to the Taubman-Golandsky’s ban on the “wrist break.”
Dorothy Taubman was a Juilliard faculty piano teacher who embraced a certain approach to piano playing which has components of relaxation as well as forearm rotation. However, for some reason with all the nit picking that’s done about how this or that finger has to be aligned or rotated, the wrist is not supposed to move below the key surface or much above it. (That would be considered a “break.”) Correct me if I’m wrong.
An article excerpt by Renee Jackson about the Taubman and Alexander Technique is informative.
“Dorothy Taubman discovered other movements necessary to make playing easy and efficient when used in conjunction with forearm rotation. In and out motions (motion from the outside to the inside of the black keys and the fallboard) originate at the elbow and may be sensed from fingertip to shoulder. They make adjustments for the different finger lengths in human hands. These in and out adjustments prevent the hand from twisting away from its alignment with the arm. Slight lateral movements (known to students of the Taubman approach as walking arm and hand), and shaping (which is a function of the varying height of the forearm, and not just motion from the wrist) are also integral to the Taubman approach. Care must be taken that these movements do not replace the underlying forearm rotation. It should be pointed out that the wrist functions as a fulcrum, meaning that in order for these movements to arrive at the finger on the key, the wrist must be at a level which is sufficient to have the weight of the arm resting behind the finger, and not collapsed back towards the elbow or forearm.“
Now I don’t mind the meticulousness of the Taubman method that’s championed by Edna Golandsky, BUT, from all my ingestion of ABRIDGED Taubman tapes on You Tube since I have to pay to be sent the whole kit and kaboodle on DVD, I cannot agree with this slant (pun intended) concerning the wrist.
Now here’s a pic straight from Irina Gorin’s teaching materials, which shows her “broken” wrist in living color!
Irena Orlov, a Master piano instructor at the Levine School of Music in Washington DC demonstrates how elastic the wrist should be, dipping down below the key bed and rising all the way above it, with quite a latitude of motion. (film, Reaching Beyond)
Like many fine pianists including Irina Morozova and other Russian schooled pianists, their wrists make the “break” up and down, as they produce a gorgeous singing tone with immaculate phrasing. (No casts or splints please!)
Enough said!!
***
Now I’ll move on to music that I love to play which evokes memories of my growing up in New York City. (Sorry if I break my wrist here and there)
The West Side Story that I adored was originally a Broadway production starring Carol Lawrence. And I couldn’t imagine it being transferred to the big screen until it happened. Natalie Wood (with a dubbed in voice), Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris and Rita Moreno starred in the movie version.
As mentioned in another blog, I used to walk from the IRT W. 66th Street station to my violin teacher’s apartment a few blocks away, and at that time the neighborhood was a pile of rubble, somewhat like the backdrop of the movie, West Side Story. There was no Lincoln Center complex as yet, so it was bare, broken bottles, and other debris, that followed along my walking path.
I can’t say I was an ardent fan of the movie, with the all the pastel hues, that for me distorted the street fighting turf, but the music was and always will be what carried the stage and movie version.
I love how Leonard Bernstein injected Latin rhythms into “America,” “I Feel Pretty,” and other selections. He was a genius in so many areas.
So for the past 24 hours, I’ve been uploading music that I will always love, starting with “America.” Stage actress Karen Olivo belts out the same, in a 2009 revival of the musical.
Karen Olivo bedazzles!
“One Hand, One Heart”
“I Feel Pretty”
“Tonight”
Piano Technique Related Link:
http://arioso7.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/piano-instruction-using-the-wrist-to-taper-phrases/
Hi, Shirley,
Thank you for sharing.
I can see that you perceive the wrist movement as necessary for good playing, and how that perspective makes you assess all other, existing approaches through its eyes. However, the approaches exist which do not see it that way.
Taubman’s Approach absolutely needs the wrist to remain “unbroken” (calm/even/strainght) as a condition for its passing the pressure from the shoulder/upper arm to the fingers. In this arrangement, if the wrist ‘breaks’, the whole conveyer belt of pressure transmission collapses.
Irina Orlov does NOT represent the Taubman Approach.
By the way, as far as I know, this approach was actually created by Abby Whiteside, and its features have been cultivated today also by Seymour Fink and Alan Fraser.
Thanks for your comments. I did not in any way say or suggest that Irena Orlov represents the Taubman approach. Here is the quote from my blog that says the opposite:
“Irena Orlov, a Master piano instructor at the Levine School of Music in Washington DC demonstrates how elastic the wrist should be, dipping down below the key bed and rising all the way above it, with quite a latitude of motion. (film, Reaching Beyond)”
The film segment reveals Orlov exemplifying this motion, the antithesis of Taubman.
I certainly agree with Orlov, Gorin and others that the wrist should “break” and not be static. A gorgeous singing tone is aided by wrist flexibility.
I wrote to Edna Golandsky about this matter, and never received a reply. More discussion and open forums are needed. From my having watched reams of Taubman snippets over You Tube, I still cannot understand the rigid viewpoint about the wrist. I am sure there are well respected advocates of Taubman as well as those who disagree. So let the dialog begin!
Hi, Shirley, thank you for replying.
I am with you on the need – a must, actually – to let the wrist “break”, all the time. Ms. Golandsky produced a video (it’s there on YouTube) which suggests not letting the wrist bend in any way, even in everyday use.
(Evidently, the nature must have gotten that wrong. And, perhaps even more intriguingly, she found teachers who want to spread this idea to learning to play a violin…)
However, I strongly suspect that this idea started as a reaction to certain, already historic, inability to teach playing with flexible, yet soft, wrist. Decisive majority of piano hopefuls have learned to play with straightened- and stiffened-up wrist (definitely ‘calcified’ in the widespread idea of maintaining certain “hand posture”). Someone must have read that info as “it’s impossible to do otherwise”, and many others accepted that perspective: many piano teachers still react to the ‘soft wrist’ idea with “What? Having the wrist flap on every note? What sort of
control would doing that nonsense generate?” and that’s the only way they are able to see it, and they refuse to consider another possibility. And since that’s, basically, their only reaction, there’s no room for debate. That’s one of the reasons for why the interest in Abby Whiteside’s idea keeps growing. And, I’d add, many people got so used to the sound generated by maintaining the straightened- and stiffened-up wrist that they would see no reason to seek an alternative.
So, how does your belief in a dialog stand up now?
Thanks for your comments. I am frankly shocked at Golandsky’s admonitions about the wrist, and as myself, also a violinist, I cannot fathom what on earth is happening with a transfer of this so called gospel to a string instrument. Irina Gorin’s students in Carmel, Indiana are a testament to teaching the flexible wrist. Check out Irina Gorin’s teaching channel on You Tube to see extraordinary results. I can’t imagine phrasing beautifully without the supple wrist.. I can barely say more at this point without sounding distraught…
Now that my distress is diffused, I can’t imagine why it’s so difficult to teach piano students how to phrase with a supple wrist. I am teaching a 4-year old who already has a hand on it.. pun intended. My own students are slowly but surely learning what it’s about, and how much more fluidity they are capable of when they relax their wrist and let it have a full range of motion.
In my next blog I am going to spotlight a Hungarian pianist who has to be in her 80′s who shows a student how her wrist should move up and down. This a very old, sagacious pianist and teacher being so wise and practical. Need I say more?