Can we rise above the hammer mechanism of our beloved piano?

I say yes to naysayers on various Internet forums. They would have you believe that playing a series of notes cannot be altered by a physical approach to the keys that includes a supple wrist. Their gospel is, it's all the same no matter who plays C, D, E, F, G. These concrete thinkers, insist…

Romantic era piano repertoire: A murmuring stream and the supple wrist (Burgmuller creates beauty from simplicity)

"The Clear Stream" from Friedrich Burgmuller's Twenty-Five Progressive Pieces offers a student an opportunity to create limpidly beautiful phrases from unraveled broken chords spun out in triplets. In order to create the "mormorando" (murmuring effect) in the treble, it's best to first block out the "chord" patterns with a "spongy" wrist in slow motion before…

The rolling wrist in Burgmuller’s “Harmony of the Angels”

Each of Burgmuller's Op. 100, 25 Progressive Pieces is more enchanting then the next, and bundled into every charmer is a technical goal to be met. In "Harmony of the Angels" it's abundantly clear that the supple wrist must roll forward, and the continuum of triplets from left hand to right must be in an…