Customer Reviews

Mastering Piano Technique: A Guide for Students, Teachers and Performers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a pianist I've read MANY books regarding piano technique. Seymour Fink's Mastering Piano Technique is a well thought out and extremely helpful addition to the literature. It is similar in content to the classic technique book by Abbey Whiteside. Based on total understanding of the pianist's physiology, both authors are in favor of utilizing shoulder, arm, torso, legs, etc. in conjunction with fingers to produce sounds. Various parts of the body work as levers - each logically taking more or less responsibility based on the demands of the music. This reduces the chances of developing tension. Fink's ideas make for better music making by having the pianists movement absolutely linked to phrasing and articulation. As with the Whiteside book, it is not always easy reading....but it is worth the effort in the end.

As I mentioned, Fink has categorized different movements which correspond with certain sounds and articulation. Ultimately these movements make playing imminently easier. Fink creates keyboard choreography which the pianist can keep coming back to as the demands of the music dictate. Fink's ideas such as "fingersnaps", "pronation" etc. satisfied a variety of musical and technical requirements.

In my experience no one book on technique can totally satisfy all of the technical demands of piano playing. That would be the same as claiming there is only one right interpretation for each piece of music. Fink's myriad ideas and solutions pertaining to piano technique make this book absolutely worth having: everyone can absolutely take something useful away from this book.

This work of Mr. Fink is absolutely magnificant. For the aspiring concert pianist, for the serious student, or for piano lovers who would simply like to improve their fluidity and definition at the keyboard. Having owned the volume for about a week now, I'm at the point where I think Seymour FInk's book should be in every School of Music, USA as a textbook. THe ten physical exercises done away from the piano are so complimentary and helpful. Mr. FInk seems to be a physiologist and anatomist of the human body, as well as a piano master, and this combination makes his perspective superior. Mr. Fink takes the mystery out of fine piano technique and brings exact motoral and muscular distribution matters to light in plain view, solving scores of execution difficulties pianists incur. Highly detailed! Buy this and begin using it, but the reader will not exhaust this volume in a few weeks. It is a referance volume for a lifetime. God bless Seymour Fink! In reply to the negative reviews, I would say there could be some difficulty of appreciation to the novice pianist who is at early stages of familiarity with the piano keyboard. This volume is extremely helpful to those of us who take the piano seriously and are intent on mastery.

I studied with Mr. Fink throughout my high-school/college preparatory years and so experienced his technical work first-hand. After studying piano at the university level, I finally got around to picking up a copy of his book. Reading through reminded me of the many exercises we went through. I think that Mr. Fink's suggestions on technique are of good resource for all serious pianists. As others have pointed out here, a literal interpretation of the illustrations is not the intended point. It is most useful to use the techniques illustrated as a guide and then adapt them to your own particular usage.

As a trained dancer, pianist, and teacher I have thoroughly appreciated Professor Fink's complete physical approach to piano technique. I have found it congruent with physical movement principles and especially applaud his emphasis on movement originating from the torso and the use of large muscle groups in sound production. As a teacher I have found it an exceedingly helpful guide for developing within students a thoughtful awareness of how their body "dances" at the piano in the creation of a musically beautiful and expressive performance. This book and video promote a healthy, whole body approach that is essential to long-term physical fitness at the piano. It is thoroughly worth the time and effort to study and master the principles laid out in Mastering Piano Technique.

This book describes mainly the kinds of movement we need at the piano. Indeed we (or most of us) will be benefited from a proper understanding and training of the physical part of piano playing, so I admire the attempt of the auther. The problem with this book is, however, that it is far from complete and actually it misses some of the most important ingredients of piano techniques.

It is sometimes helpful to isolate the movements and be conscious of the movements. However, this book tells you (mainly) only the external movements, and not much about the much more important "internal activity" which is invisible from whatever companion video or pictures. It is easy to teach external movements-- you don't actually have to buy this book, just find a DVD played by any good pianist. But everyone knows the (seemingly) paradox: different external movements can be used to play the same difficult passage. And many people learn the same external movements intentionally,and they succeed in making their movements very much the same as those of the masters, but still they fail to produce a comparable effects of these masters. Why?? This is so puzzling for the teachers. That's why some people came up with a conclusion: There is no "superior" way of playing a passage. Everyone have a different needs. While this is to some extent correct, it should not prevent us from seeking a good technique intentionally.

The paradox is due to a mixing up of objective and subjective experience, as well as an ignorance about the inner activities of our bodies. While you can learn the movements for sure, the difficult and important part is the invisible inner activity; the integrity of hand structure. You need these internal organization to enpower your movements. That's the crucial difference between you in first few piano lessons(with possibly already "correct" movements as enforced by your teacher) and you at the present moment. We got better in our organization of motions in the first few years, but most of us stop somewhere. All these inner things cannot be learnt from pictures, videos, normal piano teachers. The author does know the crucial point. However, he was not able to explain how you can get there. He can only show you the eternal movement and sometimes describe vaguely the correct feeling.

I can find a number of books which describe the inner activity involved. But up to now the most practical book on this is "the craft of Piano Playing" by Alan Fraser. This book is full of practical advices and innovative exercises to help the readers, rather than providing only general theory. It aims more at improving your hand functions than hand shape, movements, etc..

This "mastering piano technique" can be useful if you learn the more important points first. Also, occasionally, it does provide some helpful advices on eradicating certain bad habits. But still the movements can only give you some suggestions. Improving your hand functions is the first and foremost, and the movements serve this purpose. Aim at functions, not movements.

I have owned this book and the accompanying video since they were first published, and worked through all the movements he describes for myself and with students. While Prof. Fink has done admirable research into the anatomy and uses of the pianist's mechanism, the exercises and suggested movements he puts forth reveal an irresponsible, if not dangerous, lack of differentiation between efficient and inefficient motion at the keyboard. There is no commentary on what the effects are, for example, of abducting and adducting the hands at the wrist joint to the extremes of their range-of-motion. It's called tendonitis.

The array of primary movements in the opening chapters have nothing to do with actually solving musical/technical problems, and there is a disturbing contradiction in his advice on the use of isometrics. There is no analysis of which parts of our bodies are best geared for fast, effortless motion at the keyboard--indeed, nowhere does he state what a free, unfettered, coordinated technique should look and feel like. He falls back upon the old cop-out that "there are many correct ways to play," as if we are creatures built with an infinite variety of differently-working muscular and skeletal structures. We all have the same basic structures, which obey the kinetic dictates of their makeup.

What is most unsettling, though, is the explanation of hand/finger positions on pp. 36 and 37. All three positions pictured are at best fatiguing and at worst dangerous when applied to playing--especially fast passagework. Also, the use of the thumb in scale playing as explained on p. 115 "passed-under and prepared...pronate arms and abduct hands..." is very dangerous and, if one follows his direction to "ingrain" this motion, will cause injuries. There are too many other problems and inconsistencies in the book to list, but the best summary I can make is that it presents information without evaluating it, and lulls students into thinking that none of these motions will hurt them. Instead of "rest(ing) at the onset of fatigue or tension," (p.115) one must realize that fatigue and tension are signs that something is wrong. The goal of technical training should be to create comfort and freedom without compromising the music, not to force a bunch of unnatural movements into our bodies. The best book on technique isn't out yet, but it's by Dorothy Taubman. Look for it.

I've owned the book for two years; I read well, and am a serious pianist. Yet I have not penetrated beyond the first quarter of the book. The author's prose is not tangled, nor troubled by academic jargon. It has, however, a creepily lobotomized quality. One feels as if one is translating each sentence into human speech as one reads: a tedious process. The content appears useful and trustworthy.

I have used Fink's book in combination with the video. The primary value of this book is to suggest solutions to particular technique problems. If you are going to purchase just the book, take note that the drawings have to show the motions bigger than what you should actually do in practice just so you can see them at all. This is why the accompanying video is probably a wise addition to the book purchase. For example, in the video when he demonstrates "pronating/suppinating motions" , they are almost invisible. So that is my caution about this book: the motions suggested must be very subtle to be correct and doing them literally like the pictures could cause injury. Having said that, it is a library of potential technical solutions I have found useful as a teacher.

I was so excited to receive this book and the best part is, I wasn't to be disappointed!!! It is a book that deserves a lot of undivided attention, as it is written with complex ideas that need to be savoured and re-read to grasp their full weight. The first part of the book is dedicated to exercises that you can do away from the piano. I am a piano teacher myself and have actually been devising a book purely on that so I was delighted to find my ideas are actually quite accurate. I will admit I have not had this book long enough to devour the whole thing just yet, but it is proving to be a gem and a must for any serious pianist!