A beginner needs to learn different piano techniques. If you know the techniques from the start, it will be easy for you to hone your skills. The technique is not a theoretical concept; you need to practice it to develop it. You need to exercise to build techniques. The basic and prominent piano technique is playing from fingers. Fingers are the only body parts that need to take part in playing the piano. If you are trying to play from your arm or shoulder, then you are doing it wrong. When playing piano, your finger is both the factory and distributor of power. Along with this, positioning your hand properly and avoiding using too much wrist movement are other basic techniques.
You must have noticed all these techniques demand muscle strength. Your hand muscles should be strong enough to bear the pressure of playing the piano.
You work out daily to build your biceps and triceps. You stretch daily to maintain flexibility for yoga and dancing. Similarly, you should exercise fingering every day to develop the correct technique for playing piano. You need to strengthen your fingers in order to play well.
Piano-playing techniques ensure that you are playing correctly and that your music piece will sound nice. If you play without applying the techniques, your piece might sound broken and absurd. To maintain fluency, you need to develop a technique and to develop the technique, you need to exercise. Exercising daily will train your muscles and help you adopt the technique. Once your muscles are well-practiced, they will automatically employ the correct techniques and help you play melodies. Let’s learn some simple yet important piano exercises that build technique
One Note One Finger
In the first exercise, you have to play a Penta scale. Penta scale is a series of five notes arranged in alphabetical order such as C, D, E, F, G. You have to cover whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, and whole step without moving your hand. You have to make sure that your power source is your finger and that all your other body parts are relaxed. For your right hand, your thumb will play C, the index finger will play D, and so on. Remember one note and one finger at a time. Start slowly then increase the tempo. This exercise will help you warm up and practice positioning. Furthermore, the process will strengthen your muscles.
Increase The Difficulty of Penta Scales
After you have practiced one note one finger in a single direction, move forward and practice in both directions. Go up and come down – C, D, E, F, G, G, F, E, D, C. Engage both of your hands and remember to maintain the rhythm. When your hands play together, you will practice coordination, and your fingers will learn to adapt. Use your knuckles to provide you power and practice finger movements.
Finger Posture Exercise
Firm fingers are important for playing the piano. To practice finger posture, you don’t have to play. Just make your fingers act as they are going to play. Hold them in a position as if their next step is to play the piano. Next, lift your fingers and let them fall on the keyboard while maintaining the posture. If your fingers loosen up while falling, try again at a lower level. Once your fingers stay in position on the lower level, start increasing the level and train your fingers to stay firm. Exercise until your fingers have adopted a firm posture. If you want to increase your speed and ensure accuracy while playing piano, then this exercise is for you. Firm fingers help in playing faster and more accurately. It is difficult to move your fingers speedily when they are loose, but this exercise will help your fingers learn to be firm and play faster and more accurately.
Finger Coordination Exercise
The simple Penta scale will help improve finger movements, and a little alteration in the Penta scales will allow you to practice alertness. In this exercise, instead of playing all five notes, you have to play only the thirds. When you skip notes and jump to the thirds, your fingers learn coordination. In one second, your finger is relaxed, and in the other, it has to play the third. It’s essential for the fingers to realize their role. If you are not able to control your fingers efficiently, you will unintentionally allow the wrong finger to play the wrong note. To avoid such error, skip some notes and train your fingers to relax.
Finger Control Exercise
In this exercise, you don’t have to play each note separately. Every note requires overlapping by the subsequent note, meaning that when your left hand’s fourth finger is playing D, you don’t have to remove your fifth finger from C. When you play this, you will be able to hear two notes at the same time. This exercise will help you develop finger control. When you try to arrange your movements in an overlapping pattern, it is difficult to follow at the start, but with practice, you can control your fingers.
Arpeggio Exercises
Arpeggio exercises use simple chords to train the muscles. Exercise both hands separately. Right-hand arpeggio exercises are meant for the fingers of the right hand while the left hand relaxes, and the left-hand arpeggio exercises aim to strengthen the left-hand muscles and allow the right hand to rest. Arpeggio allows you to move across octaves and improve finger locomotion. Arpeggio exercises are beneficial for finger flexibility. If we take the example of a C major right-hand arpeggio exercise, then you have to start with simple C E G C instead of moving to the next octave to play E, G from the same. Thus, you play four notes, then repeat the last three notes accompanied by the next note. Arpeggio exercises may appear a little complex, but they are effective. Once you understand the pattern, it is simple to exercise.
Conclusion
Simple exercises with great impact are the best assistant for learning the piano. Most of the above exercises used the example of C, D, E, G Penta scale, but you can play any Penta scale of your choice. Once you have mastered the simple exercises, you can increase the level of difficulty. For beginners, exercise is necessary for developing technique, and for players, it is essential to maintain the technique. You need to develop muscle strength in order to move on to the next level. It’s the exercises only that will help you progress from beginners’ level to intermediate and then advanced. If you have an interest in playing the piano and you desire to hone your skills, then keep exercising. Learn, practice, exercise, train, and develop.
