The part of the piano that controls tone
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Practicing much quieter, and even slower, has a lot of reward.
There is some famous female pianist (I can find out who) who remarked that she practices “everything” (including thundering masterworks) “piano-pianissimo”. It’s on the quiet side that our fingers begin to gain sensitivity and better “tone”.
This is a seque more into style than tone, but this reminds me of a very important lesson I learned so many years ago with my college voice teacher. A young person thinks that you need to be loud to project emphasis — and so we sing loudly, play loudly, speakly loudly, dance loudly (i.e. with big movements) — but as we understand how the recipient’s mind and emotions work (to be a little technical) — we understand that being quiet projects so much more emphasis.
Isn’t a silent scream the scariest?
Isn’t a whispered “I love you” the tenderest?
Isn’t a tenor’s lament on high C at pianissimo more heart rending than at fortissimo?
Isn’t the best way to get people’s attention in a conversation to whisper?
But — technically acheiving these quiet points of emphasis can be very difficult.
So, my practice trajectory tends to go from slow and loud to fast and quiet.
And, if you occasionally need a little more volume to shape a phrase use loudness for emphasis, keeping the overall volume down gives you so much more head room.
Occasionally, it’s possible to play loudly and then immediately play softly for emphasis — but this is so much more difficult to do convincingly — and the affect would not work unless there were overall a sense of delicacy and elasticity in the piece’s volume.
Again — these rambling thoughts are more about volume than tone — but somehow seemed worthly of posting here in response to these comments.
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certain works are really loud for long durations
and need the pianist to just get used to using more strength.
the only way to practice this
is to work on getting fully relaxed within the act of playing
and work up to a more assertive dynamic over time
after the hands get stronger and more compliant.
Actually, the inside wrist tendons
are hidden controllers of soft and loud.
It’s kind of creepy to look at
when you turn your hand up and see how that looks
when the tendons are built up from practice.