How to Improve Your Tone on the Piano

Here's a fairly simple thing to do which can improve your tone on the piano significantly.

Hear the sound of a scale in your head, nice and slow. Imagine each note as a deep, full tone (as if sung by a warm rich tenor voice). Now play that scale while imagining that the surface of each key is about 1/2" lower than it actually is. Drop each finger right through the actual key, as if it weren't there, to get to the imaginery key. Experience the feeling of weight into each note, and notice the effect on the sound.

Now try the same thing with a chord in the left hand. Pre-hear the chord in your head, resonant and warm, then drop all your fingers right through the actual surface of the keys as if they were lower then they are.

Try a few different chords, repeating each note until it has the right weight.

Now try it with some right-handed chords.

Now do it with some-two-handed chords.

Now play the melody to a song with your right (start with a ballad) and try to get the same sense of weight into each key.

Now play the melody in your left hand, then in octaves.

Finally, play the chords and melody together, all on the imaginary lower keyboard.

As you can see, I've combined two techniques here that are designed to help you get the richest, deepest sound.

One of them is to suspend your sense of the physical barrier of the keyboard surface, so that you can get "inside" the piano. The other one is to pre-hear the tone you want to produce.

If you have the right sound in your head before you play, your body will make the adjustments necessary to get that sound as if by natural selection.

If you find this to be difficult, don't be discouraged. Come back tomorrow and try it again. If you've been playing a different way, your body is going to fight this change. It may take a few days or weeks before you really make the switch.

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http://www.mrronsmusic.com/playpiano.htm

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