Teaching Essential Piano Technique

Join author Penelope Roskell for a live webinar on July 20th, 2023 at 12:30pm BST to learn more about her new series of technique books for children, 'Essential Piano Technique'. Click here to register now.

Penelope Roskell, author of the award-winning book The Complete Pianist , explains the rationale behind her radical new series of technique books for children and suggests some new ways to approach technique.

I believe strongly that every piano student can be taught to play musically and with good technique. It saddens me to see many young pianists playing with a distorted hand position, with tense wrists and shoulders and with little real enthusiasm for the music they are playing. They are missing out on so much! As a teacher of very advanced players, I become even more concerned when I witness at first-hand how habits acquired at the early stages can lead to serious problems such as debilitating tension or injury later on.

Since the publication of The Complete Pianist in 2020, I have been reflecting on how beginner and intermediate pianists can best put the concepts and principles described in that encyclopedic book into practice. I wanted to create resources that will help teachers give every student the best possible start—both musically and technically. This inspired me to devise a radical new series of technique books for children: Essential Piano Technique .

A musically-focused technique

The Essential Piano Technique books teach technique in the broadest sense of the word. In addition to the traditional technical skills (scales, broken chords, arpeggios etc) they introduce all the pianistic skills which help create a wide range of wonderful musical sounds, including:

• achieving freedom of movement
• good coordination between the finger, hand, and arm
• playing cantabile
• shaping a phrase
• breathing between phrases
• achieving rhythmic character and energy
• and—most importantly—playing with ease and enjoyment !

A radical new approach to teaching technique

Like most other pianists of my generation, I started learning piano with the middle C approach . As most teachers are now aware, playing with both hands almost exclusively in the middle C area can cause significant muscular imbalance, with the elbows and shoulders pulled in tight and the hand twisting towards the thumb (in ulnar deviation ). It also fixes the hand and arm in a static position, rather than encouraging freedom of movement around the whole keyboard. And musically speaking, playing exclusively in C major can be rather dull!

Throughout these books, I have encouraged students to use the full range of the keyboard. I also introduce the Chopin hand position early on (with the longer fingers playing black notes and the thumb and fifth finger playing white notes) to establish a very natural ergonomic relationship with the hand on the keyboard.

Students can also often slip into a faulty hand position if they try to play legato and chords too early. Their hands just aren’t strong enough and they tend to overcompensate by tensing the wrist and elbow. In these books, I teach detached playing (using a technique I call bobbing ) initially together with some child-friendly strengthening exercises so the hand is fully prepared for the more independent finger action needed for legato. Similarly, chords are introduced step-by-step with a technique that I call jellyfish jumps . Here the child learns to relax their hand like a jellyfish between chords, so that each new chord is played with excellent hand shape, with a relaxed wrist and a warm singing sound. This is just one example of bringing an element of fun to learning good technique.

Practical and flexible teaching guides

1. Format

I usually teach each technique first as quite a broad movement away from the piano. Each of these movements is one that a child will naturally be doing in their everyday life. Imagery and child-friendly titles inspire the child to respond with a natural free movement.

The movement is then transferred to the piano in a very simple exercise, followed by a piece. At this point, the movement will need to be refined a little, so the student can play precise notes on the piano. As tempo progresses, and especially as the student progresses to the higher levels, the movement will be refined still further until it is almost imperceptible. But the freedom of movement will still be there!

2. Teacher support

The first three books aim to support the teacher and the student throughout the first two or three years of playing. They can be used alongside most modern tutor books or can be supplemented by a teacher’s own activities in theory and note-reading. I have included some detailed teachers’ tips at the back of the book, as well as videos demonstrating each technique.

3. Flexibility

The progression of each book in this series has been thought through very carefully, and most beginner students will benefit hugely from following the books progressively; however, teachers are encouraged to use the books imaginatively and adapt them where necessary to suit the needs of individual students. There is flexibility to teach the exercises and pieces by rote as well as with music, and each section offers optional extension activities for students who wish to develop a technique further. The exercises themselves would also work well for more advanced students to dip in and out of when a particular technical need arises.

I sincerely hope that these books provide a useful and enjoyable addition to your teaching resources and will help your students establish strong foundations that will sustain them for many years of enjoyable piano playing!