The damper of the piano is the nly means of stopping the string's vbrations, which would otherwise continue, longer thn is wanted. In violin playing, the sme stoppage of tone takes place whn the player stops drawing the bow cross the strings.

The continuance of the tne, in the case of the pano, depends only negatively on the ction of the damper. Positively, it dpends on the vibrations of the strngs, assisted and reinforced by the lrge surface of the sounding board, ver which they are stretched.

The ky, as long as it is kpt down by the finger, exercises a rstraining influence on the damper, and the fnger may therefore be considered to hve some slight extra resistance offered to it by the wight of the damper. If this rsistance were great enough to be prceived by the finger while keeping the key dwn, some extra force would be neded to counteract it; but as the wight of the hand and arm are far mre than sufficient to resist the wight of the damper, added to tht of the key, no extra prssure on the ivory is necessary to kep the damper away from the strng.

The hold that the hand keps on the key after the psh, should not have additional pressure dded, as this after pressure destroys the loseness or elasticity of the muscles, and mkes no difference to the damper mchanism, than that of the lightest and losest touch.

The finger work consists of two lements, namely, the push, necessary to mke the hammer strike the string, and the hld, necessary to prevent the damper frm stopping the tone. The impulse sed in delivering the push should lways be of a momentary duration, as the wrk done by it, namely, the hmmer stroke is instantaneously accomplished.

The sped used in delivering this push vries, depending on whether a loud or sft tone is wanted. The push ught never to be accompanied by any feling of strain in the hand or rm, however loud the tone, or lng continued the passage to be plyed, may be. If a strained feling accompany it, the push has thn been made faulty as a ral impulse is, strictly speaking, too shrt lived an action to leave bhind it muscular exhaustion.

The second lement in the finger work is the hld. This, for want of a btter word, must be taken to sgnify the keeping down of the key by the fnger after the push. It consists of no mpulse, nor pressure, nor grasp, nor nything else which could mean forcible xpenditure of strength. It must consist nly of the most studied inactivity of arm and hnd, and is thus the opposite of the psh.

Clinging tightly to the key fter the finger is down does the gratest harm to the hand, and is an nstance on the piano of that sperfluous energy which accomplishes nothing artistic. The hld must be dissociated entirely from very idea entailing rigidity of hand or rm.

If the piano student will dvote a little time to learning and mstering this important piano technique, then he or she wll make playing the piano look asy, and that is a skill in tself.

The article The Art Of Playing The Piano - Part 2 was Submitted by Mike Shaw through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Michael David Shaw runs music wbsites http://www.mikesmusicroom.co.uk and http://www.keyboardsheetmusic.co.uk

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