How to play soft passages evenly on piano: in soft playing, the fingers carry more of the note
Soft playing asks more from the fingers, not less. When a quiet passage comes out uneven, I look first at the fingers. Mostly they gave way when the arm weight was taken away.
To play a soft passage evenly on piano, find the group of notes that comes out uneven, play it once in a clear forte and feel the concentration, keep that concentration, and take the arm weight away slightly by lifting the lower arm, with the fingers staying on the keys.
Below I explain why that works. There is also one thing to check in the forte, before you trust what you feel there.
Why loosening everything for a soft sound makes the notes uncertain
Most students go the other way. They want the sound soft, so they let everything loosen, and the notes turn uncertain. It seems logical: less sound, so less of everything. But you cannot play softly with spaghetti fingers, and in a quiet passage you hear it.
Think of holding a pen. No force is needed, but the fingers cannot give way, otherwise the pen falls from your hand. That is what I call concentration in the fingers. Soft playing needs it too, not only the forte.
In forte, the finger has something to resist
In strong playing the arm weight covers a lot. Whatever the fingers are not doing, you often don't hear it yet, and the passage still sounds fine.
And there is a second thing. Beginners often use force instead of true arm weight. The force arrives and the finger reacts by resisting the fall. That resistance holds the note.
So in the forte, weight or force, something arrives at the key and the finger has something to react to. That is why even a forced forte can still hold its notes. It does not make force a good idea. Where force comes from, I explain further down.
With the arm weight mostly gone, the fingers have to hold the note on their own
In soft playing that weight is mostly gone. The finger has nothing to react to. Unless the fingers are concentrated on their own, nothing holds the note.
The key still pushes back up. It is not much, about 70 grams, depending on where on the keyboard. But to control that key, and the sound, the fingers need their concentration, also with little arm weight behind them.
Without it, you hear it right away. One note speaks, the next is a little weaker, one almost doesn't come. That is mostly why soft playing sounds weak: the fingers gave way as soon as the arm weight went.
Try this: from one clear forte to a soft, even group of notes
Take a passage in piano or pianissimo where the quiet tone gets uncertain. You don't need the whole piece for this, only the part that goes wrong.
- Find the group of notes, or the part of the passage, that comes out uneven.
- Play it once in a clear forte, and feel the fingers working, the concentration.
- Keep that same concentration.
- Take the arm weight away slightly: lift the lower arm higher.
- Stay on the keys, and still feel the fingers concentrated.
- Listen back: do the notes come out even, or still uncertain?
In the first step, don't look for the one note that goes wrong. That is very hard to hear, especially for beginners, and often it is a group of notes anyway. Find the group, and work on that.
What you carry over from the forte is the concentration. The loudness stays behind. The weight comes off through the lower arm, and only slightly. The fingers and the hand don't loosen for it.
In the last step, listen to the whole group. Often some notes still come out weaker than others. You work on it until they don't anymore.
Check your forte: is it arm weight, or force?
Weight is controlled pressure from the arm. Force usually comes from stiffening, in the wrist, in the arm, even in the fingers. How arm weight and arm pressure go through concentrated fingers into the key, I explain in my post on arm weight and finger coordination.
This matters for the exercise. If the forte in step two was forced, what you feel in the fingers there can be stiffness, and not concentration. Then the stiffness is what you would keep when you lift the lower arm.
So look at the forte first. A forced forte can feel strong in the fingers, and strong is what you were looking for, so it is easy to miss. Check that the wrist stays free and the arm flexible.
Concentrated fingers go with a free wrist and a flexible arm
Stiff fingers and concentrated fingers are not the same thing. Stiff fingers always go together with a tight wrist and a tight arm. What a concentrated finger is, when it neither collapses nor stiffens, I describe in my post on finger stability in piano technique.
So when the fingers are stiff, it is not only a finger problem. Look at the wrist and the arm as well.
Many students, when they concentrate the fingers, make the wrist tight. I think that is more psychology, the way of thinking.
When you hold a pen, your fingers are concentrated and your wrist is free. So why should the piano make it different? Students first have to learn to think in a different way, and work on it until it becomes like a second nature.
In short
Forte gives the finger something to resist. Soft playing takes that away, so the fingers have to concentrate on their own, without a stiff wrist or arm. Play the uneven group once in a clear forte, keep that concentration, and take the arm weight away slightly with the lower arm, staying on the keys.
Where this is built
As long as the fingers give way, every quiet passage stays a gamble. When we want to learn to play soft, we first have to get strong fingers. The stronger the fingers, the easier soft playing gets, together with flexible arm movements.
In the Academy the first-phase finger work comes first, step by step, and then we take it into the pieces you play. Build those fingers with me.
