Teachers' Manual Video Tutorials.
Are the Pianimals exercises unclear to you? Get a better understanding by watching these short video tutorials embedded in the page below. You can also go directly to the YouTube Playlist to browse them there.
Introduction
Introduction
The raison d'être of Pianimals is explained in clear, concise language.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Waft the Hand Down to Make the Most Beautiful Sound in the World
Floating the arm relaxes it without it becoming heavy and cumbrous - for a magical, glowing, hypnotizing sound.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Flop the Heel, Make a Seal Flipper with the Hand
Sinking the heel into the white keys offers the hand structural stability - like a baby lying down.
From that position of security we can do various things with the fingers - like swatting the keys with a "seal flipper."
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Flop the Heel, Make a Bird Beak with the Hand
Pecking the keys with an ultra-firm bird beak hand while the heel is sunk in the keys
gives the brain a new neuromotor image of security and capability.
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Flop the Heel, "Cat-Scratch" with the Fingertip
Curling the fingers works best when the metacarpal-phalangeal joint, the "hand's hip joint," doesn't collapse.
Sinking the heel into the white keys offers the MCP joint so much structural support it can't collapse.
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Lay the Hand Down & Roll it Around
The reflexes learn best when sensations are varied. Sometimes we'll create a strong, skeletal-structural
sense in the hand; at other times we'll soften it completely making the bones "dissolve" within -
as in this lesson where the hand rolls around on the keys like a semi-hibernating bear.
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Make a Thumb Print; Stand on the Thumb
The thumb is the powerhouse of the hand, but often seriously underused in the young pianist.
If your pupils are lifting their thumb thus disempowering the hand, this exercise is for them.
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Multiple Bird Beaks
The bird beak is a feeling of tight (but not tense) hand capability.
There are many versions to adapt to many different pianistic situations.
Chapter 8
Chapter 8: The Sliding Bird Beak
Sliding on key is one of the best ways of finding that delicious state of hand where it is neither too tight nor too loose.
The arm as well gets a clear sense of its optimal mobility - shaping phrases and sonorities with precision
instead of waving around trying to relax.
Chapter 8A
Chapter 8A: How Many Different Bird Beaks?
It seems the list of possible bird beaks just keeps expanding...
Chapter 9
Chapter 9: The Crocodile's Jaw
Making the hand into a crocodile jaw gives thumb and fingers the snuggest possible interaction, optimizing hand tonus.
Chapter 10
Chapter 10: The Alligator's Jaw
The alligator jaw is a more triangular structure, preparing thumb and fingers for more active, potent movement on the keys.
Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Tromping Troll & Prancing Stallion
The thumb generally needs he most improvement, but it also empowers the entire hand the most -
once that improvement has been reached.
Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Floating Arm, Feather-Light Finger
Float the arm as we did in the first exercise, but now sound the note moving from low to high
instead of playing as you waft down.
Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Walking on Stilts
One of the strangest ways to instil the sense of skeletal power in the hand and arm is to
walk on the knuckles using the arms as stilts.
Chapter 13A
Chapter 13A: The Hand is a Mini-Body
Seeing how all the parts of the hand correspond to parts of the entire body brings us
to an entirely new understanding of how the hand can move on the keyboard.
Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Teetering - Use Rotation to Smooth Out Walking
If you could walk without bending ankle, knee or hip joint, you would get a clear sense of how the torso is supported
by each leg in turn - and how to manage the transfer of weight. This lesson does this for the fingers & hand.
Chapter 15
Chapter 15: The Hand as an Amoeba
Can an amoeba play the piano? Yes if it is a cat amoeba.
Chapter 16
Chapter 16: The Hand as a Bell Clapper
Children love this lesson, which teaches bonging, not banging.
The clangorous, free vibration of the sound board is achieved by eliminating all the "down" from the arm's movement.
The hand is as compact as a bell-clapper, but there's no compression.
Chapter 17
Chapter 17: Manipulate the Key
Make yourself one with the key by grasping it, moving it, sensing it three-dimensionally.
Feeling as if you're in it instead of on it gives you greater tactile control.
Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Weighted vs. Non-Weighted Touch: The Tai Chi Empty Step
Experience the difference between falling into a key and standing up on a key
by practicing these two actions with the whole body: "Frankenstein-walking" and "swan-gliding."
Chapter 19
Chapter 19: Sauntering on Thumb & Finger
This is another version of that strange, straight-legged walking -
here sped up and helped out with more rotation.
Chapter 20
Chapter 20: Thumb Snaps to Finger Pad
The thumb needs to stand well, always, if the hand is to move well. Here we galvanize the thumb
to do its right supportive work by bringing a quick snapping movement to a scale - just for a moment.
Chapter 21
Chapter 21: Stand on 2nd, Lean ‘Arm Thumb’ To Inside
Imagine a heron stretching one leg out for an eternity before it finally takes a step.
Now stand on your 2nd finger and stretch the thumb out. When you take an eternity to make your step,
you feel how to do it without the thumb collapsing in the slightest. For many this is a totally unfamiliar feeling.
Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Whip the Arm to Smear a Scale
If you whip your hand up above your head while playing a few notes of a scale,
they sound incredibly quick, light and sparky. The reflexes experience the joy of playing fast
with none of the stress.
Chapter 23
Chapter 23: Overholding
Sometimes a hidden collapse of the hand arch ruins our legato sound unbeknownst to us.
Overholding helps us weed out those hidden collapses by making us feel them.
Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Rotation
As Matthay said, rotation is always present in piano technique.
This lesson helps develop the feeling of how much rotation is needed, and when,
by solidifying the hand - shifting all the movement to the forearm.
Chapter 25
Chapter 25: Springboard Launch
When you leap from stepping stone to stepping stone crossing a creek, it's the legs that animate the movement
and make it accurate. They ensure that you don't end up with a dunking.
Leaps work better when the fingers animate them than when the arm carries the neutral hand.
Chapter 26
Chapter 26: Forte Is “Up”
Investing a "down" motion in a forte is the surest way to ruin ones sound,
and also the most widespread. This lesson creates glowing, intensely singing fortes
that are distinctive for their complete freedom from compression.
Chapter 27
Chapter 27: Grow the Hand in Octaves
Octaves present the greatest danger of stiffening the hand, because it must be in extension.
This lesson shows how to keep the grasping action potent and vital even when playing
octaves, larger intervals, and chords.
Chapter 28
Chapter 28: Creeping & Cliffhanging
Once we have reviewed all the parts of the piano-playing mechanism (finger, hand, wrist, arm),
we return to the fingertip - the ultra-important point of contact - your interface with your instrument.
Chapter 29
Chapter 29: Rock-A-Bye-Body
The hand is a mini-body, but we also play piano with our whole body.
This lesson empowers the relationship of the real pelvis & torso to the movements of the hand & arm on key.