Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Fingers on the keys and centering on the notes

I just watched this video, called Tension at the Piano (Part 3): Lateral Reaching Vs. Centering. In this video John Mortensen explains that when you have to play a wide range of notes, you should not spread out your hand and freeze it there while playing each note, but move your hand so it is centered for each note. For a short demonstration, start watching at 3:55 in which he spreads his hand, and at 4:15 he plays while moving his hand.

This makes perfect sense to me, and it is actually the way in which I try to play.

However, when I recorded my playing and sent it to my video teacher I could see that I had claw hands. Her reply to me was: "Your hands look like claw hands because your fingers are hovering above the keys. Make sure that your fingers are always on the keys."

Now I know she is not the only teacher who says the fingers should be on the keys.
My question is: how do I combine playing with fingers on the keys with this motion that Mortensen describes?

Well it is tough if it is a wide spread chord. The technique really applies best to when moving positions. For instance, if a melody line plays a C4, then A4, C5, then E5, then back to a C5, you might find you have to move your hand and / or rotate the wrist so the fingers land squarely on the keys (centered) produces a better tone. Of course, you cannot reach the E5 while the thumb is still on the C4 with this technique.

If you use claw hands, you keep your arm still, which is bad for control as the fingers are at an angle when viewed from above. You should ideally move the hand to each note.

Keeping the non-playing fingers resting on the keys is good, as it takes minimal effort to then use each finger. It also means the fingers are relaxed. This is instead of a claw where each finger is ready to pounce. They're really two different issues that are solved by resting relaxed fingers on the keys while moving the arm to each note.

This is only for melodic or single line playing.

I (noob) don't see how that's possible. I read that as conflicting advice from two different teachers.
I actually like the look of it, good video! The question arises of legato being possibly sacrificed though, with the time it takes moving.
I'll definitely have a go at it, next time I'm at the piano. See what it feels like.

Thickfingers, Mortensen says he'll address that problem in a video called cat legato.

With "cat legato" the striking finger is still lined up. When you're using a finger to hold a key after it has been struck, there's no reason to keep it aligned. You give priority to the striking finger.

Well, that's interesting...just googled "cat legato piano" and got results about "legato"... no "cat" whatsoever. Must be pretty esoteric for Google to not find it. (Googling "cat legato" alone returned results about car exhausts.)

It's a fairly common instruction to use "cat like" movements when moving from note to note in a particular way in legato playing. It can feel like walking cat-like on the keys with the fingers. I assume this is what was referred to as "cat legato". Like walking, the fingers/paws don't remain stationary even though they are still holding the keys down.

I think it's a misunderstanding. Your teacher didn't mean that your fingers should lie on the keys that they played or going to play next. She meant that your non-playing fingers should rest on the adjacent keys.

Imagine that you need to play C-E-G with fingers 1-2-3.
When you play С your 2nd finger should be resting on D and 3rd finger on E.
When you play E your thumb should be resting on D and 3rd finger on F.
When you play G your thumb should be resting on E and 2nd finger resting on F.
Do you get the idea?

But if you would have googled John Mortensen cat legato, you would have found this video!
I haven't seen it yet..

Nothing like my cat jumping on the keyboard whilst I am practising with headphones on as happened first thing this morning then. That was more staccato followed by a temporary heart stop.

Thank you Iaroslav! Yes, in your example, my fingers would be in the air.

Glad to be of assistance!

Animisha, these videos on the net are not always usefull; often times they are covering topics which are not for beginners and/or focused on specific situations but they give little context about how and when to use the technics they teach. Now there are plenty of different technics out there and on any given topic you can find different opinions as to what works best. Thats why it is important for a beginner to stick with one teacher to get a consistent approach at least for the basics; compiling different technics gathered on various videos can only lead to futur issues and a serious headache if one is unable to put some context around them. What John Mortensen is teaching is just basic common sense that one does not want to leave the hand in an extended position and instead should regroup it around the next set of notes to be played. The example he is taking is from the WTC, which is already at an intermediate/advanced level. Most beginners (I do not know what level you are at) anyway will not have to play in extension (or rarely) and hand movement are anyway limited.

As far as hand position, it should be as natural and as relaxed as possible, fingers on the keys close to each other, ready to move. When you have to reach to a more remote key, either it is an isolated one and then you can just extend one finger, if it is a new stable position, the hand moves in totality to recenter. What is important is to feel how your hand must accomodate micro-movements to give your fingers the best possible and most comfortable angle to hit the various keys; it is not always possible, especially in fast playing pieces to position each finger in a perfectly ideal situation, so the hand position is always a compromise. Overtime as experience increases, you will start feeling naturally what is the right balance for you. The right balance is not the same for every player because it depends on the size of the hand, flexibility level, more or less independance of certain fingers, and so on. This is just very generic recommendations; there are plenty of exceptions and fingers can not always be on the keys for various reasons but when possible it is good to get them back to that position because it is a resting position.

In addition, and John Mortensen obviously knows that, there are plenty of situations where his recommendations are just not applicable. In Bach, in almost all of his fugues, at some point, one (sometimes 2) finger - usually the thumb or the pinky - have to stay on one key and the rest of the fingers continue to play the other voice; often times reaching as far as full octave; in that case there is no other option but to play in full extension. Other case is chords over the octave; most rags from Scott Joplin for example are written in constant octave based chords played in full extension. So it is advised to keep the hand centered as long as .... it has no to be centered !

This is certainly true. But as cmb13 said yesterday in the tension thread, these are among most reputable pianist/teachers posting on the Internet and one can trust there advice as much as one can trust anything on the Internet For example, I don't think anyone has ever said John Mortensen's instruction is wrong.


I think you have just proven that "there are exceptions to every rule," not that the rules themselves are bad or wrong. To prove rules themselves are wrong requires something more.

There is a guy on Facebook, runs one of the piano groups, that seems to be anti Mortensen. Strange, but he says he teaching is wrong. He likes Hanon though, lol.

Funny how everyone has a different opinion.

And where does that fellow have his PhD/DMA in Piano Performance from? Inquiring minds want to know.

Yes, what is his name and credentials?

I don't mind when people say they don't like something. We all have things we love, like, dislike, and hate. But it's different when someone says something is "wrong." Then I think it's fair to ask for some credentials from the accuser, especially when the claim is being made about a subjective thing like piano and not something that can be objectively proven or disproven, like a mathematical theorem.