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At my piano lesson I played the first movement of Sonatina Op. 2, No. 1 by Kuhlau and my teacher commented that she could tell I had really worked on the 16th note runs and that they were even. I said that they weren’t all the same even tone with my thumb being louder etc. She said I wouldn’t worry about that now. Not sure if she meant to become more familiar with this piece first or that I need to have more time playing the piano in general before we work on things like that. I’m just starting my third year playing as a senior adult. I do work on scales and arpeggios every week. Nothing has been said about even tone with them, just right notes and in rhythm. What do you think, should a student starting their 3rd year be concerned about even tone with 16th note runs? Thanks

I think that a student starting - or continuing to work on - sixteenth-note runs and/or scales should be concerned about even tone from the very start. If one is indifferent to evenness of tone at the outset it becomes increasingly difficult to get that quality the longer one ignores it.

Some of these issues can be worked on by practicing scales.

So practice your scales/runs with a concerted effort to the get evenness by practicing
- very slowly
- in rhythms at various tempi
- in short bursts with pauses in between
- in varying dynamics
- with varying touch (legato, portato, staccato)
- in contrary motion scales (which, in some scales, permits "mirroring" of fingering)
etc.

Regards,

I wholeheartedly agree with Bruce and I will that evenness if tone is something you should be listening for in practicing scales and arpeggios. It is a tendency we all have to ‘bump’ the thumb so that the tone is not consistent. Scales and arpeggios are a great place to get rid of this.

I am also year 3. As far as I understand, the 16th note runs in a piece of music should be even in duration, but not even as if a computer is playing it. In the beginning my teacher would mark on my score where to accent. What's important is that it be musical not mechanical or accidental. For scales, I'd also play a variety of controlled unevenness as exercises for all fingers to do whatever is required.
I believe you might wait on the articulation while you are still learning the piece. But the control is something you improve as you progress. Anyway we have different teachers so It's best to just ask her.

The end goal is that you need to be able to control your mouvement so that you can choose which notes needs to accentuated. Sometimes it needs to be even but most of the time some notes in the run should be emphasized or on the contrary sound softer to avoid sounding mechanical like wszxbcl rightly pointed out. To control your fingers is a matter of time but certainly specific exercices are necessary. The even tone is the first step. I think the sooner you start, the best it is but that is definitely your teacher decision.

This is an interesting conversation. Scales have figured big into my stroke recovery therapy. For me it's a use it or lose it proposition, if I skip practicing for a few days I notice not just in playing the piano but in other aspects my hands are less stable or sure of themselves. When I play scales while I am working on speed but evenness is the ultimate goal because that shows control. Even if I just do a few runs of the C scale in the morning my hands are better that day when doing other things like typing on the keyboard. It's a similar situation to walking and balance, walking at a steady pace with good form is better than speed walking but wobbling all over the place.

Edit to add the left hand stride pattern in Jazz is also a very useful training exercise.

Peddler 100 what is the left hand stride pattern in Jazz. Sorry don't know Jazz stuff at all.

Try:

. . . "I know the rhythm is OK. But it bothers me that I can't play those runs with even touch. Can we work on that for a while?"

As for _how_ to work on it, I think BruceD's suggestions are all good.

Myself, I noticed the problem, and started playing scales _very slowly, with full attention_, listening for any un-even volume. After a while, I could play them reasonably evenly. Only then, did I gradually speed them up. (The liquid quality that a really good pianist has -- that still eludes me.)

Never sacrifice even playing, for speed. Your audience will notice that.

I don't really know Jazz either but I think the best description I can some up with is that you have a chord in the lead sheet and you play one part of the chord, like the 1 and 5 notes then jump an octave and play the 3 and 7 notes. That's a very basic example but its good practice for controlling not just the hand but the arm movement as well. My left side coordination / balance was the part affected by the stroke so practicing this with control is good therapy.

Edit to add: As I am slowly learning more about Jazz the best description I have is that it's controlled chaos , this is especially true for someone who just played classical.

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I really appreciate it. I will work on the scales and runs as BruceD suggested.

The reason why runs are not even is because you are letting the anatomy of the hand dictate the phrasing, rather than letting the rhythm of the music do it. This is a counter-intuitive issue which blew my mind when I first realized it.

The accents are dictated by the music itself, based on the rhythm and the meter. Your body must conform to those, not the other way around.

Yes, this should be done from the beginning. It's not about "evenness" exactly. If you make it about evenness, you will join the ranks of 1000s of pianists still searching for that elusive quality.

Notice when you speak fluently, no individual syllable stands out (unless you intend for it to stand out). And yet, they are certainly not all "even". The accents happen where they need to happen, based on the rhythm of the text, and the listener perceives it as being fluent.