I am currently pursuing a PhD research degree on issues of piano technique. This will be materialised through comparative analysis of various methods that have dealt with piano technique with consideration of the laws of anatomy, physiology, physics and to the existing norms and myths on piano playing.
I reached at this stage through my own search for a pianistic truth, believing there was one. I also had to believe that I would recover from a severe injury that occurred to me in 1998 right at the end of a very successful student career and at the beginning of a very promising professional career.
I focused my learning interests on learning as much about the body as I could. Therefore, once my rolfing treatments were over I could use my hands more or less normally and started re-educating my body movements through a plethora of methods including Tai Chi, Yoga, Tensegrity, Pilates, Feldenkrais and the Alexander Technique. All these helped to take off tensions in the body in general and also in the hands and arms. They also contributed to my thinking of the actual relationship between fingers and keys to be as economical as possible and they managed to rid me of the unnecessary need for confirmation of secure playing through ‘muscle-ing’.
The comparative examination of various techniques lead to a substantial collection of material which lead me to personal realisations. In their turn these realisations somehow fell naturally into my piano playing rendering it effortless and effective, alas in a longer time scale then if I had been exposed to the Taubman approach from the very start. Upon receipt of the 10 DVDs, I was ecstatic to see that ALL of the principles of good piano playing (that were apparent from all this bibliography collectively) were compacted in a series of talks and demonstrations by Edna Gollandsky and Dorothy Taubman in the most conveying, eloquent, inspiring and clear way. The reason why I have indulged into writing this long description of my marathon through “piano truths” is that I believe this is the beginning of the end of a long list of traumatised pianists and that it is a shame not to disseminate it internationally.
As part of my PhD research, I have started a series of lectures on the biomechanics of piano playing and also present workshops for musicians and their habitual muscle patterns. I strongly feel that my search would be complete by pursuing the steps to becoming a certified Taubman instructor.
