Twelve Metaphors to Help You Understand Taubman Technique on a Body Level
Tippy chair
Have you ever sat on a stool on a tile floor or other uneven surface so that all four legs won’t sit on the floor simultaneously? Depending on tiny things you do with your body, the chair will sometimes shift to the kitty-cornered leg, sometimes to the leg to the side or front, with very little time and energy necessary for the shift. It is a tiny thing, but a mighty enough annoyance that many of us would switch chairs if given the opportunity. That’s because it can be hard to maintain a center of balance on the tippy chair. On the other hand, I doubt many of you have perfected the art of creating complex rhythms with a tippy chair. Not unlike with Etch a Sketch, it’s too much work for such a small result!
The tipping chair metaphor is meant to evoke a particular feeling of tiny, secure motion that relates to the point of sound. What “tips”? Most obviously, the forearm tips back and forth—and as lightly and effortlessly as does a tippy chair. More subtly, there are minor diagonal “tippings” in the wrist for which you can develop a sensitivity—I would argue, must develop sensitivity if you are to get the most out of the most subtle contributor to fine technique. There are tiny exertions in the muscles that operate the fingers themselves, and with some guidance a pianist can (and must) figure these out for herself. They are simply the minimal exertions that work for the desired quality and speed, after the larger levers have made their contributions.
The tippy chair feeling at the piano, far from being annoying, is a pleasure because, when you have honed your skills to the level that you can pursue this effect, you need very little energy to get from key to key. But a pianist who plays primarily with fingers (a hoverer) will not feel the weight of his arm against the key and will not be able to enjoy the effect. A pianist who drops the arm from high up in the body may have a sensation of weightedness, but his forearm will not readily "tip." Forearm rotation and armweight leaning solidly into the key are both necessities for working with the tippy chair paradigm. The looseness that allows the large levers to effortlessly do their jobs is another.
The joint that is most specifically residence of the tipping chair feeling is the wrist. The wrist’s complex joints are home to sensations reminiscent of the tiny distances covered by a tipping chair as it clickety-clicks. However, to learn to use this incredible joint with the refinement of which it is capable (something that would be very difficult for a teacher to explain or convey) you must cultivate feelings of stability within it--like those of the chair leg meeting with absolute resistance from the floor. You will need to understand those feelings at each location of the carpometacarpal joint so that you can develop excellent reflexes toward alignment. As you learn exactly where those points of complete resistance are, you will be able to use the tippy chair feeling to gain clarity and speed.
This is a metaphor primarily for those of you who are farther along. Use it when you are having trouble with timing or with understanding if your downs are good enough. Use it when you are trying to hone your wrist’s role in your playing to perfection. Use it for the pleasure of the solid landings it stands for, coupled with rapid-fire ability to get to the next place because movements are so small. Use it when you are working on releasing notes cleanly.
The message behind the metaphor: The tippy chair feeling is one of absolute effortlessness, where excellent structure and looseness work together to enable lightning-fast movement. As you cultivate a microscopic awareness of what is happening in your wrist, you can use the tippy chair idea to perfect your timing.