Pianimals Teachers Manual Tutorial 17: Manipulate the Key

Termite Temerity combines the sensitivity needed to actually feel the precise weight of the hammer while loosely jiggling the key, with the robust muscle contractions needed to grab the key and wiggle it – moving towards an integration of all the various facets of the hand's ability.

It's important here to create a precise sound: try to control both the beginning of the note and the let-off to a thousandth of a second. The more crisp and precise your touch, the more your sound will have a special quality.

Where Feldenkrais addresses the underlying components of human movement; PIANIMALS does the same for piano movements. This piano method teaches the hand developmentally: 30 chapters that build the ability of the hand sequentially – with an exercise first done alone and then applied in some compositions.

TOC

0 The Most Beautiful Sound in the World
1. Lying Down
2. Flop Heel, Finger-Flipper Swats Keys
3. Flop Heel, Finger- Beak Pecks the Keys
4. Flop Heel, Quickly Curl Fingers
5. Flop Heel, Roll the Hand
6. Make a Thumb Print
7. Standing Bird Beak
8. Sliding Bird Beak
9. Clamp Thumb & 2nd – Crocodile Jaws
10. Clamp Thumb & 2nd – Alligator Jaws
11. Tromping Trolls & Prancing Horses
12. Float the Arm, “Feather-Stand” the Finger
13. Walk on Stilts
14. Stand & Sway, But Don’t Collapse
15. Lie Down Floating
16. The Hand as a Bell Clapper
17. Manipulate the Key
18. The Tai Chi Empty Step
19. Sauntering On Thumb & Finger
20. Snap Thumb to Finger Pad
21. Stand on 2nd, Lean ‘Arm Thumb’ To Inside
22. Whip the Arm to Smear a Scale
23. Overholding
24. Rotation
25. Springboard Launch
26. Forte Is “Up”
27. Grow the Hand in Octaves
28. Creeping & Cliffhanging
29. Rock-A-Bye-Body