In Chuang Chang's book "Fundamentals on Piano Practice" he says thumb over is preferable to thumb under. What does he mean?

Another great, synthetic but pretty comprehensive discussion of a crucial topic in piano practice! My experience is that with correct hand position - natural finger line, straight wrist etc. - thumb passage is not a big issue in learning scales, it comes almost automatically. Much more problematic for arpeggios. I have quite stiff finger/hand joints, unfortunately. My teacher strongly agrees with you in the advice to follow the weaker hand while practising with both hands.

Посмотрел несколько видео. Привыкал к подаче материала 🙂 Подписался. Спасибо вам, Денис!

Thank you very much for a great and useful instruction.

Hi Denis. I find it very efficient to roll with your thumb in descending scales with the right hand and ascending scales with the left hand as the 3rd and 4th fingers fall into place very naturally.

Great information on scales ! Thanks, Denis.

Thanks. Very useful.

really helpful like always!

Great information, please keep with the videos about scales. For exemplo, how to play Bb scale.

Thanks for the instructive video. Very helpful. Would you mind doing something about pedaling in Mozart sonatas?

Very helpful

Hi Denis, all your videos are excellent. You are the clearest and most intelligent insightful pianist pedagogue on youtube. As you know previously i'm working on my RH thumb. I think in correct piano playing the thumb is not pressing the key down from the finger but uses the forearm inner rotation clockwise (RH). Unlike other fingers, the thumb finger two articulations serves to place it horizontally on top of the key to play (black or white key also) but has awkward vertical mobility and needs forearm micro rotation to play a note. I think my static thumb tension issue when the thumb is leading comes from trying to use the thumb finger two articulations only (which is not enough) and not using deliberate forearm rotation to provide leverage and more vertical motion to the thumb. It's such a subtle micro rotation that it's invisible but it's everything. And when the thumb is trailing the music then my mistake is to not immediately release the thumb when finger 2 or 3 is playing. Op 10 n8 Chopin's etude is showing me that (it really is a scale study with one jump more than an arpegio study). If i do these two things it seems to help me : - rotate forearm clockwise to play leading RH thumb note. - relax thumb when RH thumb is trailing as soon as finger 2 or 3 is playing. Actually intending to bend the last articulation outside seems to help (At least in slow tempo until i unlearn) to avoid the static thumb tension i am trying to eliminate. Op 25 n1 also i was making the mistake to try to hold the trailing thumb note even when the finger 2 is playing instead of imediately releasing and using more non finger joints to get other fingers where they need to go on the keyboard (elbow and hand angles).

Thank you very much, Denis! (... Guess I was elevating the thumb and the wrist too much...)

0:28 LMAO Даа, таких учителей довелось мне повстречать... Слава Богу, что косвенно))

0:30 *this is the way*

Hello Dennis. If I understand you correctly, you recommend playing for example the C Major and the relative minor (A minor) at the same time? I down loaded your 11 arpeggio exercise and have leaned them through F# so far. Can only play them slowly but making progress. Thanks for providing this valuable piano material for us adults that are trying to gain better piano skills.

Ok this answers my op 27 no 1 questions 😃

Hello Dennis. I down loaded your 11 arpeggio exercise and have worked my way through F# so far. Can only play them slowly but making progress. I find that some arpeggios are difficult to execute. If I understand you correctly, you recommend on scales to play for example C Major and the relative minor (A minor) at the same time? Thanks for providing your excellent videos for us adult piano students.

Hi. Thank you. Enjoyed your videos. I am adult piano player. Question I have is how can I simultaneously hit first finger in scales goin up and change positions of hand if at his point second finger is still engaged

Hello Denis, i have finger “stuck” in the C-major scale(and this kind of passage) i have tried to solve the problem different ways but i could not, when i play fast, this problem is staying the same. Could you make long video about this problem? and how could we solve this one??

When playing several octave scales do you count 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4... sticking to the same rhythmic pattern in each octave, or do you count pure sixteenth all the time 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4... which however shifts the rhythmic pattern related to the octaves?

FYI, Denis…..your terminology is incorrect……the “parallel” minor of E Major is e minor. C# minor is the “relative” minor of E Major….They are “related” because they share the same key signature.

Very helpful. Thanks