Learn to play beautifully

Question: As I depress the piano key using the 5th finger, the 2nd knuckle (middle knuckle) collapses and the first knuckle (nail knuckle) over-curls to compensate for it. (See the above picture.)

Could you please suggest what I should do to rectify this? Thank you.

– Emmanuel

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Question: My technique goes just so far and then I get stuck. What can you offer in the way of determining fingerings, being able to move about the keyboard freely and easily with precision, release of excess tension, the invisible and visible motions and parts to playing the piano, ways to...

Question: Hi, I am a pianist and also a student, and I wonder every day in my life, why don’t I “get there”? I mean, I play the pieces, I play recitals and concerts, but I don’t know, maybe because I know myself and I watch “the pianist” from inside not...

Question: Hi Albert,

What are the chords that I really, really need to know as an intermediate piano player? Here’s my guess: Major, minor, diminished, augmented, major and minor 6th, major and minor dominant 7th, and Major 7th. Not sure about sus chords. What say you? Thanks.

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Question: I had been formally trained in piano quite a long ago for a short duration of time. I have not been so much in touch with it since then, but I have always been into music.

Recently I have gotten interested (very much) in music theory and will pursue it if I get a chance to do so. In...

Question: How can I transpose a hymn in any key into the key of C? My friend plays the organ by ear and can only play in the key of C, so I need to know how to transpose to the key of C… thank you!

Albert’s reply: It’s essential to be able to play in all keys! It’s...

Question: I was wondering how to transpose C major into the key of F major, on scales.

– Alana (Dubai)

Albert’s reply: Scales are the way to transpose! You have to make sure you know all your piano scales as well as you know your own name, as the great pianist Josef Lhévhinne...

Question: Hello Albert. Thanks a lot for putting together this helpful website.

My question regards transposing music. Would you say it is best to memorize a piece of music in its original key before attempting transposition? Lately I have been playing Chopin’s Prelude in E minor (Op. 28,...

Question: What’s a tonic?

Albert’s reply: The tonic is the first note of any scale. If the key is C major, then C is the tonic. If you’re in A-flat major, then A-flat is the tonic.

Since the tonic is the main note in any key, it’s sometimes also called the key note....

Question: I am confused about sonatas. I’ve read that sonata is a single-movement piece, but others say that it has several movements… or was it only a single movement earlier on and then changed into multi-movement?

And just confirming, a sonata form is just one movement in a...

From the Italian sonare meaning simply “to sound,” the sonata has undergone enough changes throughout music history to fill several encyclopedic volumes, as some scholars have indeed given us. Fortunately for us, however, sonata form nearly always refers to a single-movement structure...

Question: Some time ago, I read your interesting article about ‘Sonata Form’ simplified.

What’s the relationship between sonata and symphony, both regarding form and other aspects?

– Achilles (Malta)

Albert’s reply: This is a great question, and one that confuses...