TONE CONTROL

When musicians

talk about tone control, they mean all the ways in which you can

control the quality and volume of the sounds you produce. Different

instruments

allow the player more or less control over different aspects of sound. This is
especially significant

with the piano.

First the bad news. Here's what you can't do on the piano:
control the colour (brightness,

erc.) of individual

control the tuning of individual

control the way individual

sounds;

sounds;

sounds unfold once they have been begun.

The last point is important,

especially where dynamics

are concerned.

You can't

make a sound get louder, or even keep it at the same level, once it has already begun.
Sounds on the piano die away automatically,
not cut off by releasing

but how long this takes (if they're

the keys) depends on their initial loudness and pitch: louder

and lower will last longer than softer or higher. These changes in sound level within
notes are outside

your control,

so they don't get shown in the written

makes it easy to forget that they are occurring.

music. This

But staying aware of the level of the

sound after it starts means you can decide how other sounds relate to it (as louder or
softer). And this affects how the original sound gets heard.
This trick is central to classical piano playing.
instrument
smoothness,

In classical piano we often want the

ro 'sing' rather than sound percussive,

continuity,

which means achieving

and evenness of rone. And this means creating

maximum
the illusion

that each sounds sings on until the next one, when in fact it dies away.
Now the good news. Here's what you can do:
control

the overall dynamic

level (loudness)

of sounds, unlike with the organ or

harpsichord);
control when the sound is Cut off;
let the sound continue

until it dies away naturally;

control the sympathetic

resonance

of other strings (with right-hand

alter the tonal quality of the whole instrument

left hand pedal, which works like mutes
Because

you can't

control

individual

pedal);

ro a duller, softer sound (using the

do on other instruments).
sounds

directly,

except

in terms of how

loudly they start and how long they last, you have to make those aspects work much
......

harder than on other instruments.

to have anyway: imagination.

This calls for something

kind of music one person can play. Differences

connecting

all good musicians

In fact, it allows for much more complexity

up sounds in different

need
in the

of tone colour can be evoked through

ways, so playing

at an advanced

level often feels

more like being in control of a whole orchestra.

PHRASING AND STRESS

We've already seen how swinging

the hand round sideways with a lateral movement

of the wrist is necessary ro keep broken chords flowing smoothly.

As with passing

the thumb under in scales, this requires keeping the wrist as loose as possible. But

Using the wrist in phrasing

we can also use the wrist to shape phrases. Lifting the wrist as we approach the end

Keep the wrist loose and relaxed. Letting it sink

of a phrase simultaneously

down slightly (top) makes for a relaxed but full

lightens and shortens the last note, making a gap which

can also mark the end of the phrase. Conversely,

note produces an accent that can emphasise

letting

the wrist fall as we playa

the strong beats of a bar. Again, this

requires looseness of the wrist. The illustration

(right) shows, slightly exaggerated

tone. Lifting the wrist near the end of a phrase

(bottom) lightens and shortens the last note,
leaving a gap that indicates that the phrase is over.

for clarity, how the hand naturally gets drawn in under the wrist slightly as it lifts.

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