Join renowned Yale Professor Boris Berman as he discusses the activity of the thumb, palm, and wrist at the piano. The anatomy of the thumb is closer to the other fingers than most pianist's realize, but its role is often quite different. After examining the uses and actions of the thumb, Berman addresses the palm of the hand, which should be capable of expanding from within without tension. Moving backward to larger joints, Berman then addresses the wrist. The wrist performs four main functions in a pianist's playing mechanism: rotation, vertical, lateral, and shock-absorbing, and Berman demonstrates each in turn.

Join renowned Yale Professor Boris Berman as he breaks down two core principles of sound production – "in" and "out" – demonstrating the application of each in turn. The "in" way of playing involves a slower, more measured descent into the key, continuing the movement after the moment of attack. The "out" way of playing is the opposite. It involves a quicker stroke such that the fingers leave the key and weight is released almost before the sound is heard. Neither way of playing is superior. Rather, both ways are useful at different times in different contexts, and sometimes you have a choice depending on your expressive intention. Berman takes several examples from the repertoire to demonstrate the advantages and drawbacks of both approaches.

In his book "Notes from the Pianist's Bench" (Yale University Press, 2017), renowned Yale Professor Boris Berman addresses the foundations of technique that support a well-trained pianist's movements. For Berman, your motion as a pianist should begin with the fingers, with larger levers supporting from behind in different combinations when necessary. Berman deduces two principles from this basic physical framework: one, the "economy principle," which says not to use bigger parts of the body when smaller parts can do the job; and two, the "extension principle," which requires you to treat any given unit in our piano-playing anatomy as the continuation of adjacent parts, with individual units ready to share in the work of neighboring units. Berman demonstrates both principles at play in select repertoire passages.

Join renowned Yale Professor Boris Berman as he explores the many variables of touch are weight, mass, and speed of attack. Weight and mass, though related, are not the same. Weight refers to the heaviness or lightness that a pianist chooses to deliver to the fingers at the attack. In order to play more heavily or more lightly, you must know how to channel the full weight of the body before measuring the degree of weight poured into a given touch. Mass, on the other hand, refers to how much of the body is involved during a given attack. You can activate different levers from smaller to larger in different combinations in order to achieve different articulations. Finally, the speed with which you activate the key can influence the character of the sound. Berman considers these variables separately, and then in combinations, demonstrating their influence on sound production in various passages from the repertoire.