Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Can you post a picture of curled vs curved?

I don't think I get the difference of curled vs curved fingers must because (I guess) of the language differences... Can you post a picture showing both ways?

Curved:

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20050715/279_f5.jpg

Curled:

http://www.csiro.au/helix/sciencemail/activities/images/BinaryNumbersImageTwo.jpg

hehe, many thanks

No problem.

Here is Matthay playing with natural curved:

Here's one that's a bit curled though not too bad:

Mozart's left hand is really curled here:

Well, kbk, he was posing for hours for this painting :P I doubt he was playing. Plus the mechanism was quite different for the piano back then. But yes, it is quite curled rather than curved.

That's also how Hummel played and also, if Kullack is to be believed, Field. Kullack calls them 'perpendicular fingers'.

Click on this and tell me are these hands curved or curled ?

The right hand is curled (very Soler) , the left hand is curved (very 20th c).

KBK, she appears to be doing this consciously. For example, when the video zooms in on her hands you can see that her left hand is starting the phrases curled and then progressing to curved. Also, her right hand is not curled throughout the entire pieces. There are moments when she is playing more curved with her right hand. (Although most of the time, her right hand is curled.)

Rich

The brilliance of the little figures comes from the curl, that why she does it. It's a very advanced technique unless you were brought up in the 18th century.

As you can see, there are certain styles and figures that work better with a more curled hand than curved, or more curved than flat. All are valid when put to use in the proper passages.

Great thread.

I am completely self-taught. And I developed this idea in my mind that it is natural to play the black keys "curved" and the white keys "curled". It is all relative, of course. And when I am playing chords (and try to sing at the same time), I have almost no choice but to play curved.

Is this normal?

In general, I find myself on the curved side. I saw a friend who is very curled, and she plays melodies and arpeggios a lot faster than me. It makes me wonder whether that is because she is more curled.

I would like to hear what the teachers say about these ideas that just pop out from one's brain.

By the way, that's what I think I am doing.

Play golf, too. And what I learned from that game is that what you think you are doing and what you do are two completely different things.

I wouldn't be surprised if that also applies to piano playing techniques.

Time to get a teacher.

Jeff

I think that is pretty accurate, although sometimes on black keys you'd play flat fingers too. It really depends. This is the sort of thing you'd address with a student when is happens in a particular passage.

When you relax your hands and fingers, are your fingers curled or curved? It seems mine are curled according to the definitions in this thread.

It seems Wang Yuja uses curled fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2sdOwMkdf8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1fgo7hp-Ko

Just checked Piano adventures technique books, it seems the curled fingers in this thread's picture is actually curved fingers (like Wang Yuja) and the curved fingers in this thread's picture is more like straight fingers.