Originally posted by pianojerome:
So "thumb over" is really a misnomer? The idea isn't to move the thumb over the hand, but simply to just shift the thumb over to the next key, right?

This really confused me when I read about it in Chang's book, but I think I understand now. [/b]

Originally posted by Kreisler:

When you "cross over," the natural rotation of the wrist brings the thumb slightly up and into position for the next group of notes. (For example, in a RH E Major scale, after you play the EF#G#, the wrist rotates slightly as the elbow moves to the right, thus placing the thumb directly over the A but not directly under any other fingers...) [/b]

Originally posted by Alan(Lost):
I did lessons for around 8 years until around 7 years ago. I was only taught thumb under. I had tried to learn some pieces which involved fast ascending scales, like Chopin Prelude No.24, and I always hit a wall. I wondered why I could fly down a 3 octave decending scale in maybe 2 seconds, but not ascending.
Recently I read that book by that guy, 'Chuan C. Chang'. I thought that he was trying to make some joke when he talks about the thumb over. Then I read the line; "Students who have learned only thumb under will have a hard time trying to understand how anybody could play thumb over". So I'm currently trying to convert. I'm beginning to get the hang of it.
Should the wrist be rotating, leaning onto the little finger' side of the hand? Take a C major scale first 3 notes, CEG fingered 1 2 3. As we go to the 3rd finger, should the forearm rotate slightly clockwise, moving the thumb higher, but horizontally closer to it's next note?

And as for decending, somebody said that you just do it as normal. Chang says that it shouldn't be thumb under, but the way thumb-under students play, they're a bit closer to the correct movement than with ascending. Opinions? [/b]

Originally posted by Kreisler:
It's for both hands.

It's nearly impossible to explain but fairly easy to demonstrate. There's really only a small subtle difference between the two.

When you cross under, the thumb is directly underneath another finger at some point.

When you "cross over," the natural rotation of the wrist brings the thumb slightly up and into position for the next group of notes. (For example, in a RH E Major scale, after you play the EF#G#, the wrist rotates slightly as the elbow moves to the right, thus placing the thumb directly over the A but not directly under any other fingers...) [/b]

Originally posted by Rockitman:
Again, C major scale. 123 - CDE, now move your hand over and play 1234 - FGAB. Please tell me how you accomplish this without the hop sound? [/b]

The third finger has to remove himself from the E key before the thumb can play the F.[/b]

Explain how to make this legato. [/b]