Freeing Your Piano Technique

In our guest post for this week, pianist and pedagogue Fred Karpoff shares some of the ideas from his recent online workshop and soon to be launched course on how a whole-body approach to technique facilitates effortless piano playing.

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What if your technique felt as expressive and effortless as the music you long to create?

This question was at the heart of our recent online workshop, Freeing Your Piano Technique, where I guided pianists through a set of powerful principles in movement that can reshape how we approach technique.

The premise was simple: the greatest gains don’t come from working harder – they come from aligning more deeply with the way our bodies are designed to move and the way music wants to flow through us.

Over decades of guiding pianists in performance and teaching, I’ve learned that true breakthroughs often begin not at the keyboard, but in the body. In my upcoming course, Mastering Intermediate Technique, I’ve distilled these discoveries into an integrated approach rooted in whole-body movement and artistic freedom.

To give you a taste of this approach, here are some of the ideas we explored in the workshop and follow-up activities:

A quiet, aligned hand

Try letting your hand dangle by your side. Notice how natural and relaxed it feels. Then place it gently on the keyboard, preserving that shape. Note that if you raise and hold any finger even a millimeter off of the keys, held tension becomes present in your forearm. When you play, allow any finger that isn’t playing to remain at rest.

Finding your wrist’s sweet spot

Wrist height plays a crucial role in both comfort and sound. Many pianists play with a wrist that is too high or too low, which disrupts balance and flow.

Try lifting and dropping your wrist gently to discover where it feels most supported. This “sweet spot” isn’t fixed; it shifts with musical intention, phrasing, and register changes, although it is most often in the medial range.

Vibrato motion: Forward and back

We often think of piano technique as lateral or up-and-down. But the forward-backward axis is just as essential for fluid, three-dimensional playing.

This vibrato-like motion begins in the back and upper arm, flowing through a supple wrist in a continuous cyclical pattern. It’s essential for performing effortless trills, tremolos, repeated chords and octaves and it plays a meaningful role even in early repertoire.

Watch this excerpt from my course for an introduction and demonstration of the vibrato technique:

Try it! Apply this motion to a short passage such as Reinagle’s elementary English Minuet, or apply it to an excerpt from your own repertoire where there are repeated single or double notes:

Tremolos: Blending vibrato and rotation

Many pianists struggle with tremolos because they rely too heavily on the fingers alone. In my course, we explore how tremolos can emerge naturally by blending the vibrato motion described above with forearm rotation generated from the elbow, not merely the wrist. This fusion produces a seamless, resonant sound without fatigue.

A great example of this approach can be found in the famous tremolo passage in Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata. Here’s a way to explore this technique yourself. You can watch a short demonstration here and then try this:

• Begin with a 5th interval tremolo in your left hand: 5th finger on C3 (one octave below middle C), thumb on G3.
• First, play groups of four 8th-note C’s using a continuous “forward and backward” vibrato motion, keeping the rest of the hand quiet.
• Then alternate: four C’s (8ths), followed by eight 16ths on the full interval (C–G), now incorporating gentle rotation.
• Finally, progress to a continuous 16th-note tremolo, blending the vibrato and rotational movements seamlessly.

Each of these activities invites us into greater alignment, ease and musical flow. Rather than offering mechanical “fixes,” they open the door to a more intuitive, embodied way of playing.

If you’d like to explore these ideas further then please do take a look at my new online course, Mastering Intermediate Technique. You’ll find more information and details of a special pre-order offer here!

– Fred Karpoff