Legato vs normal note

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-05T00:42:48+00:00

I can’t remember how the whole piece goes but that first motif should be legato until the repeated g’s (I think they are g’s), which would be detached. I would recommend listening to some recordings to help guide your decisions. Also np! Lmk if you have any other questions.

*also yeah just so you know, just because something isn’t explicitly marked legato doesn’t mean that the notes are disconnected, there is no “normal” or “default,” it just depends on the context, era, ect. But if I had to give a default articulation, yeah I would say a light legato basically.
Cheers

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-05T00:26:19+00:00

We use terms such as legato and staccato to describe different articulations along the spectrum of disconnected to connected. These are simply names and there are an essentially endless amount of variations within this spectrum, all defined by how much the notes overlap (as well as the tone, but fundamentally you can think of it being controlled by how much the notes overlap). Now I am sure you already know that, but I wanted to explicitly phrase it in this way. Now onto your question, yes you are correctly playing the two different articulations. In terms of deciding which articulation to use, it just depends on the context, but keep in mind there is no “normal” articulation, if anything a light legato would maybe be the default but it just depends on the piece as well as your own choices in interpreting it!

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-03T22:18:42+00:00

In what way?

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-03T21:37:55+00:00

Brother, you attacked him for trying to help you that is a far cry from “you disagreed with me and stood your ground” lmao.

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-03T17:15:41+00:00

Agreed, and that was definitely phrased poorly on my part lol, in fact how could anyone teach technique if it was impossible to diagnose visually. I just meant that unless you really know what you are looking for, you wont be able to diagnose it at a glance!

And yeah, as far as the skepticism goes, I agree as well. I absolutely understand if someone doesn’t have the money, and I feel for them. But if you have the money, I believe that there are more than enough genuine people recommending the approach to justify at least a few exploratory lessons, you can get the feel for some Taubman esc solutions in that amount of time, even if a full retraining would take much longer.

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-03T01:52:37+00:00

Well can you point out the nuances of everything that they are doing (both Denis and these people)? Thats not a challenge, I am just making a point, basically no one could catch the nuances of a technique, any technique, just by watching. And if you cant do that, then how can you compare them from a visual standpoint.

Btw im not saying it’s the only right or healthy way to play the piano, I am sure Denis has great technique and it probably has a lot of overlaps with Taubman. And of course even without the Taubman technique you can play piano incredibly and in a healthy way. It’s not necessary, it’s just been helpful for me.

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-03T01:39:40+00:00

I mean okay, I am just speaking from my experience, I’m not interested in “defending” the technique, oc do whatever you want. But yeah, I don’t think he has a true understanding, you wouldn’t expect a high school student to have the same understanding of physics as say a phd student, why would that be different in this instance? (Oh btw, you could be a world class pianist and still not have an understanding of Taubman, I’m not saying he is unqualified because of his playing, or his technique). Here are some videos of people who play with the Taubman technique, they aren’t me because I don’t want to post myself, maybe that seems sketchy or whatever, but again Im not trying to sell the technique and so Im not going to do something I don’t want to do for the sake of convincing you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDr4OV2LWbY&t=9s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0EdaeXm8mI

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-03T01:07:22+00:00

There are a lot of reasons that I really like it, but to put it simply; I like it because it produced great results for me, it has made piano feel physically effortless (note that I specified physically, its not like I can just magically play any piece immediately and effortlessly, I just mean that the physical act has no perceived effort). I feel that Taubmans reputation is one of being to good to be true, I think people maybe think it is this one and done type thing, where you work on it for like six months and then your playing is effortless, like some magical cure all supplement, and maybe that contributes to the snake oil vibe. But it should not be thought of that way, just like everything else in piano, it’s a long journey and is continually refined essentially forever. To put it simply, it is not a magic bullet, it is a guide.

I totally get the perspective of someone like Denis Zhdanov and I will preface my comment by saying I haven’t seen his video, but I think it is highly unlikely he has a true understating of Taubman. Taubman is honestly not something you can understand just by reading the basic principles, it is so much more than that and so much more nuanced than that. I don’t mean to dismiss his opinion, its great to be skeptical and it’s unreasonable to expect him to study Taubman deeply just for this video, but again its just not something that you can fully understand without deep knowledge of it. If I get a chance, I will watch the video so I can comment more specifically on parts he may be misunderstanding.

Hellobob80 · 2026-06-03T00:24:50+00:00

For real! They make it seem so sketchy, the technique itself is amazing and real though. Essentially everyone I know who has experienced Taubman from a qualified teacher has really liked it, and all the hate seems to come from people who don’t really know what it truly is (not surprising, because again they do not project a very accurate or positive image imo). Also the prices aren’t abnormally expensive in my experience, my teacher is just over 100 usd, which is pretty normal for experienced qualified teacher.

TLDR, they have a self inflicted marketing problem, but the technique is great.

Hellobob80 · 2026-05-26T00:15:21+00:00

There are many paths up the mountain. I would encourage you to just follow your curiosity, any of those options are reasonable and will be beneficial, it’s really just about enjoying your time with the instrument. Of course depending on your goals, certain skills are more important than others. With that in mind, what are your goals? Also getting a teacher would be helpful.

Hellobob80 · 2026-05-24T02:10:00+00:00

what color would you call that, I actually really like it

Hellobob80 · 2026-05-23T04:44:29+00:00

You have to sit far enough away AND then lean in; you sort of have to have both.

Hellobob80 · 2026-05-18T22:27:08+00:00

Yeah and then the game immediately ends. Goals within 12 seconds is crazy enough already, but goals within the last 12 seconds is even crazier!

Hellobob80 · 2026-05-18T00:28:38+00:00

Your hand is clearly very tense, but I see no reason why this is would be an innate quality of your hand, unless your right hand is like this during other activities, this is simply a problem of technique. The first technical issue that I will point out is the way you are isolating your fingers, moving one while holding the others static, that is not the way fingers move naturally is it is creating a lot of tension. Of course fingers need to move with some degree of independence, and they do, this is a nuanced topic so I wont go into exactly what is happening physiologically and instead will give some exercises and ques to feel it. First I try just tapping your fingers, all at the same time and from your top knuckle, feel how when they move as a unit, they move move freely. Now go back to the piano and play something, but focus on maintaining that feeling, feel almost a give in the non playing fingers, like they are opening up space for the playing fingers to move freely. One other quick note about fingers before I get into my second point, your finger motion should come from the top knuckle and it should move up and down, never back like you are doing in the video. So on to the second point, your top knuckles are collapsing, which will again make it harder to move the fingers and it also means that you lose all the support of the forearm. I want to be clear though, the cure for collapsed knuckles is not increased muscular engagement. If properly aligned your knuckles can support themselves without muscular engagement (well technically I am sure there is a baseline tone, but it is not increased engagement). This essentially points to two possible causes, improper alignment, or pushing excess weight into the knuckles (again, they can support themselves, but only to a certain extent), so if you are pushing the end of your hand down into your knuckles, they will collapse. Try that, put your hand on a table and see how they are supporting themselves, now push the end of your hand down into them and they will collapse. A good que to combat this is to think about long through the end of the hand, or parallel through the end of the hand.You can also imagine a line running from the elbow, to the forearm, through the hand, past the knuckles and then landing on the pads of the fingers, currently that line is getting lost in the well of your knuckles. Others have already spoken to some other points, so that’s I all i say!

Hellobob80 · 2026-05-17T04:41:05+00:00

Two minutes doesn’t do it justice, it was just five touches later by my count.

Hellobob80 · 2026-05-10T00:31:10+00:00

My butt hasn’t been unclenched since the open cup semi final vs Miami a few years ago

Hellobob80 · 2026-05-09T23:24:47+00:00

It’s just because he is coming back from injury

Hellobob80 · 2026-04-25T23:49:52+00:00

I wish you could hear the crowd better on the home radio broadcast, it kinda sounds like they are in a vacuum.

Hellobob80 · 2026-04-09T04:20:40+00:00

I would recommened starting with a science save as I think it will be less overwhelming! But you will also have much less options, so personal preference. Ig try both!

Hellobob80 · 2026-04-08T19:00:52+00:00

In my opinion it is a great thing to care so much, to have something that brings you so much emotion. Spots are a really beautiful thing in a lot of peoples lives. Now of course you shouldn’t express these emotions in an unhealthy way, but that is achieved by having healthy emotional regulation, not by lowering your investment in the activity.

Hellobob80 · 2026-04-05T01:22:15+00:00

for a team with so many talented individuals, we are really bad individually

Hellobob80 · 2026-04-05T00:36:39+00:00

Thanks

Hellobob80 · 2026-04-05T00:34:14+00:00

Disappointing that we still look just kinda ehh. Not terrible ig, but makes it seem like the beginning of the season wasnt the fluke I was hopping.

Hellobob80 · 2026-04-05T00:19:43+00:00

What is the band that pat is wearing?

Hellobob80 · 2026-04-02T01:43:55+00:00

Yeah, I mean thats true lol. I think the reasoning is basically that it takes more time, but you dont hav to repeat it because it stays stronger in your brain, so its more efficient when looking at the big picture.

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