Composer José Luis Amores shared this video, which looks at five extended piano performance techniques that work well with electronic music.
“These techniques make the piano sound blend very well with electronic music,” notes Amores. He adds, “Using these techniques is a lot of fun and they are easy to try. You get new sounds and this can inspire you to make new music.”
Amores covers techniques for playing the piano harp directly with your fingers, using tools using cloth to mute the strings and more. Each of the approaches lets you create sounds that sound like piano, but not like a piano is traditionally played.
Topics covered:
0:00 Introduction
0:14 Playing the strings with your nails
1:40 Muting the strings with your fingers
3:02 Use some tools to play the strings
3:42 Using cloths to mute the strings
5:30 Glissando
6:22 How to take out some parts of your piano to reach the strings better
6:42 Conclusions
Have you experimented with alternate piano performance techniques? Check out video and share your thoughts in the comments!
Thank you Synthtopia for sharing!
Great sounds.
The piano sounds that are being made are nice, imaginative. However, as a full-time piano technician(for 27 yrs. and counting), I must point out that one must NEVER touch piano strings with ANY perspiration on the fingers, or you are setting yourself up for expensive trouble.
Muy curioso
It’s not a new idea, these are concepts already developed in the early twentieth century with the advent of Futurism, where the strings of the grand piano were rubbed with metal chains. Some of the most influential avant-garde composers of that era:
Igor Stravinsky
Arnold Schoenberg
Louis Russolo
Karlheinz Stockhausen
György Ligeti