For piano scales, should I let go of the previous key before I hit the next one?
I am playing on an electric piano keyboard and I have the MIDI output connected to my computer and visualizing the notes that I press. I want to write code to give me a score as I practice my scales. I have the time of key-press and key-release to the hundredth of a second.
It's been years since I took piano lessons and I'm not sure I ever asked my teacher this question anyway:
When I'm playing scales on a piano, is the goal to: a) release the previous note at the same time that I press the next note b) let go BEFORE I press the next note OR c) let go AFTER i press the note (but not so much that it bleeds together)?
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Practicing scales is about notes and fingering. You can use whatever articulation you would like, and it is helpful to mix it up. Sometimes play separated, sometimes slurred. Maybe an alternation of two notes slurred, two notes staccato. The options are endless, and what you choose is based on what goals you have.
There are many reasons to play scales, but they all come under one general purpose: To prepare you to play actual music. So you should play them in the manner that best prepares you.
If you are about to perform a piece that contains mostly staccato passages, it might serve you best to play your scales staccato. If you find you are having trouble with legato, play it that way. If you are working on a crosshand piece, you could even play your scales crosshand. Whatever works. You're training. There's always something you can work on.
Regardless of what you choose, you should strive to play them with perfect consistency: with a tempo that is even, articulation and fingering smooth, and keep your dynamics under control. Those things are universal.
Practising scales is about warming up, learning which notes go with which, diatonically, and for playing in exams!
How you play them, as Heather suggests, can and should vary- a lot! Play them piano; forte;slowly;fast;staccato;legato;with crescendo/diminuendo;combinations of all the above!
It's a different situation for exams - they need to be played legato, wth each note a separate entity - rather like the words we speak in a sentence - although very regular. being good at playing scales isn't really an entity in itself, it's a pathway to better playing, so be able to play them in a myriad of different ways/styles. However, bleeding one note into the next is something that rarely gets asked for in most styles of playing, so don't concentrate on that.
So, (a) seems the best option.If exams are looming... Thanks, Heather S!
a) release the previous note at the same time that I press the next
note
b) let go BEFORE I press the next note OR
c) let go AFTER i press the note (but not so much that it bleeds
together)?
This is a question of articulation:
a) called portato, non legato
b) staccato -> Staccato Signifies a note of shortened duration or detached (not legato)
C) legato -> Legato Indicates musical notes are to be played or sung smoothly and connected
mind that the first line (non legato) has no additional sign of articulation
the red ties are concerning the second example: legato
as you can see below there are even more different articulations like tenuto, marcato, non legato. And it is also said that some of them can be replace by pauses (indeed it is the opposite: pauses are replaced by "staccato":
As others are saying it makes also sense to practice scales combining ariculation with different dynamics, tempi and also rhythms.
Articulation (Wiki)
You have to practice all of them as they are asked and notated by composers in their writing to be able to perform them like the composers want. It does no harm to play a scale in different ways.
To give in notes by keyboard it is better you don't play them legato, but you can adjust probably the note length by asking the program to normalize the values or to reduce respectively augment the limits of lengths for pauses.
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