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Level up your piano playing with these exercises 
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Level up your piano playing with these exercises 

Feb 20, 2025
11:46 am

What's the story

Mastering legato on the piano means connecting notes smoothly and seamlessly, like a string of pearls. It's a critical skill for pianists of all levels, allowing you to play expressively and create beautiful, lyrical passages. The secret to a perfect legato lies in your wrist. In this article, we'll cover five wrist exercises to help you strengthen your legato technique, focusing on flexibility, control, and endurance.

Rotation

Wrist rotations for flexibility

Wrist rotations are key to building the flexibility required for smooth legato playing. Simply sit at the piano with your forearms parallel to the floor. Without moving your arms, rotate your wrists gently clockwise and then counterclockwise for one minute each. This exercise loosens the wrist joints, facilitating the ease of movement necessary to glide from one key to another seamlessly.

Waterfall

The waterfall technique

The waterfall technique is all about creating a sense of fluidity and ease in your hand and finger movements as you play. To do this, position your hands on the keyboard and visualize your wrists as waterfalls, cascading your fingers effortlessly across the keys. Concentrate on raising each finger with minimal effort, striking the keys without introducing tension or rigidity in your wrists or arms.

Transfer

Weight transfer exercises

Proper weight transfer between fingers is key to achieving a smooth and even legato touch. Start by setting five coins on five adjacent white keys. Practice depressing each key with a separate finger, focusing on shifting your weight from one finger to the next without raising your hand from the keyboard. This exercise improves dynamic and articulation control during legato playing.

Pendulum

The pendulum swing

Imagine your arm as a pendulum swinging from your elbow with a relaxed but controlled wrist. Sit at the piano and practice swinging your arm freely from side to side. Then apply this motion horizontally across the keyboard when playing scales or legato passages. This promotes a relaxed technique that utilizes arm weight instead of finger strength.

Independence

Finger independence drills

Finger independence is key for legato, as it requires control over the individual movements of each finger. Position all fingers on consecutive keys, then raise one finger at a time as high as you can without lifting the others. Do this with each finger on both hands every day. It will build strength, independence, and coordination for playing legato.