Secrets of the Pianist’s Art

1. Glissando

• with either hand, keeping it relatively firm (clenched), place four well-rounded fingers with all four nails evenly touching the white keys
• run either hand up and down the keyboard over 2 or 3 octaves silently
• repeat this noiseless glissando, depressing the lowest (ascending) or highest (descending) notes thus achieving a painless pianissimo glissando
• the deeper the depression the greater the dynamic
• this can also work with the black keys
• and at any tempo
• some situations improve by performing the first and/or last glissando notes with the other hand 

2. Balance within chords

• to bring out a particular note within a chord, anticipate by a millisecond with an acciaccatura

3. Separate hands 

• practise one hand only (particularly left) using ten fingers, especially useful for accompanying leaps

4. Awkward passages

• these can often improve by playing them backwards (also by transposing to other keys and at varied registers) and to train the ear, using 10 fingers instead of 5

5. finger substitution

• to help finding our way around the keyboard without having to remove eyes from the score
• to help a true legato

6. misleading barlines

• take no account of the music! a similar situation to lines on a map or globe taking no account of topography
• only useful for reference