The logic behind the TO method is the following. The thumb is used like any other finger. The thumb only moves up and down. This simplifies the finger motions and, in addition, the hand, arms, and elbows do not need to contort to accommodate the TU movements. Thus the hand and arm maintain their optimum angle to the keyboard at all times and simply glide up and down with the scale. Without this simplification, technically difficult passages can become impossible, especially because you still need to add new hand motions to attain such speeds, and many of these motions are incompatible with TU. Most importantly, the movement of the thumb to its correct location is controlled mostly by the hand whereas in the TU method, it is the combined motion of the thumb and hand that determines the thumb location. Because the hand motion is smooth, the thumb is positioned more accurately than with the TU method, thus reducing missed notes and hitting of wrong notes and at the same time bestowing better tone control to the thumb. Also, the ascending scale becomes similar to the descending scale, because you always roll the fingers over for passing. This also makes it easier to play hands together since all fingers of both hands are always rolling over. Another bonus is that the thumb can now play a black key. It is this large number of simplifications, the elimination of the stress that results from the paralyzed thumb, and even more advantages discussed below, that reduce the potential for mistakes and enable faster play. There are exceptions: slow, legato passages, or some scales containing black keys, etc., are executed more comfortably with a TU-like motion. Most students who had used only TU will initially have a terrible time trying to understand how anyone can play TO. This is the clearest indication of the harm done by not learning TO as soon as possible; for these students, the thumb is not "free". We shall see that the free thumb is a versatile finger. But don’t despair, because it turns out that most advanced TU students already know how to play TO -- they just don’t know it.
The LH is the reverse of the RH; the TO method is used for the descending scale, and the ascending scale is somewhat similar to TU. If your RH is more advanced than the LH, perform the explorations to faster TO speeds using the RH until you decide exactly what to do, then pick up that motion with the LH.
左手是与右手的相反; 这对TO这种方法用于音阶下行弹奏,和上行音阶的弹奏跟 TU 有一些相似。 如果你的 右手 比 左手弹得更好,运动并研究怎样让TO比较快速的速度并适用 右手来弹奏,直到你完全地决定该做什么,然后带动并且安排左手来弹奏。
Because students without teachers have difficulty visualizing TO, we examine a video clip comparing TO and TU. I have put this video in 2 formats because some computers can play only certain formats. Those with only printed pages will have to type in the URLs manually. First, open a video player such as QuickTime or Windows Media Player, then find the window where you can type in the URL of the video, usually under "File". Below are 2 URLs; one of them should work.
The video shows the RH playing two octaves TO, ascending and descending, played twice. This is then repeated using TU. To non-pianists, these may appear to be essentially the same, although the TU motion was slightly exaggerated. This illustrates why videos of piano motions are not as helpful as one might think. The TO motions ascending are basically correct. The TO motions descending has one error -- a slight bending of the nail phalange of the thumb. At these moderate speeds, this slight bending does not affect the play, but in strict TO, the thumb should remain straight for both ascending and descending play. This example illustrates the importance of learning TO as early as possible. My tendency to bend the nail phalange is the result of using only TU for many decades, before I learned TO. An important conclusion here is keep the thumb straight at all times for TO.
影像展示了我们右手是如何弹奏两个八度的TO,上行和下行的弹奏两遍, 这是使用 TU 重复的弹奏。虽然 TU 运作手势稍微有点夸大,这些弹法(指TO和TU)可能似乎变得本质上相同。这个例子不像想像中的一样的有帮助。 这种TO的运动上行的手势基本上正确。 TO手势下行的运动有一个错误--在拇指穿过时,拇指的指尖 (nail phalange )的稍微弯曲。 在这个中等速度,弯曲的拇指指尖既第一指关节不影响弹奏,但是对于TO,严格来说,在上行或下行时拇指应该保持平直、快速穿过。 这一个视频举例说明学习TO的重要性要尽快地早。 我趋向弯曲指尖是我在学习TO之前的时候。在这里的一个重要结论是总是保持拇指笔直地穿过其他指。