Learning to play dynamics

If you’re new to playing an instrument, or even if you’re an intermediate player, playing dynamics can be a tricky thing to do. Having the control to play at different volumes, and being able to play at specific levels takes a lot of practice.

It also takes some knowledge too because different instruments require different techniques to play at different dynamic levels.

The way I have my students practice dynamics, and the way that we can all practice them is to exaggerate them as much as possible. When playing a piece of music that has piano and forte markings written in, play the forte as loud as possible and play piano as loud as possible.

The reason you want to do this is because when you’re first learning to play dynamics, you often are able to play two different dynamic levels and those often end up being mezzoforte and mezzopiano. Playing two dynamic levels is often something players can do fairly early on, but making sure that those two levels are far apart in volume takes practice. If we look at forte and piano as just loud and soft we only have two levels, but if we add in mezzoforte and mezzopiano they’re actually 3 dynamic levels apart. This means we really want to hear a big difference between those two.

It goes from being loud and soft to being really loud and really soft because loud and soft are in the middle.

I know this might seem a bit unnecessary to point out and I’m doing it in a simplistic way, but it’s worth noting that we want those dynamic levels to be quite far apart. It’s easy to play loud and soft. It’s much less easy to play really loud, loud, soft, and really soft. That’s why exaggerating them is useful.

Exaggerate them so that once you’re able to truly play fortissimo and pianissimo you’ll be able to dial it back a little bit to get to the correct dynamics.

When you do this you’ll likely notice that playing loud enough to play fortissimo and playing quiet enough to play pianissimo is quite difficult. Playing loud isn’t just about smacking your instrument as hard as you possibly can. That’ll get you a certain level of volume, but you’ll notice that professional musicians who are playing really loud aren’t just hitting their instrument harder than you are.

If it were the case that just hitting your instrument harder is what allowed you play louder then you wouldn’t want to practice with an instrument. You’d want to work out and get stronger so that you can play with more force. It’d also mean that the loudest players would be the ones that are the strongest and with the most muscle mass. And that’s not the case. Not every musician is jacked and not everyone that’s jacked can play loudly on an instrument.

We can also observe this by watching professional musicians play. If we watch professional piano players playing incredibly loudly, they aren’t hitting the instrument as hard as they can. They’re playing it in a specific way, but it’s not just hitting it as hard as possible or putting in as much effort as possible. They’re incredibly relaxed and playing with a lot of control over the tiny muscles in your hands and fingers.

That’s where the volume comes from. It comes from being relaxed and using the muscles in connection with each other, not just sheer brute force.

You can check this yourself by trying to smack your instrument or blow into it as hard as you can. That’ll get something that’s fairly loud, but to get past that (and not exhaust yourself from playing) you’ll have to improve your technique. Just hitting the instrument isn’t going to cut it. That’ll get you forte. To get to fortissimo or fortississimo (triple forte) you’re going to need better technique.

So as you practice playing loud and soft practice relaxing and playing as loosely as you can. You don’t want to tense up, which often happens if you’re thinking “hit the instrument with as much force as possible.” You want to be relaxed and in control, not tensed up.

This is why alternating dynamic levels can be so useful. In order to play quiet you have to relax and play loosely. The softer you get the more delicately and the more loosely you have to play. And once you get used to that feeling of playing quietly you’ll be able to play loudly.

I’m not an expert on playing woodwind or brass instruments, but I imagine the technique is somewhat similar. Learning to play quietly goes hand in hand with learning to play loudly. It takes a specific amount of control, technique, and relaxed playing, otherwise it won’t happen.

I’ve heard some piano players say that to improve your loud playing and your volume you should only practice quietly. Practicing playing quietly is more important than playing loudly. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but it’s definitely incredibly useful. They feel very similar to each other once you get used to playing them back to back.

Give it a try with your playing and I’m sure you’ll see what I mean.

ISJ