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Pianimals

Drat that mischievous cat! How are we going to untangle the wool around Alionus’s hand so he can play piano?

Develop the Young Hand at the Piano

Volume 1: From Lying to Standing

Alionus Fraser
Hanno Beckers, Audrey Dumont & Alison Lund, editors
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Table of Contents

I. A FLOATING ARM ...................................................................................................... 10 III. THE THUMB ............................................................................................................... 48

Lazy Lion .......................................................................................................................... 12 The Oranga-Thumb ......................................................................................................... 50
The Pogo Stick.................................................................................................................. 14 Cockatoo Carol ................................................................................................................ 52
The Tightrope Walker (Basic)........................................................................................... 16 Skating Sloth (Basic) ........................................................................................................ 54
The Tightrope Walker ...................................................................................................... 16 Skating Sloth .................................................................................................................... 55
Elegant Alionus (Basic) ..................................................................................................... 18 Squirming Worm (Basic) .................................................................................................. 58
Elegant Alionus ................................................................................................................ 18 Squirming Worm ............................................................................................................. 58
Quiet Crocodile ............................................................................................................... 60
II. LYING DOWN ............................................................................................................. 20
Yawning Alligator ............................................................................................................ 62
Sassy Seal (Smaller Hand) ................................................................................................ 22 The Thumb Troll Tromp ................................................................................................... 64
Sassy Seal (Larger Hand) .................................................................................................. 23 Lipizzaner Leaping (Basic) ................................................................................................ 66
Sassy Seal (Full Version) ................................................................................................... 24 Lipizzaner Leaping ........................................................................................................... 67
Wonky Woodpecker (Basic) ............................................................................................. 26
IV. STANDING UP ........................................................................................................ 70
Wonky Woodpecker ........................................................................................................ 26
Chinese Chickadee (Basic) ............................................................................................... 28 The Floating Flamingo (Basic) .......................................................................................... 72
Chinese Chickadee ........................................................................................................... 28 The Floating Flamingo ..................................................................................................... 73
Wonky Warbler (Shorter Version) ................................................................................... 30 Waltzing Wally Walrus (Basic) ......................................................................................... 76
Wonky Warbler (Longer Version) .................................................................................... 31 Waltzing Wally Walrus .................................................................................................... 77
Improvisation & Variation ............................................................................................... 31 Abominable Ape .............................................................................................................. 80
Wonky Warbler (Full Version).......................................................................................... 32 Teetering Toucan ............................................................................................................ 82
Chinese Chicken (Basic) ................................................................................................... 34 Teetering Toucan Trills .................................................................................................... 83
Chinese Chicken ............................................................................................................... 34 Amorphous Amoeba (Basic) ............................................................................................ 86
Sleepy Bear (Basic)........................................................................................................... 36 Amorphous Amoeba ....................................................................................................... 86
Sleepy Bear ...................................................................................................................... 36 Be My Valentine .............................................................................................................. 88
Run, Rover, Run! (Smaller Hand) ..................................................................................... 38 Happy Birthday to You .................................................................................................... 90
Run, Rover, Run! (Larger Hand) ....................................................................................... 39 Church Bell Changes ........................................................................................................ 92
Run, Rover, Run! (Full Version) ........................................................................................ 40 The Bells of Big Ben ......................................................................................................... 94
Jumbo’s Lullaby (Basic) .................................................................................................... 42 The Pianimals .................................................................................................................. 95
Jumbo’s Lullaby ............................................................................................................... 42 Concert ............................................................................................................................ 96
Dreamy Dragon (Basic) .................................................................................................... 44 Farewell - Closing Recital ................................................................................................. 97
Dreamy Dragon ................................................................................................................ 45 Appendix One: The Hand is a Mini-Body ......................................................................... 99
Appendix Two: Five-Finger Overholding Exercises: Right Hand .................................... 100
Left Hand ....................................................................................................................... 100
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Our Principle Pianimal, Lucky the Cat, hangs out with buddies like Sarah Swan.
Like her, his thumb is a swan, not an ugly duckling. It can oppose.
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Developing ability by learning naturally

Welcome to Pianimals, where the hand learns to move on key just as a baby does in life – naturally. Volume 1 begins with the hand
“lying down.” Some of these first ones don’t look much like piano pieces at all, but they help prepare the piano “standing” which
comes later in Volume 1, and the piano “walking,” “running,” and “jumping” of Volume 2. These unusual exercises based on the
Feldenkrais Method help you play usual repertoire better.

Do the exercises first

Do the exercise your teacher shows you before playing each piece. It helps your hand move in the way nature intended, like a baby
lying down, or crawling, or standing up and walking. The hand doesn’t feel heavy – it feels its body supported by the ground. This
makes it easier to learn all the movements needed to stand, walk, run and jump well. And remember, have fun while you’re learning
– they who laugh most learn best!

Glossary
Here’s a list of special ‘articulations’ you’ll find in the music:

H Lie on the hand’s Heel: mash it into the keys loosely, heavily, gently. We call it “smooshing” the hand.

SF Make a Seal Flipper by bunching the fingers together in a flat band.

TH Lie on the Thumb Heel alone – let the keys massage the thenar muscles.

TS Thumb Stand: point the thumb straight down and stand on it. Keep the fairly compact fist directly above it.

TP Thumb Poke: use that standing thumb to poke the key.

K Play with the Knuckles; actually put the top knuckles, the metacarpal-phalangeal joints (MCP joints) on the keys.

BB Play with a Bird Beak – all the fingers and thumb bunched tightly together.

P The Pad is the flat, fleshy part near the tip of the finger or thumb.

KE Hold the Key Edge.

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An Octopus’s Garden

Imagine your arm moving underwater – like Oscar the Octopus playing the piano!
Lucky the cat wants you to make the most beautiful sound in the world.
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I. A Floating Arm

The arm joins the hand to the body – effortlessly, fluidly. When the finger touches down on key to stand, but doesn’t
try to stand, it’s easy to feel that flowing connection of fingertip to whole self.
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These lazy lions are curled up in the piano keys. Shhhhh, don’t disturb them… even the elephants are walking on tiptoe…
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Lazy Lion
Follow the line of the arm swoop, floating the hand down until the finger lies flat in the key.

Improvisation & Variation

Keeping the arm movement very large, very slow, very gentle, and very continuous,

 Play the piece with another finger.

 Play some other notes with the same floating-lying touch.
 Play with a different rhythm.
 Do all that with the left hand.
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Lucky’s lady love likes this bouncy way of walking – do your parents remember the pogo stick?
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The Pogo Stick

Keep your arm high and your finger as stiff as a pole, and bounce them off the keys. Don’t be heavy at all!

Improvisation & Variation

Keeping the arm movement very bouncy and vigorous,

 Play the piece with another finger.

 Play some other notes with the same bouncing touch.
 Try out some other rhythms.
 Do all that with the left hand.
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Balance on the keys lightly, like Lucky balancing on the clothes line.
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The Tightrope Walker (Basic)

Hang the finger vertically from the hand as the arm floats down. Leave the finger vertical as it barely touches the keys.

The Tightrope Walker

Improvisation & Variation

 Create variations as you did for the previous pieces: other fingers, other notes, other rhythms – and the other hand!
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Alionus’s elegant tie and his elegant arm movements fascinate Gracie Goosy – but not Lucky the cat…
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Elegant Alionus (Basic)

Follow the line of the arm swoop, floating the hand down until the finger “crumples” into the key.

Elegant Alionus
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Eddie Elephant and Lucky have had too much fruit punch. All they want to do is loll around…
Can your hand and arm be as lazy as these pianimals?
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II. Lying Down

Imagine that your hand is a little baby, still lying down. There are many preliminary movements to be learned
before it can walk. Nobody learned to walk by walking! Learning is easier when baby feels secure – fully supported
by the ground.

Flop your hand on a table, or on your leg, or on the keys. Just relax it. “Smoosh” it! Do little micro-movements with
the hand as it lies there. Feel its insides moving in interesting ways. Feel how it is alive, sensitive and ready to
learn.
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Happy Hippo and Sassy Seal are smooshing 1 and flopping. Make your hand imitate them, like Melissa Monkey’s. Lucky feigns
indifference, but he’s beginning to unravel the ball of wool, just as we are beginning to unravel the secrets of piano playing.

1
“Smooshing” is mashing the hand but not pressing it forcefully
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Sassy Seal (Smaller Hand)

Play the tone cluster with the Heel of the hand (H) – silently, or making a sound. Bunch the fingers together. Turn them into a
seal flipper (SF). Swat the keys with it.
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It’s winter. Father Bear is fast asleep, hibernating – with his paw still mashed on the keys.
Mommy and Baby Bear seem happy slumbering below – but look at Lucky, he has the warmest place!
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Sleepy Bear (Basic)

Lay the thumb heel (TH) into the white key(s). Make the fingers into a bear paw to play the black keys.

Sleepy Bear
At the end, roll the hand all the way over and gently squeeze the black keys between thumb and 2nd finger.
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He may look like a big, bad dragon, but Puff is a patient soul with a heart of gold.
He’s heard this piece a thousand times – but he’ll still give Lucky a good lesson.
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Dreamy Dragon (Basic)

Play a cluster with the heel (H). Press as many notes as you like. Slide the heel silently from one cluster to the next as you play. Use
whatever fingering is comfortable. Curve the fingers more… or less… to change the sound… and the emotion…
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Ollie Orangutan is playing a banana keyboard – with his thumb!

Can you use your thumb like that to play a real keyboard… while hanging from a vine?
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The Oranga-Thumb

Improvisation & Variation

 Play a mirror image of the piece with the left hand.
 Stand an ‘Oranga-Thumb’ on any note, even a black one, while playing any finger note you like, even a white one.
 Vary the rhythm and the dynamics.
 Make a major key version, or a minor key version, or an oriental key version…
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You can hardly see Chloe Crocodile. Only her eyes are above the water.
Keep only your knuckles above the level of the keyboard, like Chloe’s eyes.
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Quiet Crocodile

Make thumb and 2nd totally straight and lay them deep in their keys. When you play the notes, hardly lift thumb and 2nd at all – as if
the crocodile were a ventriloquist and could speak without moving her jaw.

Improvisation & Variation

 Find some new notes to play, thumb always deep in a white key, 2nd finger in a black. One lies while the other plays.
 Combine the thumb and each of the other fingers in turn like this.
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Where is the Terrible Troll’s lost drum? He has already smashed a house and a tree trying to find it, and now he’s going to
smash the piano! Stomp the piano with your thumb before he can – but don’t break it!
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The Thumb Troll Tromp

Thumb-Poke (TP) each key with the thumbnail pointing toward you. At measure 5, stand on the thumb and touch the black key
with each finger in turn like you did in Yawning Alligator.

Improvisation & Variation

 Tromp all over the keyboard, poking white keys with your thumb.
 Stand on a thumb note, swatting a black key with each finger in turn.
 Play the entire piece loudly, but end with a diminuendo to a gentle pianissimo as the troll gets enough to eat and
calms down.
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Daisy & Dylan Dove… sweethearts once, sweethearts forever...

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Be My Valentine
Make the fingers like straight, almost vertical sticks as you walk through the notes of this sweet melody.

Improvisation & Variation

 Do you have a sweetheart to whom you would like to sing this song? Put his or her name in the first bar – but you might have
to change the rhythm. How would you play, “Jeremy, Jeremy,” or “Elizabeth, Elizabeth?”
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Sophie Skunk is blowing out her candle. Lucky can’t stand the smell, but he dutifully plays Happy Birthday anyway.
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Happy Birthday
Stick the thumbs out from tightly clamped fists and bonk the keys like bell clappers bouncing off a bell. Don’t push the keys down;
bounce up. Later on, bonk the keys with different finger bird beaks.
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Lucky is visiting London, disguised as King Bong! Big Ben will never be the same!
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The Bells of Big Ben

Use the thumb or finger as a bell clapper. Play stems up notes with the right hand, stems down with the left. Use an expansive
vertical arm movement. To play with a fat, 5-finger bird beak, transpose down a half step to the black keys.

Improvisation & Variation

 The melody uses only four notes: D, G, A, and B. Explore other melodic permutations and combinations of the same four notes.
 At the end, Big Ben sounds – the biggest of all the bells. Find lower notes to make a bigger, fatter Big Ben sound, or find one low
and one high note that sound like the weird overtones of a real bell.

We hope you’ve enjoyed exploring Volume 1 of Pianimals, where your hands began by lying down and finished by standing
up. You’ve gotten them ready to walk, run and jump all over the keys, which will happen in Pianimals Volume 2 – but before
that, pick a piece from this book to play in your first Pianimals recital: Alionus and Lucky are waiting for you on stage!
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The Pianimals
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Concert