Controlling the touch happens first of all with the creation of a mass, of a weight and then by controlling this mass with the muscular system. The creation of a mass is the conscious taking advantage of the weight of the hand, of the forearm, of the whole arm, of the whole body, which seldom happens in a singular manner, usually in combination.
Control of this mass is the work of the muscular system of the forearm, the biceps/triceps, the pectoral, dorsal and shoulder muscles, that is, control of the arm movement in both the raising and lowering phases, when the weight can be released completely or partially, at different speeds and from different heights.
The vertical movement of the forearm is controlled by the bicipital and tricipital muscles, while the vertical movement of the upper arm is controlled by the dorsal, pectoral and shoulder muscles.
The free fall of the weight of the arm instead, taught in schools which simplistically predicate “relaxing”, certainly produces strong sounds, but they are completely uncontrolled and full of noise.
The quality of sound is directly proportionate to the weight and muscular mass used and inversely proportionate to the pre-selected height; when speaking of vertical movements, height, understood as the distance of the mass from the key, is a parameter of important definition.
Therefore it follows that: the greater the weight and greater the muscular mass = “deep” sound; the lesser the weight and small muscular mass = “light” sound; greater height = lesser quality sound (“arioso” sound), less height = greater sound quality; greater weight = lower speed, lesser weight = higher speed.
With this technique of the wrist, elbow, shoulder joints are always loose, relaxed, “open”, independently of the speed of execution and of the type of sound (FF for example). They do not intervene in the creation of sound and therefore they do not leave any form of rigidity and percussion in the sound: thus the sound is “freed”, permitting cantability; the “tied” sound, the opposite or struck, pressed sound, “flattened”, which creates the impoverishment of the sound determined by the rapid downfall of the fundamental and of the partials (harmonious sounds)..
The body therefore is completely involved, activating the musculature of the legs, buttocks, the stomach, pectoral, dorsal, shoulder, bicipital/tricipital and forearm muscles.
By playing amongst the notes, the phase of searching for the height is created, after which the type of sound is established: making a mistake of raising during this phase will compromise the sound irreparably, it will always be uncontrolled.
