Principles of the

Taubman Approach
COURSE WORKBOOK
Your Instructor: Robert Durso

tonebase Piano
About This Course WATCH COURSE

Unlock your technical potential in this 7-lesson course on the Taubman Approach to piano playing,
taught by Taubman-expert Robert Durso. Over the course of her remarkable life, Dorothy Taubman
(1917-2013) developed a systematic approach to training the biomechanics of piano playing rooted
in observation and experimentation. This so-called "Taubman Approach" – as influential as it has
been misunderstood – was the result of decades of discoveries Taubman made when working with
students of all ages and ability levels. After witnessing a child effortlessly produce a big sound at
the instrument, she made it her life's work to answer the question: what does the child know,
intuitively, that we can discover in our own bodies? In this course, Taubman-expert Robert Durso
introduces you to the five core principles of the Taubman Approach, and shows how they combine
to form a unified mechanism that allows you to play with ease and virtuosity.

Contents
I. Alignment
03
V. Physical Shaping
12

II. Forearm Rotation

05
On Chords and Octaves
12

III. In-and-Out Motions

11
On Fast Playing 13

IV. Walking Hand and Forearm 11

If you have any corrections, comments, or critiques relating to this

workbook, please send them to ethan@tonebase.co. We strive to
deliver the highest quality enrichment experience. Thank you!
Dorothy Taubman (1917-2013) was a pioneer in the field

of piano pedagogy, developing an approach rooted in

learnings from observations of young piano prodigies

(aged 7-9). She devoted her life to studying the

technique of these young pianists and discovered why

they succeeded injury-free while others struggled.

Taubman’s approach is a study of movement and alignment which produces ease and

virtuosity at the instrument. We will begin by introducing several key principles: alignment ,

rotation, in and out motion, the walking hand and forearm, and shaping.

I. Alignment

What are the two fundamental tasks necessary to play a piece of music at the piano? You must

press a key down, and you must move left and right over the keys.

The key has a certain weight to it , and the finger alone is too light to overcome this resistance. A

child will usually intuitively use the finger in tandem with the hand and forearm. These function

together as a “playing unit ,” the implications of which we’ll explore this throughout this course.

American pianist and researcher Otto Ortmann performed research in the early 20th century that

showed that exercising the fingers doesn’t give pianists any sort of advantage. In fact , it usually

causes significant discomfort. This explains why the fingers should not be used in isolation.

The playing unit (finger, hand, and forearm) cannot be too low, or the fingers feel they have to grip

the keys. It also cannot be too high, or you will compensate for the lack of weight on the fingers by

raising your shoulders or pulling your wrists down.

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Key Alignment Issues

Isolating any part of the playing unit causes difficulty, lack of support, and pain
Keeping the fingers curled toward the palm doesn’t allow them to easily press the keys
Extremes and exaggerations tend not to work in piano technique
Avoid twisting of the wrist
Relaxing on its own doesn’t solve issues: you must fix the playing unit first
Play with follow-through when you press the key, like a tennis player
Don’t aim for the bottom of the key, as this creates too much harshness
Aim for the point at which sound is produced
Contact the key on the pad of the fingers
Avoid collapsing and letting go of fulcrums
Avoid stretching the fingers away from one another laterally
Ensure the bench is the proper distance from the keyboard
Turn the torso diagonally toward the hands when moving to an extreme register
When the hands are directly in front of the body, the torso moves slightly back
When both hands move to extreme opposite ends of the piano, move the torso forward slightl
Put the hand down by your side and then bring it up: the fingers will have a natural curve, not
extra straight or extra curly. Gently maintain this shape while playing
If the main knuckle (bride of the hand) is too high, the fingers are too straight and hard to lift
If the main knuckle is too low, we can’t move our fingers efficiently
The elbow should not be in a fixed position – it must move left to right with the playing
mechanism. If too high up, it creates shoulder and neck tension
The hand can’t be tilted laterally from the wrist; contact in the center of the pad of the fingers.
Avoid holding the shoulders up tightly
The thumbs operate differently from the other fingers; only touch the key with the flesh of the
thumb from the nail forward, or you’ll pull the wrist down too far.

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II. Forearm Rotation

Lateral side-to-side motion of the playing unit will never be as fast as the motion of individual
fingers. How can we quickly move left or right, from key to key, across the keyboard?

Taubman recognized that the speed of the forearm’s rotation is actually just as fast as the fingers
going up and down. Coordinated rotation of the forearm allows it to respond to the needs of the
fingers. When done right, this rotation is a simple movement from the tip of the third finger to the
elbow. Once practiced and internalized at the keyboard, the movement becomes invisible to the
eye, but it permeates everything we play.

Place your arm against your abdomen, and rotate the forearm – turn the palm of the hand first
toward the heart and then toward the floor. Observe the back of the forearm. One bone is stable,
while another revolves around it. The elbow also remains stable (pictured left).

Rotation enables the playing mechanism to remain connected at every moment when moving
from key to key. Rotation requires alignment of the entire mechanism to work properly. This is one
way that each step in the Taubman approach builds on the previous one.

Try to arrive at the piano in a position where your fingers only span about three and a half notes
(instead of five, as we’re usually taught). This brings stretching to an absolute minimum and makes
forearm rotation very easy (pictured right).

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We’re ready to get started. Place your right hand, fifth finger on G, and play 5 to 2 (G to D).

Navigate to the second finger by first rotating the forearm in the opposite direction, and then in the

direction of the D. Now play 5 to 3 (G to E). Don’t let any finger get ahead of the forearm or move

independently, and be sure that the thumb doesn’t drop far below the keybed. Everything moves

at the same time and in the same direction. If you struggle with keeping your thumb up, try to find

a more natural hand position by lifting the hands in front of you, turning them over, turning them

back, and letting the hands assume a natural, relaxed C shape. Now repeat with 5 to 4 (G to F).

The next step is to try a full four-finger movement (5-4-3-2) in each hand. On the next page,

we’ll elaborate on the specific kinds of rotation we’re performing. It’s interesting to note that legato

in this context is simply a timing of playing and release; rotating helps a finger release at the proper

moment, which enables us to move quickly when playing intervals or arpeggios.

“You can’t deal with weight without dealing with movement.”

To move in the opposite direction (ascending in the right hand), there are some terms to learn. A

preparatory motion is a forearm movement in the opposite direction of the destination that

occurs prior to playing the note. If we play 2 to 5 in the right hand, the preparatory motion is

counter-clockwise, while the playing motion is clockwise. Repeat this going from 2-4, and 2-3. It’s

important that we don’t land in a tilted position – we must arrive aligned at each note.

Now it’s time to add the thumb. The thumb can only rotate toward itself – its playing direction is

clockwise in the left hand and counter-clockwise in the right hand. Anytime we play with the

thumb, we need the concept of In-and-Out Movements, which we’ll discuss in the next lesson. For

now, simply keep in mind that the forearm must come in slightly when playing the thumb, and back

out when moving to another finger.

A preparatory motion is familiar to baseball or tennis players – the arm must swing back first in

order to generate enough power to hit the ball forward.

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Let’s explore the motions involved in going from 1 to 2 in the right hand. When we play the right-
hand thumb, there’s a slight follow-through after we strike the key. The rotation continues counter-
clockwise for just a moment before we rotate clockwise to 2. This is called a single rotation.

How do we ensure we’re balanced as we continue to finger 3? We need a concept called a double
rotation. From 2, first rotate counter-clockwise, and then rotate clockwise to play 3. The same is
true to get to 4 – rotate counter-clockwise from 3, and then rotate clockwise to play 4. At every
moment, alignment is preserved. We play another double rotation to get from 4 to 5.

It may seem counter-intuitive to move away from a note and expect to be able to play faster, but a
subtle, controlled double rotation actually allows us to access the forearm’s rotational speed when
playing laterally across the keys and remain in alignment.

When we play 4-5-4, we can do something interesting. 4 to 5 is a double rotation, but if we

continue our clockwise rotation past 5, that essentially becomes our preparation to return to 4. Try
it out!

Single Double Double Double Single Double Double Double

In summary, a single rotation occurs when we apply follow-through and change direction. A
double rotation occurs when we must initiate a separate preparatory motion before moving toward
the destination note.

At this stage, we aren’t too concerned with our sound yet. Once a student can play the above
successfully, Durso moves on to the concept of a scale:

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 Single Double Double Double Single Single Double

Why do we play single rotations to 3 and 2 on E and D? After playing the thumb on F, we use
follow-through and continue rotating counter-clockwise. In addition to bringing the third finger
closer to its destination, this allows us to now use a clockwise rotation to land on 3. We use follow-
through to continue the motion, and rotate counter-clockwise to 2. Since we can use follow-
through to arrive on both fingers 3 and 2, these are both single rotations.

Trills, Alberti basses, and tremolo octaves are also all effective ways of applying rotation. Many have
been taught to just “shake their arm” when playing tremolo octaves, but this isn’t sufficient – we
must be very precise and deliberate with how much motion is required. The fingers actually leave
the keys for a very short moment.

Eventually, as we go faster, we will minimize our rotations so they’re scarcely noticeable. At

first, ensure your motions are free. Sometimes we have to keep our motions larger for a while so we
don’t lose a sense of freedom in our playing. Once we get the forearm rotating properly, we have to
get our fingers involved again. The first step in training this is simply adding a small lifting motion of
the non-playing fingers together with rotation, and then linking rotation with lifting or dropping the
fingers. Durso calls this evaporation, where “[the movement] exists, but you don’t see it.”

The next step to minimize a double rotation is to imagine standing on one leg and moving the other
leg around. The fixed leg is a support for the moving leg, but it is not actively moving itself (though
it may be making micro-adjustments to remain balanced). In the same way, we can treat the
playing finger like a mostly fixed leg that supports the motion of the other fingers to the next key.
This is the process of one’s conscious experience of movement turning into mere adjustment and
receding from awareness.

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Finally, Durso demonstrates a few examples of common repertoire where rotation is especially

valuable. Practice these on your own along with the lesson!

Mozart K. 310, Sonata No. 8 in A minor

Mozart K. 545, Sonata No. 16 in C major

Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 5 in G-flat minor, “Black Keys”

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Chopin Etude Op. 25 No. 6 in G-sharp minor, “Thirds”

We cannot play a single rotation between thirds, or the hand will be off-balance. This should

actually be a series of quick double rotations. For fast octaves, the rotation is always in the

direction of the thumb.

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III. In-and-Out Motions

Since the fingers are different lengths, we have to move the playing unit toward or away from the
piano, initiating from the forearm and carrying the upper arm with it, to prevent curling the fingers
inward toward the body.

Any time you have 1 or 5 on a black key in a piece, make a note of how soon you have to move the
playing unit inward to prevent twisting or curling. A descending five-finger pattern on white keys
has a very specific pattern of in and out motions: out on 4, out on 3, in on 2, in on 1. Ascending, it’s
the reverse: out to 2, out to 3, in to 4 and 5. When combined with rotation, these in and out
movements further minimize the rotational movement.

IV. Walking Hand and Forearm

Lateral movement (left or right) of the hands is referred to as the “walking hand and arm.” Let’s
take 1231 in the left hand as an example: when moving the playing unit out (toward the body) from 1
to 2, the thumb moves under the 2nd finger. Coming out further to 3, the thumb is now under the
3rd finger. From this position, there’s no extreme movement needed to bring 1 back to the left of 3,
and there’s a functional division of labor between the movements we’ve studied thus far.

The vertical form of the walking hand and arm is the movement down into a key. Playing an interval
followed by a single note is functionally just two down motions back-to-back.

Similarly, when practicing broken octaves, allow the forearm to shift across as you go. It isn’t
feasible to perform these leaps with rotation alone.

11
V. Physical Shaping

Physically, shaping occurs when the hand and forearm are at different heights, which can assist
the fingers in moving over different combinations of black and white keys, and adds color to the
music. In the B major scale, we raise on the black keys and lower onto the white keys. Shaping
begins from a level playing field and goes slightly higher, and only sometimes slightly lower.

When you play two repeated notes, your position should be slightly higher for the second note. In a
five-finger position, play an “overshape” (higher for 23, back to level on 45). Be wary of too much
shaping: you don’t want to erase the lower layers of movement completely. Shaping isn’t a wrist
movement, either – the entire playing unit is moving like the gears of a train.

On Chords and Octaves

When the hand opens to an octave, the knuckles have to go slightly lower, and the main
fulcrum for playing becomes the wrist, meaning the wrist is slightly higher than usual.

Beware: forming the octave in the air before playing creates unnecessary tightening throughout the
playing unit. No element can be rigid or isolated.

Practice moving the hand up and down effortlessly on your lap or the fallboard; like a trampoline,
the rebound should propel us to the next octave. Rebound as close to the instrument as possible
while still feeling that freedom. The fingering 15 is usually ideal for octaves, as introducing 3 or 4
causes the mechanism to twist. If your hands are very small, play octaves on the edge of the keys
nearest to the body (note that in this case, the wrist won’t be as high).

A common pitfall while voicing chords is to lean your hand too far to one side. Simply let go of a
bit more weight on the finger you want to bring out – and similarly, put the other notes down more
gently and slightly slower. (Note: tempo is not how fast you depress the key, it’s how fast you move
from key to key.)

12
On Fast Playing

Taubman’s first goal with a new student was to remove obstacles that prevent speed, such as
tension and bad habits. The prerequisite for sufficient facility of speed is correct alignment, as
studied in the previous lessons. Once speed is attained, that becomes the standard. Some
questions you can ask yourself, or that a teacher can help you to understand are: Did something go
wrong in that moment? Are the in and out movements going properly? Is shaping being done
properly? Is a walking hand and arm necessary? Am I eliminating or exaggerating one component?

Remember that repeating passages over and over will not necessarily fix deeper technical
problems – we must understand what we aren’t doing right and deduce what needs to change.

More Information

To learn more about Robert Durso and the Dorothy Taubman approach to piano pedagogy, explore
the following resources

The Edna Golandsky Institute: https://www.golandskyinstitute.org

Robert Durso: https://robertdurso.net
Dorothy Taubman Masterclasses: https://www.taubman-tapes.com/

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