Building Piano Strength (for musical theatre playing)

As a musical theatre player, you often have to learn things quickly, sight read, and play pretty technically demanding things. Sight reading especially involves playing unfamiliar, unpracticed passages, so can result in tired hands and even injury!

For me, playing rehearsal piano for Titanic the Musical all weekdays for 7 weeks was very taxing, especially as the score has many 3rd and tremolo passages. As well as this, playing for musical theatre classes involved sight reading for 4 consecutive hours, again something I found physically tiring. I knew I needed to build strength - to prevent injury and increase the accuracy and fluidity of my playing.

I have been lucky enough to have lessons with the incredible Alisdair Hogarth, who has really helped me build piano strength to enable me to play comfortably, and for longer periods of time. I am going to share with you the exercises I do (with his permission of course!).

The books I use:

• Beringer (Daily Technical Studies for Piano)

• Joseffy (School of Advanced Piano Playing)

• Brahms (51 exercises)

The method:

I usually do 20 mins at a time. 10 exercises, 2 minutes on each. Each exercise targets a different thing, so it’s fine to do this amount at once with no breaks. As you build, you can increase to 3 mins on each etc…

1. 5 finger exercises, ascending and descending patterns (Beringer, 63-88)

2. 4/5 note chords (Beringer, 326-329)

3. Chromatic exercises, close position (Brahms, 7)

4. 3 note chords (Beringer 339)

5. Octave zig zags (Joseffy, page 46, line 3)

6. Scales (be creative! Play high to low, in 3rds/6ths, different rhythms)

7. Tremolo (Beringer, 271-276)

8. Thirds (Beringer, 177-180)

9. Arpeggios, normal and extended (Beringer 360-367)

10. Leaps (Beringer, 377-392)

I think taking the time to really master each exercise is important, and then you can easily form a good routine. If you experience any pain, stop immediately. It should feel like your muscles are working, but never hurt.

I admittedly don’t do it as often as I should, but if I ever feel my technique starts to slip, a couple of days of doing this gets me right back on track! Exploring the professional world of MDing/theatre playing has made me realise how important keeping on top of technique is. If you’re on a show and in intense rehearsals, it’s difficult to fit in separate practice time. I definitely want to strive to do these exercises alongside any show I do, as in the long run, it will be super beneficial.

How will these exercises help you?