Rotation in Scale Playing — final


6. The A is played and there has been more pronation to move towards an efficient angle for the fourth finger to approach — and supinate into — the B, and also to help move the thumb further under the hand.	7. The arm pronates still further to provide a mechanically advantageous angle for playing the fourth finger and to bring the thumb still closer to the C.

8. The B is played with the help of a strong supinating movement of the forearm. This provides a lot of power to a finger which often sounds weak — especially if the arm is already supinated before the fourth finger is played (as in some schools). Note how the fourth finger is driven straight into the key with maximum efficiency and that the rotary movement does not turn it beyond the vertical position. Any continued rotation beyond the vertical will tend to bring the finger away from the key, rather than into it and would, in this case, also bring the thumb further away from the C.	9. The arm pronates again as the thumb is played. The rotary movement has automatically started to move the rest of the hand further up the scale (the fourth finger is already nearly as far as the D). This is called a “rotary exchange.”

10. The arm and hand continue to move over the thumb as one unit in preparation for playing D with the second finger — and we are back to where we started.
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