The technique of the great pianists has very little to do, according to Steinhausen, with the technique that was then theorized in the "methods". The first, based on the use of "weight", is simply the "natural" or "physiological" technique, while the second, which considers the digital movement fundamental, constitutes an artificial and antiphysiological construction. The traditional digital technique aimed at the "articulation" and "independence" of the fingers is based on three erroneous assumptions: it misunderstands the organological characteristics of the piano, distorts the true nature of "exercise", understanding it as merely mechanical "gymnastics", and completely misunderstands the physiological movements that preside over the piano movements, identifying them with the only digital movement Leipzig, 1905, p. 81. In order to obtain from the piano all the rich range of sounds the instrument is capable of, it is necessary instead to use, as great pianists have always done and do, the great muscles of the arm and shoulder, which "occurs without stiffening anything, but in a state of
relaxation and passivity of the muscles: The "mass", i.e. the shoulder-arm-hand-drop system, is in fact set in motion by fully exploiting gravity, i.e. the inertial weight ("fall"); the impulse is thus given by a movement of momentum ("Schwungbewegung") of the entire arm mass from the shoulder down; the muscular work (contraction) is therefore of very short duration, it simply gives the impulse and then immediately abandons the mass to its moments of inertia; before and after the impulse there is an identical state of passivity, relaxation and absence of contraction of all the muscles". Playing in a natural way means "carrying" or "unloading" the weight on the fingertips which act as supports. The weight or the "load used in playing" (Spielbelastung) lies between the two purely
theoretical boundaries of the "maximum load". (Maximalbelastung), in which all muscles work actively to unload the shoulder-arm-hand system downwards, and the "zero load" (Nullbelastung), in which the muscular work equal and contrary to the weight of the arm keeps the limb suspended without support and moves it upwards. The experienced pianist is able to use infinite degrees of "weight", dosing each time the amount of weight to be transferred to the fingertips in order to obtain the widest and richest range of sounds Leipzig, 1905, . It is therefore clear that the fingers do not have an independent function at all: they are, first of all, supports. However, in order to transfer the weight from one finger to the other, especially at speed, the
forearm rotation must intervene in order to help the movement of momentum ("Schwungbewegung"). Understanding the essential function of forearm rotation "sweeps away all false precepts about the "articulation" of isolated fingers and the consequent myths of "independence" and "equality" of the fingers. In reality the articulation of the isolated fingers is physiologically impossible; the fingers behave not as hammers, but as spokes of a wheel rotating around the axis of rotation constituted by the elbow-wrist line, so their agility on the fingerboard depends only on the rotation movement of the forearm", they are
fingertip-rotation "on which the mass of the arm momentarily rests and then discharges again into the momentum (Schwung)", Leipzig, 1905, . Steinhausen died in
Boppard at the age of 51. == Work ==