Coordinate Motion Theory[edit]

Taubman was best known for her development of a new piano technique, which she called
coordinate motion.[10] Her teaching method springs from a best-practice theoretical model which
defines the biomechanical roles and conditions necessary to move efficiently at a musical
instrument. These parameters are:

1. Unification. All the body parts performing work will function as a single unit. No single
element involved will work independently of the unit.
2. Mid-Range of Motion. All body parts will move within the mid-range of motion of the
joint articulation from which they depend. Conversely, movements to the extreme range
of motion are avoided.
3. Awkward Movements. Movement roles are assigned to the body parts best able to
perform them, thereby eliminating awkward movements entirely.
4. Alignment. Correct alignment of body parts is maintained under all conditions. Not
only does this allow body parts to move within their mid-range of motion with greater
frequency, it also bring into play skeletal compression and support not available when
body parts are misaligned.
5. Division of Labor. No single body part will perform all labor. Instead, labor will be
divided between all the body parts most able to perform it. Effort is thereby decreased
in each muscle group, and this results in an increase of macro-amplitudes overall and a
decrease of micro-amplitudes at each joint articulation.
6. Efficient Use of Equipment. The mechanism of the tool, in this case the piano action,
will be used within its limits of design and to its utmost effect with a minimum of
muscular effort.
7. Minimal Muscular Effort. Gravity becomes available to perform work under the
forgoing conditions, thereby decreasing muscular effort overall to minimal levels.
8. Synergistic Action. The action of each coordinated movement is synergistic,
magnifying and potentiating all the others. Consequently, the need for each discrete
coordinate movement is reduced to minimal levels. When all elements are properly
coordinated, the discrete elements become almost invisible to the untrained eye.

In Taubman’s model, control, power and virtuosity are a matter of timing, reflexes and
coordination, not strength, independence or brute force. Coordinate motion takes the
biomechanical limits of the body parts doing work as the central consideration in all technical
problems. These biomechanical parameters translate into a direct and practical application at
the keyboard in the following manner.
Alignment
The alignment of the finger, hand and forearm can best be observed when the arm is resting at
the side of the executant. In this pose, the finger, knuckle (MP joint) and wrist joints are all at
the mid-range of their total arc of movement available in those joints. Taubman asserts that this
is the optimal position for the hand to do work, and should be the basis for a unique hand
position at the keyboard for each student.

Resting Down
The correct vertical keystroke results in a passive resting at the bottom of the key, with the
resting weight of the finger, hand and forearm free and available to perform the next
movement. Support should be minimal, enough to maintain correct alignment of the body parts
without assistance, and properly divided among those parts involved. In Taubman’s model,
resting down is the essential, primary state from which all other movements are performed.
This state allows the performer to use the key bed as a fulcrum from which to accurately
leverage and time the next keystroke.

Support
Minimal muscular support becomes an essential ingredient to the forgoing technical elements.
Only minimal support is needed at critical junctures to assure proper alignment, balance and
the passive state of resting down. When it is divided properly between all the body parts
involved, the sense of physical effort diminishes until it becomes imperceptible to the
executant. When minimal support is not available in any single element, other body parts
further up the causal chain must make greater efforts to achieve balance and stability. If
support at the wrist is collapsed, for example, then the bicep, mid-back (rhomboids) and
shoulder girdle must take over the support function. In Taubman’s model, these larger body
parts are ill-suited to perform these functions if they move past a relatively low speed threshold.
Because of the comparatively larger size of their muscle bellies, simultaneous antagonistic co-
contractions quickly become isometric in nature in the larger body part, and fixation in the limbs
occur. An increased sense of effort, technical dysfunction and fatigue can ensue when large
muscle groups are used beyond their physiological limits.

Keystroke Timing
A correctly regulated grand piano action will produce sound at the point at which the repetition
jack falls into place, throwing the hammer up towards the string. The action of the repetition
jack can be felt as a slight resistance or “bump” if the key is depressed very slowly, most often
within the first third of the vertical keystroke.

A properly coordinated technique will aim the keystroke at this point of sound, an element
Taubman called keystroke timing. Control of the keystroke timing is responsible for changes in
tone color and volume the instrument produces. Changes in dynamic volume are produced by
changes in the vertical speed of the keystroke aimed at the point of sound, not brute force
expended lower down against the key bed. It is possible to produce all gradations of volume
and tone color while aiming at the point of sound, and with minimal force. Much physical effort
will be wasted if the keystroke is aimed too high or too low, or excessive physical effort is used
to achieve a particular sonic effect.

Rotation
In a properly coordinated technique, a relationship exists between the lifting/dropping
(flexion/extension) of the fingers, and the rotational movement (pronation/supination) of the
forearm. The forearm, hand and finger act as a series of fulcrums and levers, resting passively
on the key bed. As the finger lifts, the forearm rotates in one direction or the other at the same
time to assist it in its lifting. When the finger drops, the forearm rotates in the opposite direction
at the same time to assist it in dropping. This coordination of activity accomplishes three
central objectives:

1- forearm rotation augments the lifting and dropping of the fingers, while allowing them
to remain within the mid-range of their arc of movement at the metacarpo-
phalangeal (MP) and the inter-phalangeal (IP) joints.
2- forearm rotation makes the passive, resting weight of the forearm available to fall
behind the fingers as they drop into the key, entraining gravity into the action of playing
the next key.
3- the forearm throws the fingers, hand and forearm laterally across the keyboard,
balancing the resting weight of the forearm directly behind the location of the new
resting finger.

All these goals are accomplished without using the upper arm or shoulder girdle to effectuate
the movement. Thus, reaching with the fingers (adduction/abduction), twisting the wrist (ulnar
deviation) and other awkward movements are avoided.

Forearm rotation results in a series of right- and left-swinging movements of the forearm that
prepares the lift/drop of the finger with a rotational swing in the opposite direction of the finger
movement. For example, the forearm swings right first if the first rotation is to the left, and vice
versa. The wrist and resting finger must remain stable as mentioned previously in order to
maintain these movements. This rotational pattern results in a continuous action of the forearm
preparing the lifting of every finger to be played. Some of the rotations require an additional
swing to lift the finger; these are called double rotations. The combined, synchronized actions
of forearm rotation and finger lifting/dropping are synergistic. One element augments the other,
thereby decreasing the need for each. This allows important changes to occur in both the
physiology and biomechanics of movement when forearm rotation assists with finger
lifting/dropping. The resting weight of the forearm is free to fall behind the finger as it drops into
the key, decreasing the need for the flexor muscles to come into play to pull the finger down as
gravity becomes available to perform the action. The size of the movement, or macro-
amplitude, increases overall, allowing greater momentum to develop and generate greater
levels of force as needed. At the same time, micro-amplitude of the individual finger
movements actually decreases, allowing the fingers to stay within their mid-range of motion.
For the executant, the net subjective effect is a sense of physical freedom coupled with
effortlessness.

In & Out
Covering the terrain of the keyboard poses a great challenge biomechanically. At first glance,
the irregular conformation of the hand and finger make it appear ill-suited to maneuver a
perfectly straight and linear keyboard without employing awkward movements. Taubman did
not see this as a dilemma, however. She proposed that the forearm is the body part ideally
suited to overcome these obstacles. The forearm makes small longitudinal movements in or
out of the keyboard to carry the fingers to the optimal location to play. This will avoid twisting
the wrists out of alignment (ulnar/radial deviation,dorsiflexion) or curling the fingers excessively
(antagonistic flexion/extension). In & out movements are employed to bring the fingers within
optimal range of the keys to be struck, within the area where leverage against the key hinge is
greatest. They are accomplished incrementally and are prepared several notes beforehand, if
no other technical issues predominate.

In & out movements accomplish several biomechanical goals at once. They maintain the
balance of the resting arm weight, which Taubman asserts should generally be toward the
fallboard if stability from skeletal compression is to be maintained. Consequently, in & out
occurs on mixed black-and-white key passages, as well as white key-only passages.
Synergistically, in & out decreases the need for forearm rotation and finger action, thereby
minimizing each.

Walking Arm
Taubman asserts that lateral distances larger than a major second require greater involvement
of the forearm than can be accomplished by forearm rotation alone. In these situations, the
forearm makes an up-across/over-down movement, which she refers to as the “Walking Arm”.
The walking arm has many of the same characteristics as scale rotation and has a similar
subjective “feel” to the executant, as it uses the same musculature to produce it. However, the
larger lateral distances often change the visual character of the movement so much that it no
longer appears rotational. The forearm assists the finger in its lifting and also carries it laterally
across the entire distance to be spanned, then performs a great part of the vertical drop into
the key as the finger drops. Gravity then becomes a more predominant force in the act of
playing, reducing muscular effort further

Shaping
To the untrained observer, the wrist appears to make curvilinear, "u"-shaped and inverted "u"-
shaped movements as it traverses the keyboard laterally. Taubman called these movements
forearm shaping, with the "u"-shape as under-shaping, and the inverted "u"-shaped as over-
shaping. The height of the wrist in a given shape is determined by the terrain being played and
the length of the finger playing a given key. Changes in wrist and forearm height from one key
to the next make it appear as if only the wrist is making the shape when, in fact, Taubman
surmised that the finger, hand and forearm accomplishes the incremental adjustment from
the olecranon to the fingertip, not as separate parts, but as a unit.

Shaping is the technical element that ties all the others together. Shaping also has a
synergistic effect on the preceding technical elements. It reduces the amount of in & out
needed, it can smooth the corners of the walking arm, and it also can reduce the amount of
rotation needed. Additionally, shaping produces important artistic effects, such as rhythmic
inflection and continuity of the musical line.

Synergy/Invisibility
Many critics dispute Taubman's notion that forearm rotation is an essential feature of a virtuoso
technique, particularly in scale playing. They argue that such a forearm movement would be
ungainly, interfere with fast passage work, and make independence of the fingers
impossible.[11] Taubman herself was deeply concerned with this question, as she had observed
many times in her students that an overlarge rotational movement would interfere with speed
and control. Yet she paradoxically observed both forearm rotations and the walking arm in
virtuoso pianists capable of easily performing any texture,[12] as did her antecedents.[13][14]

Taubman adduced that the seemingly discrete technical elements coalesce into a synergistic
whole, minimizing the need for each, potentiating their separate, individual effect, yet blending
into a seamless unity that only a trained observer can discern separately. Each technical
element must be present in the right timing and amount in order for this synergy to occur. For
example, in and out reduces the need for rotation. The walking arm reduces it still further,
shaping reduces the need for in and out, and for rotation, while at the same time reducing the
need for the walking arm. Rotation can reduce the need for shaping in many textures. The use
of gravity reduces the subjective sense of physical effort in every action, and the need for each
discreet technical element. Proper keystroke timing reduces it further still. Both gravity and
proper keystroke timing increase the available physical resources needed to produce a large
sound, et cetera.[15]
While certain textures may take on the predominant visual character of a single technical
element if the terrain requires it, the others are still present but microscopic. Thus, the true
nature of a virtuoso technique becomes invisible to the untrained observer. If just one of the
technical elements is not present correctly, however, then dysfunction ensues.[15]

Advanced Techniques
Taubman also addressed other, more advanced aspects of coordinate motion in her model,
such as grouping and neurophysical interdependence issues of the hands. She applied the
entirety of her approach to the piano literature including specialized textures such as octaves,
double notes, chords, and the various art techniques including voicing, tone production,
phrasing, rhythmic control, period style, and the like.

Taubman concluded that, taken together, all these aspects constitute a complete description of
all the technical problems encountered in the piano literature as well as a solution to them.