Hi Greg!,
First of all, your videos and compositions are great, you and Liz are really unique!. I have a question for you, when do you think it is advisable (for a classical piano Student who wants to play like you, basically :D) to move from a digital piano (in my case, a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-240 with the Grade Hammer 3 stuff) to a grand piano?. And another one!, my teacher says I should play staccato notes by lifting my wrist a little (hand above the keyboard, but not touching it, slightly above, like floating! ) and hitting the keys from that position (just moving the fingers, the wrist stays just there, in the floating position). She says that is to avoid future injuries or something like that, but I found it very unnatural, why do you think?. How do you play staccato notes (not super fast staccato notes, but, for example, staccato for bach inventions, sinfonias, etc). Please post more videos!, a new parody :D
- Raúl

Dear Raúl,

Switch to an acoustic piano as soon as you can afford to. It doesn't necessarily need to be a grand (I practiced on an Everett spinet until I was 16 years old!!), it just needs to have real hammers hitting real strings. Of course, eventually you will need to switch to a grand piano. Electric keyboards are handy (I have a Yamaha P90), but they do not do a very good job of recreating the resonance of a real piano. As a student of the piano, you should be developing your ear for color and timbre, and these pianistic traits are impossible to imitate on an electronic keyboard. Even the action feels different on a real piano - staccato notes in particular!

As for those staccatos that are giving you so much trouble, I'm afraid I can't help you. I do not consider myself to be a specialist in the mechanics of playing the piano. If anything, you should talk to your teacher. Perhaps he or she isn't explaining it effectively, or perhaps your discomfort is a symptom of something else. Your teacher should be able to clear this up for you.

- Greg