“You refine that and figure out what you want to play. But I think you have to play clichés in order to find your own vocabulary,” she says. Sylvie Courvoisier, a master of using extended techniques in the contexts of jazz and improvised music, said that in the beginning it’s difficult not to copy what you’ve heard before. “You can identify a person’s sound by their materials and the way that they’re used, so it can be a slippery slope to try to copy someone’s sounds and materials.” “You experiment and figure out what works for you,” says Davis, who uses clothespins and hollowed-out erasers.

According to Kris Davis, who began exploring extended techniques after studying with Delbecq in Paris, finding the proper materials to create the sounds you’re looking for is as important as every other aspect of forming your voice. Over the years, Delbecq has used everything from that first radiator brush to saxophone reeds, tacks and twigs to alter the sound of his piano. “The discovery of a new sound is like having a new toy to play with,” he says. So I asked my mom for a piece of felt and sewed it onto the brush.” While he’s long since formed a more rigorous conceptual basis for his preparations, Delbecq explains that maintaining that kind of childlike imagination is important for starting to develop mastery of extended techniques. “I found a curved brush they used for radiators and realized I could play on the strings directly. “My parents soundproofed a little room in the basement and put the piano down there,” Delbecq recalls. Benoît Delbecq, now well known for integrating contemporary classical techniques and prepared piano into his jazz vocabulary, first started messing around under the hood of his great-grandmother’s piano at the age of 8. It’s not surprising, then, that many pianists don’t wait until their first encounter with John Cage or Henry Cowell to attempt such experimental approaches. Getting your hands inside the instrument, sticking items on or in between its wires, or drumming the sides of the piano are approaches that avant-garde composers and performers share with mischievous children. There’s an inherent playfulness to utilizing extended techniques on the acoustic piano.

Piano strings theory