Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano Subject: Tense Fingers and Wrists Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 16:01:23 -0400 Hello, I'm having a problem with relaxing my fingers and wrists when I play. My teacher says my wrist and fingers are too tense but I don't really know how to correct this. Any suggestions? Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano Subject: Re: Tense Fingers and Wrists > >I'm having a problem with relaxing my fingers and wrists when I play. My >teacher says my wrist and fingers are too tense but I don't really know how >to correct this. Any suggestions? The wrist often tightens up as a result of tight fingers, so if you can get your fingers looser, the wrist may well follow. As for the fingers: Try to get away from high finger action and "preparing" each attack with a hardened finger. Practice sinking into the key, letting the finger and associated muscles kick in as they are needed. It's sort of like walking: you don't lock up your foot and ankle *before* taking a step; only as a reaction as you land on the foot. Concurrently, work on keeping the hand and arm aligned with the finger for efficient transfer of weight into the key with minimal effort. (This is especially helpful with the fourth and fifth fingers.) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano Subject: Re: Tense Fingers and Wrists Have you tried playing mostly technically easy pieces for a while? Memorize several pieces that are easy for you, concentrate on making music, at the same time, imagine that you are "flushing the tenseness" out of your system, trying to relax as much as you can. Be sure to apply the techniques needed to play difficult passages to these easy pieces, so that you have the feeling that there is plenty of time between notes. If you have some difficult pieces to practice, try playing them softly, while trying to relax. Once you become tense, learning to relax will take a long time, so don't expect immediate results. Examine what is causing tenseness analytically, and experiment. For example, you might practice the easy pieces at twice or faster speed, then slow down to normal speed in order to play with the correct finger motions and positions -- you will now find lots of extra time between notes, and can therefore, start to relax. Just be careful that you don't aggravate your tense habits when increasing speed; to be able to do that, you will need to learn the correct practice procedures, such as hands separate practice and the use of chord attacks. Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano >Hello, > >I'm having a problem with relaxing my fingers and wrists when I play. My >teacher says my wrist and fingers are too tense but I don't really know how >to correct this. Any suggestions? ================== My first private piano lesson last October: Teacher: With stiff wrists like that , you'll never play the piano. So he gave me exercises which were: Just scales using only five fingers. I had to drop the wrist at the beginning and then at the fifth note raise the wrist and drop them again to reverse and then raise them at the beginning and drop them. Did triads this way, including inversions. Easy pieces which I carefully phrased with the lifting and dropping of the wrist to begin and end a phrase. I improved within one month. I actually practiced this way. It was worth it. Seems I've always been stiff and it's the first time any one noticed it. It effected everything else about me too. Relaxed a lot. So now there's only my shoulders left to work with. The stiff wrists was a snap compared to stiff shoulders. Even right now typing have to remind myself. Every time I post about stiff shoulders, I have to consciously relax them, let gravity take over. This is going to be a summer project it seems. Hope you are as lucky with the wrists as I was. Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano Subject: Re: Tense Fingers and Wrists >I'm having a problem with relaxing my fingers and wrists when I play. My >teacher says my wrist and fingers are too tense but I don't really know how >to correct this. Any suggestions? I find that when I'm having problems with tension in my hands, wrists, and fingers the problem is generally one of technique. I'm either using fingering that puts too much tension in my hand or I'm trying to get "power" by holding my hand stiffly. It's difficult to know what you're doing over email. Your teacher should be able to help you with this problem. How are you getting the power to press the key down? Are you holding your hand still and forcing your finger to do all the work? This is not a good idea. The power to press the keys down comes from rotating your forearm and from allowing your entire forearm as a unified mass to drop from the elbow onto the fingers that need to play. Playing for a long time with too much tension leads to repetitive stress injury (RSI). You're right to look for ways to correct this problem. Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano Subject: Re: Tense Fingers and Wrists Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 09:48:09 -0400 I have only been playing for six months. My first teacher told me to keep my arms still and my power should come from my fingers. When I played chords I would lock my fingers and place and push down with my elbow. (your right, it is hard to explain over e-mail.) Now my new teacher tells my to play with no tension at all. Her wrists seem to collapse with they hit the keyboard. So I'm just trying the switch now to a looser style. I was just looking for recommendations of things to look for, ways to practice... Is there any good books that explain this or could somebody possibly post a paragraph on the proper way (wrist, finger, arm movement) to play a piano? Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano Subject: Re: Tense Fingers and Wrists Try playing a simple scale, but for each note you play, pretend there is someone sitting beside you, irritating you, and you gently nudge your elbow out to try and get them to move. The muscles in your arm shifts, causing your wrist and fingers to relax. Eventually, you should be able to do this without an exaggerated elbow motion, but a very slight motion. Another thing you can try is: playing each individual note, and rotating your wrist (bend your wrist for the circle)in a small circle. Again, your muscles are shifted, making it virtually impossible to be overly stiff. Hope that helps!