Many teachers ramble on and on about keeping your muscles relaxed. This tends to lead to students that confuse "relaxed" with "limp". Your whole muscular system needs a balance between relaxed and tensed muscles. If that weren't so, we would be limp piles of bones just lying on the floor, unable to move around.
There are volumes written about how the body actually works when you play the piano, some people see in it the key towards perfect performance. I strongly recommend you read up on things like Alexander technique and the Feldenkrais method as ways to be more aware of what your body is actually doing, and what not to do. Even better, find a qualified instructor and take a course. It will give you a strong background that will help you judge more accurately what actually works and what doesn't in regards to technique.
Remember, the key is in natural movement. When you walk, you don't swing your legs around like John Cleese in the Ministry of Silly walks. Your muscles should have a kind of solid flexibility. They are strong, but in no way locked into a rigid position. They are relaxed, but in no way limp and ineffectual. They are ready to move, just as your legs are when you stand in a normal pose before you take a step.
Let you arm hang down by your side. Now lift it up, but keep your hand an wrist in the same position as they were when your hand was hanging. Your wrist should be holding up your hand, it should not be rigid and clenched and it should not be limp and useless. When you play, you move your fingers; grab something, an apple or a pencil. Notice how you just pick the thing up with your fingers? Notice how, when the rest of the muscles in your arm are relaxed but solid, they will just move naturally behind the fingers to complete the motion? That is what you should look for when you play, natural movements that you use every day. This is the key to not getting injured when you play, and it will also help you avoid harsh ugly sound and broken phrasing. And, if it is any incentive, I'll bet you can play faster too.
When you grab an apple with your hand, you don't raise your shoulder and clench your jaw, then twist your wrist above the apple before letting it go limp so you take it in between your outstretched rigid fingers; why would you do all that for pressing a key on the piano? When I see someone that is playing do all kinds of silly movements with their wrists, shoulders and arms I am always reminded of the Ministry of Silly Walks. It looks funny and will not help you at all.
I cannot recommend the Alexander Technique too highly for helping improve piano playing performance. They have a wonderful website at http://alexandertechnique.com
ReplyDeleteI love the way you put the link between tension and relaxation. I can't agree with you more that teachers always say "RELAX!" ... Its something that was stressed to me with a few teachers I went through over the years. The ones I have now state "tension isn't a bad thing, its how you use it where we raise the question mark."
ReplyDeleteThe way you put it here is so easy to understand and so clear. I hope you post more posts of this nature.
Ahmed,
ReplyDeleteI'd say that you started quite well, but later you 'faltered'.
Excess movement while playing is no good, but what you advocated: bringing it to a necessary minimum, is no good in this activity, either.
According to expert in ergonomics, movement reduction is not always the most effective way of dealing with mechanical issues; besides, there have been whole national piano schools which teach more movement - in the most involved parts (wrist, fingers) - as a direct injury-preventive
measure, and they have been successful.
Also, you advocated making playing as 'natural' as possible. Note that over the course of the 20th century many authors advocated exactly that and almost everyone followed - but in the last two decades we learned that many have been affected by various playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (numbers vary between 50 to 78% - all of which are appalling). So, 'natural' playing, as easy and luring it sounds, is not the sufficient way. We still have to find it.
Sue,
ReplyDeleteAlexander Technique is a great thing, but please remember that it does not intervene in or alter the specific biomechanics of the piano-playing act, so, after all AT sessions in the world, when one returns to the same actions which caused the problems, the circle starts again.
Hello Paul,
ReplyDeleteI am by no means an expert on Alexander technique. I took a course on it when I was in school that lasted six months. Our instructor helped us apply many of the basic principles to our specific instrument. While AT doesn´t necessarily intervene in the specific mechanics of playing the instrument, the hightened awareness of our body that is the result of this method is very very useful.
My intention was not to advocate playing with the absolute minimum of movements in all cases. Only the minimum required to produce the effect we want in regards to tone and in the physical impulse behind our technique. This includes things like a natural bounce or a follow-through in some movements that helps aid in avoiding excessive tension.
The best way to play has not be found yet, but due to the education I received and my own experience, I feel that "natural" playing is a necessary starting point from which to start looking.
I am very interested in this subject, and would be very grateful if you could point me in the way of any resources about what you write in your comment.
Thanks for reading!
Hello, Ahmed,
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of AT, Feldenkreis, biofeedback, etc., I can only tell you that, since 1980s, many musicians heard of these and started applying their principles, but, according to doctors, the rate of disorders had decreased only insignificantly.
Besides, I read many times that musicians who applied various techniques became overly focused on their own bodies, to the noticeable detriment of music.
> ...Only the minimum required to produce the effect> is what I commented on - as not always the optimal way; ergonomics know a category called "load" which can be very high and yet, when done well, non-injurious - and this is what piano-teaching needs to realize and apply.
> The best way to play has not be found yet ..> You'll be surprised that is has not only been found, but practiced, for quite some time, and proven. (In any case, it's not my concoction.) Why doesn't piano pedagogy at large know about it? Cause it has not paid enough attention to the issue of playing-related disorders. In result, both the teachers who teach traditionally (to the known effect), and those who teach this 'other' way believe, basically, that everyone else teaches the same way they do...
Resources? None, at the moment; looks like I'll have to be the first one to describe it (and that may take some time, since I have had other plans; sorry).
Cheers
Dear Ahmed et al, I'm a teacher of piano and Dalcroze Eurhythmics at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, Canada. After a more or less conventional approach to piano study i.e. pratise more, work harder etc.,I began my real voyage of discovery as a student of the Alexander method, going on to study with Moshe Feldenkrais and becoming a Feldenkrais practitioner. These two complimentary approaches, both investigating the mystery of how we move and function do not, of course, teach us 'how' to play the piano or any other instrument. What they do brilliantly is to make us aware of the non-productive, even damaging ways in which we use ourselves. This awareness relates directly, and allows us to undo, those habitual tensions and inefficient physical coordinations which are the earmarks of faulty technique. I have had the pleasure of bringing many performers back from self-induced injuries to a happier relationship with their instrument. I might also suggest referring to the fascinating approach to piano playing of Peter Feuchtwanger. Or, simply watch Zimerman, Argerich or Sokoloff! A
ReplyDeleteDear Donald,
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail right in the head. If there is one thing I gained from Alexander technique was a higher awareness of what my body was doing and to have a better insight into what works and what does not in regards to how I use my body when I play.
I have to clarify that I seldom think about those things when I practice, unless there is something that is absolutely impossible at the moment for me to play or when for some reason I am recovering from an injury. I tend to "just play" and think more about the music I am playing instead of the movements I am doing.
I think that many pianists, take the wrong approach when studying Feldenkaris or Alexander technique. They become overly focused on their movements, to the detriment of the music they are playing. It should work the other way around. The self-awareness that we gain should allow us much more freedom in regards to how we use our body, it should feel "easier" to play in a sense. This gives us more freedom to actually focus on the music.
When I talk about extra unecessary movements, I am not talking about the everyday things people do with things like Russian school technique, because even if the extra movements are there, they actually help in many cases. I should clarify that I am talking about extreme cases, bizarre twists, flips of the wrist and raising of the shoulder that I see everyday when I take in new students that were self-taught or had a bad teacher.