Relaxation in Wide Arps

[steve jones]

Just started looking at Chopin's Op9 No1 Nocturne. But this has really highlighted by discomfort with wide spaced broken chords in the LH. I feel I can the motion fine, but my hand and arm feel tense. Another example would be the LH in 25/2 - not especially wide, but for some reason I become tense and this causes my hand to fatigue quickly.

Not sure what this is about, as Im playing special attention to use wrist motion rather than reaching for any notes (cartwheel technique). When I see vids of people playing these type of accompaniments, they seem to be totally relaxed, so Im not sure where Im going wrong.

Anyone know of any good pieces / exercises that might help me develop this technique? Previously Iv not worked on much romantic music (only a few easy preludes), so Iv not had to deal with this to date.

Cheers,

SJ

[nyquist]

Just started looking at Chopin's Op9 No1 Nocturne. But this has really highlighted by discomfort with wide spaced broken chords in the LH. I feel I can the motion fine, but my hand and arm feel tense. Another example would be the LH in 25/2 - not especially wide, but for some reason I become tense and this causes my hand to fatigue quickly.

Not sure what this is about, as Im playing special attention to use wrist motion rather than reaching for any notes (cartwheel technique). When I see vids of people playing these type of accompaniments, they seem to be totally relaxed, so Im not sure where Im going wrong.

Anyone know of any good pieces / exercises that might help me develop this technique? Previously Iv not worked on much romantic music (only a few easy preludes), so Iv not had to deal with this to date.

Cheers,

SJ

As an experiment try "passive abduction".  Say you have played G with 4 (left hand), and now you need to play the next highest C with 2. Start by playing G with a relaxed hand: fingers more or less hanging together.  Now, create the stretch between 2 and 4 by leaving 2 on G and moving the hand and forearm to the right until 2 is over C-at the same time you raising 2 from the knuckle joing and doing a bit of rotation to the left.  (Do not actively move the fingers apart by using the muscles of the hand (interossei?).)  Now play C and loose the stretch by dropping 2 from the knuckle and unwinding the rotation and letting the rest of the hand join 2.  (I think of a slinky.)  You can generalize this approach to wide arpeggio playing.  Total hand relaxation with no active (hand-maintained) stretches over each note might not be practical in fast playing,  but I find it useful in slow practice to get the general feeling.

nyquist