How to physically relax while playing?

[virtuoso_735]

I think being tense is one of the biggest impediments to my advancement. I can never seem to relax my wrists, shoulders, etc. while playing, especially playing fast passages, such as the Presto con Fucuo of Chopin's ballade no.1. How can I overcome this?

[rc]

I like using the word 'ease' rather than relaxation...  The problem with trying to relax is that it's hard to say how far is too far - it can lead to being too lax.  'Ease' better captures what we're after - we're expending effort, but it's not hard.

So I just try to always achieve that feeling of ease, keeping an eye out for unnecessary tension, which is an indicator that I'm doing something wrong.  If you have a digital piano, try playing it silently with the power off, which makes it easier to focus on the physical sensations.

Also see if you might have to improve your posture at the piano.  Imbalanced posture is a sure way to introduce tension in your playing.  What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body is a good book.

Mental stress can also induce tension.  A forceful mentality (like forcing yourselves to play faster) tends to result in physical tension.  Instead try attaining accuracy and ease, the speed will come naturally once you've got that kind of confident control.

Another thought, sometimes we sabotage our efforts by overanalysing the physical motions.  We've already know how to do the physical technique, but for some reason we don't trust ourselves in playing it.  The conscious mind begins picking apart details like the motions of our wrists and winds up just interfering with the process, when it ought to be left to the subconscious mind.  A useful remedy for this is to focus your attention on the sound your producing, leaving the physical motions to the subconscious.  The more you improve the more you should trust your subconscious to handle the details.

[henrah]

A useful remedy for this is to focus your attention on the sound your producing, leaving the physical motions to the subconscious.

You have just solved my problem too RC, thanks! I've realised that sometimes when I play Rachmaninoff's 32/12 prelude, I think of my RH during the arpeggios and they come out uneven and tense. However, when I focus on the sound I want to produce, the motions are all accounted for and 'just happen'. It's a great feeling

[jeremyjchilds]

it can be possible to "fool" yourself into thinking you are relaxed, by mimicking actual signs of relaxation.

Stretch upper and lower body before playing
Breathe deeply a few times
Tense every muscle in your body for 10 seconds (A long time)
     -when you stop, your body will feel more relaxed.


Also make sure that your preparation leaves no real reason to feel nervous. It is easy to dismiss false fears when you are prepared, but actual fears due to a lack of preparation are disabling.

[dnephi]

Insta-relax tech.  Lift high--- strike very quickly and with force.  When you have reached the bottom of the key, relax.  When you are fully relaxed, repeat.  You can do this anywhere, all the time.  As time goes on, you can increase your speed in this.  Essentially, this:
1. Strengthens the fingers.  If anyone says you don't need strong fingers, they're lying or sadly just don't know better.
2. Allows you to always relax, keeping injuries away and providing you with velocity.

Dan

[danny elfboy]

Insta-relax tech.  Lift high--- strike very quickly and with force.  When you have reached the bottom of the key, relax.  When you are fully relaxed, repeat.  You can do this anywhere, all the time.  As time goes on, you can increase your speed in this.  Essentially, this:
1. Strengthens the fingers.  If anyone says you don't need strong fingers, they're lying or sadly just don't know better.
2. Allows you to always relax, keeping injuries away and providing you with velocity.

Dan

Fingers can't become strong by playing the piano (i.e. the piano is not a stimulus strong enough to stimulate muscle fibers growth ... talking about all the phalanges not just the three finger phalanges since there are no muscles there)

Strength in fingers is a perception due to contraction
When muscles are contracted fingers are "solid" and not "loose"
Otherwise physical relaxation depends on letting go of that contraction as soon as the fingers have hit the keys

And dnephi is right
Speed and control and tensioless playing depend on training your neuromuscular system to instaneous release after an insteanous contraction. The speed at which you can contract and release determine the speed at which you can play.

[dnephi]

Try shaking hands with someone who doesn't play or lift weights.  Your fingers will be much stronger.  I consider the Yang article (See the Ph.D. Dissertation thread in the Performance forum) a reliable source, considering its review by so many and its publication.  The other sources he sights agree with each other. 

Don't wish to be mean or contentious,

Dan

[counterpoint]

I think being tense is one of the biggest impediments to my advancement. I can never seem to relax my wrists, shoulders, etc. while playing, especially playing fast passages, such as the Presto con Fucuo of Chopin's ballade no.1. How can I overcome this?

As I understand you, you can not keep your wrists, shoulders etc. relaxed while playing. The cause might be fear of difficult passages and jumps. If you have the feeling of fear, the muscles of the body get tensed and the difficult passages get even more difficult. Therefore you should practise such passages very slowly (4 to 10 times slower as normal) and be aware of any tension, which will begin to build up. I'm not the person, who propagates complete tensionfree playing, because tension is sometimes needed to get a special expression. But if tension hinders you in playing difficult parts of a piece, you should try to remove or at least reduce it as much as you can.

[danny elfboy]

Try shaking hands with someone who doesn't play or lift weights.  Your fingers will be much stronger.  I consider the Yang article (See the Ph.D. Dissertation thread in the Performance forum) a reliable source, considering its review by so many and its publication.  The other sources he sights agree with each other. 

Don't wish to be mean or contentious

Well it's not that you have stronger fingers. It's just that you have a stronger grip (meaning stronger arm muscles. The problem is that those kind of muscles grow by injurying stimulus. Lifting weight creates tears in the muscle fibers and they will grow stronger by healing so as to not be injuried by that same stimulus the next time
Playing the piano is not a stimulus strong enough to cause that kind of tears and hence hypertrophy. I agree with you that the Yang article is reliable and very useful and weel written but he is just quoting someone in discussing "finger muscles growth" and it's not Yang to be partly wrong (at leasy about the piano being a stimulus of muscular hypertrophy) but the quoted author

[pianistimo]

do you think that sometimes the tension comes from what is being required of you?  if a person plays something slow and relatively easy - the muscular messages are easy to send neurally as fast as needed (contract/release) and the angles for which you are approaching and leaving a passage. 

now, with the chopin opus 10 #4 - i have a lot of tension in certain spots that i can't account for.  for instance, on page three - at the top - where it goes into a hanon like passage...you would think that would be the easiest thing in the whole etude.  but, what comes before and after it - make you think that you are suddenly doing a double flip and can't tell where the horizon is.  WHY is this so?  what is it about a sudden change of fingering pattern that KILLS a person.  i am ready to rip this piece to shreds sometimes.  or get another person to sit next to me and play that passage (when i get to it) two octaves higher.  what is wrong with my brain.  must i replace brain cells?  what causes a person to have to wait for a half of a minute before readjusting fingering.  i thought i learned this in hanon 20 years ago.  someone help me.  cmg mentioned arm weight for accents.  i am going to try this on the passage there -and just use fast fingers.

this is at top speed- just in case someone is wondering why i seem so helpless.  btw, also i can play some of the difficult passages for other people - without any problem now.  i think what helped is memorizing it more - and also looking at the angles at which my hands come in and out of the black keys.  and, to always tell myself in my head 'relax, relax, relax.'  i think exercise helps me know how it feels to be totally relaxed.  and, how muscles feel when they are enjoying the exercise or getting tired.  i try to quit before i hurt myself.  that is a consistent thing.  i stop and then go back to it later.  sometimes it might only be a 20 minute break.  other times a couple of hours.

[rc]

Henrah:  I'm glad it's helped you!    It's something I have to remind myself of from time to time, I slip back into mechanistic thinking when I shouldn't.  But it really IS a magical feeling!

I've played with pushing that idea to extremes, like focusing on the sound before even I feel my fingering is solid, and I've sometimes been surprised at the results.  I begin to wonder how much mechanistic drilling we can avoid with such mind tricks...  Lately when I've been drilling a passage, it's occurred to me that what I'm really doing is proving to myself I can consistantly achieve it - confidence.  Then I began to practice with the intent of playing something with confidence, and found with the right focus I could play with confidence right away.  Then to dig even deeper, I start to think that what I'm actually focusing on is the right... focus.

 

hahahah, the mind is an interesting thing.

[danny elfboy]

I'm not the person, who propagates complete tensionfree playing, because tension is sometimes needed to get a special expression.

No. Only contraction is needed
Tension (which refers to something long term and chronic) is never needed for anything

[counterpoint]

No. Only contraction is needed
Tension (which refers to something long term and chronic) is never needed for anything

How do you define the difference between contraction and tension?

If your body is in a relaxed and comfortable state, you're not able to express extreme pain or anger or aggression or tragedy or hysteria. That's impossible.

[danny elfboy]

How do you define the difference between contraction and tension?

If your body is in a relaxed and comfortable state, you're not able to express extreme pain or anger or aggression or tragedy or hysteria. That's impossible.

The difference between contraction is that contraction is momentary and tension is chronic
Tension makes playing impossible or make it possible at the expense of the body and its muscles, tendons and ligaments. Physical interpretation has not much to do with tension and besides a great pianist like Rubinstein was able to express all of that and even more without never abandoning a comfortable and perfectly relaxed body alignment
The aspect of interpretation you talking abou (mainly dynamics and volume) are all dependent on efficient contraction and release not on a chronic state of tension

Contraction (which is what created the difference in dynamic, volume and expression) requires a relaxed muscular state indeed. Physical relaxation has nothing to do with mental relaxation or distraction. The muscular relaxed state (hence ready to contract at comand) is the most focused and concentrated state ever

Tension develops when the muscles are being used to support a lost bone alignment and it's a compensatory malign body mechanism with little has to do with emotional conditions and strength ... just with unreversible painful injury

[zheer]

If your body is in a relaxed and comfortable state, you're not able to express extreme pain or anger or aggression or tragedy or hysteria. That's impossible.

  An actors body is his instrument they express pain ,anger, aggression ,tragedy through their body, Pianists express emotion through sound,hence the piano is our instrument. Infact even actors have to learn how avoid tension in their body.