Re: Tight Forearm-- is this normal?

[bernhard]

You have been given well-intentioned but completely misguided advice. When people tell you to relax they mean something completely different. If you relax completely you will fall from the piano bench!

It is quite the opposite: the muscles in the shoulders and arms are very powerful. The muscles in the forearms and hands (there are no muscles in the fingers) are small and weak. So you want to let the shoulders and arms do most of the heavy work (basically this means positioning the hands and fingers in their proper positions).

I will not say much more here because I find it very difficult to write about this in a way that would be truly helpful. This is best learnt by demonstration and hands on instruction by someone who knows about this stuff (and believe me pianists in general know nothing about this: just look at their postures). The people who can really help you in this area are: yoga instructors; martial arts instructors (especially Tai Chi), Alexander technique teachers, Feldenkrais teachers. You get the idea.

I suggest you read the following books that deal with applications of these body disciplines specifically to piano playing:

Alan Fraser - The craft of piano playing (Scarecrow Press) [Applications of Feldenkrais methods to piano playing]
https://alanfraser.faithweb.com/title.htm

Harold Taylor – The Pianist’s talent (Kahn & Averril) [Alexander Technique]

Catherine David – The Beauty of gesture (North Atlantic Books) [TaiChi and piano playing]

Thomas Fielden – The Science of pianoforte technique (MacMillan) [A whole chapter devoted to the fallacy of relaxation].

Best wishes,
Bernhard.