Questions About Forearm Fatigue While Playing Fast Pieces!

[jjmunoz]

Hey, guys!

My name's JJ and I'm excited to have made an account to post on this forum.
I've been playing piano for about 1 year 8 months, but I've only recently acquired my own
piano that I'm able to play on every day. I was only able to play maybe 2-3 days a week up
until last month due to my hectic work schedule, but I've been practicing almost every day since then and am seeing results!
I've been self taught and have only had one book to learn from, "How to Play Piano", by Roger Evans.
I learned some music by Philip Glass last year but am more recently becoming MUCH more interested in classical primarily by Chopin.
In the last few months I've learned Chopin's Op. 9 No. 2, and I'm a little over halfway through learning his Polonaise Op. 53.

However, I'm having trouble with what I believe to be my technique while learning to play Chopin's Op. 10 no 12 Revolutionary Etude properly. I've included a video for reference at the bottom of the page. I memorized the notes as of January and the speed and accuracy have been coming along, but my left forearm becomes very fatigued at about 1:25, and 3:00. Initially, I went back and relearned proper fingering for the song, and that helped a bit but during the chorus portion, my arm still becomes pumped. I've read on other topics on here that this may be due to not being relaxed, or not using the arms to assist in the pressing of the keys and only using fingers, elbows being above the keyboard, but I'm not sure if this is exactly what I'm doing wrong.

A couple notes:
- We have a piano upstairs; a Wurlitzer and the keys are very light on it. I was initially learning on this piano. I become fatigued less easily by playing on this piano, and also seem to have greater accuracy in just about all areas. Ive almost played through the whole song with minimal mistakes and much less fatigue at the end.
- I used to turn my hands to hit notes, but a personal friend who is VERY good at piano suggested I keep my hands straight when hitting notes for more accuracy and to be less prone to injury? So I'm making a point of relearning all fingering in the songs I've learned in order to keep the hands straight. This results in my hands becoming more rigid at times, though.

There seem to be tons of enlightened pianists on here and I would greatly appreciate any advice you may be able to give me! I don't think I'm doing too bad for the limited amount of practice and experience I've had, but it stinks not being able to play at 100% with my forearm being so tired.   I want to get really good!  

Thank you!

JJ

I tried to stay off the sustain so you could hear it better in the video and it's full of mistakes, but please be honest and let me know what I can do to improve!

[nyiregyhazi]

Sorry to be blunt- as your enthusiasm is admirable. However, you're really not doing yourself any good by attempting that kind of repertoire. You might end up hurting yourself if you carry on. You need to learn some easy pieces to a high and consistent standard without the arm pressing through the hand. It needs to simply hang back from the fingers, in release. However, there are more issues than I could really list in a short post. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but there's no quick fix that will have you playing advanced repertoire just yet.

In essence, it's better to do easy things well than hard things badly. I'm impressed that you're doing as well as you are in many respects- but it isn't going to do you any good if you're serious about long-term progress.There are many issues that you need to work on by building up through easier pieces and playing them to an effortless high standard- not an strained and approximate one. I'm going to be uploading some videos to illustrate how to do the most basic hand actions without impact on my blog soon but there a number of more general issues that you may find to be of interest in my previous posts, for now.

[keyboardclass]

There's no point playing with all those hiccups - cut the speed at least in half i.e. play it perfectly then maybe post a video.

[jjmunoz]

Thank you, both! Do you have any suggestions of pieces that I would be able to learn that would give me better coordination to play things like this?

[jaggens]

Hi JJ,

As others also said the fact that you have such enthusiasm and development in so short period is great and shows your natural talent.

I think you should go over all the technical basis, if you have had it at all.

The more I learn and play the piano the more I see, that there is a certain way to play, that really does work and gives an opportunity to express yourself.

Generally - all the body parts, especially hand parts have to work independently, at the same time confluently and in cooperation. When this happens, all the energy is directed through fingers into piano to create music and motion is relaxed and enjoyable.

There are so many details that I would suggest you.
Maybe it is easier to give you a link to my free online piano course.
All the basics is explained and shown and aquired by doing practical exercises under my guidance.

Link to the course:
https://playingpianoblog.com/learn-to-play-the-piano/

GL
Jaak Sikk

[jjmunoz]

Thanks, Jakk! I checked out your site and read some of the things you have on there and I'll be subscribing soon!