Relationship between speed and muscle relaxation?

[m1469]

I just got consciously curious about the relationship between the speed at which we are playing/practicing and one's level of muscle tension/relaxation.  I found a few questions came to mind:

1.  Do you think that there is a direct relationship in general (for everybody) between the speed at which we are playing and the muscle's actual ability to be relaxed and supple?

2.  Do you think it's individual?  As in different people are most relaxed at different speeds?

3.  Do you think it depends only upon the musical text?

I got curious about this because I notice a distinct difference in how my muscles feel at higher speeds vs., especially, in middle speeds - sometimes my muscles seem to struggle quite a bit in middle speeds.  And, in trying to better pinpoint what it seems to be rooted in, it seems that at higher speeds there is a kind of musical, muscular rhythm (it is something like a dance) which is easier to feel, and therefore something which can be relaxed into, vs. slower speeds.  I don't feel that same hyper-muscular dance activity in slower speeds (I don't know how to explain it, exactly).  In actually slow music, andante-adagio, I have time to think through things in a different way, I guess, but in middle speeds it's not engaging the muscles nor the mind in quite the same way. Yes, there are passages which can create more tension than others if I am not paying attention to what I'm doing, but I start to wonder if my (or a person's) muscles (can) just function better/differently at higher speeds?  Or is that similar to drunk people thinking they drive better when they're drunk?

[phil821]

I think about this sometimes too and I think in general there is semi-direct relationship between the two for lack of a better word. I say semi because although relaxed is probably the most important thing, there are other factors such as how good your muscles actually are in the first place. Remember that playing relaxed doesn't mean not using any muscles, it just simply means only using the muscles intended for the job. In other words if you don't take care of yourself physically  but still maintain an incredibly healthy technique your body probably won't be able to perform to it's full potential.

2) Some people are born probably healthier (or at least born with stronger/healthier muscles than others) but I still truly think the same potential can be met by anyone regardless as long as your heads in the right place.

3) musical context is important but I still think most of it is just how we use our muscles. S

[ted]

It is probably the physical aspect of what you were talking about here:

I think that in the relative perception, much more complex matters may be occurring when there seems a kind of simplicity in the midst of it.   I think this is when, perhaps, a person may be playing faster and more notes, etc., than it might seem in the time.

Lately, aside from the perception of relativity (and currently I believe relativity is only a perception, humanly scientifically supported, but a perception all the same), I become aware ever so slightly of different form of time, which involves everything existing all together, at once, in a kind of complete way.  It seems a good word for it is 'absolute' time and, it is connected to music being actually breathing, and actually alive.  I just started in a more conscious way with this, but my theory is that should there be a direct connection with this absolute time, music will be a living experience for all individuals involved, and that it would be my goal to do this.

Time in music is a multi-faceted, subjective thing, is it not ? There is the speed of physical movement, there is the rate at which musical ideas occur, and there is the perceived velocity at which a heard stream of sound is progressing. Moreover, these things are not entirely independent parameters but are related in a rather complicated way, especially at the extremes. In Chopin 25/1, for instance, the first two aspects are very rapid, but we perceive the overall musical progression to be quite slow because the waves of melody are slow. In one of the faster Bach fugues, on the other hand, the physical speed is actually slow by comparison, while the musical  and perceived velocities are very high.

In ragtime, it is the reason the composers stipulated the need to limit speed. At very high speeds, ragtime completely loses the character of its rhythm, with syncopated effects being absorbed into an ongoing, vaguely rough stream of notes.

The philosophical implication of your paragraph above, the notion of perceiving a piece of music, or indeed life itself, any dynamic entity, as a compact manifold, was a favourite idea of J.B. Priestley, and more recently Douglas Hofstadter, funnily enough an avid fan of Chopin and Bach, has resurrected it in his brilliant dissertation on consciousness, "I am a Strange Loop".

Although I understand the idea easily enough, I think for me music will always be intrinsically along the time line, that is to say thoroughly dynamic and not static, organic and not architectural. That might be why improvisation seems made for me while I have trouble composing and appreciating much formal music.

[jmanpno]

There should be nothing to relax from.  Coordinate, coordinate, coordinate!

[nyiregyhazi]

All of this comes down to the most basic technique of finding efficient balance at the keybed, I suspect. Practising Schubert 'sA major sonata (the smaller one) at the moment, I am finding countless places where I have to pay attention to balance- otherwise a very slight stiffness creeps into my left hand in the first movement. It's an old habit of wanting to press slightly from the arm and the hand stiffening against this pressure. I have to pay very close attention to the basic balance- frequently stopping completely and reminding myself of the finger activity that balances securely but easily, and allowing the unnecessary efforts to let go.

When you play a faster piece, the finger simply plays the key and releases all in one action. When you have to hold the keys down, there's the matter of whether the most basic balance at the keybed is done efficiently. Just the slightest differences in how you activate the finger can start to bring in a sense of accumulative sluggishness.