Advice for Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 1 to avoid injury

[pianoxtreme]

Hello, everyone! I am having some difficulties with Chopin's etude in C major and would like some tips on how to play it. Whenever I play it at full speed, my right hand starts to experience soreness and pain halfway through the piece, especially after practicing it a lot. I'm scared to keep on practicing it at full speed for fear of straining my wrist, but I have to play the etude for a competition in a month. Is this normal for this piece or is there a certain technique you can use to avoid pain?

[49410enrique]

Hello, everyone! I am having some difficulties with Chopin's etude in C major and would like some tips on how to play it. Whenever I play it at full speed, my right hand starts to experience soreness and pain halfway through the piece, especially after practicing it a lot. I'm scared to keep on practicing it at full speed for fear of straining my wrist, but I have to play the etude for a competition in a month. Is this normal for this piece or is there a certain technique you can use to avoid pain?

Tension. The tip is to relax. There's no way to play this well at anything close to a fast clip if you tense up. Loose. Full finger transfer one to the next all the way into the bottom of the keys.  I'm working on a study based on this and was having the same issue. I have since then taken the speed down until I'm certain I'm staying relaxed only then will I begin to ever so slowly increase tempo.

[nyiregyhazi]

Tension. The tip is to relax. There's no way to play this well at anything close to a fast clip if you tense up. Loose. Full finger transfer one to the next all the way into the bottom of the keys.  I'm working on a study based on this and was having the same issue. I have since then taken the speed down until I'm certain I'm staying relaxed only then will I begin to ever so slowly increase tempo.

No offence, but if it were quite so simple, every pianist there is would succeed in being relaxed. If "relax" means letting your fingers sag, intent to relax just causes tension to occur with little awareness and without any hope of control. The fingers need to work well to keep the knuckles elevated. Miss the right activities, and intent to relax is 100% futile. Personally, I aim to get every finger finishing at full length when practising this- otherwise my fingers will tend to over-relax and allow the knuckles to droop. While you should not be tense, it's certainly not as simple as aiming for generic relaxation and that happening.

[49410enrique]

No offence, but if it were quite so simple, every pianist there is would succeed in being relaxed. If "relax" means letting your fingers sag, intent to relax just causes tension to occur with little awareness and without any hope of control. The fingers need to work well to keep the knuckles elevated. Miss the right activities, and intent to relax is 100% futile. Personally, I aim to get every finger finishing at full length when practising this- otherwise my fingers will tend to over-relax and allow the knuckles to droop. While you should not be tense, it's certainly not as simple as aiming for generic relaxation and that happening.

so true and thanks a bunch the important clarification. i just assumed if the OP was playing something this 'advanced'/difficult they'd understand that relaxed does not mean limp. and any "tip" would not contradict sound technique, i.e hand shape and position and strong fingers and 'bridges' (are they called that? that what i call the little arch the fingers make over the first 2-3 joints).

it is super difficult to diagnose and 'fix' the myriad of problems that can be leading to the OP's problems, so in an effort to try and help i went general (since 'tip' seemed like a general request), but yeah i oversimplified and helped no one.


my bad.

[lloyd_cdb]

With pieces like this one, it's important to practice in 15-20 minute segments to allow your hand to relax again.  Regardless of the tension points mentioned earlier, you will still build tension over time with the style of the piece.  Don't hurt yourself from trying to learn it too quickly. With this and related styles of pieces, I'll play for 15 minutes and do 5 minutes of hand relaxation/stretching. 

[schubertiad]

Short bursts of concentrated practice are the key. When I was practising this etude I would alternate a few seconds of this with  Scriabin's nocturne for the left hand, meaning that each hand was being rested completely half the time. Over time, when the movements become more economical and comfortable you can extend these sections, but caution and full concentration are very important. So choose a piece or section of a piece which works the left hand, and alternate between the two.

[pianoxtreme]

Thanks for the advice, guys. When I play it, my wrist stays completely parallel to the keyboard and hardly every rotates or moves, i.e., my fingers are doing all of the work. I see how being tense would lead to this. I talked to some other people and they recommended the same thing

[nyiregyhazi]

so true and thanks a bunch the important clarification. i just assumed if the OP was playing something this 'advanced'/difficult they'd understand that relaxed does not mean limp. and any "tip" would not contradict sound technique, i.e hand shape and position and strong fingers and 'bridges' (are they called that? that what i call the little arch the fingers make over the first 2-3 joints).

it is super difficult to diagnose and 'fix' the myriad of problems that can be leading to the OP's problems, so in an effort to try and help i went general (since 'tip' seemed like a general request), but yeah i oversimplified and helped no one.


my bad.

Limpness is all relative. Even very advanced players fall foul of excessive relaxation after sounding keys- even if they don't necessarily go altogether limp. It's very easy to misunderstand the relaxation concept- even at very advanced levels. To be honest, I think it would be even more remarkable for someone at a high level not to already know that you're supposed to strive for "relaxation" in the comfort sense than for someone advanced to be suffering from over-relaxation of finger activities in a way that causes arm tensions. It's impossible to give advice without seeing the person's problems via video, or going into phenomenal detail about general technique.

[ajspiano]

Like N. said toward the end of his last post - it is practically impossible to answer in this context. Despite the flaws in understanding that the "relax" instruction gives it is just about the only thing reasonable here. I feel like any other more detailed version would lead to significant confusion and possibly be not even close to right for the OP.

The reality of the piece (and all others really) is that there is no trick, there's possibly 100's of tricks, but all that really means is that comfort and control requires excellent technique in all areas throughout. Here, any consistent unbalance in the RH will slowly build problems over the course of the piece and you need to increase your awareness of this at the beginning of the piece - before you start to notice it in your wrist/arm at the half way point - because it's probably there from the very first bar. Only the more challenging bars in the middle, and the ongoing arpeggio onslaught highlights the problem at that later point.

Perhaps I would say learn to connect with the keybed physically but without applying any downward pressure with the arm, the arm needs to be loose but controlled and placing your finger in an optimal position, which means it may move down but it doesn't press down or limply flop in to the keys with heavy weight. This is pretty damn difficult to describe without physically demonstrating it though. Practice playing individual keys, and transitions between keys very slowly and with acute awareness to the sensations of playing, even over movements as small as depressing the key a fraction of a mm.

If you know what the "overholding" exercise is the I suggest you explore it in depth and very slowly - and play Op 10/2 which will help your 4th and 5th fingers in 10/1. Even just a few slow runs should make an obvious difference to 10/1 if you have not studied the second etude at all. Also, play 10/3 with absolutely no pedal and meticulous attention to the phrasing and maintaining legato (specifically on ALL voices, not just the main melody) - this requires very precise control to avoid tense fingers and still bring out the melody line, significantly more challenging than playing that piece with the pedal to cover up the lack of legato that may be apparent in the middle voices.

[jayeckz]

A month for bringing op. 10 no. 1 up to speed is definitely challenging, but doable.

The problem with most students (I'm guilty of this until recently) is a lack of focus during practice.

Ask yourself questions such as:
What tempo do I want to ultimately play this piece in?
How do I want the piece to sound?
What can I do to develop the sound and tempo I want?
Is how I'm practicing effective?

These are just a few of many questions you should be asking yourself.

For me, there was a lot of experimentation; however, once I found what worked for me, I was able to go from missing many notes in 3/4 tempo with a terrible sound to playing the piece in tempo without any mistakes and a suitable sound.  Most importantly, the improvement happened within minutes of finding out what worked for me.

Although this is highly unlikely, if the only problem is strain (in other words you have achieved the sound, rhythm, tempo, etc. that you want and you can hit all the notes), make sure you are actively aware of any unwanted tension while you practice.  The second you sense any sort or tension, re-evaluate how to approach those measures so you can play the passage without strain.

[pianoplunker]

Hello, everyone! I am having some difficulties with Chopin's etude in C major and would like some tips on how to play it. Whenever I play it at full speed, my right hand starts to experience soreness and pain halfway through the piece, especially after practicing it a lot. I'm scared to keep on practicing it at full speed for fear of straining my wrist, but I have to play the etude for a competition in a month. Is this normal for this piece or is there a certain technique you can use to avoid pain?

Simple. Dont practice it at full speed.  Play it once, then break it down and practice a few notes at a time very slowly in certain sections and pay close attention to when your hand is in a tense position. Those little moments when your hand is tense  is what builds up to more tension as you keep trying to practice at full speed . Then you have to figure out if it is fingering or you are not using your arm or shoulder correctly.  Play it once. Then practice ...sloowly...   After all, you only get to play it once for the competition .  In any case, good luck

[pianist1976]

Thanks for the advice, guys. When I play it, my wrist stays completely parallel to the keyboard and hardly every rotates or moves, i.e., my fingers are doing all of the work. I see how being tense would lead to this. I talked to some other people and they recommended the same thing

Hi! Do you have a piano teacher? If you already have one, please, fire him before s/he will lead you to an ugly hand/wrist/arm or whatever injury. If you don't have a good teacher, maybe it's time to find a good one who teach you the basic technique.

Chopin's etudes are one of the undeniable heights in piano music and technique (if they could be separated). They require some special techniques and movements in order to be well played, and they must be musically understood. Playing them only with fingers (it is, without using wrist, arms and even back) is suicidal. But they are not random wrist movements, they must be, in my humble opinion, showed and corrected by a teacher who knows how to play Chopin Etudes.

In brief, I don't think it's a good idea self teaching to play something as heavily demanding as Chopin Etudes.

Just my personal opinion.