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Alfred Brendel, the Czech-born Austrian pianist, essayist and poet, died peacefully at age 94 on June 17, 2025, in London. Celebrated for his deeply intellectual interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Liszt, he reshaped classical performance with clarity, wit and literary flair. His legacy endures through recordings, writings and mentorship. Read more
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Topic: Wrist tension  (Read 1719 times)

Offline keyquest

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Wrist tension
on: July 16, 2016, 01:07:07 PM
Tension in the wrists can be a real problem for some pianists (often leading to that feeling akin to "writer's cramp"). But how do we alleviate it? Often it seems players are only aware of the tension once it becomes too late, and even then are unable to switch focus to the wrist or learn how to release the tension.

A big issue is that, as pedagogues and pianists we tend to focus on external solutions, but in my experience one of the real problems is developing the internal awareness of how we feel, and in a way that is ongoing when playing (i.e. when our focus is on the music rather than on our physical sensations). How can the mind-body connection to restored and strengthened in a way that will help us overcome technical problems?

This short article (follow link) includes simple instructions for a very easy exercise that takes a couple of minutes. I have used it successfully with several students and seen their playing quickly TRANSFORMED! Really remarkable - I hope that you find it useful.

https://pianodao.com/2016/07/16/piano-qigong-opening/

I would love to hear your experiences following on from this...
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