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Topic: Question about wrist tension in a Chopin etude  (Read 2280 times)

Offline wu262144

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Question about wrist tension in a Chopin etude
on: December 27, 2016, 04:24:10 PM
First post!

So I've been working on the Black Key Etude (10/5) for quite awhile now; played it for a jury just two weeks ago. I've discovered over the course of the last month that when I play it at tempo, my wrist tends to get very tense near the part where the RH has the high E flat (a couple measures before that). I can't really tell at what point my wrist starts to tense up, either; it appears to just get tender as the piece go on, and I start "feeling it" at the reprise.

As a sidenote, I can't currently ask my teacher about this because I'm on vacation and I need to do a recording of this before vacation is over for some competition or something.

Is there anything I can do to relieve this tension in my wrist? I've tried to naturally "flop" my wrist a little more but it's not working very well...

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Offline pianoplayer002

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Re: Question about wrist tension in a Chopin etude
Reply #1 on: December 27, 2016, 11:04:32 PM
If you are doing something that's generating tension in your wrist, trying to relax your wrist while still doing that thing is ineffective at best.

Some questions for you (I posted this in another thread as well):

Is your hand light or are you pressing down on your hand with your arm?

Is your elbow hanging loose like a pendulum made out of a small weight at the end of a string, or does it resist being moved around if you try to disturb it with your other hand while playing?

Are you holding your hand stretched out trying to reach the different intervals, or is it supple, soft and rubbery, and striving towards closing together again even at the wide intervals?

Are your shoulders relaxed or are you lifting them and/or pulling your shoulder blades back and down?

When you are practising slowly, are you able to remain completely loose in your arm while you hold down the key in question with the finger?
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