Ching Yun Hu & Upper Arm Function

Hi Everyone I'd be very interested in hearing peoples opinions on Ching's technique which seems flawless. Well to me anyway. If the link doesn't work (as I'm not overly technically savy go to youtube and type in 'Ching-Yun Hu Plays Scriabin Etude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 42'. I'm especially interested in this clip as unike most other clips, we can visibily see her back/arm/hand function due to the dress she is wearing. As I've put on another post I'm retraining with a teacher to correct my technique as I'm experiencing pain in my upper back and obviously turning on muscles I shouldn't be. With this in mind I'd also be interested in hearing peoples thoughts on the role of the upper arm muscles in good technique. My teacher keeps talking about getting me to use these muscles which are important in acting as a sort of steering mechanism. To be honest I've had a couple of practice sessions where I've managed to feel and use these muscles which have helped alot. I was working on one passage of the Chopin Scherzo No 2 Op 31 and they really kicked in! Some days my arm can feel too heavy and 'locked' and I start to activate other muscles I shouldn't be. Your thoughts... Andrew

Hi Everyone I'd be very interested in hearing peoples opinions on Ching's technique which seems flawless. Well to me anyway. If the link doesn't work (as I'm not overly technically savy go to youtube and type in 'Ching-Yun Hu Plays Scriabin Etude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 42'. I'm especially interested in this clip as unike most other clips, we can visibily see her back/arm/hand function due to the dress she is wearing. As I've put on another post I'm retraining with a teacher to correct my technique as I'm experiencing pain in my upper back and obviously turning on muscles I shouldn't be. With this in mind I'd also be interested in hearing peoples thoughts on the role of the upper arm muscles in good technique. My teacher keeps talking about getting me to use these muscles which are important in acting as a sort of steering mechanism. To be honest I've had a couple of practice sessions where I've managed to feel and use these muscles which have helped alot. I was working on one passage of the Chopin Scherzo No 2 Op 31 and they really kicked in! Some days my arm can feel too heavy and 'locked' and I start to activate other muscles I shouldn't be. Your thoughts... Andrew It's a good performance, but I certainly wouldn't call the technique flawless. I'm not sure if the way the shoulders tend to rise up and the way her torso and neck crouches forwards is particularly healthy, in the long term. It reduces the stability of support and puts strain on the spine. With regards to the upper body, I wouldn't say that there's no benefit to thinking about what goes on up there. However, from my own experience, nothing anyone ever told me about relaxing the upper body or using it differently served any purpose. When I learned a more stable hand, that can properly support the arms at the piano, the upper body issues just vanished without any real thought or effort. Unless you have a mechanism that makes it physically possible to relax muscles, it doesn't matter whether you know how to relax them or whether you intend to. I'm not saying this would be the case for everyone, but I'd certainly look to the stability of your hand. I realise now that upper body tensions were a symptom of a problem that need to be fixed elsewhere. If you stood on one leg all day, you'd probably experience tension and discomfort in various muscles around your hips and back etc. However, to attempt to relax them would be futile. The problem would be the fact that you'd been trying to balance on one leg all day- forcing those muscles to bear a workload that they are not designed to bear. The solution would obviously be to put you other leg back on the ground and release the burden they are forced to bear. Similarly, I wouldn't necessarily assume that it's the upper body that you need to focus on, just because that's where you feel tension. The real problem may be elsewhere.

Cziffra You have a point after a second view. I didn't really notice this the first time however it makes me wonder whether she will get problems if her technique is working for her now. With regard to the upper body because I am having problems there its hard not to think and focus on it! But I've had a couple of practice sessions focusing more on coordinating hand moments which has helped. I've come to realise that I hold a lot of tension in my arm but I don't know why. I know I do as I've had a few practice sessions where I've felt complete release and ease. I run into problems when trying to capture the same feeling at subsequent sessions. One thing that has helped however is that I'm having some Alexander technique classes with a qualified therapist who also is a musician. I've started practicing sitting on a sit ball to assist with minimising holding tension in my upper back and shoulders which is helping. However I did notice some tension creaping into my pec muscles on the front of the body which isn't there on the left so go figure. As you say, the problem may be elsewhere but working out where is the issue. For now I'm focusing on slow practice, hands separately, trying to coordinate hand movments to support my arm and play without tension. Andrew

First of all, her sound is nothing to write home about. Very boxy, very little orchestration, hardly any colour. And you see that this is because a lack of integrity in her hand structure. Everything she does is done in the context of trying to survive, not in the context of mastery. Even the phrasing grows out of a surface manipulation of the meter rather than a deep sense of the underlying breath and emotion. It's the semblance of bravado without the substance. Her hand is TRYING to stand up instead of just standing up. There's a struggle there which may not be that obvious visibly but which certainly shows in the sound. So I don't even think about her upper body, I see the problems she has there as stemming from what's lower down in the hand. I write about this all over my book, can't really remember where but there's something about frozen shoulder deriving from hidden problems in the hand somewhere in the middle for instance... Hope I am not being too cruel! AFF