Forearm Tension In Piano Technique

I got an email question from a young pianist the other day that I thought would clarify some of the basic problems in piano technque. Here's the email followed by my response. "I'm a 17 year old pianist, and had never considered technique before I was recently attacked in that area by many teachers at a piano festival. I never realized the implications of technique (in terms of physiology and sound, not just hitting the right notes). In my current attempts to learn "technique," Ive ended up with your book which has been very helpful, but I have a question... 'As I play (even the beginning legato exercises, and the later octave exercises), I feel tension in my lower forearms just above the wrist. Im slightly confused as to whether this is good or bad-- it seems impossible to actually even move a finger without these muscles as they seem connected. The more "finger" I use hitting a note, the more forearm muscle I also use. At the same time, I recognize that excessive use of these muscles seems to have a "stoning" effect on the arm, and as youve mentioned could cause tendonitis. 'Is it a matter of simply relaxing the forearm muscles as much as possible although they are still very much used? Or should the fingers be able to operate on their own? Which would mean the forearm muscles are as relaxed as the rest of the arm? 'Some advice regarding this issue would be greatly appreciated if possible.

Dear Sean, Thanks for your apposite question: it is very relevant and well thought-out. I would say the EFFORT you feel in your forearms is good but the TENSION is not, IF we define 'effort' as leading to movement and 'tension' as leading to holding, non-movement, stiffness. I have experienced exactly this conundrum many times so I know exactly what you are talking about. For instance, in my film I say that the forearm should be "as soft as a baby's bottom," but when I activate my fingers I feel a good deal of activity in my forearm, and it is definitedly NOT as soft as a baby's bottom. Why then did I couch it in those terms? I felt the need to move people in that direction, away from an overly tense and dysfunctional type of effort. But yes, those muscles in the forearm definitely do work: they are the deep and superficial flexors that work the distal and medial phalanges of the fingers. So the answer to your question in the last paragraph is number one. You relax them as much as you can although they are still very much used. Furthermore, you will achieve this when you become more aware of the bones in your hand and fingers that those muscles are moving. Generally the tension arises when the bones are badly aligned. Discover your hand's arch structure, learn to stand in it with complete security and a complete absence of effort, and then gradually introduce more and more effort without abandoning the 'structurality' of your hand's skeleton. Thanks once again, AFF

Hi Alan, Thanks for sharing this question - it really helps because many of us experience similar issues. I personally struggled with a similar issue until I watched a certain part of the DVD again - I don't remember the exact chapter now. It is the part when you ask us to hold the hand in the air and quickly wiggle our fingers in the air as if playing a fast passage. There is a lot of tension in the forearm. Then you ask us to do the same while moving the hand forward and backward - magic!! tension is gone and it feels effortless. It takes some time to translate this feeling to the keyboard, but it did make me realize that even when the arm seems stationary and even though the fingers do most of the work, the arm is never frozen in place. Zack

Cool! A nice connection, now why didn't I think of that?! Thanks, AFF

Can I meddle in on this subject? Although I am just a newbie, but who knows - maybe my experience will help someone. Here's how I solved the problem of wrist tension. I used to be very frustrated, watched the dvd back and forth many times, and was still getting a lot of tension in the wrist and/or the forearms. Then I arrived at two simple points, and my technique began to blossom (in my baby repertoire, I'm still a newbie after all). Anyways, here they are: 1) Grasping motion? It should be directed towards the "centerpoint" where the wrist becomes the hand - the "root" of all fingers (just google "hand bones" in Google Images and you'll see where all the fingers "converge"). So, the grasping motion of one finger should not be directed even a little bit sideways or in any other modified trajectory, other than directly towards that centerpoint. When I began to think about (or "visualize", or imagine) that centerpoint in my mind when I played, the brain began to adjust the wrist angle before every note. Every note! It's a split second thing, but it helped me a lot. (You don't have to imagine the centerpoint all the time though - the brain will quickly automate.) 2) Still tension in the wrist? Put it higher. Relative to the elbow-metacarpal line. I know Alan tells you to do the opposite in the first chapter of the DVD (where he "forces" the girl's wrist to stay low), saying that the wrist should not take over the arch's job as the fulcrum for finger movement. But I suspect it's a mind trick for viewers to "feel" the arch. I found that, once you've ingrained that "arch" feeling in your hand, the metacarpal becomes the permanent folcrum for finger movement --- independently of the wrist. That being said, the most tension-free wrist position for me turned out to be the "straight line". The wrist's relative osition to the keys does not matter, it can be higher or lower, depending on how you sit - it's the wrist's position relative to the elbow-metacarpal straight line that turned out to be my remedy. I practice in random piano rooms all the time, with different bench heights. It used to affect me, but not anymore - I can play from either "elbow lower than the keys" or "elbow parallel to keys" now. (I haven't tried to play from "elbow way above the keys" like little Kissin used to do, or like Olga Kern does... but neither do I want to ) By the way, I am here talking about what the T-tapes sell as the "unity" of the arm. The first two points helped me a great deal on their own, but here are two additional hints: 3) Once the key is depressed (using your clever grapsing motion) and the sound was produced, there's no need to keep pushing. That's when total split-second relaxation and hovering occurs, while still keeping the key depressed---not with force, but with that "skeletality" that Alan talks about (i.e., the weight of body parts balanced on the single point of contact without muscular maintenance). So, for me, the big idea of skeletality pertains not to movement, but to that split-second static moment after the key has been depressed. The actual movement, in my opinion, is a matter of grasping and constant automatic adjustment of position. Thus, wrong movement, such as one without adjustment, I think also adds to wrist tension, and not just the wrong alignment of hand parts. 4) Finally, re-watch the "arms" chapter of the DVD. In my opinion, this chapter should have been placed way earlier. All of the above is not original, it's just something that I've been missing while watching the DVD, and then realized on my own. What would your comment be Alan?

My comment is: a huge WELCOME to the forum! You certainly know how to make a splashy entrance! I am delighted with your observations. Your description of your point 1 is brilliant, insightful and completely to the point. As for point 2, you are right that I only put her wrist low because of the problem of the moment. I never like to say, the wrist should be low, medium or high, but your reasons for having it where you are now putting it are again right on. Point 3: also HIGHLY right on, bravo for that perception! Point 4: would you care to elaborate on why the arms should have come earlier? I struggled a lot with the order and am open to new ideas about that. Once again, a huge thanks for your wonderfully apposite comments! Feel free to "meddle away" all you want... AFF

Thanks Alan. The arm chapter of the DVD. As I said, I had much frustration with the method, and so naturally I got fixated on the first few chapters, trying to figure out why there was so much trouble despite me understanding the arch, overholding, thumb standing, and all those things. All these tools seemed most fundamental due to them being in the very beginning, while other chapters seemed to be "the next step". So I was seeking for my own flaws in those specific areas of the first chapters, because I was sure that the flaw must be right there. Well, the actual flaw turned to be me not using the arms for movement. But I had to kinda give up on the first chapters before I made myself watch the rest of the movie again, and it was the arm chapter where I had an epiphany. I hope that explains it.

Very clear explanation! In that case, perhaps I wouldn't put the arm chapter sooner but I would put a BIG SIGN at the end of the "fingers" chapters: IF YOU STILL HAVE PROBLEMS, KEEP WATCHING. THE MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE IS UP NEXT. If we ever do another edition (would love to have one with about 5 more languages) that'll be in it! AFF