Technical evaluation... & my story

If I had enough money I would buy Steinway and rehire all the technical staff (if I could find them) and start making the best pianos again. Guess I'll have to sell a few more DVD's...

Alex I see a lot of yourself in me reading your post. For a start our mutual interest in Listz, although I'm just getting into knowing his more obscure works like the Harmonies Poetiques, which I didn't even knew existed. We should chat by email! I can also relate to the injury side of things as I'm currently in rehab for my own typing/piano related issues. Which came first, the chicken or computer? The above quote really stuck out for me, perhaps as I also have problems with 'tension'. The quote also made me wonder whether you carry tension elsewhere but am not aware of it? This is what its like for me. My current/new teacher tells me I play with too much tension. Apparently I fail to release adequately when dropping into the keybed and need to use more 'adjusting' movements with my arm/wrist to minimise tension. I also have a locked wrist. Go figure. To a point I intellectually understand this, but its taking time for my body to learn. Until I saw this teacher I didn't even know I held so much tension which has become habit. I've been with him 3 months now and its only now that I'm learning to 'feel' what its like to play with minimum tension to do the job. The word tension is bandied about in forums so easily and considering it's the main cause of pianists problems I'm surprised little discussions have surfaced about it in any depth. What does it mean to be tense? How do we recognise tension before we can minimise it? Does it necessarily mean experiencing pain? On technical matters I'm not qualified like Alan to comment so I can only offer my own observations based on my own experience to help. One thing that has helped minimise tension/injury is practicing systematically and SLOWLY, one hand at a time with a focus on a specific 'point of concentration'. For too long I thought learning a piece of music was about the notes, endlessly drilling a section until the pattern became habit. Once my 'point of conentration' shifted to exploring the range of best movement of the arm/wrist/hand to execute the passage with ease then things started to change. When practicing to some extent I question what's going on physically. Why am I experiencing pain when stretching between these two fingers. What 'adjusting' movements are required between my hand/arm/wrist to minimise and make that passage of notes easier to play. Does that section require a down and under movement with my wrist or an up and over movement to make it both easier to play and sound more (insert here). At this stage of my training/rehab its about being more mindful. It aint easy. It's meant finding a teacher with a good technique themselves and an ability and willingness to articulate there approach. I suggest talking to various teachers. Ask them about there approach. What do they teach. How and why? What do they know about pianist injuries and prevention techniques. That's what I did and its working out so far. Hope that sort of helps. Andrew

Very apposite question about tension - what is it and is it entirely bad? How to deal with it... A small advertisement: my next book, , delves into this in real depth. I have been struggling with this question for years, but from the opposite direction of most people. I have never had tension problems but overly loose problems - flaccid or limp hands. I have also watched as many tried to resolve tension by relaxing and ended up like me, flaccid and limp. I've been doing a lot to correct tension with an exact instead of relaxation. This creates a mindful hand instead of a dumb one... It's an extremely short and superficial explanation but gives you some idea of how you might approach the problem... AFF