A pianist
Hi,
I am teaching here at our local music school and it has been interesting to chat with other teachers about these ideas on a coffee break. And especially this about Arm Weight cause I know that idea of "free fall" is quite common among teachers. When I presented this critic (read above) to some other teacher he said that in fact he is using idea of "free fall" to teach relaxed arm. This made me think that perhaps it's still possible to take some advantage of "free fall" if you don't take it 100%. From Tai Chi warm ups I find one very useful exercise: (when standing) rise and cross your hands on your chest and then let them drop freely. After few repeats of this exercise I have very relaxed hands and it's easier to let them swing from side to side when I turn my pelvis (another "turning a millstone" warm up exercise from Tai Chi).
So my question is that aren't we after this relaxation of our arms and shoulders when we play piano? the idea of having enough tonus in our hands and fingers to keep them potent and powerful. So maybe we could try these "free fall" exercises and same time try to find a minimal amount of tonus to keep arch structure? I don't mean that we try to play piano with free fall drops but these above exercises may still be worth trying to search relaxed arm with potent hands and fingers?
What do you think?
br,
P