Piano Playing And Swimming

can swimming affect piano (or guitar or any other instrument's) tehnique? i go to the pool twice a week and do aprox. 30-40 laps. it makes me feel excellent bot physically and psychically but i wonder if on the long term can this damage the finger's or wrist's flexibility and accuracy?

As far as Í'm concerned it's excellent. Swimming exercises virtually every muscle in the body, but in a way that stresses nothing out. I myself swim religiously when I am at home in PEI in the summer, and it always benefits my playing. I everything better... AFF

so it's safe. ok then. thank you very much for your advice. maybe i had a few doubts after the first sessions because i felt quite tired and this affected my whole body(including my arms). that's why i decided to post this question.

If you feel tired, remember not to push things at the piano but either rest completely or play gently and introspectively rather than full steam. Only play at full strength when you feel really rested... AFF

If you feel tired, remember not to push things at the piano but either rest completely or play gently and introspectively rather than full steam. Only play at full strength when you feel really rested... AFF I'd agree with this on the whole, but I think there can be exceptions to this. Strangely enough, I've sometimes found that I can do an excellent quality of practise straight after having lifted weights at the gym. When the muscles in the shoulders and upper arm were completely tired out, it actually provided a very interesting sensation of what's it's like to play without using those muscles in a very active role. They were too tired to do very much at all beyond slackening, but this actually seemed to be a source of benefit in the long run. I'm not exactly lifting 50kg dumbell, but I still find that I'm often pleasantly suprised at how well I find myself playing after a workout. Sometimes, I've even tended practise slow scales between sets, while using dumbells at home. However, the aches that come in the day after are much more harmful to practise. Still, even there I do wonder if there can be benefits. When various muscles are tired out, certain movements become far more uncomfortable than normal. Perverse as it may sound, I've often felt that this helps to identify problematic movements that will be counterproductive, but which would not normally result in pain. Obviously this is something to be extremely careful with, but I honestly suspect the warning signals of slight pain that I could only get in this state have helped me to make certain refinements. Perhaps above all, I've found that the more exaggerated discomfort associated with any undue clenching in the forearms, has made it far easier to loosen those muscles, compared to a normal state-where the clenching merely induces tension but minimal discomfort.. Obviously looking to grimace and 'play through the pain' of tender muscles would be very different to playing with the intent of eliminating any sensations of discomfort that should be felt. I'd never recommend that. However, if you can use the heightened feedback to eliminate the source of discomforts, through ultra-slow thoughful practise, I honestly think there could be a strange value. It's an interesting point about swimming. Despite the above, I have often had a very similar experience of finding that I play extremely poorly after swimming. There's absolutely no hint of pain or discomfort in such cases, but my coordination and agilty often seem to be notably hampered afterwards. Not always, but enough to notice that they seem to be related. This doesn't really worry me as a long term issue, but I certainly wouldn't risk swimming on the same day as a performance. EDIT sorry, just realised that I misread the last bit as "only play when at full strength", so I see that we may not necessarily be thinking in a notable different way after all.

long and interesting post...maybe these kind of concerns should be made by people like you and alan(which play at a pro level). it's far more probable that sport will afect your agility if your agility is at a high level. i barely play level 1 or 2 tunes and my concern is swimming but i was curious so i asked. i play piano rather for upgrading my guitar ear. talking about tehnique reminded me of a question i had in mind. it is about tehnique's growth and the tempo you use for practicing. as a teacher do you recommend certain tempos for each individual level? e.g. at a preliminary level you use 40....when you reach level 1.....you increase to 45 or 50.....and so on....i heard that for getting rid of the tension in your arms and back and building a good groove you have to play at very slow tempos for long periods of time. i also do this when practicing guitar etudes or songs. the thing i really want to know is if i should let speed come by itself(by practicing on at 40 bpm) or try to gradually increase the tempo? i try listening myself when practicing and i am aware that after a couple of months of practicing at 40 bpm my rhythm became pretty stable but there is room for improvement. it could sound silly but i am looking for perfection(or close to it). how much time can it take to obtain a perfect synchronization between the beats of the metronome and the values you are playing? is this possible? can you obtain that sync and increase the tempo afterwards? i had some problems a while ago because i was increasing the tempo too fast and studying pieces that were too difficult for me at that time. this led to tension in my wrists, arms, back and sweating and of course a poor execution(both guitar and piano). after playing at 40 bpm for a while things improved very much. the tension is now almost gone(rarely relapses for short periods of time) and things sound now more steady. that's why i am very interested if i should still keep things slow or try to build up some speed. i had read somewhere that you will never be able to play better than your ear is. how true is that?

Hi crazy, I've been doing sports all my life and I think it is beneficiary for anything you do including pianoplaying-especially swimming. A good streching program after every sportsession is highly recommended. In my own experience you have to be aware of that physical activity will cause temporary stiffness etc in your muscles so don't be surprised if your playing is really bad one day-it will pass. Hoffman, one of the greatest pianists in the 19th century was sceptical to building muscles he stated that muscels are unreliable and need warming up he has a point there it's important not to accumulate tension.If I recall rightly. As for tempi I beleive when learning a new peice you should work in parallell with slow and fast tempi. For example play a passage (like two or three mesures) with one hand in the tempo you would want to be the final tempo-even faster.It goes for pieces where the final tempo is very slow also. This will make you aware that your system works quite different at speed you need to be relaxed. Working to much with a slow tempo might be counterproductive and stiffen you up. A very common problem for all musiscians are that we start slowly and then go directly to fast speed. We are so eager to play that we forget about the tempi between very fast and very slow. This is cured quickly if you have to play with an orchestra you'll never do that mistake again. There are several reasons to work very slowly. First is to learn the rythm and to get the music into your system. Second it's a way of really listening to the sonoric interactions between chords the effects of pedaling, etc and how for example a singing tone vibrates together with others. Professional pianists work periodically very slowly on the same pieces their whole life over and over again.Just to improve the sonority and touch and that's something that always need improvement. Rachmaninoff for example practised some times so slowly that you couldn't identify what he was playing.That's a great exercise for memory as well. Speed is, and this is my very personal opinion, more in the brain than in the ear as you write. When you know a piece very well you'll be able to play it in your brain without touching the keybord-and that is a really good exercise for getting speed. I think trying to play without touching the keyboard is a good exercise for all levels. It's like a ballet dancer doing his coreografy mentally. Best regards Eric

Thanks Eric for putting into words many things I would have said too. I would only add a recommendation to read my chapters on working with the metronome in to delve deeper into this fascinating question of slow practice, playing at tempo, all the intermediate steps, and how speed is more a question of perception, evenness and absolute control of all musical elements - i.e. intelligent LISTENING - than of physical prowess. AFF