10 years ago by
A Pianist
I have an interesting thing to tell you about me.I used to think that maybe i should not rely so much on the forearm muscles (extensors and flexors) and that i should use more of the lumbricals and interosseus.I went into an extreme case of contracting my interroseus in the palm in order to feel that fingers start on the wrist (it is a wonderful feeling by the way to feel the whole finger starting not from the metacarpal but below).
Next i went into the following state of madness,i wanted to completely eliminate upperarm contractions by doing strong thumb stands.I virtually had my thumb carry the whole weight of my arms and for the first time in my life my elbow was like macaroni,free from any contractions,while the strong thumb muscle was fully contracted but not tense.
My next experiment was to take advantage of the rebound of the keys.Now this requires lots of concentration to do it right.Unfortunately i do not have the wisdom to understand in what places i should use each technique so i ended up studying whole passages with different techniques.
However i think that mr Fraser helped me understand something about myself.In modern society most of us do not really understand the sense "myself" and the fact that maybe there is no seperation of body and soul.
Do this,really try to relax and concentrate,empty yourself from any thoughts (some yoga may help),now if you close your eyes and concentrate on specific areas of your body then you can start checking the status of your whole body.
If you do it right you will see that your muscles will become a little tense and will start contracting by themselves.I concentrated on the head for start,then on shoulder area then on my uparm then forearm and palm,i checked my fingertips and i could literaly feel my blood pulse.Then again in the the other hand,experimented to move the wave from one muscle to other.It was a wonderful feeling to do.I think now i understand what mr Fraser means when he says that we are not aware of the status of ourselves.
Now when i got back to piano i was devastated.For the first time i could really feel what i was doing wrong.I was not feeling my bones nor my muscles.Static and chronic contractions of muscles made me lose sensitivity.I tried to literaly feel my bones despite the muscle contractions.I tried to remember the feeling of those waves that were in my muscles when i was relaxed and inspecting my body.
I noticed then that muscular activity started to decrease but different kind of muscular contractions were happening.I think that the best thing someone can learn is to learn to play with the bones.Now many will say "bones cannot move without help from the muscles".Yes it is true,but i think the more we think about skeletality the less we have to use our muscles.Muscles cannot move the keys,muscles can only contract or relax,or contract more if needed.
I think that in piano works we can't say use this muscle set or this.Different passages may require different functions.
Do you have some specific piano work in mind?
UPDATE:I think that muscles in our hand can respond to us whenever we want.After doing this exercises that i told you (really the sensation of feeling the muscle sending a kind of wave and a mini contraction alone is great),i found out that whenever i want i can query the status of my forearm muscles,as long as i can in a way feel the contractions that are happening there (those small "bumps" you will certainly notice on your forearm area),then there is a never ending flowing of energy from your hands.
Sadly i think most people are not used to really feel themselves.Usually the muscles will either be contracted or not or extra contracted (eg if your muscles are stiff you can further stiffen them and they will do that however pain is the result of contracting an already contracted muscle).
These feelings have not happened from day 0 to day 1.After reading Mr Fraser's book i have to say i spent a lot of time literaly trying to feel my self.It is great.
As long as you can keep watching the status of your muscles in the forearm then you will never feel fatigue.I don't know maybe that monitoring prevents injuries by activating more the antagonistic set of muscles that release tension (i know that forearm muscles extensors and flexors are antagonistic sets).
Also if you decrease muscle activity you will start to think more of the bones.
My advice is to try to think a kind of wave coming from the forearm muscles.It is great!Whenever you press,curl or curve your fingers try to think and internally feel which muscle does that job.Try to think it as a muscle level gauge,there are contractions that are very small,large or even larger.Try to achieve as many levels as possible.It is not only an on/off switch.Try to think and feel the connection of the bone to the muscle.
Try to integrate that internal feeling always.It will make you feel strange at first but then it will change you forever.
I feel so great after my recent discoveries.
The reason i feel strange is that many proffesors are not ready to accept someone who is thinking like that.The only advice i got from a proffesor recently after visiting him and asking him how to play the double notes of feux follets what he said was to study slowly forte with rythmic variations."And if you study it for many many many times you will solve it".
He is great man and concert artist and proffesor but sadly does not have awareness of what he is doing.He is playing the feux follets superb but he fails to tell his students how to do the same.
Best regards
