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I recently signed on 3 sibling students and they all do these amazingly beautiful and graceful hand lifts after phrases or rests. It looks really nice but I am noticing it affects their timing. They have been practicing this way for years. (Learning under their grandmother) Has anyone run into this? I personally have not taught this technique of playing at all. It looks nice but I don't think it should be interfering with timing....

I have this going on with a new student as well. Just yesterday I started a thread "too much expression" in this forum where I was trying to describe this. You did a better job here. My plan is to see what happens with this student as we start new pieces, will he automatically lift his hands or did he do it because he was instructed to before?
In my student, it does not appear to be a natural gesture, looks exagerated and forced, and does interfere with the timing.

Be careful. The performer is allowed as long a break between phrases as they can pull off.