I had my first lesson with an adult beginner today. He has actually had a few lessons in the past with another teacher, so he has a little experience, but he is still very much a beginner. Anyway, his biggest obstacle right now is tension - he plays with his wrists extremely low and his entire hand is so tense, it's actually a little grotesque (to an observing pianist). He brought this up at the lesson when I asked him about his previous experience, and he said that this was always something his previous teacher was trying to correct. So here's what we did today...

We spent a lot of time just playing one note, beginning from a limp hand position in the air, coming down, the wrist acting as a "shock absorber" when the finger hits the key, and then imagining a string pulling up the wrist when rising from the key

I tried to get him to use his wrist more (I do not like telling my students to "use" their wrist, because this implies something active, which causes them to tense up, so I tell them that the wrist should move, but more in a passive manner) by playing 54321 (LH) and 12345 (RH), with the playing finger always lined up with the center of the wrist

We did an exercise, not on the keys, where he would press one finger down, while keeping the other fingers relaxed. I tried to demonstrate this by showing that if I played with my third finger alone, it was strong enough that I could not push it down, while the other fingers were relaxed enough that I could just flick them and they would move

I took his arm and told him to completely relax so I, and not he, was the one holding his arm up, and then I threw his arm on the piano so that he could understand that you can make sound while being completely relaxed

So I feel like I've exhausted most teaching relaxation techniques already, while he only seemed to be comprehending a tiny bit of it. It did already look as if there was some improvement, but I could have just been kidding myself. Does anyone have any suggestions for teaching technique? Am I trying to go too in depth too soon?

Also, just wondering what people think of this - it seems to me that adult beginners have much more tension when they start out compared to child beginners.... Agree? Disagree?

Thank you all so much for your input! (And for reading my extremely long post! )

Keep up the good work! It's up to him to take it further. He may take a few weeks or a few years but it is he who needs to allow himself to relax. You can't do that for him. All I would add is to ask him 'freeze' at any giving moment and then ask does he feel comfortable holding that position?

I don't agree with this approach. This
relaxation approach apparently stems from
watching top concert pianists in action.
All of their movements seem totally
relaxed and effortless, but this is the
result of a mammoth amount of the right
kind of strength, developed from untold
hours of hard work. Therefore, to conclude
from watching them that the right way
to play is to simply relax, is just plain
wrong, in my opinion. Moreover, to try to
copy their "relaxed" movements is meaningless,
because the average player does not have
the kind of strength that they have, which
is what allows them to play so "relaxed."

Therefore, with this particular student,
not only is the basic approach wrong,
in my view, but this "tense" way of playing
may be what is natural for him due to
various physical factors, and is the only
way he can play. To try to change this
would be like trying to pound a square
peg into a round hole--not possible.
So in my opinion this is not a problem
and you should not try to correct what
is apparently natural for the student and the
only way he can play the piano. If you observe
various concert pianists, you see a
variety of playing styles: Van Cliburn
did much of his playing with his wrists
below the keys; Gould and Backhaus played
with the keyboard at chest-level;
Horowitz played with his little finger
curled up; some top Russian pianists
play with an awkward-looking, "stiff,"
arched hand position that could be
described as "grotesque"; etc.

I agree that there are different ways to be trained in technique, and each person has his or her personal preferences on seating height and hand position, etc., but you have to admit that there are some technical approaches that are plain wrong. Namely tension. I used to play with a ton of tension myself, up until about a year ago, when my teacher started using these exercises on me. I actually got tendonitis from practicing the Prokofiev Toccata, because I was trying to get it up to tempo with all of that tension, and I had to stop playing the piano for a few weeks. Then my teacher started getting rid of my tension, and I got the Toccata up to speed in a matter of two weeks, and after performing it, she asked me how I felt physically, and I realized only then that I wasn't tired AT ALL after performing the piece, while before I couldn't even get through the piece halfway without stopping from physical fatigue. I think that's proof that tension must be released.

With this student, the second or middle knuckle on the finger is the highest point, and then the entire hand just slopes straight down from there (just after writing that I realized that I need to emphasize a strong bridge more). This puts his wrists a good 3-4 inches below the keyboard...As for the Cliburn reference, you're right in that his wrists tended to be low much of the time and dealt with it fine, but compared to this student, Cliburn's wrists might as well be in the air above the keyboard. Trust me, it's not good, and it will result in injury very easily one day, which is why I'm trying to correct it now.

But thank you for your input!

I still don't see the problem here. If
he's playing like this, it may be the only
way that he can play due to various
physical or even psychological factors.
When a player plays like this, it is, in fact,
so that he doesn't injure himself. Trying
to force him to play in a way that is
unnatural for him is what will cause
injury. What happens to work for you--
and apparently only in the context of
a single piece, and only after you
first worked it up "tense"--is not going
to work for him unless his anatomy and
psychology is identical to yours, which is
a near impossibility. This looks less
like a case of a student with a problem
and more of a my way or the highway type
of attitude with the teacher.

I wouldn't say it's universally so, but I have certainly come across more tension in adult beginners than in child beginners. To me the reasons seem to lie in the area of "this is hard, must try hard to do it, must play this piece however I can, must grit my teeth and master it, I should be able to do this, mustn't make any mistakes...".

I think your approach is good - may just take a while. Get him to watch keyboardklutz's little stick man - he looks pretty good to me! And just a note - by his own admission Gyro is neither a teacher nor an advanced pianist. This of course doesn't mean he can never offer good advice, but I think I'm safe in saying his opinions are not usually supported by the majority .

[edited for typo]

In my experience, adult beginners exaggerate anything I tell them to do. They are often terribly concerned with curved fingers because they've heard so much about that, and they've read the typical "think of a hand holding a ball" idea. I hate that.

Instead, I look at the shoulders. Usually they are raised. I point out tension in that area, then I have them place fingers lightly on that same area of my body. Between the neck and the shoulders, either side. I show them that it is possible to play very powerfully and very accurately without much tension there at all, and I point out that they can't see any in my body.

I also show that the amount of curvature in my fingers varies every second, according to what I'm playing. I point out that just getting the notes and getting comfortable with them is a big step, and in time that may lead to relaxation faster than all the advice in the world.

Gary

I'm a self-teacher, but I also have a friend who is a music teacher who has given me several mini-lessons when I've asked for help on specific techniques. For relaxation, she suggested that I visualize my hands as being dead fish flopping on the keyboard. We did the fish flopping thing for a minute or so, with my hands just landing on any and all keys, not trying to play anything. Then she had me play 1-3-5 chords, again just flopping down on the keyboard, and she told me to play the chords moving up and down the keyboard (white keys only) until I got used to the feeling of being totally relaxed. She also stressed that I should not worry about hitting the notes correctly but instead do the exercise solely for the sake of learning the sensation of total relaxation.

Ok, as I said before, I used to play with an extreme amount of tension, but not as much as this, and I DID injure myself, so just imagine what even MORE tension would do! And besides, the whole point of what I'm doing is so that his hands ARE in a natural position. The whole point of teaching technique is so the student plays in a natural manner. I have made him put his hands on a surface other than the keys, and his natural hand position is just like anybody else's, and not with the wrist straight down.

Actually, all of my pieces got easier to play, and all of piano playing in general got much easier. Our anatomies are similar - we're both humans, and neither of us are deformed. Teachers wouldn't teach relaxed technique all over the world if it didn't work.

Word.

I agree about the ball thing - it seems to do more harm than good, and students think more of grasping a ball, which creates tension, instead of very loosely holding it. I try not to use that analogy, and if I do, I'm very cautious about it and make sure to say LOOSELY holding. I have also explained that not just the hands, wrists, and forearms have to be relaxed, but the entire arm, shoulders (I agree - the shoulders are often the root of the problem), back, and entire body needs to be relaxed. The throwing the limp arm exercise is usually the best for this, but he doesn't seem to be grasping it yet...one day though, hopefully.

Yes, I tried something very similar, but not for very long or very thoroughly, so maybe I will try this some more.

Thank you all for your continuing input!

On a lighter note...

You know, not even kidding, I actually was thinking that the other day...

So much is lost as soon as you ask a pupil to shape their hand. The Fanny Waterman/Marion Hare books are absolute fabulous except for the first page of book 1 where, you guessed it, you're shown how to shape your hand! I agree about the shoulders - it's the last refuge for tension. Once that's gone your students will play from the belly!

Oh, the stick figure is the very first lesson my master teacher taught me 10 years ago. It's kinda the opening of Grieg's First but I've shoved in an extra chord.

jam8086,

This works for me in creating changes in my students.

Ask them to put their hands on the piano, but to lay/place/find the note that the 2nd finger will go on first, then enter the other fingers into "position". (Do this RH first and then if using LH place it.)

If this is a very beginning student you may choose to work with only the RH and with 5 Finger Position or one octave music in the Key of C.

Why this seems to make a difference is unclear to me, but consider a whole handful of fingers coming down - that's quite a bit of weight - and then think of the finger we delicately point with - how graceful or lightweight it can be when we point with it.

I'd remind about a curved finger if the fingers go down flatly. If they can curve their second finger on demand, all the others can easily follow that example (except not the thumb which lies flatly and has 2 joints, not three.

Help them learn placement on the keys and you will never hear a "thud" again.

Jam,

I hope the quotes work right here. They are a bit different from those I use in other forums.

I swear, this medium is so frustrating, I go almost nuts trying to figure out ways to describe things that really should be seen or heard. It's impossible for me to visualize exactly what you do in lessons to help with relaxation, but for now I'm going to assume that you are on the right track and that perhaps we are mislead by the attempt at explaining.

I could not explain either how I play or what I teach in words.

Let me make some wild suggestions. Discard them if they seem too far off.

1) I do make recommendations for watching certain videos by fine players that are on You Tube. I pick examples of people who play in a way that I think is unusually relaxed and natural. My choices, of course, may not be yours. (I put great emphasis on very old performers, since people who are playing well into their 70s or 80s probably are incapable of doing anything that is seriously wrong, or they would damage their bodies. And I find that much older players tend to get rid of many unnecessary movements.)

2) Sometimes a single example will work wonders. My students ask about wrists. How high should they be? I ask them to play a Db chord, then I ask them to play it with wrists as low as possible. The moment the wrist is dropped at all, it smashes into the white keys. It has to be more or less level. I think that if they play chords and patterns smoothly that use a lot of black notes, most likely they will be forced to place the wrist in a reasonable position. I don't see wrists too low except for students who come to me who have only played white notes. Theoretically someone could play scales and chords using black keys with different wrist positions, but I haven't seen that happen. So people are more likely to elevate the wrists too high, in my experience. Especially adults.

3) Adults can have all sorts of strange physical problems. I have a lady whose pinky was broken by an abusive ex, and it just collapses in a way I've never seen before. We will have to work around that somehow. I have a 72 year-old with mild Parkinson's (not affecting his hands so far) and severe dyslexia. He is frightened of failing, so the tension just goes through his whole body if he is not comfortable. He also has incredibly thick, strong fingers, great for hitting someone or doing hard manual labor but not for playing the piano. Each time he starts to "seize up", I massage the muscles right by his neck a bit, and the relaxation just travels down his whole arm.

4) I really like Chopin's idea. From all I've read, he had his students put their hands on E, F#, G#, A#, B to illustrate a relaxed position with a bit of curvature, but very natural.

5) I tell people to hang their hands by their sides, then look at what the hand and wrist look like, to also notice the neck, shoulder and arm muscles. Of course this is just an idea, and bending the forearm at the elbow to get the hands into position for playing the piano is a big change from that, but I think the idea is valid.

6) I mention that old idea of balancing a coin on the hand while playing a scale, then illustrate how the coin INSTANTLY falls or or is actually projected off my hand as I play naturally, showing that this idea is incredibly wrong. Or I play an octave tremolo to illustrate how important it is for the wrist to be free to do whatever it needs to do.

Again, these are all verbal descriptions of things that I feel are solid as a rock when I SHOW them to people in lessons. Here, in words, they may or may not makes sense.

Finally, some people are incredibly tense, by nature, and obviously getting them to relax, especially when they are older, is almost impossible.

Gary

Gyro is wrong. If the student is playing like that, he is setting himself up for injuries, besides never being able to play anything technically challenging or fast. You clearly have recognized this. The exercises you describe are very similar to what one of my professors did for me at the university. I would suggest extending them both just a bit (bit by bit). You can take the 54321 and ask him to do it with his hand as limp as a wet noodle, so that he presses the keys with the fingers only as a result of rotating the wrist - not actually lifting and putting down the fingers. This will be very inaccurate at first but accuracy is not the issue - it will come. The issue is horrible tension. He should be able to go 54321-12345-54321-12345-54321-12345 with a decided rocking/rolling motion of the wrist and almost no finger involvement, other than that they happen to be the bit of flesh that contacts a key (and he shouldn't care if it is the correct key). At the same time he is rolling, he should be doing a slow up-down with the wrist so it is down on 5 and down on 1 and at its highest arch point at around 3.

Just my suggestion. This is in fact how my professor had me approach every Hanon exercise for a year or two - and they became surprisingly accurate even up to 144/quarter. The student can play his 54321-12345 for you a few times, or the first Hanon where he inches up and down the keyboard, with you there ready to lift his whole arm without notice - the arm should fall back down with no shoulder resistance whatsoever. After a few weeks the student will have learned enough relaxation to not be surprised when you do this, and to have his arm fall reasonably close to where it belongs

Excellent post. Just to be clear Chopin is talking about the relaxed hand's shape, which has a natural curve. Some translations are ambiguous.

Things that can help:

- lay your hands naturally on the keyboard and let them fall away into your lap afterwards; internalize this feeling

- play as if you are watching your hands play by themselves; let them get on with it without your tension

- STOP yourself sometimes (e.g. set a random egg timer) and become aware of the level of tension in your shoulders, arms, hands, etc.

- take lessons from an Alexander Technique teacher to learn how your body works and to recognize your own tension and working against yourself

- simplify and break down: tension can come from trying too much too hard too simultaneously: learn hands apart, focus on one element at a time (rhythm, notes, dynamics, pedal, etc), only go as fast as you can completely without tension

jam:
I think your approach was well done from your description. It will take time, however, for the student to do this. They have muscle memory of tension while playing, and it will take time to eliminate that. With your 5-finger pattern exercise and the off-keyboard exercise, simply be sure that he doesn't move on to the next finger until the other fingers have relaxed, no matter how long that takes. This means that at first, it's OK if the other fingers tense up while one the finger plays but then he should try to relax those fingers. Eventually, the relaxation will come faster and more immediate.

Keep working with him on the downward drop of the wrist on each note followed by the upward movement while holding down the key, and link the relaxation to that upward wrist movement (the "shock absorbing part"). It is awkward at first for students to do this, but with practice they will be able to do it much better and faster.

As far as this being common in adults, I don't think there's a correlation. I've seen plenty of beginner students struggle with it as well. Coordination of the fingers is such a define, intricate movement that is really not used for much else except perhaps typing, and even then there aren't degrees of how fast or slow, volume, articulations, etc. If it is not addressed with the beginner, however, from the start, then it can become ingrained in their technique. You're working with your student and it will pay off as long as he practices what you tell him to .

Jam, I came back to piano that had been self-taught 35 years before. In the meantime I'd had 5 years of violin lessons, and knew the importance of forming and using the hands etc. properly. I didn't want to resume whatever habits had formed willy nilly in my youth so I had some lessons.

Actually knowing what something is supposed to feel like in order to practice it is tricky. You can't catch it to change it. I placed my free hand around the working hand, thumb inside palm, fingers draped over the top, and simply wiggled some fingers. I could catch the whole hand stiffening, and I could also learn what it felt like for a finger to move on its own. I could then transfer that to the piano. It's like biofeedback. I wonder if something like that could help your student when he's practicing. It's too bad that he's already fallen into a habit and that his first teacher could not correct it right away.

As a student I felt good reading the description of what you were doing. Meanwhile your student is motivated because he knows there is a problem, and he has also see that there is another way than what he is accustomed to. Simply being aware and wanting to reach it is a big step. It's when we think what we are doing is ok, and that there is only one way of doing it, that we can't make much headway.

I have to disagree. The only adults I've worked with who found it relatively easy to play in a relaxed manner studied piano as children, and had some success. In addition, I see greater problems happending for any student who is starting after the age of puberty.

For the most part, with young people I feel as though I have to really screw them up in order for them to have serious tension. With adults, it's the opposite. For one thing, most are afraid to "let go of the keys". They fear they won't be able to find their place again.

I see *many* problems with adults that I think are either much more minor with children or not there at all, most of the time.

Gary

100% with you Gary. I look at adults and weep!

Well, there was no stipulation as to whether the adult student had taken lessons as a child. Obviously those who have has less issues with coordination. However, I have been able to help students who have never touched a piano before with relaxation. I have a student who when starting with me her fingers would shake. She said she wasn't nervous and didn't portray any other signs of nervousness, so I believed her. We worked on using the wrist and concentrated relaxation of the fingers in between playing notes, and there was marked improvement after a week of practice. This is not someone who took lessons as a child, nor would I say she's extremely talented, but she simply does the work assigned to her and gets results. This has generally been my experience with adults, but granted, I don't have a large volume of adult students.

I would agree with that.
I have no doubt about that. My only point was that I *have* to spend much more time addressing this issue with adults.
My experience is largely the same, but I generally don't have to say much about such issues with small children. The older my students, if they start with me and have never played before, the more problems I have with relaxation.

That only works up to a point. When I first started over three years ago, I was tense and over time I relaxed quite a bit. But I still struggle with tension when working to get my fast pieces up to tempo. I feel fine and relaxed as I am doing the metronome speed build-up but invariably at a certain point the tension creeps in and the forearm soreness right behind it. A year ago, I got tendonitis and had to stop for a few weeks.

I am not a teacher or anything but it seems to me that this issue should be addressed early on and watched closely to prevent injuries down the road.

I would discourage anyone from doing the 'metronome speed buildup'. There will be a natural speed for the coordination you are using. The speed will increase of itself but you will feel the coordination happening at the same pace. If you're needing to push the tempo you have tension somewhere.