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Hi All,

I am new to this forum. I am not a piano teacher, but I am a piano player myself and am a Mom who is very involved with my 7-year-old son's piano learning. My son has taken piano lesson for 2 years. He has always had this tightness in his wrists and arms, for some reasons he is unable to relax. Also, his hand position aren't great either, it tends to be flat. My son works very hard and generally plays his repoertoires very well, but his techniques are really holding him back from advancing. It's really hard and very frustrating to feel kind of stuck.

I am seeking your advices if you have recommendations/experiences on any curriculum/exercises that will be helpful in correcting his hand position, strengthening the fingers, and helping him learn how to relax?

Thanks!!

You have noticed this problem, so I presume his teachers have given this issue some thought as well. What have THEY said and what have they suggested? Knowing what has been tried will help in determining a possible plan of action.

Like you, I'm a player with a son who studies piano. I'm not a teacher in any formal sense. On the other hand, I've worked a lot with my son on relaxation and on finger technique, especially in his first couple of years when he was laying down basic technical skills. I found that technical exercises to develop dexterity needed to be coupled with constant guidance to keep his forearm and wrist tension free. The one went with the other. Excercises without relaxed posture would seem to be a deadly combination.

Imagine yourself in complete darkness. Every step you make could be wrong and hurt you. This is exactly how you son is feeling during piano practice! No wonder, he is tensed and under a lot of stress!

Isn't that kind of overdramatic, Olenka?

My son's the first teacher didn't emphsize much about techniques, so I think that probably contribute to the problem now. Recently we switched teacher in the hope to focus more on techniques and correcting his postures. The teacher is still getting to know him and trying to figure out what to do to work with his hands. Does it just take constant reminder that he needs to maintain good postures and relax (I remind him all the time but I don't know if that's working well), or is there a better way to go about this?

Isn't that kind of overdramatic, Olenka?

Of cause, Stephany! I am just exaggerating! We live in perfect world, where mothers play live music for their babies, where in day care centers any teacher can sing and play songs for kids, where kids can read fluently any music sheet instead of listening to rap and taking drugs and alchogol!
Here is an article of Finland scientists about vision and muscles development. Unfortunately, it is in Russian.
Any way, the main idea is – blind people fall behind in muscles development. We teach blind people and when we except the truth, we would help ourselves and our students to create musically literate world.

article
http://www.lea-test.fi/ru/assessme/vision.html

'and relax (I remind him all the time but I don't know if that's working well '

Good point! To be relaxed – IS NOT A SKILL AND CAN NOT BE TRAINED! Many piano teachers have no idea about physiology!

This student does not like to play the
piano, which is the root cause of the
problem. In such a situation the only
way to get him to play well is to "make it
worth his while." For example, pay him
to play. If this suggestion repels you,
then look at it this way. You're playing
his teacher, so why not play him too?

Once again, I'm not a professional teacher, so I'm willing to stand corrected. Here's what I did (and still do) with my own son.

You can only get so far, especially with a seven year old, by using adult language to urge proper physical techniques in playing. I think you need to demonstrate relaxation by taking the forearm, wrist, tendons of the hand, shoulder ....all the relevant tension points..... and physically showing the student the difference between tensed and relaxed posture. Shake the wrist to show relaxation. Physically demonstrate how to use the weight of the hand/arm as the primary force in striking the keys (as opposed to tensing the tendons of the hand). Push on that trapezius muscle if it is all tensed up. Have the student stand up and do a rag doll to loosen up. All of this is physical training.

Geez Gyro, why the heck do you jump to the strongest possible conclusions based on absolutely no information. Relax! Gather more information before making such hard edged pronouncements.

I'm not sure what you meant by that, Olenka, but I would disagree that relaxation cannot be trained. Psychologists do that all the time when using behavior modification techniques and systematic desensitization.

I'm not sure what you meant by that, Olenka, but I would disagree that relaxation cannot be trained. Psychologists do that all the time when using behavior modification techniques and systematic desensitization.

Let's take an example with ballet dancer. If to take a perfect dancer and turn the light off or put him/her on slippery floor, how their muscles would feel?

huh? how might this compare to a young boy learning piano?

A "perfect" dancer would probably do fine in such a context, as dancers have excellent control over their bodies. Now if it were me, I'd fall on my butt.

...but I was talking about playing piano, which is a more conscious and deliberate activity than being confronted with a slippery floor or suddenly dark room. I believe it is possible to (a) train people to recognize when their arms/hands are tensed; (b) train people to recognize what a relaxed hand/arm position feels like instead; and (c) train people to substitute the relaxed position for the tensed position.

huh? how might this compare to a young boy learning piano?

Pretty simple! Young boy afraid to hit the wrong key and he can't see notation either. He is in 'dark room' when he is trying to play piano

Bingo, Monica. Repeated physical interaction with the student to reward relaxed technique and change tense technique can often pay big dividends.

[Edit: Olenka, why do you assume something about the boy's attitudes when the original poster has given you no such information]

'...but I was talking about playing piano, which is a more conscious and deliberate activity than being confronted with a slippery floor or suddenly dark room. I believe it is possible to (a) train people to recognize when their arms/hands are tensed; (b) train people to recognize what a relaxed hand/arm position feels like instead; and (c) train people to substitute the relaxed position for the tensed position.'

Dear Monica, do you know where the standard of 'piano technique' came from? It came from the most talented players. They SEE piano keys and music notation within due to the ability to hear, recognize and make connections between keys and music notes instantly. They know exactly where their fingers are and where they are planning to be. This is why they have relaxed muscles and natural flexibility.

Music pedagogy went the wrong way trying to copy relaxation without providing opportunity to relax. By thoughtlessly mocking 'relaxed hands' we won't go anywhere. We need to give students opportunity to SEE where they are and where they are planning to be , like prodigies by involving their vision in the process. This way they would have completely relaxed hands and never would have problems with neck, shoulders and clamps.

I'm not a piano teacher; you apparently are. I'm quite prepared to admit that you may know more about piano pedagogy than I do.

...but I DO know psychology and I stand by my statement that people can be trained to be relaxed.

someone should be able to 'show' him.