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I have a problem with tension when I play the piano. Not only when performing for an audience, but even when practicing on my own. The tension is not limited to my fingers, hands and arms, but also my shoulders, neck and muscles in my face. I realize that I use a lot of unnecessary energy, and I'm quite sure that in influences my playing. The situation tends to get worse at technically difficult points, but I suspect that I'm never completely free from tension during playing.
I think that this is mostly a bad habit that I have developed during nearly 50 years of self-study.

Any advice about how to overcome this problem?

If you are focusing on being relaxed, you will notice yourself becoming more relaxed as it is over time, just like that.

Part of the problem is likely that you are not only tense while playing the piano, but everywhere in your daily life. So focus on that.

If the tension is stuck in your body, doing stretches can help. This routine can help loosen you up.

I'm sure other people have good ideas, too.

Do you stick your elbow out when you drink a cup of tea/coffee? When you brush your teeth? Drop it to the side. That would be a start.

I've been working on trying to get rid of (unnecessary) tension for years now, and a few things have helped a lot.

One thing is kind of hard to describe, but the idea is that your wrists are so loose at all times that someone could easily lift them while you are playing, and your hand would just hang freely off your wrists, rather than jutting out stiffly. Does that make sense? When a pianist friend told me and showed me some years ago how their teacher demonstrated this to them by placing their index finger horizontally under the wrist while my friend was playing, and then lifting it, a big light-bulb went off in my head, and it changed my whole pianistic life. It is MUCH easier to demonstrate this in person than to describe.

Another thing that works for me is simple imagery. Today I was working on Chopin's op. 10, no. 1 a bit, and remembered that someone had described Chopin's arms as being like snakes, which got me to thinking about what having snake-like arms would feel like, and that somehow translated into some extra degree of flexibility and lack of tension while I practiced. And I also remembered that Chopin was reported as being exasperated by any tension in his student's playing, and that knowledge also helped me to eliminate some little bit of tension, too. It may seem pretty random to use these kind of ideas as a way of getting rid of tension, but the way it works for me is that this kind of stuff just pops into mind spontaneously while working, once getting rid of tension became a paramount concern. The mind just generates what is needed, once you are on the track you want to be on, I think.

That really describes it quite well - snakes with a nasty bite at their head!

Hi Ganddalf. I had a succession of teachers tell me to "relax more" when playing and it never helped. What did help was a teacher who had devoted much of his career to teaching injured pianists. He was very oriented toward all the details of how we use our hands and arms. With him I learned what TO do with my muscles, which really helped the unnecessary muscles to stay calm. It is not possible for me to remove energy from my playing, but his approach helped me to focus energy through the muscles that are needed at the time. Perhaps something similar would work for you. I don't know how it'd be possible without a teacher skilled in addressing physical issues, though.

My teacher suggests clenching your fists on and off before you play. For example, you can do this when other students are doing their pieces (unless you are first!). It's the relaxing of the clench that helps you relax all your muscles. Concentrate on the release and relaxing upper arms, shoulders, chest, neck, etc.

I also sometimes test my movements away from the piano. I recently realized that moving my fingers while playing doesn't take much more effort than drumming them on a table.
Like this: Drumming fingers

And same thing for wrist movements - keeping my hand still and just using my wrist to raise and lower my hand. Somehow when in my mind "playing piano" made me resist both of these movements to make them much harder than they should have been.

I had made a post last night about tension and unfortunately, it was lost in cyberspace. There goes my Nobel prize *sigh*.

At any rate, do you notice if your tension happens any time you play, or just with certain kinds of pieces? If it is at any time, I highly recommend stretching before and during playing. The ones in this video are very good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPO-zST-7EE

You can also do stretches for arms and shoulders, neck, back, and perhaps even massage your jaw.

So do a full survey of stretches before playing. Then I would do stretches every 10-15 minutes of playing to start. Set a timer so you don't lose track, and stick to it even if you're in the middle of something. Maybe take 5 minutes to stretch in between practice sessions, and focus on just the areas that seem particularly tense to you at that moment. Maybe do this for a few days, perhaps a week.

By the end of a few days or a week, you should begin to notice that when your 15 minute timer goes off, you don't feel as tense. Or conversely, while you are playing you may begin to track where you are tense and then consciously try to release that tension. It's very important to be able to bring that tension to the consciousness while you are doing it. You may not be able to relax it voluntarily at first, and if not, you will be doing stretches every 10 minutes or so and it will get released then. The idea is that you will go through this process:

Tension is there but hard to define and uncontrollable==>tension is there and you are aware of it specifically, but still uncontrollable==>Tension awareness after a bit of time and you are able to consciously release it, but still times when it slips by your consciousness==>Time between tension occurring and your consciousness recognizing it diminishes, you are able to relax is as soon as you realize it's there

This takes time, and it does assume that the tension is also not an intrinsic part of how you play piano, otherwise technical issues will have to be worked out in conjunction with tensions assessment and release.

Get a copy of You Must Relax by Jacobson. They're a couple of bucks from Abebooks. Jacobson invented the clench/unclench idea.

Ganddalf, I tend to agree with phantomFive: tension is most likely unrelated specifically to your work at the piano (i.e., it might seem to get worse there, but it is rarely the actual cause).

Beyond normal stress issues, the most common issue of tension is how one chooses to carry their body. The more your body is in alignment, the more your body will naturally relax. When we hold unnatural and unbalanced body positions, there is a cascading effect of muscles that compensate to recreate balance by misaligning other areas of the body. Having to hold these positions creates tension. Sitting-up straight in a chair is not a matter of being proper, it is a matter of most efficiently using one's body.

Sitting at the piano also requires a proper body position to ensure balance. The concept is simple: if the body is not in alignment and in balanced, you will have tension--guaranteed. There are no short cuts. This is about intense mental focus: one must learn to constantly monitor and adjust into a good body position and balance. Not just at the piano, but with every step taken. One must learn to use only the muscles necessary to get the job accomplished = a typically sign of a true professional, in any field. Only when there is a good alignment can one learn to relax the unneeded muscles for a given task (i.e., if you are slouched over at the piano, it's never going to happen). IMHO.

I just found out yesterday that playing a score of four sheets on the stand is not an option if your sight isn't brill! At the moment, I'm trying out a seven sheeter. The result is kneckache, shoulder ache, and arm strain. So it's time to chop it into two threes and a one! How that works. . .

Thank you all for your comments! I can't readily say if the tension is specificly related to my playing (by the way I just noticed that I tend to raise my shoulders while typing this post), but I believe that it gets significantly worse when I play.

I'll start doing some of the exercises you have proposed. Also I'll try to be more concious about the problem when I practice.

At my age I don't think it is realistic to expect any significant improvement in playing technique. But in my case getting rid of the tension is one of the options I have to become a better pianist.

From what I remember seeing of your playing, I'm pretty sure the tension is unrelated, but it will go a long way to helping you play with more ease. Let us know how it goes

Take it one step at a time. Improve your technique in one small way, then in another small way, and you may be surprised how far you go.

Thanks for starting this thread Ganddalf. I'm finding a lot of helpful suggestions here. I'm experiencing some of the same problems. In fact I'm just getting back to practicing today after a two week break from the piano. I started experiencing soreness in my right hand fingers and wrist a few weeks ago and my doctor ordered me off the piano.

Like you, I think the problem is not so much playing the piano as much as the tension I feel in my neck, shoulders, etc. My teacher has been pointing this out and said I made tremendous improvement in relaxing my shoulder when I retired a year ago.

There is still room for improvement for me, however. I've really appreciated all of the suggestions and I'm also going to start using some of the exercises. I'm also exploring incorporating some gentle yoga and tai chi to reduce the stress and tension.

Has anyone ever utilized yoga and tai chi to help address these issues?

I started gently with some relaxation before my 30 minute practice session this morning. And while playing I tried to stay focused on relaxation and tried to find out exactly when the problem was worst. As long as I played stuff I know pretty well I think I was able to relax fairly well. But as soon as I approached a point where I was a bit uncertain, tension around the neck, shoulders and facial muscles set on. For the record I can say that I'm presently memorising some movements from a Bach Partita, and the problem appeared when I got to a point where I wasn't sure if I remembered a certain leap in the right hand melody voice.

Then the same thing happened when I came to a point where I have been trying out different fingering. And finally in the Sarabande there are a lot of awkward trills in the left hand. If I tried very hard to relax I was able to play these trills relatively well, but as soon as my consciousness about the problem dropped, the trills tended to become sloppy again.

I'm also studying a Chopin etude. Already a long time ago I found that I could never start a practice session with this piece, because then my forearm would stiffen completely before I reached the last page. After some warming up with slower pieces I'm usually able to play the whole piece, but I never feel that I have full control of this piece, and I always strain my neck and shoulders terribly when I play it.

I kind of thought this might be it. Sight reading or playing something somewhat unfamiliar (i.e., not yet memorized) is a cause for tension in many people. Also, mental tension - worry about a passage that gives you trouble, or the perception that trills are hard, etc. - can cause physical tension, thus creating the very thing one worries about. I've noticed both of these things in myself, and when I realized that it was a huge step toward purposely not doing it when I played.

I agree. I have to keep reminding myself when playing something difficult that it doesn't help to tense up.

Good, now you're observing yourself. That's the first step.