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Joined: Sep 2016
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OP
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Hi,
I start playing the piano after almost 35 years, and I have a problem, my teacher says I have stiff hands and it shows by the sound of the piano....
She says I have to loosen up, but Its seem to me that it is hard to be done than said.
Any advise on how to loosen my hand, wrists and shoulders?
Thanks Gur
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Hi,
I start playing the piano after almost 35 years, and I have a problem, my teacher says I have stiff hands and it shows by the sound of the piano....
She says I have to loosen up, but Its seem to me that it is hard to be done than said.
Any advise on how to loosen my hand, wrists and shoulders?
Thanks Gur I am wondering if you mean you restarted playing after 35 years. If so my advice would be simple. Just keep practising and it will come back - slowly. And gentle exercises to loosen shoulders, arms and wrists.
Yamaha U1A, Roland LX706
South Wales, UK
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OP
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Yes I restarted playing after 35 years. I played fairly good.
Is there any exercises that I could do to loosen up when Im playing?
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Joined: Apr 2009
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Yes I restarted playing after 35 years. I played fairly good.
Is there any exercises that I could do to loosen up when Im playing?
Did you think to ask your teacher any of these questions ?
Don
Kawai MP7SE, On Stage KS7350 keyboard stand, KRK Classic 5 powered monitors, SennHeiser HD 559 Headphones
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Away from the piano, plant your fingertips on a tabletop (or anything else solid like the fallboard). Keeping the fingertips in one position (as if they were pressing keys), try to move your wrist from side to side. Don't hurt yourself or do it to an extreme, but its a good way to judge if your wrists are stiff and how much range of motion you have.
Sam
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It does take time, so play very slowly and be patient. Do not expect to be anywhere near where you were 35 years ago, even if you were quite good. You can do stretches for your fingers, hands, wrists, and forearms which may be helpful, but it's just not something you can rush through. Here's a good video for stretches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPO-zST-7EE
private piano/voice teacher FT
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I just posted on another thread about an exercise a piano teacher I had when I was still in the early stages used to have me do. He was concerned about the tension in my hands and wrists and had me hold my arms in playing position, hands parallel to forearms but relaxed, then to just let the wrists flop letting the slightly curled fingers drop lightly onto the keys. Over and over he would have me practise this wrist flop. "....aaand FLOPPP!" he would go. It's about all I can remember about our lessons! He was my second teacher as my first had moved away and I never felt as comfortable with him but he did teach me well, I think, and this wrist flop thing I still use to this day when I feel my hands tensing or to check I am in correct position. It is so easy to let the wrists fall below your fingers or below keyboard level when you are focussing really hard on the score. Wrist injury over the long term, some sort of RSI or carpal tunnel syndrome, could result. If your hands and wrists are correctly positioned and relaxed I think you will find the rest will follow, up into the upper arms, shoulders etc.
Also keep your lumbar curve tucked in as you sit, the rest of the spine wil fall into its natural four curves that way and it avoids the hunching over that also causes tension and pain and incorrect arms/wrist positioning. I learned this lumbar curve thing being the ley to the whole spinal integrity through many years of yoga and taught it to all my yoga students.
Any yoga stretches focussing on shoulders will help with mobility and staying relaxed, as will swimming. Don't need classes, just check out a few online take it gently.
Hope this has been helpful.
"Study Bach: there you will find everything" - Johannes Brahms.
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Some thoughts: The fact that it's been years since you played may be a red herring. When you return to piano, you return with all the things you learned then, as well as the things you didn't learn. What your teacher is seeing as "stiff wrists" may be something you've always done, and had she met you 35 years ago, she might have talked about "stiff wrists" then too.
I don't find the idea of wrists, including "loose wrists" (the opposite of stiff wrists) to be all that helpful. The body works together, and each part affects all the other parts. What you have going on in your fingers or shoulders can affect the wrists, and vice versa. Another thing is knowing the many ways we can move to get at the notes: how the arms can move in and out, up and down, rotate at the axis, circular motions which has responses in the wrists or may be felt to be initiated by them. If you learned to do mostly fingery types of action, with the arms mostly motionless and the fingers doing all the work, the fingers might be stiff in their motion, which ties up the wrists. You may have learned these things back then, or maybe you didn't. Your teacher should also be guiding you how TO move, and for specific types of passages in your repertoire. There should be diagnosis as to what is going on, and how to tackle it.
(I returned after 35 years, and have had considerable relearning to do. That said, our backgrounds are probably quite different.)
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Many students with stiff hands come to me; and we jointly solve these problems. However, I do not think that they will be able to independently find the right way; you need a live contact with the teacher's hands!
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I believe that the best first step in overcoming wrist stiffness is playing using wrist staccato technique. Not only because it involves purposeful wrist movements, but also beacuse it shows how a wrist can be helpful for playing in general. When playing using wrist staccato technique a finger is held more or less still (but not tensed), and the key is attacked (struck) by bending the wrist down and then immediately up. You can play scales using this technique or you can find some easy piece with many staccato notes and practice it for a while. And there is also forearm staccato technique for your future experiments.
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elkabungo , I'm sure that outside the keyboard you don't have a wrist stiffness problem, but there is a problem of coordination of different muscle groups; but first of all, a lack of clear understanding of the sound production process . You are mistaken if you think that the point of control of movements direction of the hand is the tip of finger; in this case, you are trying by all means to get with a finger the desired key - which includes completely unnecessary stress in hands, shoulders and back. The main coordinator of movements direction is indicated by a cross: The leading role of this point has been known for thousands of years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdcXZgj3nqI - Watch at the slowest speed (0.25) from 0:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71t1xZ4xxnI - from 1: 39 Of course, you do not need to literally consider finger movements on tabla as pianistic, but the leading role of the point at the root of the palm is very clear. I tell the students in the first lesson the following: "Imagine that the hand plays simultaneously on two keyboards - one visible for the fingers, the other invisible for the point indicated by cross." If fingers are completely relaxed, the sound will of course not be, despite the movements wrist. In order for the key to be pressed and sound to appear, is required finger stability (not force) to conduct a pulse from shoulder blade through the root of palm to the finger tip . That's why you need to work on the stability of your fingers. The formula is simple: the higher the stability of the fingers, the lower the voltage will be in the hand. However, as it was said, at this stage a leading teacher is required, not just a counselor.
Last edited by Nahum; 12/18/17 12:51 PM.
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Thank you guys, I got some useful advice which I intend to check .
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Will do some R&B for a while. Give the classical a break. You can spend the rest of your life looking for music on a sheet of paper. You'll never find it, because it just ain't there. - Me Myself
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I swear it's not from Curtis Lee Hanson!
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