Dear Friends,
For those of you in the Louisville, KY, area, I'll be performing Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Das Jahr at the Amy Cralle Theater, Wilson W. Wyatt Center for the Arts, Bellarmine University on Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 pm. It's free and open to the public, and I would love to see you there!
Today while I was practicing, I noticed that my jaw was clenched and I was holding tension in my left shoulder. And so I decided to write about something that I work on with my students almost every single week: physical tension at the piano. It’s something most students of the piano struggle with to some degree or another. Playing with too much tension results in tight shoulders, sore wrists, an aching neck, tired hands and overall fatigue.
Fortunately, one of the most common reasons for tension is also one of the easiest to fix: sitting at the piano incorrectly.
Take the time to find the right height and distance from the piano....for you. Avoid sitting too high or too low, or too close or too far away.
A good starting point is to sit at a height where your forearms are roughly level with the keys, with enough room back from the keyboard that your elbows fall a little in front of your body rather than being right next to your rib cage. I made a video a while back about finding a comfortable sitting position at the piano; here’s the link to that if you'd like to explore this in more detail.
But even once you’re sitting comfortably, tension has a way of accumulating during practice. So, let’s talk about how to do a body scan as part of your practice routine.
For pianists, tension doesn’t just appear in the hands and arms. We play with tension in our faces, in our necks, in our legs, even in our feet pressing into the floor. None of that helps you play better, and it all contributes to the fatigue and soreness that so many of you experience.
The first step to addressing tension is becoming aware of it. It's easy to just play and play without even perceiving the tension building up in parts of the body. As I wrote earlier, I have a tendency to clench my jaw when I play, so that's something I try to pay attention to.
Here’s how to do a body scan at the piano:
Start by noticing tension in your body. Close your eyes, sit at the keyboard with your hands in your lap, and scan from the top of your head, bringing awareness to different parts of your body. As you scan, check for tension in each place: your forehead, face, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, abdomen, hips, thighs, lower legs, ankles and feet.
Breathe in as you bring your awareness to each part of your body and release tension as you breathe out. You might also find it helpful to clench and release the relevant muscle as you scan it, so that you can feel the difference between a tight and a loose muscle.
You can make this a regular part of your practice. These habits of physical tension are so deeply ingrained it takes a lot of conscious effort and repetition to override them.
It can be enormously helpful to build the habit of doing a body scan for tension at regular intervals when you practice. Set a timer for intervals of 10 or 20 minutes, and when it goes off, just interrupt your practicing for a moment and do a quick body scan, from head to toe.
And while we’re on the topic, taking breaks while you practice is one of the best things you can do to address tension. I always advise my students to take a 5-minute break every 30 minutes of practice.
During the break, resist the urge to check your phone! Get up, walk around, drink some water, and let your mind wander. And don’t worry that you’re “wasting time” by taking a break! Even during these short resets, your brain is still processing what you’ve been working on in your practice session.
Try the body scan this week and let me know how it goes! I love hearing from you and I read every response, even if I can’t reply to everyone.
👋 Happy practicing,
Kate