One of the causes for strain, stress, injury and
other maladies pianists, organists and typists experience is simply that
they press too hard into the keybed of their device or instrument.
Let's first take a look at sports and then physics (that HS subject you
think you don't use in real life).
As a baseball player stands
at home plate and the ball is hurtling toward him, he back-swings,
forward swings, hits the ball, then all the energy left over from the
swing dissipates into the follow through. The same action occurs when
an athlete swings a tennis racquet, kicks a ball, swings a golf club,
punches someone, throws a ball, etcetera. That is Newton's third law of
physics that every action has an equal and opposite action. In order
to forward swing, one must first back swing. Even when we walk forward,
as one leg is extending up and forward, the other leg is pushing
backward. So according to the laws of physics, in order to type or play
the piano down, one must first lift up. Many of us were trained or
taught to play or type from a resting and relaxed position which
actually creates tension because holding a position requires effort. So
we know that everything requires an opposite motion and a follow
through. I bet all you smart kids out there know exactly where I'm
going with this.
Now imagine that our baseball, tennis, soccer,
golf, football players or boxers are standing before a concrete wall and
they backswing then forward swing but instead of hitting an object and
following through, they strike the immovable wall. All the energy of
the swing, instead of following through and dissipating, ricochets back
into the athlete. That can hurt.
A piano is much the same.
Many pianists press into the keybed of a piano and not only does that
fail to produce any more of a tone but, all the energy of pressing down
is being transferred back up into their finger joints and tendons. We
often don't notice this until after an hour or so of practice or the
next morning when we wake up with stiff fingers. We are taught by bad
teachers "no pain, no gain." In this case, it is very much a lie. No
pain, no gain is fine when building muscle but not for bones, joints,
tendons, ligaments and certainly not for our technique. Often poor
technique, strain or missed notes are a result of what we are not doing
rather than what we are doing and often we are using the wrong muscles.
Sit
at any acoustic piano and very slowly, depress a key so you don't play a
sound. At some point you will hit a little bump in the action, then
press through it and you will hit the keybed. That little bump is the
point of sound once you actually play.
As a pianist drops the
controlled weight of their arm onto a key, they must use Newton's third
law. As they hit the point of sound, much like an athlete striking a
ball, they must then follow through without hitting the keybed. When
they press into the keybed, not only is their energy backfiring but,
they are pressing down and according to Newton, we can't set up for the
up motion if we are pressing down. This hinders technique. You can't
play down if you don't play up and you can't play up if you are pressing
down.
So, the key and cure to playing without tension or pain
is learning to play to the point of sound and simply following through
and not pressing into the keybed. Unbeknownst to most teachers, their
students press into the keybed. It is a motion that is often
invisible. When a student experiences problems with technique or pain,
the teacher often says practice more or run exercises to build strength
and endurance and the teacher is often oblivious that the way the
student practices is what needs to be addressed, not a clock.
Danger
Will Robinson. Before anyone tries to learn to play to the point of
sound, there are other components of technique which must first be in
place. This includes controlling arm weight, controlling up/down,
controlling in/out from the shoulder and elbow, using the fulcrum of the
elbow, controlling rotation of the forearm through the use of the
pronator and supinator muscles. Likewise, there are movements to avoid
such as abduction, curling the thumb under the palm, isolating a finger,
equalizing fingers, radial and ulnar deviation, and trying to play too
relaxed, still and quiet.
A virtuoso technique looks like it is
effortless and relaxed. That is true, the fingers are relaxed because
the arm does all the work. Observers are often looking at the pianist's
hands and fail to notice the elbow and arm is actually doing most of
the work. Pianists who attempt to play from the fingers and have
fatigue, are told to relax so, they relax the same muscles they are
continuing to use and they achieve nothing.
Once all of the
proper motions are achieved and the improper ones eradicated, point of
sound will just happen. Some "techniques" such as the Russian Technique,
surreptitiously imbue the pianist with these movements but personally, I
would rather learn the physics and ergonomics of movement rather than
being tricked through mindless imitation. Although, it works to some
degree. Where it fails is when a pianist encounters a passage they can't
execute and if they knew the mechanics of the arm, would be able to
figure out what sort of adjustment is required to play that passage.
I
once studied with a leading concert pianist in my area who didn't know
what he was doing but had a phenomenal natural technique. His
instruction to me was to watch him play then imitate his motion. That
would have been fine but I already had bad habits hardwired into my
brain which were getting in the way. Since he didn't know anything
about ergonomics nor physics, he had no idea how to fix me other than
prescribing "practice more."
I once gave a lecture on this topic
and a pianist disagreed with me about Newtons third law citing that the
piano is down, not up. The finger must come straight down onto a key.
If the pianist is playing with a "still and quiet hand" and they must
also play black keys, note that the black keys are higher than the
white keys. This results in the still and quiet pianist to stretch or
twist to reach those keys which in turn create vector forces or, two
muscles pulling one bone in two directions simultaneously. This creates
tremendous imbalance in the arm which controls the hand and fingers and
this leads to an incoordinate technique. Keep in mind your fingers
have no muscles. They are moved by the flexor muscles in your forearm
so that is where the pianist must first play from.
If you were
to walk up stairs, your ascending leg would lift HIGHER than the next
stair, then come straight down onto it. If you tried to walk upstairs
without lifting your foot higher than the step, you'd trip. Playing the
piano is the same. We must use the larger muscles of the arm to get
the fingers higher than the notes we are desirous to play. Of course as
we become more efficient, we minimize the height but make no mistake,
although it may appear invisible, it is still there. Hanon knew this and
prescribed the pianist to isolate one finger and lift it high but, this
isolation engages the flexors and extensors at the same time resulting
in strain to the long flexor tendons which leads to median nerve
entrapment (AKA carpal tunnel syndrome). Remember the arm, hand and
fingers can only move in one direction at a time. By abducting, for
instance, the hand gets pulled in two or four directions despite the
pianist trying to play a passage in a specific direction.
I have
no conclusion to this post other than don't try this at home. Find a
teacher who knows what a pronator and abductor is and work from there.
