One of the biggest misconception of piano playing or most likely with other instruments (although I am not proficient in any other instruments than piano), is that we need “strength” and “power” to play it/them. It’s a misconception entirely. The key to be faster, stronger is actually RELAXATION.
Believe it or not, once one is relaxed one can go a lot faster.
The best example I can use is this one: I do not know if you noticed, but sometimes when we walk on the streets, we hit very tiny pebbles, and we know we hit them because suddenly we see those tiny things literally flying several feet away in front of us… In the meantime, if you try to hit it again (this time conscientiously) the tiny pebble barely goes few feet forward or barely moves.. How can one explain this? It’s actually simple… the first time, the pebble was placed at the perfect place in front of your shoe (the one that hit it), and you entire body weight, speed of your foot, and contact was at its maximum efficiency, hence the pebble flew away… the second time, when you tried to hit it, because you are not offering the same optimal conditions to the pebble (because it IS really hard to provide those conditions) the pebble barely moves..
Well, this analogy is to show you that is it the exact same with speed, strength, and efficiency while playing an instrument.
You need to learn to use the minimum amount of energy to create the largest volume of sound possible.
There are hundreds of methods out there that will help you develop all these “muscles” for strength and independency, but remember that what matters the most is not this or that exercice, rather how you can learn to control how relaxed you are. Once you will be relaxed then you can start speeding up the exercice!
So rule number 1: RELAX!!! without this? VERY little good is going to come out of whichever method you will chose to use or amount of practice you are going to do.
Please leave me some comments, and thoughts about this blog. I would love to hear from all of you! Thank you very much.
I love the pebble analogy! It sheds a whole new light on “practice makes perfect”’!! I very much appreciate this blog, just reading it has already improved my piano practice. As always thank you so much🙏🏼.