I'm having endurance issues?

Question

I sometimes feel REALLY tense in my arms and I'm pretty much playing with bricks. It's not a problem when it's just one time through, but practicing it, it's trouble. sometimes playing it just once is a problem. For instance when i was playing the Black Key etude, I noticed I got tense a little after the recap. It wasn't a problem because I can release tension at breaks such as that high note and then the two quarter notes. but some pieces like the Ocean etude don't have "breaks." It's just perpetual motion. I can release some tension in the recap but not all. The three octave arpeggios don't add much tension, but the two octave and four octave arpeggios do.

All in all, how do I get my endurance up???

Answer 1

Oh, dear... It seems like we are having yet another 'Chopin étude week' and it's not always proving an unmitigated pleasure so far. Let us together try to break this problem up into digestible bits, and spare you a lot of discomfort if we possibly can...



"It wasn't a problem because I can release tension at breaks such as that high note and then the two quarter notes. but some pieces like the Ocean etude don't have "breaks."



Someone has failed to tell you the magic words 'come corpo morto cadde'...



[like the dead body falls/drops]



In order to sustain these onslaughts that Chopin, Liszt, Alkan, just about any of the great composers for our wayward instrument really, inflict upon us mutts, is to learn to disconnect body parts at will -- mid performance, 'on the wing' -- as the exigencies demand from us, in order not to, what in sporting parlance would be bluntly termed 'cramp' and subsequently crash. You're clearly sniffing at the crashing part without the information about the 'dead body' and dropping bits...



If you consider our limbs and the way we use them pianistically, they are a set of levers, jointly and severally. The biggest lever is from the shoulder joint to the finger tips. Now, for the 'dead body' bit you'll need a willing assistant -- leotard and sequins will not be necessary -- to help 'keep you honest'. You stretch out the entire lever (shoulder to tips) perfectly horizontally and ask your assistant to support the tips with just their 'tips'. They will then, without you looking, at a moment completely unbeknown to you, withdraw the tip support from your fingertips and your entire lever should drop 'like the dead body falls' in consequence. It won't, because you are so busy keeping it up in the starting position. So now you know what should be happening, you reposition yourself to the same point and try at will to make sure your shoulder control is abandoned so that it will drop as required. (Don't fret, you'll spend weeks failing at this lark... ) With practice, however, you will 'get it'.



When you do, you compound the problem, by shifting aspect so that you will be able to allow the shorter lever of your forearm to drop in similar manner, now from the elbow joint -- always with the able assistance of your 'stooge' to keep you 'honest'' [you *cannot* do this on your own to learn!] -- and then finally when you have mastered that one, you shorten the lever to its shortest and learn to 'drop dead' form the wrist joint.



This believe it or not was the *easy* bit...



Now, acutely realising all your body feedback as you do these exercises each time, as you disconnect and 'drop', register exactly what it is you are doing in every muscle group to make the 'dead body' possible. Those elements of body feedback are what you store in conscious as well as muscle memory, so that you can now start on the actual technical issue:



Deploying those body feedback prompts to make you disconnect whatever part of the lever -- your arm from the shoulder to the fingertip and all its consituent parts -- that is not required at the performance moment you're involved in, quite *at will*, is what genuine bravura is made up of in its supporting parts to sheer dexterity...



We learn to disconnect 'at will' and re-connect 'at will', 'in flight': That's why we don't seize up... :-//



Nobody ever said these works are easy... :-))



If you're serious about learning these works, find yourself an experienced performer'teacher, but if you're bereft for the moment ask whatever you need to...



All my best,



Ps. Vital hint: 'endurance' ain't the issue... ;-))

Answer 2

In all the cases you mentioned, the arms must be supported from the shoulder, which more than implies the back as well.



(Those nano-relax moments are invaluable and should be taken, but some pieces just do not allow fully, or ever, resting the weight of the arm, via the finger, on the key.)



Without watching and hearing you, that is all I can and dare say. You should now ask this question about support from shoulders and back, since you now know what to ask, of your teacher.



best regards, petr b.

Answer 3

Even if you can only half-way perform the selections you list, and have an endurance problem, I would question the competency of your teacher(s): you should not have such a problem, if you've practiced properly. Get a new teacher?



Alberich