{"id":177,"date":"2019-06-11T06:35:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T13:35:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-01-13T13:01:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T21:01:16","slug":"eliminate-tension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/eliminate-tension\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Piano Chords Pain-Free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tension and even pain in the forearms, hands, and wrists are common complaints from piano players. While it is normal to experience some level of discomfort while we build up and develop our muscles as new piano players, it is NOT normal to experience pain. <\/span>So make sure you&#8217;re playing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/perfect-posture-at-the-piano\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">correct posture<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cassi has some great tips for you on how to eliminate tension, especially when it comes to larger chords. There are three main tips that you should implement into your regular routine to stay pain-free and play more beautifully.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<span class=\"blue-text-block\"><center><h2 style=\"font-size:22px\"><b>\ud83c\udfb9 Your Go-To Place for All Things Piano<\/b><\/h2><p>Subscribe to <i>The Note<\/i> for exclusive interviews, fascinating articles, and inspiring lessons delivered straight to your inbox. Unsubscribe at any time.<\/p><iframe class=\"email-form-include\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/weeklyemail\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/span>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Put Your Wrist To Work<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we play larger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/piano-chords\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chords<\/a> we require tension in our hands in order to keep the shape. A great way to practice this is by playing octave scales. As you play, think of&nbsp;PULLING the notes down at the wrist. Let your wrist do the work, not your fingers.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each time you release the note, lift your hand up completely, as if there is a marionette string lifting you by the wrist up off the keys. Completely relax the fingers so they resemble a mop and give them a little shake! Then continue on to the next octave in your scale.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<center><span class=\"blue-text-block\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2021\/Featured%20Box%20images\/Cassi%20Falk%20Piano%20Made%20Easy.jpg\"><center><h3 style=\"font-size:22px;\"><b>\ud83c\udfb9 Piano Technique Made Easy \u2728<\/b><\/h3><\/center><p>Technique is the foundation to piano playing. If technique has been holding you back from playing the songs you love, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/piano-technique-made-easy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Piano Technique Made Easy<\/a> with Cassi Falk. This course, free with your Pianote membership, will take you through all 12 major and minor keys as you master scales, arpeggios, chords, and more.<\/p><p><\/p><center><a class=\"join\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/piano-technique-made-easy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CHECK IT OUT<\/a><p><\/p><br><\/center><\/span><\/center>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Reduce The Pressure<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Oftentimes, after playing a note or chord we hold way more downward pressure than is needed to sustain the notes we\u2019ve just played. Check to see if you can relax some of that downward pressure once you\u2019ve played the notes while still pressing them down. You can also use your pedal to help with this so that you can get away with playing the notes and releasing them right away and allowing the pedal to do some of the work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Put Your Body Into It!<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use your body! We can use our WHOLE body when we play to get a bigger sound on the piano. You can lean in with your whole body rather than just using the force of your arms and fingers. It&#8217;s difficult to do this if you&#8217;re sitting too low, so make sure your piano bench or keyboard are adjusted to the right height.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Too much tension and discomfort can really be disheartening as a piano player. It can mean that we can&#8217;t play for as long as we want or as fast as we want. But it doesn&#8217;t have to be like that, and if you start using these techniques, you&#8217;ll develop a looser, faster technique that will keep you pain-free.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have fun practicing!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<iframe class=\"email-form-include-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/weekly-email\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feeling tension in your hands? Try these exercises to loosen up and play pain-free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[507,509],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chord-theory","category-technique"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10919,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/10919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}