Change One Thing, Change Everything

 

As I've written about in my previous posts, the issue of fear and anxiety plays a large role, unfortunately, for many students of the piano. If you are attempting to play music of any complexity, there is likely to be some level of struggle, and this creates stress, or at least, some unease.

However, it doesn't work to just tell someone, "don't worry" or "relax." The body has it's own responses to cues from the subconscious mind, and trying to change that with the "thinking" part of the mind doesn't usually work. In my teaching, I try to find another way "in," and by that, I mean into the subconscious.

With three of my students in particular (all adults), I am discovering ways to help them play better by changing their level of tension. 

With the first, I noticed that whenever he was anxious about an upcoming passage in the piece (which was a lot of the time), he would tighten his mouth, pressing his lips together. So I asked him to play with his mouth just slightly open when he played. Sure enough, when he got to that difficult passage, it went much smoother. Coincidence? No, I don't think so. By changing just one of the body's responses to stress, it changed the total level of stress.

With the second student, his reponse to stress was in his leg. He would tense his leg and lift the heel off the floor. I asked him to become aware of it and see if he could keep his leg resting on the floor. Again, his playing went much easier that way. It's best if the person can feel what they are doing by becoming more aware, and make the change themselves. However, when I gently put my foot on his and prevented it from tensing up, it helped him become aware.

The third student, my most advanced student, is playing Chopin, Schumann, Debussy and so on. She has been with me for 10 years. I've always noticed that when she plays she has a tendency to grimace. Her mouth tenses up in a particular way. To look at her, you would think she was not enjoying her playing much at all! But this is not the case; she loves the piano and the music she is playing, but her subconscious is still quite anxious about it. For a long time I didn't want to mention it, because I was concerned it would make her self-conscious and add to her stress. But recently I decided to give it a try. I've asked her to smile while she plays. At first she felt quite silly with a big grin on her face. Not surprisingly, she can't yet maintain the smile for very long before the grimace returns. It has only been two weeks since we started this, and so for someone like her who has been playing for decades, it may be a while before we see changes. But I am convinced that changing her particular stress response will help her playing, and possible even add to her enjoyment of it.

Traditional methods (and teachers) that concentrate wholly on "learning the notes" will never even notice these manifestations of stress, or think that they matter. But they do matter. You may want to have energy and even intensity when you play, but not stress and tension. Sometimes when you are struggling with something (in life, as well as at the piano), you may need to look at something that at first glance may seem unrelated, but turns out to be the key to unlock the door you have been banging your head against. Sometimes, changing one thing changes everything.