How I Got Rid of Tension in My Hands (and What Actually Helped)
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In my youth, I practiced a lot physically.
Unfortunately, almost everything I heard from teachers came down to one thing:
play with “sharp”, “articulate” fingers.
In practice, this only led to one result —
increasing tension.
At the same time, the repertoire became more difficult each year,
and free playing, as they say, never really happened.
There was a feeling of a dead end:
you practice, you try —
but your body resists.
Where the main problem was
Over time, I began to understand that the problem was not “weak fingers”
and not that I “started too late”.
The problem was in the approach itself.
I was taught to play with the fingers —
but almost nothing was said about arm movement, balance,
or how the mechanics of playing actually work.
The turning point
At some point, I asked myself a simple question:
if there are pianists who play freely —
then it must be possible.
Which means it’s not about “special talent”,
but about principles.
I started searching.
I began paying more attention to additional movements of the arm,
experimenting, observing, analyzing sensations.
Gradually, a different quality of playing began to appear —
lighter, more natural.
My system of movements
As an adult teacher, I later systematized these observations.
This is how a system of “arcs” and additional arm movements emerged,
which in my course Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist I call:
— “roly-poly”
— “tumbleweed”
These are not “tricks”,
but an attempt to describe the natural mechanics of free movement.
An unexpected discovery
And here came an interesting moment.
One of my students told me about the Taubman approach.
When I started studying it, I realized that many of the things
I had arrived at through years of trial and error
had already been thoroughly researched about 100 years ago.
This was both surprising and logical.
Because this is not about a “method”,
but about the laws of movement.
What we are doing now
After that, we explored the Taubman approach in depth in Piano BAZA.
There is a dedicated topic with videos where everything is explained step by step —
from basic principles to practical application.
We also continue working on this within a broader context:
— technique
— movement organization
— releasing tension
— preparation for performance and concerts
An important idea
Tension does not go away on its own.
And it almost never disappears from “just practicing more”.
It goes away when the understanding of movement changes.
If you want to go deeper —
you can join here: