relax?

[Anonymous]

relax
Weeks ago my sax teacher whilst observing me playing kept saying relax your hands, touch the keys more lightly.
I was gripping the keys like a pregnant woman gripping the bed rails!

A lot of it was tensing up concentrating more on not making a mistake than concentrating on enjoying playing the piece.

To me when someone says relax – it meant stop worrying now!
Actually relax – should mean physically relax the body, which starts in the mind.
This is the relax where all the muscles go limp!

So he had me go away for a week, and do the following:
Find the easiest piece of music i could play – one where i wouldn’t be distracted by making an error (hint .. greensleeves, happy birthday etc…)

Then let the arms and hands go completely limp and floppy – then try and play, touching the keys as light as possible. Very hard to do! Arms must be as limp as possible – this is physical relax!

Do this for a week he said – and i can assure that when you get back into to playing in front of someone and the piece gets difficult, drop into relax mode – and you will cruise it!

He learnt this from his ball room dance band playing days while playing with other saxophonists. He said everytime a difficult section came up all the experienced players became more laid back whereas he was tensing up. He couldn’t believe what they were doing!

Just thought i’d share this with the rest of the members!
Like wise if any of you have any tips – please share!!

I’ve found this helpful in my playing!
I actually think its brought out more if my tone!

[john]

good advice. for me it’s about confindence. if that hard passage is never truly worked out then you’ll never feel relaxed before playing it.

[Anonymous]

Hey – thats true! only last week i had forgotten how to play the durations of a dotted 1/4 note followed by an 1/8 th note!
He made me play that section 10 times! lol

[Author]

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