It has been probably seven or eight years since I last attended the Olds Kiwanis Music Festival. That year, Peter Jancewicz was the adjudicator for the advanced performers. After playing my piece, he did a little bit of spot work on some of the more complex sections where I tended to get tense while playing. One of the exercises he had me do was play very slowly and lightly with the idea, “See how easy it is to play those notes?”
It isn’t until all these years later that I actually fully understand the concept that Mr. Jancewicz was trying to present, I think. I had a student come to her lesson this past week. We had just learned about slurs and playing legato the week before; however, when she came back this week her normally very good technique and firm fingers had completely left her. She was concentrating so hard on playing legato that she was pressing the keys so hard that her fingers were buckling backwards at the joints and even turning white. And so I applied the theory Peter Jancewicz had explained so long ago.
We worked on making sure she was nice and relaxed to start. Before playing each exercise/line in a piece I had her take a deep breath, bringing her shoulders up to her ears, and exhale, dropping her shoulders into a relaxed position while still sitting tall. Next we made sure that her wrists were level with the keys. Lastly, we started playing the music. I had her concentrate on playing slowly and softly. It worked. Her fingers were nice and firm again while playing relaxed and legato.
~ Ms. Natashia
