By Jonathan Brahms
By "holistic", I mean that the hands are part of a system, the entire body, and reducing tension in the hands cannot be done without taking the entire system into account.
The hands are the final link in a chain that begins with good (upright) posture. You can't address tension in the hands without addressing tension in the neck, back and arms.
Nonetheless, playing with relaxed hands should not be our goal, because not only is it is an unrealistic goal, it is an impossible goal.
Is a hitter in the batter’s box relaxed?
Is a runner on the blocks waiting for the starter’s gun relaxed?
Is a quarterback winding up to throw a pass relaxed?
Is a ballerina in the midst of thirty-two pirouettes relaxed?
Certain of their body parts are relatively relaxed -
Certain of their body parts are relatively contracted.
The same goes for us.
We cannot play with a totally relaxed embouchure any more than we can play with totally relaxed abdominal or embouchure muscles, so why try to play with "relaxed" hands?!
If we were truly "relaxed", we would drop the flute.
We employ muscle contraction in our arms, shoulders and wrists in order to press the flute into the chin with the left hand.
We employ muscle contraction to keep the right thumb rigid and the right pinky pressing downwards most of the time.
Every time we lift or lower a finger, we ask our muscles to contract because when muscles contract, a certain degree of tension is created, hopefully followed by a certain degree of relaxation.
It is only when the fingers slam the keys or move jerkily or too much that there is a problem - but that problem may not be originating in the hands themselves.
Let’s clear up the issue of terms. Stress and tension are words that carry heavily negative connotations these days. Instead, let’s use relaxation and contraction.
Let’s also establish that while playing, we are never totally relaxed, nor are we frozen with contractions except perhaps very briefly. Most of the time, we are somewhere in the middle.
Muscular activity is dynamic, which means it changes. It is not unchanging or static.
No one is in favor of stress and tension in flute-playing, however playing the flute is an athletic activity that requires that many muscles do a great deal of work.
Let’s not make that bad!
It seems to me that our goal should be utilizing the right amount of tension and isolating tension where it is needed, not eliminating it, which is impossible.
Our daily work is to find balance by distributing tension to where it is needed so we can eliminate it from where it hinders us.
We don't hold the flute, we balance the flute. If you are using your fingers to hold the flute, they can't be free to move quickly and freely.
Remember, the flute is like a lever or a playground see-saw. If you are pushing outwards with your right hand/thumb (if the tip of your right thumb is pointing away from you), if you are pressing towards yourself with your left hand and if your chin is acting as the fulcrum of the lever, your fingers will be free to move most easily.
- The flute is difficult to play for a number of reasons:
- Unlike the piano, the cello or the contra-bass, it is held while it is being played.
- Unlike the bassoon, it offers no possibility of a neck strap.
- Unlike the clarinet or oboe, if offers no thumb rest.
- Unlike those two, it is played to the side, not in front.
- Unlike the violin, it cannot be held in place by the head, freeing the hands to race around.
These facts of flute life are all causes for tension.
Yet, like all other musicians’ hands, our fingers have different lengths, strengths, weights and degrees of agility - but we are expected to play evenly most of the time.
Among other reasons, this is why the metronome must be used - to slow down the freer, stronger fingers, to speed up the weaker, less agile ones. We would certainly indulge our weaknesses and probably not even perceive them without the external objectivity it provides.
It is more difficult to distribute positive tension in the hands because there are so many small muscles, so close to each other, doing so many different things, but that is the challenge. At least we already have achieved a great deal of coordination using our hands before we ever touch a flute.
It is also useful to keep in mind that when we practice or build a new or better habit, we are "breaking in" the brain more than the body because the brain tells the body what to do.
That is why absolute, total and complete concentration is required when we "program" ourselves – so that the good habits take charge when we are under the stress of performance. Eventually, our muscles become agile enough to do what the brain wants them to do, but in order to form good habits, the mental work comes first.
Are there exercises to help relax the hands?
I would venture that there are no exercises for reducing tension in the hands - however, there certainly are many passages that require your hands to be relaxed in order for you to do them well, evenly or at a good tempo.
It doesn't matter which exercises we do, what matters is how we do them, so you can use anything - as long as you are conscious of what is happening with your hands - and the rest of your body.
Before focusing on your hands or fingers as the source of a problem, I suggest you re-think more basic matters and you may find that your hands reflect that re-thinking.
A few suggestions and ideas to help create the best conditions for your hands to function:
- If you are having trouble with a technical passage, before you try to solve it with by working with your fingers, stand up straight, lift your head and try playing with the flute either parallel to the ground or higher than usual.
- Before and during practice, soak your hands in warm water to help relax them.
- Stand or sit straight, with head up in a normal position
- Keep your shoulders down and relaxed
- Keep elbows pretty much pointed downwards
- Use the metronome - slowly - helps hands relax too
- Squeeze the keys, don’t whack them
- A line formed by the top of your forearm and the back of your hand should be fairly straight, not angled at the wrist. This helps prevent tension in the forearms. An angled wrist stretches the ligaments.
- While holding the flute, fingers in place, slowly extend your arms straight out, then return the flute to your chin, then straight up, then back to your chin, then straight down, and back to your chin. This will ease some of the tension in your forearms and should be done whenever you feel tension.
The Grupetto Exercise
This exercise could be used for relaxing tense hands. It promotes finger independence and gets them loosened up for work.
This is an extremely flexible exercise. It can be done in many ways.
A grupetto is an ornament that starts from a note and goes above it, back down to it, below it and returns to the first note, a total of 5 notes, 6 if you include the destination note. In English, it is called a turn (A turn for the better, we hope :-0).
Grupetti (plural) can be played chromatically - whole tone grupetti also work, as do grupetti within a given key, which means both whole and half steps above and below.
In this exercise, grupetti can be even or dotted, on the beat or before the beat.
Chromatic grupetti would be best for tense hands, because for the most part, fewer keys and fingers are used to move by half steps, so finger independence is developed.
Work in tritone segments, starting from the middle of the flute, progressing both downwards and upwards alternately, finishing at B1 and B4, ascending and descending from both
My Sequence: F2-B3, F2-B2, B2-F1, B3-F3, F1-B1, F3-B4.
First I "sculpt" the turn very slowly, then I play it faster, using a metronome for one beat per group of five notes, linking them in a chromatic scale with a turn per scale degree.
I am up to about 108 per 5 in the easiest areas. Obviously, the highest notes and the passages involving the LH4, RH3 or c1/B1 will be harder and slower at first.
Again, this exercise cannot "make you" relax your hands, but you cannot do it well – fast and smoothly - unless you are using your whole body and hands correctly.
You must have "soft" knuckles to do this exercise, with fingers either upon or fairly close to the keys.
An additional benefit of playing grupetti evenly is that you learn to play groups of 5 comfortably.
More ideas:
Chromatic scales will do very well, but also consider:
Learning "The Flight of the Bumblebee" to performing level perfection - because it is so chromatic, it really forces you to find the best hand position. It is a great encore too!
Learning the "Perpetuum Mobile" from Jean Francaix's "Divertimento" for Flute & Piano for the same reason - it is made up of chromatic groups of 5 even notes that require absolutely relaxed fingers because the groups must be totally even.
Keeping fingers closer to the keys is hard if you haven't started flute that way. Many fine players do not do this, so it is not absolutely necessary to play beautifully – but it helps save time!
In order to achieve this, play simple, short things slowly, in front of a mirror, using a metronome and one beat per note, trying to keep your fingers on the keys whether the key is up or down.
It does not matter what you play, as long as it is so simple that you are able to think of your hands and nothing else. Just make sure that your foundation is solid too - posture, balancing the flute, natural head position - and you will increase your chances to improve your fingers.
Wait a while to play difficult/fast things. Give it plenty of time, but a little bit every day will be more helpful than a lot every so often.
Jonathan Brahms
