Hello everyone. I have been attending the conservatory for years and have been studying piano for a very long time; lately, I can no longer study properly, I easily lose concentration and I forget everything I study the next day, not to mention the fact that I stiffen my hand and create tension throughout my entire arm. In short, I don't know how to play anymore, and this demoralizes me. I believe the reason is that I no longer have a motive or an objective. Has anything like this ever happened to you? How do I overcome it?
musically, one must ascertain the reasons for this stiffness, which is, certainly, a symptom of understanding energy and technical development in an erroneous way. One should not detest oneself if one "resets" a little, perhaps by taking an easy piece and studying it according to new principles. I remember that in my (remote) past during my studies, I "unblocked myself" with the first of Cramer's 60 studies. That day, I surrendered to gravitation and my fingers finally endured this gravitation, assuming the position they wanted to have. With the aid of rotational movements and the coordinated participation of the large muscles, a remarkable speed emerged, and above all, a coordination of the two hands that were finally positioned on the main strong accents. Recently, I rediscovered these principles in a wonderful book by Monique Dechausser, a great pianist and great teacher, titled L'homme et le piano. Unfortunately in French, but easy to read. She indeed advocates for restarting from point-zero, where everything is tension-free, allowing us to know where the "bottom of the key" is. Energy comes not from the "gym" of muscular training, but rather from the ability to keep the small and large muscles, as much as possible, tension-free. I have applied these principles to various students, almost always with excellent results. Mozart himself used to say that for a pianist, the brain, the heart, and the fingers are important... note that the fingers are in last place. Piano technique cannot be developed in a healthy way without evaluating the mental aspect. Pure training does nothing but repeat movements, sometimes, without consciousness, and so it happens that after a day we sit at the piano and discover that very little or nothing of what we studied, or rather repeated, the day before remains.
Therefore, my suggestion, followed by a good Maestro, is to destructure a lot and start again with new and easy readings, applying new principles.
