This must be the most important lesson in piano : once you get this, it makes the rest really easier.

Wow, I've had this issue with tension for years, and after scouring all of KZfaq I found that this is the first video with amazing advice that was explained in such a simple and concise manner. Thank you Mr. Zhdanov for the best video on piano technique out there!

Seeing your wife play Chopin's 'the bees' etude at the age of 8, both killed my self-esteem & motivated me to practice! 😂💞

Wow 👏👏👏 Your wife must be an amazing musician 🤗 Looks like she was such a cute, smart, fun and hurd working girl Adorable 😇

One of the best technique videos I've seen.

To point out the connection between tension and 'feeling anxious' is so good. I had not thought about it before... So simple, and understandable

I love your sense of humor.

I have also had this issue with tension since forever, I ended up "breaking" my tendons and it was one of the main reasons to stop playing in the first place. Your videos are so helpful, I am so glad I have found you today. I also love that you mention two women (your wife and Argerich) as role models. That's such an inspiration, thank you!

I had been wondering for the past 5 years why my left shoulder always got tense, with Alberti bass, and also when there are lots of chords on the left hand; everything felt filmsy and uncorfotable in an umpredictable way, especially when you have patterns with a third between fingers 3 and 5. Your first tip seems to be the first approach that seems to truly help here (hope tomorrow will work too). This excercise for the elbows is a treasure! Thank you for sharing it!

Just found out you can copy the subtitles of a video and print it... great for studying. Click on the 3 dots right next to share, download, thanks, Clip, Save" below the video -> show transcript, click on "..." and remove timestamps so you can mark the text with holding left click. Badoom! Thanks for the video, it's some really good advice 😁

I'm so excited!!😭😭 I tried what you said and my left hand has finally experienced no tension for the first time!!! My hand doesn't hurt after I play anymore.

Best video for playing without tension! Thank you!

Nice video. Interesting to see the crossover between relaxed techniques in piano and sports, including martial arts.

Grande pianista e docente eccezionale. Grazie Maestro.

Hi Denis! Great tips! BTW Marta Argerich is a world famous Argentinian pianist! Thanks and greetings from Argentina!

Very sensible and explained extremely clearly.

i had played piano for more than 10 years, in this extremely tensed manner. My piano teacher always told me to add more strength when hitting the notes, and do the lift when moving away from the keys. I actually don't care about the pain/fatigue caused by the tension. But the worse thing is that, with tension I get very uneven notes, which is a huuuuuuge problem. The harder I try, the more uneven the notes get, which is extremely frustrating. I actually stopped playing piano for almost 10 years, at least partly due to the frustration. I want to thank you for making this video and for sharing your experience generously. I come to realize that for more than 10 years I played the piano in a wrong way, or at least I realize that there is more than one way to play the piano. I have a question about the hand posture. My teacher told me to place my hands on the piano with the posture that my palms are far away from the keys (i.e., place my palms higher rather than close to the keys). But I guess this posture actually creates tension. What is the right way to put hands on the piano? Thank you very much!

Great advice! I would like to add that when you learn to relax those unused muscles, you will be less prone to injuries such as tendonitis. Also when relaxed, the tone of the instrument sounds much smoother. I won't name any names, but I have seen many famous world class concert pianists (way, way way better than me) with the tone of a banging jack hammer because they don't or can't relax.

Just great! Thanks!

This was lovely thankyou for this lesson

Thank you!

Excellent

Thank you !!

very good. thank you.

To be honest, if I could play at that speed with some tension, I wouldn't care. However, excellent advice and I'm going back to the drawing board and going to play slower without tension. Although very few great pianist have zero tension and in the end it's the output. We should strive to a tension free playing but if you've reached a high standard with little tension, so you still have tension but little, then I wouldn't get bogged down with being perfect and zero tension.

Great lesson! Thanks!

Brilliant…thank you

Thanks!

Thank you so much !

Thank you, very good

Great video! Underrated channel

Thank you kindly.

Very important life saving tips! Thanks.

Perfect Tipps.🥰👍

Great video!

Wonderfull video! And very usefull Denis, thanks ❤

Thank you so much. I will put those technics to work

You did an absolutely great job. Thank you.

Bravo! Мне очень понравилось!

Very useful clues! Thanks!

One of the best videos I have seen on the explanation and breakdown on good piano technique. Thank you .

thanks to this video most problems playing fast have been resolved. thanks so much.

Thank you very much, Denis! I will work on the points you made, in addition to the extra boost from subscribing to your channel 😄Congratulations on recovering from your hand difficulties, and I really appreciate your sharing your valuable learnings with us.

What a good video

Bedankt

awesome

This has helped me greatly with Chopin Etude Op 10 No.1, Thank you so much!

The tip nomber one: Think what to play next on playing the present note.

Well, if laziness really is the key to success….I’m set for life

Чудове заняття і поради!

Wonderful advice and demo. Your comment about remembering that comfortable feeling from slow playing is very insightful

currently in pain from practicing chopin op 10 no 2 and 12 . i cant thank you enough. just when i think i can play it as a certain tempo it is only partly true. i need to wait a couple more practice sessions patiently before i can actually play it with the same TENSION FREE playing as me playing it slow.

inspiring

i tried to learn op 10/1 but tension is a real killer... hopefully this video can help me make a breakthrough. there's lots of info here i haven't heard before. great video

Denis, your lesson to professionals and amateur players means to me that we should not learn how to use fingers to hit the piano, but learn how to remove them from the keys...) Well, it is an interesting instruction, and I get a sense about it, but it reminds me a bit about the swimmer who instructs the non-swimmers watching to just do what he is doing. They may drown though. For the swimmer it often is not imaginable that someone cannot swim. My experience is that before things become light and effortless, it is work -- even if enjoyable -- that still requires hundreds, if not thousands of hours of practice. Was there not this saying that to become master of anything, you need to invest 10000 hours of practice? What does it mean? Someone practicing one hour per day would need 10000 days. So he/she would be practing over 27 years -- not leaving one day untouched... oh wow... I will never reach the goal as I would even live that long. ))) -- but may be, as you promise, we can cut short? And also, I think, one has to develop the mind for the touch, the hand movement, the rhythm, the melodies, the harmonies, the intervals, the structure of a piece, the details of expressions.... Fingers, ellbowes, arms and wrists and the whole body follow. A relaxed mind will produce a relaxed play. A tense mind can never achieve it. Entering a dark room, eyes need to wide open, and only with time, you will see the different parts of the interior of such room. But it is also true, to my understanding, that there is a two-way relationship between body and mind. The mind is influenced by the playing, and the play is influenced by the mind. The mind needs something concrete to develop, and at the same time be able to detach itself from the action of playing. In the end, in the ideal, there is a very calm mind watching action without being involved in the action itself. Maybe it sounds a bit paradox? So, as I understand, to learn how to release tension, how to actually remove fingers from the keys, is a universal principle, even though with "learning" we usually associate tension. Maybe it is neither this nor that? It is just this slip in between? It is between doing and not doing? So, my deep thank-you for sharing your experiences. You playing really looks great and effortless, and it sounds how it should sound: muscial and beautiful. It is enjoyable to watch and I am thinking how to use it for myself and hope other do too. Waiting for more... ))) 🙂

Thank you 🙏 I really needed this lesson, My fingers keeps getting “jammed” when i try to play fast.

Lehrreiches Video! Klar , deutlich und mit Humor erklärt. Mir gefällt der analytisch-technische Approach, der sehr hilfreich ist.

lack of hand flexibility seems to be one stumbling block for relaxed playing as any stretch to reach notes makes the inflexible hand work harder to spread out. Gaining more flexibility will eventually help in playing with less tension. But also working on finger independent control avoid firing muscles that are not needed required years of conscious practice for me.

Tips on piano hand recovery ???

Hi Denis! 😊

❤️

hi great video, may i ask should the pinky be straight or curved? my teacher says it should be straight all the time

Can you explain what you are playing? I want to learn that scale you are playing?

Прекрасный урок, спасибо! Денис, в Вашей "школе волка" (:D) нет урока как играть четырёхголосные аккорды шестнадцатыми или даже тридцать вторыми не перенапрягая руку и не уставая?

Hello Denis. I have a problem of stuck in the keyboard fifth finger when i take fourth.I do not remove fifth properly and it sounds second. I do not know if you recorded any video about it, if not please could you make video about it and how to rework this problem? ❤❤❤

5:45 with that mouth movement looks like a Yuja Wang impression :)

milion dolar question!!! :))) how Horowitz could play with that flat fingers? he uses lot of finger motions im sure you now it:)) of course he had very special grand piano with very light keyboard but still..?( or even Gould? p.s very usefull video ❤️

Tension is my final boss.

Good video Denis what do you say to this 10000 hour question. That you become an expert at 10000 hours practice?

5:45 😂😂😂

What if I have a very fast passage and I have to lift my finger before the key? What do I do then? I can't just wait for the key to get up with my finger?

Your videos are fantastic Denis. Thank your for your great effort. I am curious now: who is your wife, if I may ask? Viele Grüße aus München!

This is literally the most difficult piano technique

Ich habe die 1000 gemacht 😀

Should u do this if ur practicing Hanon?...i started playing at age 43 Got 8 1/2 yrs playing so far

posture of expansion that is it.

25/2 at age of 8? Unbelievable!

Ofcourse you can’t say she was not lol

Олег Жданов случайно вам не родственник? тот что военний експерт