The great principle in piano playing - relaxation - is what I seek most indefatigably to inculcate in my pupils. By relaxation I do not mean flabbiness or the tendency of some pupils to flop all over the piano. Relaxation signifies control, and it affects the mentality for the pianist no less than his fingers, hands, and arms. The tension under which so many players labor is dreadful. It is seen even in the muscles of the neck and face. Too few pupils can be made to understand that relaxation is achieved through a mental process. It is really mental relaxation: one has to think it. It has to be in the mind first before it can be worked in the arms, hands, and fingers. We have to think it and then act it. The basis of all playing is sensible relaxation. At the keyboard the body must be in a such a state that it will always respond to the commands of the mind. This is best accomplished through controlled relaxation. With a rigid forearm, fingers working like hammers, and a hand bobbing up and down like a butcher's cleaver, the tone colors are so lacking in variety, so hard and unengaging, that it is a marvel to think that such a school of instruction could ever have been supremacy for so many years. The tone colors are all in the arm - the relaxed arm. Actually, relaxation means to loosen just where needed and nowhere else. The secret of power lies in relaxation; or, I might say, power is relaxation. It is through relaxation that I am able to play for hours without the slightest fatigue.Teresa Carreno
