Now, let your arm go completely limp and drop into your lap.

First, face away from the piano and hold your arms out as if you had the keyboard in front of you. Instead, learn to use gravity and the natural weight of your arm to do most of the work for you. Tension can creep in when a pianist relies too much on individual finger strength to press the keys. As you play, pretend your hand is very lazy and you want to barely do any work, just the absolute minimum to get the job done. Now, without changing the relaxed shape of your hand, set your fingertips on the piano keyboard. Your fingers will naturally curve into a rounded shape. To get the correct relaxed hand shape for playing the piano, let your arm hang loose at your side. Much of the problem with straight or raised fingers comes from tension in the hand. If this is a challenge for you or your child, here are some hints for developing relaxed hands and fingers at the piano. Fingers often want to straighten out or even fly up while playing. One of the most challenging things for a beginning pianist is keeping the fingers relaxed and curved on the keys.

Holding onto you piano notes