I can sit at the piano and play _forte_ for three
hours at a time and not feel the least fatigue in hands and arms.
Furthermore, the playing of one who is relaxed, who knows how to use his
anatomy, will not injure the piano. We must remember the piano is a
thing of joints; the action is so delicately adjusted that it moves with
absolute freedom and ease. The player but adds another joint, which
should equal in ease and adjustment the ones already there. On the other
hand a person with stiff joints and rigid muscles, thumping ragtime on a
good piano, can ruin it in a week; whereas under the fingers of a player
who understands the laws of relaxation, it would last for many years.
"This principle of relaxation is exemplified in the athlete, baseball
player, and others. They have poise and easy adjustment in every part of
the body: they never seem to fall into strained or stiff attitudes, nor
make angular or stiff movements. Arms, shoulders, wrists and fingers are
all relaxed and easy. The pianist needs to study these principles as
well as the athlete, I believe in physical exercises to a certain
extent. Light-weight dumb-bells can be used; it is surprising how light
a weight is sufficient to accomplish the result. But it must be one
movement at a time, exercising one muscle at a time, and not various
muscles at once.
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