Warming up wisely

Athletes don't start with a sprint. Neither do pianists: the forearm and hand muscles, and the tendons sliding through the wrist, work better once warmed up. Warming up doesn't mean exhausting exercises: it means gently waking up your whole body and switching on your ears.

1. The body, away from the keyboard (2 minutes)

• Shoulders: lift them towards your ears as you breathe in, let them drop as you breathe out. Five times.
• Slow shoulder circles, backwards, then forwards.
• Dangling arms: standing, let your arms hang and shake them gently, as if shaking off water.
• Neck: slowly tilt your head to one side then the other, without forcing.
• Hands: run them under warm water in winter, rub them together; open them wide, then gently close into a soft fist.

2. At the keyboard: long, slow sounds (3 minutes)

Place each finger on a key, let the weight of the arm drop (see arm weight), listen to the sound until it dies away, release. Then play this contrary-motion exercise very slowly, with a round tone:

M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=60
K:C
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] C D E F | G F E D | C4 |]
[V:LH] C, B,, A,, G,, | F,, G,, A,, B,, | C,4 |]

3. A gradual build-up (5 minutes)

1. Slow scales, hands separately, piano then mezzo forte.
2. Slow arpeggios, looking for wrist flexibility.
3. Placed chords, releasing completely between each one.
4. Only then: fast passages, forte, octaves.

Warm-up and listening

Use the warm-up to listen: the evenness of the notes in a scale, the equality of the fingers, the quality of the legato. An autopilot warm-up warms the fingers but not the attention.

Your routine

Build your 10-minute routine and keep it stable: 2 minutes of body work, 3 minutes of long sounds, then a slow scale and arpeggio from the generator. You can also use contrary motion (contrary-motion scales), which is very symmetrical and comfortable for both hands.