(20) Endurance, Brain Stamina

Piano playing requires control, not muscle power. Many students and even some teachers, believe that technique requires finger strength, which is wrong. One day, Combe grabbed my hand, squeezed it, and said, "See, my hands are strong because I am a pianist." That squeeze was no stronger than an average handshake. I have an unusually strong handshake, probably strong enough to break her hand, but that has nothing to do with piano skills.

Obviously, you can't play loud, grandiose passages without expending energy. Big, strong, pianists can play louder and manage "demanding pieces" more easily than weaker pianists. All pianists have enough physical stamina to play pieces at their levels, simply because of the practice that was required to get there. Yet we know that endurance can be a problem.

Playing demanding pieces requires about as much energy as a slow jog, at about three miles per hour for adults, with the brain requiring about half the total energy. Many youngsters cannot jog continuously for over one mile. Therefore, asking youngsters to practice difficult passages continually for 20 minutes would strain their stamina because it would be equivalent to jogging about a mile. Teachers and parents must be careful when youngsters start their piano lessons, to limit practice times to under 20 minutes in the beginning until the students gain sufficient stamina.

Piano playing requires conditioning the brain for stamina. That is why mindless practicing of exercises for stamina doesn't work. The most efficient ways to gain piano stamina are to play finished pieces and make music, and practice difficult sections HS continuously. Again using the jogging comparison, it would be hard for most students to practice difficult material continuously for more than a few hours because two hours of intense practice would be equivalent to jogging six miles, which is a terrific workout. Therefore, play some easy pieces between the intense practice sessions. Concentrated practice sessions longer than a few hours are not that helpful until you are at an advanced level, after you have developed sufficient stamina. Clearly, hard piano practice is strenuous work and serious practicing can put the student in good physical shape.

Conditioning the brain is more important than conditioning the muscles for most students because evolution has programmed the brain to be lazy in order to conserve energy. This is why so many students prefer to separate music from technique and work for technique by using exercises and mindless repetitive practices. This is counter-productive because (1) the brain is not exercised, (2) you develop non-musical habits, and (3) you can waste a lot of time. Brain conditioning is especially important for performing because, without sufficient stamina, you can rapidly run out of energy during a performance. Strenuous conditioning of the muscles can lead to stress and cause the body to convert fast muscles to slow muscles that have more endurance, but this is exactly what you do not want.

For long practice sessions of over several hours, pianists get their second wind just as athletes do (such as marathoners, cyclists). Therefore, if you feel fatigue, don't immediately conclude that you lack stamina, but look for the second wind to kick in – awareness of the second wind can make it kick in more reliably, especially after you have experienced it and know what it feels like.

In order to control stamina, we need to study its biological basis. We need sufficient oxygen intake, efficient disposal of carbon dioxide, and adequate blood flow. The biggest factor influencing oxygen intake is lung efficiency, see (19) Breathing, Swallowing.

Another method of increasing stamina is to increase the amount of blood in the body. To achieve this, you must simultaneously exercise the muscles and the brain during practice. This will cause the body to manufacture more blood, in response to the higher demand for blood. For anemic people, their brains will rebel (they feel uncomfortable) when there is insufficient blood and the pianist will feel better just practicing mindless exercises, which is the main reason for the popularity of exercises and the tendency to separate music from technique. But they are not helpful because you can shut off the brain.

Practicing piano or exercising after a large meal also increases the blood supply and conversely, resting after every meal will reduce stamina. There is a well-known Japanese saying that you will turn into a cow if you sleep after a meal. Experience had taught them that you will become anemic and lazy if you sleep after a meal. With a full stomach, most people do not have enough blood to engage in strenuous activity, and the body will rebel initially by making you feel terrible, but this is an expected (evolutionary) reaction. Such activity must be conducted within safe medical limits; for example you may temporarily experience digestive problems or dizziness (which is the rationale behind the misguided belief that you should never exercise after a large meal). Once the body manufactures the necessary extra blood, the discomfort will disappear. You should stay as active as you can after a meal, in order to prevent anemia. Clearly, good health, exercise, and sports are helpful for gaining stamina in piano playing. That comfortable sofa may be the single worst cause of poor health in modern society.

The brain must be exercised all the time by making music, especially during practice. Play as if you are performing, so that anyone listening to you practice will enjoy the gorgeous piano sound. Without brain stamina, the brain will run out of energy during a performance and you will end up playing on auto-pilot — not what you want.

In summary, beginners who have never touched a piano will need to develop their stamina gradually because correct piano practice is strenuous work even when playing easy material, relaxed, because of the musical requirements of the brain. Parents must be careful about the practice time of very young beginners, limit their practice time to less than 20 min., and help them to develop the habit of always practicing musically. At any skill level, we all have more muscle than we need to play the piano pieces at our level. Even professional pianists who practice over 6 hours every day don't end up looking like Popeye. Franz Liszt, Chopin and Paganini were quite thin, not muscular.