The rule of thumb is if your arms or hands are feeling very tense or even sore from playing, you are almost certainly doing something wrong. Some manageable tension may build in difficult works; it is inevitable. But stiffness or pain is a cardinal sign of incorrect technique. It's important to be sure your body is relaxed, not just to make fluid playing accessible, but also to avoid typical pianist injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Here is some basic advice to help you manage this.

The first order of business in your piano lessons is to be sure you are warmed up to the task at hand. Almost any piano student will be able to finger out Bach's sleepy Prelude in C rather comfortably on any occasion. But that is not the case with all works, such as the Bach Inventions or a rambunctious Liszt. Jumping to a performance that is not within a reasonable range of comfort is faulty training and potentially dangerous. When tension begins to set in in your piano lessons, regress to a less difficult piece. It may even be necessary to repeat it several times until you feel adequately limber. If you are feeling anxious about moving forward in your day's training, keeping in mind that performing pianists will endure a concert for an hour before unleashing a technical encore may help to put your mind at ease about giving your body sufficient time to warm up.

It's also critical to use gravity whenever possible. There is rarely a need to throw your arms or hands down by muscle. With chords, simply dropping your hands from a calculated starting height above the keyboard will suffice in almost any situation. Even the loudest dynamics can be achieved by a small person merely dropping his arm weight on the keys with his fingers. With serial note playing, your power should come from your shoulders and not your finger joints or knuckles. If you need to play a scale loudly, for instance, do not press the keys down hard with your fingers, but let the weight of your entire arm fall from your shoulder and elbow, to the appropriate degree, passing the down-pressure to your hands and fingers as a result. This will need a conscious effort on your part, and will become second nature with due practice.

Also, do not forget your waist. Reaching for that low octave with your right hand can be very strenuous. This strain can be alleviated entirely with a simple tilt of your torso. Don't be shy about moving your body around when you're playing the piano. In many pianists, this motion has manifested as more of a stylistic mannerism, which you may or may not find to be appropriate to your taste. But depending on the work, it may well be necessary in performing efficiently for both your audience and yourself just as well.

You must also be sure the work you are learning is the proper grade level for you. If the reality is that it's overly challenging, you may not be able to eliminate the arm tension at all simply because the amount of training you've had hasn't familiarized you with the piano sufficiently. This will usually be the case when you've warmed up for several hours and still exhibit much arm tension with that particular work. If this seems to be your situation, do not force yourself to perform the work! Concede to playing a slow rendition of it for a while or else return to it when you've acquired enough technique. This will be one of the most difficult things an ambitious piano student must face. But it is an unfortunate reality that should be taken seriously.

A pianist should always be aware of the tension building in his arms and make the correct effort to avoid it subsequently with relaxation techniques or economically release it during lulls. Consistent strain is absolutely one of the worst things a pianist can endure because it of what it will lead to. As a matter of fact, the nature of piano playing is the ideal catalyst for hand injuries because it is so repetitive and the damage done is anatomic, which is the most difficult to heal. You should make every effort to integrate relaxation with your training. Use this information as a starting point in doing so.