Practicing piano like Stephen Curry practicing throwing three-pointers.

The reason for practicing tension and release on Piano.

Practicing piano like Stephen Curry practicing throwing three-pointers.

The reason for practicing tension and release.

The way that you respond to tension in music is very similar, if not the same, way your body and mind respond to tension in life. Although at the piano, we are creating the tension and observing how our body reacts because we are in control, we can calmly observe the uncomfortable, learn how to relax, and control it, because we are the ones controlling the tension and release.

You hold the tension for as long as you like; there is a natural tendency to resolve it rather quickly, and once one resolves it, the player will notice the feeling of relief. As tension fades away, the brain releases neurotransmitters that feel good.

In our brains, there is the concept of being alive and being dead. Tension is related to being dead or at least on the way there in ancient times, when a sabertooth tiger stood in the distance; that was tension. When he walked away or was killed, there was release or relief.

Our lymbic system, part of our ancient brain, cannot tell the difference between tensions. It can be real physical danger, it can be perceived danger (anxiety, worry, etc.).

In our case, it can be musical tension.

For music is the manipulator of emotion.

And in our case, we are the master manipulator. From that point of view, we can experiment with tension and release.

We can hold tension for longer than comfortable (in DBT, this is called tolerance distress), observe what is happening in the body and mind. Becoming aware is more than half the battle. Then, borrowing from cognitive behavioral therapy, we narrow the wide feelings of tension, putting aside its cause, and focus on the physical sensation. Because we can, in most ways, learn to relax, physical tension, which is a muscle or groups of muscles contracted, is a physiological response. This physiology gives us the bodily feeling of tension. Our minds put meaning, origin, and value to the tension, but to release attention, we have to know the meaning, origin, and value; we just have to be aware of the physicality.

A technique I developed in the three-branches system is to use your heart rate as the base rhythm to create the tension so that the vibration aligns with where your physical body is resigning at that point (think BPM).

At the piano, we are the masters of our destiny, and like a scientist, we freely experiment with varying degrees of experiencing tension and then the subsequent release (that is, if you choose to release, but not having a release leaves us feeling like we’re hanging off a cliff, or we forgot to say the men part Ahmen).

This directly translates into life away from the piano where we can use what we have observed and learned about our own bodies and minds at the piano in everyday life. We become aware of how our bodies react to stress (tension), become familiar with where our muscles are contracting contributing to the feeling of tension (worry, anxiety, dread, etc.), and now, by practicing how to relax, thereby relieving ourselves of that stress.

Think of the myriad of ways that could be useful in your everyday life. Waiting in line at the supermarket, getting stuck in traffic, having to listen to the less informed who happened to be in supervisory positions. Tell us what to do.

For improvisers, we are “managers of expectations.” Think of Beethoven’s fifth Symphony, but just recite in your mind the first seven notes, see what happens if you don’t recite the eighth (Da Da Da Dum, Da Da Da…).

And that simple phrase shows how Beethoven purposely establishes himself as a manager of our expectations. (We need the last DUM., to feel satisfied, relieved, released.)

Tension and release are one of the many universal laws that come into play in music. There are many, many other wellness and cognitive psychological techniques that can be put into use, in a similar way.

Piano becomes a tool, a pathway, to understanding how we feel on a regular day, be able to gain some control over that, and then you have the actual process of becoming a pianist, which requires parts of the brain to be active that are not in a normal daily routine. Thus, using parts of the brain that are unused is like working out muscles that you don’t usually use, but overall keeps you stronger and healthier for longer. (For example, if you go to the gym, how many people work out their rotator cuff muscles, yet that is a very common injury when the untrained are playing sports.)

We very much train like an elite athlete would train for his or her sport. Stephen Curry didn’t just happen to break the world’s record on throwing three-pointers; in fact, it is recorded that Stephen Curry threw 300 to over 500 three-pointer shots every day, never missing a day.

It comes down to muscle memory; we train on the piano like an athlete trains because most of the piano is physical. Once we dominate the physical part, we can, like Stephen Curry, throw three-pointers and turn away before the ball goes in the basket, knowing full well that it will.