When talking about piano performance, the famous Russian pianist Mr. Heinrich Negotz said, "When playing the piano, the freedom of body movement is complementary to the flexibility of music and spirit. If a pianist plays a If the music played sounds very rigid, then his motor organs must also be rigid, and the rhythm and music as the main body of the music will inevitably be out of shape.” The same is true for the guzheng. Relaxation is a state that requires attention to learn and play any musical instrument. Guzheng is an important lying-playing instrument among national musical instruments, and it has special emphasis and requirements on the posture and state of playing. Hanging shoulders and arms can be said to be a concise summary or synonym for relaxation in guzheng performance. In playing, hanging shoulders and arms is good for playing, while shrugging shoulders and raising elbows hinders playing.

We know that playing the piano requires finger strength, and the most direct contact with the strings is the fingers. However, the movement of fingers or finger joints alone may not produce good or touching music. Before learning or playing, we need to understand where the force from the fingers comes from, where it is transmitted, etc. This is the key issue of the teaching content. We might as well look at the relationship with guzheng playing from the structure of the entire arm. In the performance, we should not put too much emphasis on the fingers, but should take into account the functions and functions of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and other fulcrum parts of the entire arm, as well as the two important parts of the upper and lower arms. With coordination, we can play with ease and ease. The purpose of hanging shoulders and arms is to let all parts of the body relax naturally, making them a vital indirect part that affects performance.

In the process of playing the piano, the weight of our entire arm is fixed and will not change casually. However, the energy emitted by the arm can be controlled. These energies need to be released at the right time to assist in the playing, not to strain these areas through control or misuse. For example, in the movement of our shoulders, elbows, wrists and other parts, we send our fingers to the sound area to be played or a certain string. The acoustics produced by tapping and slapping the strings are quite different. During the performance, the shoulders, elbows, wrists and other parts play the role of rotating shafts, which can send the hand to the sound area or string position to be played in time.

Hanging shoulders and arms is the norm in guzheng performance, and does not refer to relaxation before playing, and it is not relaxed during performance. Relaxation refers to the relaxation in the state of movement, and in the performance, it is the unity of force and relaxation. The whole arm from the shoulder to the elbow to the wrist can be stretched freely with the help of force, not rigid. The relaxed state is more conducive to the movement of the hands, helping the fingers to touch the right string position at the right time, while the tense state will affect the quality of the music, the speed of playing, the change of the intensity, the elasticity and clarity of the sound And so on many aspects. Only in a relaxed state can there be no pressure and fetters, can the movement be flexible and free, and can play a sound that is light but not floating, real but not noisy. On the contrary, the performer does not relax enough, and still retains a relatively redundant state of tension. After a long time, there will be muscle fatigue and a state of stiffness, which will greatly reduce the quality of performance. Especially in the rapid performance of guzheng, whether it is the "quick four points" or "rushing" in the traditional genre, or the rapid fingering in modern zheng music, the height of the player's shoulders, elbows, arms, wrists and other parts is required. The coordination, cooperation and relaxation of the player are one of the important factors that affect the player's playing speed. For example, the traditional Zhejiang school song "Sihe Ruyi". From the point of view of fingering alone, this piece is nothing more than basic playing methods such as hooking, holding, and wiping, but the rating has not been lowered because of this. The music requires different timbres to be obtained by touching the strings with the right hand at different chord sections, and a series of combinations of hooking, holding and wiping fingerings can be completed briskly in the gradually increasing speed. Instead of just emphasizing finger force and joint movement. If you look at the sound string that should be smooth in isolation, and focus only on the playing of a single fingering and give up the coherence of the entire phrase, then the melody will fall into a rigid and blunt rut, giving people the feeling of being a pool of stagnant water and losing its vitality. If the fingers are driven and transported by various parts, they can touch different string segments with different strengths, and at the same time keep it smooth, then the music will be like the natural source of living water, bringing people into the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River. And how can this be done in a tense state? How can you do a good job of gradually pushing up the fast rhythm? Here, we should also get the following enlightenment: the performance of the music cannot be viewed in isolation, but these fingerings should be put into a system. Relaxation is the norm to ensure consistent, smooth playing.

I once remembered a college classmate who saw my stubby fingers and thought it was not a pair of hands that played the piano, but that the fingers that played the piano must be slender and slender. This is really nonsense. For playing the piano, the innate physiological conditions do not necessarily have to be much better. We also often see players with stubby fingers who can perform very well. Their movements and touching the strings are like walking freely on the strings, and they are free and light, which is largely due to relaxation. After all, in order to play the right string, in addition to the fingers, it also depends on the cooperation of other parts of the arm. The tension and stiffness of each part of the player's arm is ignoring each part of his body. It is a waste of resources that are not utilized. We often see some zither players jumping and playing with their forearms up and down. This is a big obstacle to the relaxation of the playing parts.

So, how to relax and maintain this state? The following points need to be noted:

First, choose the right zither stand and bench. The choice of seat is a more important issue. The optimal height of the bench is when people sit on the seat, put their hands on the strings, and the forearm is just parallel to the panel. The bench is too high or too short, which will affect the relaxation of a certain part of the body.

Second, self-awareness and conscious use. The music has pitch changes, and there are also low, medium and high-pitched areas in the performance. Therefore, each part is not fixed in a certain state, but can swing up and down, back and forth, and left and right. The change of the sound area and the intensity need to be adjusted accordingly. Players need to practice from slow to fast, and accumulate and experience through slow practice. In slow practice, combine the movements of various parts, and then try to speed up the practice, repeating the cycle.

Third, the use of correct methods and techniques. In ordinary live-finger etudes, the fingerings should not be viewed in isolation, but the sense of cohesion and coherence should be found. The application of movements should be analyzed in detail. In octave symmetrical progressive or die-forward exercises, the redundant movements should be minimized and the effort will be saved for the movement of the joints. For example, when playing four-point practice, you need to exclude the movement of jumping up and down. Instead, use the big and middle two fingers to adapt or maintain an octave distance, or the three string-strumming fingers are suspended above the strings to be played, and the small joints are raised to play and sound. If the forearm jumps up and down to play, if you play slowly, you can barely, but if you pick up the speed, you will see a state of panic, and the sound also lacks coherence. What's more, the guzheng has changed from a plucked instrument to a percussion instrument. However, it is also a four-point exercise, with a large span or a long distance, so we need to mobilize the shoulders, elbows, wrists and other parts to participate in the playing.

It should be noted that the state of relaxation in playing is a positive state, different from relaxation. During the relaxation, the muscles maintain a constant slight contraction, and the whole arm has a support for the performance from the shoulders. A state of "supportive tension". Complete relaxation is not beneficial to playing. Complete relaxation without muscle contraction is equivalent to relaxation. The forearm droops and has no support, which also destroys the basic posture of playing the zither. The education of guzheng cannot just stay at the level of instilling technique teaching. It is best to guide students in the process of studying music, help students solve technical problems, and let them understand the structure of muscles and the mechanism of movement, which is of great help to playing the piano. The most important thing in playing the piano is not to pay attention to how fast, but to keep the body relaxed and energetic.