While the world is accusing Russia of attacking Ukraine these days and the daily news coverage is mostly focused on this issue, almost everybody has forgotten about the considerable achievements that have been gained by Russians in the sciences, literature, music, ballet, theater and other fields. One of the essential effects of Russian culture has surely been on musical aspects, from historic composers to notable performers and impressive teaching methods as well. If you play piano or at least know a pianist, you have certainly heard of the Russian method of playing piano which has been radically changing the viewpoints of playing and teaching piano from the late nineteenth century until now. This article describes the fundamentals of this performance system and its accomplishments through the years.

Before Russian music methodologists unveiled their approach, which has been resulting in beautiful sounding, accurate articulation, conveniently improving techniques, playing in comfort, painless practicing and the longest performance life ever, there were also some other methods that were focusing on achieving advanced techniques only. Therefore, the Russian method has definitely been the first to pay attention to players anatomy and postures which set the stage for “relaxation,” the most essential pillar of the method. The contributing factors and the effects of relaxation on performance and player health have been mentioned in the following paragraphs.

As previously mentioned, the most significant fundamental rule of this method, on which the entire instruction of player postures is founded, is relaxation. In fact, by avoiding tension in the shoulders, upper arms, elbows, forearms, wrists, hands and fingers, the weight of the body flows and reaches the fingertips which transmit the weight to the piano keys. This process needs full concentration and systematic practices to achieve a completely free-tension mechanism which is the golden aim of this method. To fulfill this aim, the shoulders should be absolutely down and relaxed; the upper arms, elbows and forearms should be hanging and free to move; and the wrists need a minimum of power to be in line with the hands and behind the fingers. Obviously, the key board does not seem to be convenient for human hands in all the positions since the whole keys have been equally set in a row, but according to anatomy, human fingers are not of the same length and strength, and the fact is they will never be. Consequently, hands and fingers ought to be in natural shape, but four longer fingers also need to be curved to get the same level of ability to evenly play the keys. There is a famous saying in Russian method instructions that goes, “Do not play the piano with your fingers,” which may completely be misunderstood as not using your fingers, but it directly refers to employing the entire mechanism and playing with the weight of the body instead of using your fingers muscles.

The healthiness of the player has always been a considerable topic among all musicians, since performing music is first and foremost a physical activity that includes various mechanical actions done by different parts of the body that need care. Due to inconvenient methods of playing the piano, pianists are at risk for various common injuries as tendonitis, tenosynovitis, CTS (carpal tunnel syndrome), focal dystonia, bursitis, and so forth. Since the Russian method recommends a relaxed mechanism and minimum use of muscles, in practice, it protects the players from injuries and diseases related to piano playing and extends their career; for instance, the last concert of the legendary pianist “Sviatoslav Richter” was held when he was eighty years old.

Human muscles may be well improved by working out and practicing, but we are never able to control them in an exact way which is highly needed in music; meanwhile, passing our weight to the piano and not attacking the keys from above with our fingers leads to outstanding control over the weight we put in the key, and that determines how exactly loud the tone is. Therefore, the sound produced by the Russian method has a beautiful potency range that is able to aesthetically enrich the entire piece of music and make it more internal and emotive.

By and large, the Russian method of playing piano has given musicians relaxation in mind and body, accuracy in performance and wellbeing as well. It is really worth mentioning that the method is fortunately employed not only by Russian pianists but also by numerous pianists all over the world.