Muscle cramps and Tendonitis

[Otto]

I've been playing the piano for over 50 years, and now have time to play and practise regularly. I have gone back to the Jeffrey Tankard exercises in his book piano technique on an hour a day.

I sit at the piano at the height I always have with curled fingers (holding an imaginary orange, as taught), but now have started to suffer with tendonitis in the forearms, resulting in treatable 'Tennis elbow'. I have also started getting cramps in my shoulders too.

I've been to a specialist who has referred me to a physiotherapist, and from her to a sports masseur who has taken me on with vigour. (Some times a bit too much vigour if you ask me!). The physio declares me free of Tennis elbow and the masseur is pleased with progress too. However it only takes 45 minutes of playing before I feel the whole thing beginning its return.

I could do with some professional advice about how to reduce the tensions of playing from someone who knows what they're talking about, and understands how to play and how not to play the piano from a mechanical point of view.

Has anyone any suggestions (I live between Swindon and Bath).

[Gill the Piano]

Find a teacher of Alexander Technique who either has a piano or will come and watch you at the piano and tell you what's going wrong. I have had several customers who panicked that their playing days were over/limited but who then found help from Alexander teachers.

[Barrie Heaton]

The is meant to be good reading
What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body, by Barbara Conable. : Andover Press, 1998.

We did have quite a few links on the old site regarding heath and playing the piano most are dead links – if you do find any good website let us know

we have some on here
http://www.uk-piano.org/resources-page/ ... /31-0.html

Barrie,

[Nyiregyhazi]

"I've been playing the piano for over 50 years, and now have time to play and practise regularly. I have gone back to the Jeffrey Tankard exercises in his book piano technique on an hour a day.

I sit at the piano at the height I always have with curled fingers (holding an imaginary orange, as taught), but now have started to suffer with tendonitis in the forearms, resulting in treatable 'Tennis elbow'. I have also started getting cramps in my shoulders too."

Can't offer you any physiogical advice, but from the point of view of the process of playing it sounds to me like you are 'holding' your hands above the piano rather than relaxing properly through them. I had a disgraceful, untaught technique based on severe tension for many years. I've gradually fixed it so I've thought about these things in a lot of detail. I'm very used to the feeling of what should NOT be done now.

I'm not sure if finger exercises are a good way to go (unless practised VERY slowly with full use of armweight). They often encourage the arm to be held up while the fingers operate. I'd use lateral movements (push the elbow out but keep the hand level) to ensure weight is properly applied through the weaker fingers especially. I'd avoid fast tempos for any of those and make sure the arm is always very heavy. There must be enough time for a feeling of total 'release' after every finger stroke (see the bit below about waving the arm around for a good way to work at this). A few years ago I wasted a lot of time and caused a lot of harm by practising Dohnanyi very badly, without arm-weight and trying to to force the fingers instead of 'tapping' them with relaxation. That was a hopeless exercise, but I may go back to some of them, now I have a better idea how to work. Any sense of urgency (which I felt at the time, because I was very concious of how much my technique needed to be improved) while practising removes all the benefit.

Forget holding an orange. That will strongly encourage you to 'hold' the hand in place which will cause tiredness. Curve the tips enough to support your weight on the finger without it buckling back and no more. I'd try practising exercises with five fingers depressing five notes all together (with arm-weight) and lifting the fingers one by one and slowly tapping the fingers back down. That's a good way to feel proper armweight while still using the fingers. Also, practising extremely slowly and waving the arm around (to help feel the weight resting on the finger) after EVERY single note is a good thing. I find if I am properly relaxed by wrist sinks very low down, a bit like how Horowitz plays. I don't personally agree with the traditional idea of a low wrist being bad. It should go where relaxation takes it. I'd try the exercise of holding notes with the wrist below the keys and with a fairly large surface area on the tip on the key (rather than just the part by the nail) but I wouldn't recommend actually bending the end joint backwards like Horowitz often does. You can practise this almost equally well when resting the hand on a table and tapping each finger lightly in turn.

Also, away from the piano you can practise holding your arms out and letting them fall freely to your sides. The arms must be every bit as heavy while playing, 100% of the time.

I'd also watch Volodos on youtube. He has the most perfect technique you'll ever see. I've never seen anybody who relaxes so much ALL of the time.

Anyway, hope this helps. I could demonstrate better in person, but I'm in Birmingham. I know from experience that even the best explanations don't necessarily help to get the 'feel' of what is required.

Andrew

[Otto]

Thnks for the advice everyone, I'll let you know about any progress.