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Topic: Pain after restarting piano practice after a 25 year break!  (Read 1898 times)

Offline hammershank

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I hav restarted practicing as an adult, having not played for a long time, and I am noticing that I am getting some wrist/joint/arm pain if I practice scales or pieces with complex fingering for a while. Come to think of it, this was beginning to happen when I stopped playing just before my a' levels many years ago.

Does anyone have any advice? Am I just out of practice? Is my technique wrong? Could I be doing myself some dammage?

Where can I find a teacher who could help me with this in London.

Thanks, people.

Offline iansinclair

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Re: Pain after restarting piano practice after a 25 year break!
Reply #1 on: October 13, 2014, 08:43:25 PM
Take it easy!  A 25 year break is a long one, and your muscles and tendons and joints are surely not used to playing.  However, if it was beginning to happen when you stopped playing, you may have been developing some incorrect technique even then, and you are probably starting mentally (not physically) more or less from where you left off.

I'm sorry I can't recommend a good teacher for you -- I live about 3,000 miles away -- but you really should find one.  And don't fret if he or she starts you back some distance from where you were when you left off.
Ian

Offline hfmadopter

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Re: Pain after restarting piano practice after a 25 year break!
Reply #2 on: October 13, 2014, 09:22:48 PM
I came back after a similar time span as you. I had to drop back several levels of music at first and get working again. The keys felt heavy to me. But also I knew I had early signs of carpel tunnel so rather than get too gymnastic about my playing I concentrated on expression. Now pushing on towards three years later I've branched off entirely into my own compositions with a classical flair to them, plus New Age and also worship music etc.. Just a completely different genre than before. I work a lot on my own pieces and from Lead sheets now from which I'm making my own arrangements off those. On a really intense practice day I can get a little tight in the hands, no pain though. If I get any pain it's in the neck ( I have the worst pianist posture in the entire world and a tweaked neck from a car accident earlier in my life). The worst sensation I had was a feeling of my hands being swollen at about a year in to my returning to piano.  They were not but that was the feeling. Overnight my fourth fingers second knuckle seizes up some nights. But I suspect this is occupational rather than piano and related to that carpel tunnel. To which my occupation ends Oct 31 ( retiring)..

But that's me not you !! I did not seek a new teacher and opted to go it alone. Glad I did at this point cause now if I need a teacher it will be of a different nature than before. You may want the aid of a good teacher in you want to continue down the path you left behind.
Depressing the pedal on an out of tune acoustic piano and playing does not result in tonal color control or add interest, it's called obnoxious.

Offline amytsuda

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Re: Pain after restarting piano practice after a 25 year break!
Reply #3 on: October 14, 2014, 05:24:33 AM
Welcome to the world of rebounding adult amateur pianists!  Me too, after 25 years, I came back to start playing again as well. I tried to get back the first two years without a teacher.

The first one year, I did developed pain in my right hand particularly at the bottom of pinky and between 4th finger and pinky as well as in my wrist and arm. It was due to all of that I lost all my muscles, I was trying to play the whole pieces I used to play without realizing I lost all my muscles, and also I never had good technique. At one point, I had to take two months break to recover from the pain.

So I think it is all of what you mentioned. You lost your muscle, and also you may not have right technique as you said you experienced it when you were young too.

But the good news is I don't think it's that easy to permanently injure yourself as an adult amateur.  After I took the break, I started doing some stretch exercises (shoulder, arm, hands, fingers). I sort of massage my hands after I practice. Actually, you see that with pianists in many interview videos...while they are answering questions, they often twist and stretch their fingers around. It actually really helps ;) 

Last one year, I finally got a great teacher.  Now I even can't believe I had pain!

After all, we don't play Rach and Prokofiev 6 hours every day like those professionals do (I think you don't either?). So no worry, you will recover from you pain and you'd be okay! 

Offline bernadette60614

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Re: Pain after restarting piano practice after a 25 year break!
Reply #4 on: October 15, 2014, 08:04:44 PM
I also welcome you back to the rebounders!

As a teen,I was practicing four hours a day on average, practicing Liszt, e.g. and never felt the effects physically.

I started again in my 50s, and now I feel the effects of playing reasonably difficult passages in Mozart/Schubert within about 15 minutes.

My piano teacher, who is wonderful pointed out to me the following:

.  I was taught the minimal hand, wrist and arm method. This worked well on the agile hands, etc. of a 12 year old, but results in "stress" in the hands of someone at mid-life. She has been encouraging me to lift my hand more from the keyboard and to "turn" my wrist as a practice triplets, e.g.

. I used to practice first thing in the morning as a kid and right after school.  Now I practice at the end of the day, when my body is just fatigued. I've begun practicing the first thing after work and that seems to help.

. As a kid what I did with my hands was pretty limited to carrying books,cleaning up my room and practicing.  Now, my hands are fairly restricted at work, but always in motion at home.  I've tried to be more "respectful" of my hands since renewing piano lessons.

.  My teenage slouch didn't impede my practice, my adult slump, does!

I am neither a teacher nor an experienced musician, so the above is solely my experience.
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