Sweaty hands -

[kilimanjaro]

Hello,

I have a strange, but troubling problem.

When I was young, I had a nervous disorder called hyperhidrosis that makes your hands sweat terribly.  I couldn't do anything with my hands and was overjoyed when computers came out and I didn't have to write on paper and smudge the ink in school!

Anyway, I finally had a surgery that is quite dangerous, but I had success and my hands were sweat free (although feet started sweating terribly).  A year after the surgery, however, my right hand started sweating again (only with 50 percent intensity and 50 percent of the time it used to before, but still bad).  Now that it is summer, it sweats more often and I am much more comfortable playing the chords with my left hand than playing them with my right hand.  Playing melodies is not too bad.

Anyway, I haven't told my professor this and she never touches or rarely sees my palm and bottom of fingers so I doubt she knows.  I am a bit shy of telling her since she might feel that I am spoiling her piano!  What should I do?

[ericnolte]

  It sounds like you feel embarrassed by this matter,  but I think this feeling is not really warranted.  I'm sorry it troubles you.   Now, I can see that there might be a problem for playing the piano because, as you say, the condition could make your hands go sliding off the keys in unpredictable and undesired directions.  (Then again, maybe you could find a way to think of this matter as an advantage -- consider such situations as when you're playing double thirds with those fingerings where you need to slide your second finger from a black note to a white note.)

  My advice is to bring up the matter with your teacher.  I should think that any reasonable person would be sympathetic to the issue, and might even have some ideas about how to deal with it as a matter of technique.  Lots of people's hands sweat at the keyboard, under certain conditions, and I would think that if your teacher has much experience, this is a matter that has appeared with other students before you.  If your teacher notices that your hands are sweaty, and you haven't brought up the matter yourself, she may mistakenly conclude that you're anxious, or afraid of her, and this could unfairly color the atmosphere at your lessons.

  If your teacher is not sympathetic, then I think you deserve a better person for a teacher!

Best,
Eric Nolte