my hands hurt

[evehe]

Hello,
I'm taking piano lesson since january and recently I experienced pain on the top of my forearm. Should I still go on playing, or stop for a while for the pain to go?
What shall it be caused by? I have small hands and had troubles to get trough the Schumann on "strange land and men", maybe it's due to this.
thanks for the help

[tds]

rest n find out what causes the pain. also, find a good taubman or alexander teacher. they will help you. all the best, tds

[danny elfboy]

Hello,
I'm taking piano lesson since january and recently I experienced pain on the top of my forearm. Should I still go on playing, or stop for a while for the pain to go?
What shall it be caused by? I have small hands and had troubles to get trough the Schumann on "strange land and men", maybe it's due to this.
thanks for the help

Find the correct distance at the piano and the correct height of the bench.

The correct height of the bench is the height that doesn't force you to raise your shoulders (too low) or to slump and hunch (too high) It should aproximatively leave your elbow level with the keyboard and your forearm parallel to the ground.

The correct distance is the one that doesn't force you to bend excessively forward and stretch your arms (too far) and doesn't force you to raise your shoulder and bend forwards (too close)

Practice slowly making sure that you don't fingers you don't use.
You often see young chidren playing two notes with thumb and third finger while keeping the fifth finger tensed and stiff while it should be relaxed, round and not playing. This is the foundation of tension. You might want to practice a little (or a lot depending) playing various pattern using just the fingers that are playing while the others are relaxed. If you notice other fingers raising and stiffening, relax and try again.

You knuckles should be level with your wrist which shouldn't be way higher than the knuckles and way lower than the knucles (this second one is a more typical tension habit than the first)

Don't practice the whole piece but practice a phrase. Then breath relax the hands and then practice the next phrase. Then breath relax the hands and again another phrase.
The phrase should make musical sense (just follow the arches above the notes)

In this way you learn to phrase your pieces well (which makes the difference between a piece without mistakes that sounds bland and ugly and a piece without mistakes that sound beautifully) to breath with your piece (holding your breath increases tension) and to "refresh" the muscles you use to play when a phrase ends. Think of it as breathing in singing lessons. You need to refresh your air in the lungs in order to keep singing otherwise tension accumulate and your voice becomes ugly.

[evehe]

thanks for all the advices. i'll try them out.