pain in my left hand

[drazh]

Hi
When I am practicing czerney op 599 no,28. I feel pain of left forearm and hand .
Is that normal or not ? What should I do ?
Thanks

[ajspiano]

Pain is not good for you, you are likely moving in a poor way. But its difficult to say what specifically is wrong without seeing you play. I certainly wouldn't want to comment on how to change because I don't know what you're doing, nor can I demonstrate what to do. Its far too easy for you misinterpret if i just say "do it this way"

Without actually having looked at the score, so don't just start changing what your doing - You may be, as a starting point to think about -

sitting badly, check your posture/bench height
twisting (moving you wrist left or right away from alignment with your arm)
failing to rotate your forearm appropriately

I'm not an expert in diagnosing pain and providing the solution, so take this lightly please, but i think that twisting is most likely based on where you say you're pain is.

[trhmusic]

While I am not a doctor and can not tell you exactly what you need, I can tell you that I have experienced similar pain. Playing the piano requires us to use muscles that we don't normally use or in a different range of motions. If you have been practicing that particular piece in large quantities of time, you may just be soar. Try taking a break for a day or 2 and see how you feel.

If the pain persists you may want to ask your doctor. Pianists are at a higher risk to develop carpal tunnel syndrome. 

www.trhmusic.org

[ajspiano]

If the pain persists you may want to ask your doctor.

and a piano teacher..

point being that the doctor will likely tell you that the pain is caused by the repetative motion/strain on body part x. And that the solution is to rest, and not place strain on yourself in future. Where as the piano teacher will ideally be capable enough to show you how to play without straining yourself.

[drazh]

Hi
It is a repetitive pattern of. C . G . E . G 
When I am doing this I  have pain in extension muscles of forearm.
I have no pain when I am playing piano except this particular motion
Thanks

[ajspiano]

ok, still please take this advice with a grain of salt because I'm only hypothosizing about what you may be doing.. Please also understand that what i'm going to advise is a RUSHED explanation and there is more information required, and the motion needs to be very refined for you to play at speed and with control.

Your likely not rotating the forearm and therefore placing loads of stress on your extensor/flexor muscles trying to get your fingers up and down at speed.

You may also be twisting the wrist to the left while playing, putting tension into your wrist and down the left side of your forearm.

____________

Look at your hand. let it sit naturally aligned with your arm, you'll see that you're little finger is further ahead than you're thumb. Sit it like that at the piano, as in, don't twist your wrist to the left so that you're little finger and thumb sit in a paralell line with the keyboard. Instead let the thumb sit closer to the edge of the keys and the little finger sit further in toward the black keys. You should be able to feel whats comfortable.

Now, take your hand off the keys, away from the piano but hold it as if you are sitting with it over the keys. Rotate you're forearm from the elbow..  see how you can turn you're hand from palm up to palm down. This places no strain on any muscles that move the fingers. Refine the motion so that you can do very small left/right rotations with your palm facing down. Now go play the notes like that instead of using your fingers.

In reality you're fingers will still need to move, but they will now be supported by the arm motion, dramatically reducing the impact on the flexors (fingers down) and almost completely reducing the impact on the extensors (fingers up).

If you try this and find that you still feel discomfort don't continue practicing, come back and explain what you tried and what discomfort you are feeling. If you don't get it quite right you may find that you fix the discomfort in your hand, but find you have a new discomfort somewhere else.

Hope this helps atleast a little, good luck.