How to deal with soreness/tightness in the fore arm?

[mishamalchik]

So I've been having issues for about a week now with unusual tightness and soreness in my right forearm. It helps to know that I'm working on opus 10 no 1 at the moment and it's very heavy in the right hand.

It's not pain, but it's a weird feeling of pressure in my forearm, like the blood is backed up or something, which is consistent even after I've stopped playing but it seems to be brought on by playing. I'm not sure exactly what's going on because since school started again, I'm practicing much less, only about 2 hours a day, and I certainly don't play the etude for 2 hours straight. It's the sort of feeling you get when you've been sitting down too long and your legs start to feel in need of a good stretch. It's tightness centered close to the elbow, on both the top and bottom of my arm.

Any advice on how to remedy this? If it was something about the way I am playing I'm certain my teacher would have corrected me about it, though I plan to talk about this at my next lesson.

[pianoplayer002]

It is something about the way you are playing that etude.

It's supposed to feel very pleasant and easy on the muscles to play. In fact, there will be an absence of feeling much of anything at all when done correctly. It's not supposed to be "heavy" for the right hand.

You are tense somewhere so you should definitely discuss it with your teacher. Somewhere between your fingertips and hips there is one or multiple blockages of muscles that are locked or tight when they should be allowed to be free. This etude is unfortunately very unforgiving towards anything other than near perfection.

[mishamalchik]

By "heavy" I meant intensive, as in most of the notes are for the right hand! What's most puzzling is that I did not have this issue when I was practicing 6-8 hours a day and also working on this piece but now that I am practicing far less I am having this problem. It's very curious.

I'm in this awkward point of the piece where I am I can play it from 120-140 bpm. If I loosen my arm up, I can play faster but with less accuracy, if I keep things somewhat firmer, I get more accuracy but less speed. But if I'm too firm the whole piece falls apart; I have no idea how one can play this with any facility and be stiff.

[lostinidlewonder]

It's not pain, but it's a weird feeling of pressure in my forearm.... It's the sort of feeling you get when you've been sitting down too long and your legs start to feel in need of a good stretch. It's tightness centered close to the elbow, on both the top and bottom of my arm.

Any advice on how to remedy this? If it was something about the way I am playing I'm certain my teacher would have corrected me about it, though I plan to talk about this at my next lesson.

To me this sounds like "tennis elbow". It can occur with piano playing if you are overexerting yourself too much.

https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/tennis-elbow-lateral-epicondylitis#1

I would advise not to play until the symptoms are totally gone, you really can make it a lot worse in the long run. Compression bandages are helpful.

[mishamalchik]

I hadn't even considered that! I'll see the doctor and see what he says, ah thejoys of university health insurance! My primary care physician is, as it happens, a pianist himself, so maybe he'll have some helpful info too!

[lostinidlewonder]

Ha then its a no brainer to visit him!

[louispodesta]

So I've been having issues for about a week now with unusual tightness and soreness in my right forearm. It helps to know that I'm working on opus 10 no 1 at the moment and it's very heavy in the right hand.

It's not pain, but it's a weird feeling of pressure in my forearm, like the blood is backed up or something, which is consistent even after I've stopped playing but it seems to be brought on by playing. I'm not sure exactly what's going on because since school started again, I'm practicing much less, only about 2 hours a day, and I certainly don't play the etude for 2 hours straight. It's the sort of feeling you get when you've been sitting down too long and your legs start to feel in need of a good stretch. It's tightness centered close to the elbow, on both the top and bottom of my arm.

Any advice on how to remedy this? If it was something about the way I am playing I'm certain my teacher would have corrected me about it, though I plan to talk about this at my next lesson.

Once again, their is a new school of whole body technique to playing the piano.  The Chair of the Keyboard Department at Juilliard brags about being a former student of the late Dorothy Taubman.

Then, there is her protégée Edna Golandsky, and finally my coach Dr. Thomas Mark (former Taubman practice coach) who takes it to the final level associated with the well-known Alexander Technique.

So, why don't the rest of you just re-enlighten us and officially declare that the 21 century piano technique of today should in fact be 19th century Hanon Exercises and endless Etudes. Just please do that.

Accordinlgy, we will all then bow down before your as the masters you and your worthless teachers think you are.  NOT!

On point, you have pain in your upper forearm because you do not, 1) articulate your fingers with the lower muscles of your forearm, 2) instead, you push and press with your upper forearm, and most of all 3) you do not utilize the weight and muscle force of your entire body (including your head) to effectuate a proper key attack.

Dr. Mark's book "What Every Pianist Needs To Know About The Body" sits on the personal library shelf of every major University Keyboard Chair in America.  And, this is for a reason!

Please educate yourself to these non-evasive schools of piano technique, one of which is "one size does not fit all."  Otherwise, you, like 100,000 of students before you, will permanently damage your technique.

[keypeg]

So, why don't the rest of you just re-enlighten us and officially declare that the 21 century piano technique of today should in fact be 19th century Hanon Exercises and endless Etudes. Just please do that.

Accordinlgy, we will all then bow down before your as the masters you and your worthless teachers think you are. 

The "rest of us" are not the borg of Deep Space Nine, all cloned in one gigantic space ship as identical entities with identical backgrounds.  We come from all over the world, with varying backgrounds.  Some of us are not teachers.  Others are.  Hanon exercises may play no role whatsoever in what our teachers do, what these teachers do, or in the manner that you may once have encountered.  There is no "rest of us". There is no single entity.  There is no homogenous background.
Isn't it possible to say your piece without attacking people whom you do not know?  It's possible that at least some of what you represent is shared.  Working together, solving things together, getting together pieces of the puzzle, to me seems much more pleasant and possibly more effective.

[mishamalchik]

LouisPodesta Is this sarcasm? I am confused.

As far as etudes and Hanon are concerned, to each their own. Piano is not a one size fits all thing, I found Hanon to be immensely helpful for me and it's still a great way to warm up on an unfamiliar piano. My teacher never required me to play Hanon or the Chopin etudes, I went to him with these exercises in mind because I found them to be of value to me. It's very presumptuous to assume that exercise x,y, or z is of no merit to any pianist in the world just because it's something you personally find no merit in. If you don't like them, don't teach them and don't play them! No need to demean the intelligence or ability of those who do find value in them.

[lostinidlewonder]

So, why don't the rest of you just re-enlighten us and officially declare that the 21 century piano technique of today should in fact be 19th century Hanon Exercises and endless Etudes. Just please do that.

Describe the difference between 21st century piano technique and 19th century and even 20th century and how they are mutually exclusive from one another. No wait... dont.. lol. According to you Beethoven should be played with technique devise in the 21st century lol it is afterall because Beethoven was so lacking in musicality and technique right? lol He should have studied with all the greats you have been with. What about Liszt? BAH! He was a nobody his technique is nothing compared to the 21st century.... *wipes away tears of laughter

The "rest of us" are not the borg of Deep Space Nine, all cloned in one gigantic space ship as identical entities with identical backgrounds.  We come from all over the world, with varying backgrounds.  Some of us are not teachers.  Others are.  Hanon exercises may play no role whatsoever in what our teachers do, what these teachers do, or in the manner that you may once have encountered.  There is no "rest of us". There is no single entity.  There is no homogenous background.
Isn't it possible to say your piece without attacking people whom you do not know?  It's possible that at least some of what you represent is shared.  Working together, solving things together, getting together pieces of the puzzle, to me seems much more pleasant and possibly more effective.

That's the funniest I've seen you post Keypeg lol. I totally agree with you. You might notice Louis's posts suffers delusions of grandeur so expect his posts to try and belittle as many people as possible though it just makes him look ignorant and silly.

[keypeg]

I'm curious.  By any chance, has the school of new body technique been around since Chopin, with Chopin being a champion of such?  I'm going from some vaguely remembered impressions, and I'm still mostly a student.

[hardy_practice]

The school-of-new-body-technique says it has been around forever.  It's just a distillation of best practice.  (though it really starts with Chopin who few paid heed to, or had access to till the 20th century)

[dcstudio]

The "rest of us" are not the borg of Deep Space Nine, all cloned in one gigantic space ship as identical entities with identical backgrounds.  We come from all over the world, with varying backgrounds.  Some of us are not teachers.  Others are.  Hanon exercises may play no role whatsoever in what our teachers do, what these teachers do, or in the manner that you may once have encountered.  There is no "rest of us". There is no single entity.  There is no homogenous background.
Isn't it possible to say your piece without attacking people whom you do not know?  It's possible that at least some of what you represent is shared.  Working together, solving things together, getting together pieces of the puzzle, to me seems much more pleasant and possibly more effective.

I never new you had such a sense of humor!

Resistance is futile... lol.  We are borg. You will be assimilated.  

What would this forum be without the words of wisdom that Louis graces us with in each of his well thought out and educated posts.  I sure wish he had the means to post his playing for us...undeserving as we may be.  I guess we are doomed to suffer in silence until such time as he sees fit to share with us all that he has learned from his great teachers. Such is life.