Piano Forum

Hello,

I have a nagging problem going on and I was wondering if anyone on this forum might have some insight. I started playing piano again about a year ago (played for a couple years as a kid), I am struggling to make progress because my right forearm becomes awfully tense even during easy repertoire like czerny 599. Though my left arm has no problems whatsoever, and I can play freely and comfortably on this side.

The weird thing is that I essentially don't even need to be playing anything for the tension to build up. I notice that if I simply hold down a key and try to rest neutrally in this position (as if it were a very long note in a piece), I will be 100% comfortable doing this ad infinitum on the left side. But if I try this on the right side, the fore-arm tension will be too unpleasant to hold for very long.

I have tried changing my sitting height, making sure that my arms are parallel with the floor. I have tried adjusting my wrist height, and relaxing my shoulders. And I have tried minimizing computer work and other things that might make my arms tense.

I believe that I naturally harbor lots of tension on my right side in particular, and because of this maybe I have somehow trained my muscles in the past year of practice to work in an inefficient way by 'stabilizing' from the forearm instead of allowing the forearm to relax.

Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks so much.