Right elbow pain

[geopianoincanada]

I’m working on a Bach piece and there are certain portions which have been giving me pain in my right elbow especially near the inside of the elbow opposite of the bony protrusion.

I’ve attached a photo with the part circled in Red which seems especially to cause pain.

Any thoughts?

[brogers70]

It would help if you would show your fingering, maybe. That seems like a completely unremarkable arpeggio, no awkward stretches, nothing that I can see that would induce tension. Even better than your fingering would be a video of you playing that prelude or at least a few bars around the circled bit. Without that it's hard to guess what might be causing the pain.

[geopianoincanada]

I'll try to make some video recording if possible. It does feel extremely "twisty" in my right wrist in trying to roll so I can get a little smoothness, a little legato between the bottom, middle and top notes with my right hand.

I should mention that I'm quite arthritic.

[timothy42b]

Sounds like golfer's elbow - tennis elbow is on the other side.

It might be useful to google that.  It seems to be caused by forearm flexion rather than extension, which might give you a clue to where you're adding tension. 

That said, not all injury comes from incorrect use.  Sometimes it is just overuse. 

[geopianoincanada]

I applied some Voltaren before bedtime and it feels much better now. I'm actually able to move my arm without pain. Before I could hardly pick up my coffee cup.

I'll keep an eye on symptoms and see if this Bach piece gives me any grief. I will try to videotape a bit of the right hand motion which is admittedly stiff anyway due to arthritis (both hands actually).

EDIT: I've made a poor quality video of my right hand performing. Bar 30 and others like it which contain a significant stretch and leap prove to be sources of pain.

My teacher suggested I modify my approach, offload some of the right thumb part onto the left hand and pedal. I will try this.

[lelle]

It does look stiff. No way for me to determine how much is the arthritis and how much is technique, but based on what I'm seeing I'm wondering if your teacher could help you find a more relaxed hand position and help you involve your arms in a way that will help lighten the load on your fingers. It looks like you are tenser and need to work harder than is necessary. Could be the arthritis of course but if you were my piano student there are things I'm seeing that we would work on technique wise that could potentially give you more comfortable and easy movement. Anecdotally, playing the piano can provide some relief to some arthritis sufferers.

If you are comfortable with it, could you do a video where we can see your whole arm up to the shoulder while you play the same passage (you can crop at the neck so we don't see your face)?

[geopianoincanada]

Arthritis runs in the family so it's no surprise that it affects my piano practice. I've tried to alter my playing technique with my teacher's guidance but then my wrists and fingers feel like a maraca crackling away. The tension glove seen in the video helps with pain.

EDIT: Bars 7, 10, 12, 18, 27 through 33 all possess features which are especially stressful on an arthritic right hand/arm. I've marked these with an asterisk on my sheet music to remind me to shift the right hand thumb part to the left hand where possible.

[geopianoincanada]

Update. My teacher has told me to stop practicing this Bach piece (prelude in Cmaj BWV 846) out of concern that continued effort will only make things worse.

It's the first time I've been injured by a song. Go figure!