At a loss with wrist pain

[resourcefulhedgehog]

Hi all,
I've been experiencing wrist pain when playing for a few months now. Ever since it started I was pretty worried since everywhere online said it was a major problem and should be fixed immediately, etc.
When it started it was only sometimes and in the left hand but now I notice it all the time.
I feel like I've tried everything... I researched everything in the past months about problems leading to pain, but I don't notice any of the common problems when I play.
I warm up with scales, I try to make sure my wrist is in a neutral position, etc. but it doesn't seem to get better- I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong.
Just to clarify, I'm not talking about lactic acid build up after playing passages or anything like that- I mean an uncomfortable pain in the inside of my wrist .
I took a break for a bit but when I started playing again the pain returned after a bit of practicing like nothing changed..
Does anyone have any experience of how they fixed their own/student's wrist pain or any problems with technique I should look out for?

[lelle]

This sounds very similar to what I experienced during my first and second years of my bachelor's degree in piano performance. I had pain in my wrists in a similar way to what you are describing. In my case, the cause was tension in my shoulder and thoracic outlet area (the neck) irritating nerves, resulting in referred pain down in the wrists, and it resolved as I learned how to release tension and stop it from building up in these areas when I played. It also required me to change how I used my hands so my technique in general became more relaxed. The good news is that if this is your issue, it can be fixed - last time I had wrist pain was 8-9 years or so ago. I helped a fellow student improve some similar issues once I had dealt with my own.

Things to watch out for is not just the position of your wrist or arm - you can have the right position but too much tension in the muscles. You need to learn how to keep the muscles supple, not just the wrists and arms but shoulders, neck, you name it. This will also lead to the positioning of your body automatically being right, in my experience. Also holding your breath and/or breathing shallowly can contribute.

But I would strongly advice you to seek out a good teacher with a good track record of helping students fix technique issues, since this stuff can be astonishingly hard to figure out and resolve on your own, without hands-on guidance, as you seem to have noticed.

Two questions:
- You mentioned lactic acid buildup in your post, do you ever experience this when playing in addition to the wrist pain?
- Did the pain go away when you took a break?

[resourcefulhedgehog]

Two questions:
- You mentioned lactic acid buildup in your post, do you ever experience this when playing in addition to the wrist pain?
- Did the pain go away when you took a break?

Hi, thanks for your reply!
- Yep, I experience the burning/ fatigued feeling from lactic acid buildup as well as wrist pain quite often- although I understand this is normal (?), especially when playing fast passages or octaves and things like that- it fades after I finish playing said passage.
-While I took a break from playing, the pain completely disappeared but started again after I resumed practicing .

I did mention this stuff to my current teacher- he hasn't said anything super helpful so far but I think that was because I explained it badly, I'll ask again next lesson.

[lelle]

- Yep, I experience the burning/ fatigued feeling from lactic acid buildup as well as wrist pain quite often- although I understand this is normal (?), especially when playing fast passages or octaves and things like that- it fades after I finish playing said passage.

This is a strong clue that there is too much tension in your technique - you are not supposed to experience this at all. I guess you could say that it is "normal" in that a number of people struggle with this, but it is because of technique issues (too much tension). Take any Chopin Etude: it is perfectly possible to play it without any burning or fatigue when your technique is sufficiently tension free and coordinated. This enables you to play all of them in a row if you want without issues. Imagine if you were to do a concert with the Chopin Etudes and you felt fatigue after playing the first - you are screwed trying to play the second Etude before you've even started