Wrist Tightness

[ryno200sx]

I just started Chopin op. 28 no. 20 "Funeral March". I'm noticing that my wrist gets very tight when I'm playing chords with the right hand and it becomes fatigued and annoyingly painful after just a few minutes of HS work. This happens to me when I play chords. I think it may be due to the fact that I feel like I have to press down the chord really hard to get all the fingers to play at the same time. If I don't press hard then some of the notes in the chord do not press together and the chord sounds like crap. Is this just a case of weak hands/fingers? I have been playing for about a year.

For now I have been working on Chopin Op. 28-4 because it has a busy left hand. This way I go back and forth between the right hand of 28-20 and the left hand of 28-4.  But I really want to finish 28-20 So if there is something I can do technically or mechanically to enable me to play longer please let me know.

Thanks,
Ryan

[xvimbi]

Difficult to diagnose without looking at you playing. However, from my own experience, wrist problems when playing chords come from tension across the hand and playing with thumb orientation. If you can't play chords evenly (so that all the notes sound at the same time), you will have to practice this first very slowly and learn how to get rid of all unnecessary tension. Don't compensate by pressing hard, which will increase the tension.

[mosis]

Difficult to diagnose without looking at you playing. However, from my own experience, wrist problems when playing chords come from tension across the hand and playing with thumb orientation. If you can't play chords evenly (so that all the notes sound at the same time), you will have to practice this first very slowly and learn how to get rid of all unnecessary tension. Don't compensate by pressing hard, which will increase the tension.

That's MY biggest problem. How do you practice do get all notes in chords perfectly even? I absolutely cannot do this for anything.

[xvimbi]

That's MY biggest problem. How do you practice do get all notes in chords perfectly even? I absolutely cannot do this for anything.

Take a look at: https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,9192.0.html

[mosis]

Take a look at: https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,9192.0.html

Just before I read that wall of text (Thank you!), what is meant "thumb orientation"?

[xvimbi]

Just before I read that wall of text (Thank you!), what is meant "thumb orientation"?

Thumb orientation is when the thumb is aligned with the forearm, i.e. for the left hand, the hand is angled to the left. Thumb orientation is one of the most common causes for all kinds of problems.

[mosis]

Thumb orientation is when the thumb is aligned with the forearm, i.e. for the left hand, the hand is angled to the left. Thumb orientation is one of the most common causes for all kinds of problems.

Ah, yes, I see.

so basically what I got from that thread is that to practice even chords, you have to repeat them slowly, keeping fingers on the keys, with a bobbling wrist motion until.. what? When can you start to involve the arm and different dynamics and voicing?

[xvimbi]

Ah, yes, I see.

so basically what I got from that thread is that to practice even chords, you have to repeat them slowly, keeping fingers on the keys, with a bobbling wrist motion until.. what? When can you start to involve the arm and different dynamics and voicing?

It shouldn't sound as strict as that. That procedure describes the process in a very gradual way. If it helps, follow it. If you want to go right to involving everything, go ahead, but the goal remains: trying to get a feeling for how to direct force to the fingertips. If you can't do this on the piano with real chords, you have to break down the process into smaller parts and figure out where the bottleneck is. You said you can't play an even chord. I would not think about voicing before that problem is solved. Playing an even chord is a special type of voicing, namely you are playing every note with the same loudness. Playing an uneven chord could be regarded voicing, but only if it is reliable, accurate, precise and reproducible.