Hello all,

I have a strange question for anyone who can provide assistance! The mother of one of my students called me a couple days ago to say her son had broken his left arm (a piano teacher's worst nightmare!) and will be in a cast for 6 weeks. She wants to know what he can do during this time to keep his "music brain" whirring. I recommended flash cards, revisiting some of his old material with the right hand, etc. The problem is that I'm worried if he plays too much with just his right hand, it will become stronger, and once the cast is removed, the left hand will have a lot of catching up to do. I know there are books out there for Left-hand solos, and I am already planning on that when the cast is removed. Any other suggestions for what to do in the meantime? I am concerned, as is his mom, that with total absence from the piano for 6 weeks, we will need to backtrack.
Thanks for your help!

Nothing you can do about it, the left arm will become considerably weaker. But kids are resiliant, he'll recover quickly and be right on track soon. Maybe the "break" will do him good, and he'll come back with renewed vigor!

Hi menyquist, welcome to the forum! You may get more responses if you post this in the piano teacher's forum, as I get the impression that many of the teachers who post there don't read the main forum threads as much.

I personally don't see a problem in having him work with his right hand only, but I also think GoatRider is right; a break may not be a bad thing. Perhaps use the time for general music history education.

My nephew is a very talented 15 year old. A few years ago he was punching at some bubble wrap that had held a crystal bowl in which the bubble wrap failed to do its job. There was indeed a piece of broken crystal contained therein and when he punched it he severed the tendon on the top of his knuckles on one finger (maybe two). It required surgery and at least 6 months before he could begin playing again. His teacher (who studied with Nadia Boulanger) took the opportunity to continue lessons and drill him on ear training and learning theory. A year or two later and he's playing better than ever with greater understanding of what he's doing.

Thanks for the replies everyone! And I will post to the piano teacher's forum--thank you on that as well! I haven't navigated through many forums, so I'm not surprised that I didn't do everything correctly. Thanks again!