Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Need help with arm pain on piano

Hello:
I am a 55 year old conservatory trained amateur pianist who over the past year has developed arm problems. I have a number of questions.

(1) I went to a local physician in my home state of Vermont who was not able to find anything. I now am willing to travel as far as Massachusetts to find somebody who is experienced in treating pianist arm injuries. Would anybody here have any suggestions. If no suggestions are found, I will probably call Dartmoth-Hitchcock. This is probably my most important question.

(2) One of my problems is that I have difficulty describing my symptoms to a nonpianist. Here is the best I can do.
(a) No pain when not keyboarding (I am also a computer professional).
(b) I "feel it" in my RH wrist when doing the simplest five finger exercises. Pieces like Haydn and Mozart Sonatas I can play 3-4 minutes before I start feeling pain and resistance. Pieces much more difficult than these I am no longer able to play. No pain in the LH.
(c) Stuff that involves stretching and contracting of right hand is very difficult (example Cramer Etude #3 of 50 etudes). Scale stuff not as bad. Stuff that involves more than one note at a time in RH is also more difficult.
(d) The best I can describe this is resistance that turns into pain over a few minutes when playing the RH that has recently developed over the past year or so.

(3) What I don't know is whether I should shut this down entirely. When I have shut this down for up to a month I really did not improve. I wondered after my first Doctor did not find anything whether this is just something that atrophied and I need to just practice through to strengthen. But that does not seem to be the case either. I am debating just shutting this down and am leaning towards doing just that.

(4) They did tests with some electrode device and eliminated Carpal Tunnel. From my reading I don't think that is it.

My recommendation is to see a specialist. Earlier this year I went to a neuromuscular specialist who was familiar with musicians (he came to my music school for a couple days during the semester). I did this after spending a couple years and 2 months of physical therapy with a problem that was misdiagnosed. The specialist was very thorough (the initial evaluation lasted about an hour) and was correctly able to determine what my problem was. I would contact a conservatory or music school in your area, or possibly contact a professor who is teaching a class like healthy musicianship, to see if they have a doctor they recommend to students.

I feel your pain.
My local GP recently diagnosed me with RSI,(right arm) and recommended wearing a wrist brace while sleeping to keep the wrist rigid.
While it helps, it has not solved the problem.
Luckily, I am ambi-dexterous, so have no problems using a left handed mouse, as I too, spend a lot of time on computer related work.
Main problem, is unaccountable wrist pain, and when playing piano, it feels like tendons in the underside of the forearm, are grating against each other.
As I also teach guitar, I am finding it nigh on impossible to maintain a playing position for 2-3 hours of back to back lessons.
I hope you find a diagnosis/solution to your condition.

This is exactly how I feel

I live in a remote section of Vermont. There is no music school in my area. One of my objectives in starting this thread was to see if by chance there were any New England readers here who knew of a good one. Otherwise I could contact Dartmoth-Hitchcock.

You may want to consider taking a trip for a week and studying with someone during that time. A good teacher could certainly help even with that amount of time if you were able to see them for a week, and they could give you pointers on what to do to help you rework your technique.

Perhaps you can tie it in with a visit to an out of town friend or family member.

Hi:
I have concluded that my problem is more fundamental than this. Reason: I can not even do a simple, five finger exercise that you give the first lesson (say eighth notes at mm 60) without "feeling it".

I guess I figure that when and if I can get this fixed, then the next step would be to address whatever in my technique was wrong that may have led to this.

One good book that I picked up was "The Art of Practicing" by Madeline Bruser.

Sounds like you're over using your fingers. Do you know how to use the wrist, forearm and arm instead?

If you're willing to drive a bit and cross the border, you should consider seeing this guy:

http://search.hipinfo.info/record/BTN2233

He is a very well-known doctor who specializes in musicians' injuries. He is also a skilled amateur pianist.

It will probably take 6-8 months to get an appointment (he is extremely busy-sees many high-profile pianists with injuries, etc) plus a referral from a regular GP.

It's worth it though. He's the best...really knows his stuff.

Put both hands up at eye-level with the palms facing forward and wiggle all ten fingers vigorously. If you can do that, then, in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with you.

What this might be is a tendency for pianists to become obsessed about their hands, and the body parts that are connected to them (and I would think that a person who was a piano major might have even more of a tendency towards this). Anything and everything concerning the hands starts to consume all of the player's attention, and any minor pain or trauma starts to become magnified out of all proportions. For example, suppose you twist something on or about your rt. wrist when opening a door, or something. This is a minor ding that a non-pianist would just shake off after a few days, but to a pianist, overly concerned about his hands, this minor pain can start to become a "greater and greater" problem when playing, to the point of nearly incapacitating him.

This a non invasive clinic in Conneticut

http://oehc.uchc.edu/clinicallinks_musiciansclinic.asp

Additionally both the Cleveland Clinic neurology department and John Hopkins have musician specialty clinics. I am reconstructive surgeon and I have through the helps have guided the care of several amateurs with tendinitis, carpal tunnel, trigger finger and focal dystonia (Leon fletchers illness)

Is your pain on the top side or palm side of the hand and / or wrist? Is it a spasm the abruptly occurs. What is the condition of your right thumb ? Can you bend it at the top joint or does it slip and hurt. Does your thenar eminence(bulky muscle area beneth the thumb joint on the palm of the hand ) hurt. Be specific about your pain area and what movements make it hurt. If you tap the palm side of your wrist with your opposite hand index finger do you get pain and needles and pin feelings in the palm of your hand? Please send me an email and after hours I will try to help. I would recommend immobilization with a wrist support and practicing. Piano with only your other hand until you get help.

Serge Marinkovic

Not sure why posters here assume it's you not knowing how to properly play piano lol

It sounds like it's a deeper issue , perhaps a muscular issue where certain muscles lock up and cause pain in the hand ... I have no idea.

I would not recommend you go to a teacher to study technique , you should see a specialist. Find the best one you can and if they are able to help you a little bit then you could see a really good pianist who works with total body relaxation and body control.

For all I know you could have a problem in your spine or neck or shoulders and it could be transferring to your wrist. The body is a really weird thing.... Good luck.

Thank you very much. I am leaving tomorrow for Florida for a week and will get back to this when I get back.