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I have been slowly making my way through Chopin's Nocturne No 1 in B flat minor (Op 9/1) over the course of the past few weeks. Given that the toughest parts are on the first page (the 'A Section'), I only turned my hand to the simpler but lengthy 'B Section' some days back.

Yesterday, however, I stopped playing/practicing when I noticed that my left hand had become stiff and showed signs of some swelling above the wrist. No pain, however, just stiffness. The only explanation I have for it is that in repeatedly practicing measures 52-66, in which the left hand repeats the same Dflat-Aflat-Dflat-Aflat-Dflat-Aflat broken chord 15, and then 17, times, I must have strained some muscles.

Is this 'normal', and simply best dealt with by some rest? Or is there something in the way I am playing these broken chords that is the source of the problem? Having first noticed this stiffness, I noticed that I tend to play the broken chord 5-3-2-1-2-3 with a quite open hand and flat loose fingers, but that in doing so there is a double shift of the wrist as I first change the angle of the hand to take on the higher Aflat and then again to take on the lower notes. My suspicion is that repeated 'jerking' of the wrist to continually re-position the hand is the source of the problem. If so, does anybody have any advice or suggestions as to how to play these broken chords without such effects?

Any and all thoughts, comments, suggestions, and observations are very much appreciated.

Patrick

Hi Patrick - Sorry to hear about your ailment. You probably overworked it a little.

Usually the first line of defense for repetitve strain injuries issues is RICE- rest, ice, compression and elevation.

If it continues after resting a few days, time to see an osteopath. PT, exercises, stretches, and adjustments may be in order.

If it doesn't go away, don't let it get too bad before addressing it!

Hope this helps.. hope you feel better.

Hi Patrick,

Swelling should not be happening.

You have probably been spending too much time all at once on the broken chords. Here is what I would suggest:

Limit your practicing on that section to 10 min. at one time. Then switch to something completely different, such as 5-finger position spots or practicing the opposite hand.

Slow down! Play the 1st note, relax fingers and wrist. Then play 2nd note. Relax in the same way. Continue in that way.

Do you lean your hand and arm in the direction of the notes? Being exactly in line with the keyboard means that you have to travel a greater distance and work your wrist harder. You can "mime" doing this without even playing.

You can also "mark" rather than playing full-out all the time.

Good luck!

Gretchen

you're right that "jerking" is not a good solution. I can't see you play so I can't immediately give you the best solution, so here are some things that may help:
- There is plenty of time to get to all of those notes using a smooth motion, avoid quick jerking whenever possible (actually, take a look at this video - this is what I'm talking about nocturne op. 9 no. 1 - do you have any ideas about why your playing of the LH in these measures looks different than yours (BTW, I'm not advocating watching videos to get correct technique in every case, but I think it may be useful here) ). If you think of all the notes separately, then you have this start-stop effect in playing each finger as in: play 5, stop, move to then play 3, stop there on 3, move to play 2, stop, move to play 1, etc. you can see this leads to jerky playing. Now think of this whole entity as 1 motion with a start on 5, move through 3 and 2 to get to 1.
- If you find you have to angle your hand to get the thumb onto the black keys, then see if you can move your whole hand in towards the fallboard more so you can minimize the wrist's lateral bending.

Wow! Three responses in no time at all!! And all good advice! Many thanks to you all!!I

I have given the wrist (and routine) a bit of a rest, and so far so good. I never got to the point of serious swelling or pain, but bailed out early as I noticed the rest of my LH playing went to pot after having worked on these measures--an early warning sign of fatigue which drew my attention to the mild swelling above the wrist. Time off, and away from the keyboard, has helped, though I am still curious about what I must be doing wrong to generate such a reaction.

Gretchen: I'm not quite sure what you mean by "lean[ing] your hand and arm in the direction of the notes"? If you mean do I rotate my hand away from the horizontal, and kind of make it 'cartwheel' itself across the notes (first ascending, then descending), then I have to say that that is precisely what I am not doing (yet!), and that I suspect that it is something I need to learn to do. What I have been doing (and what seems to be the source of the 'jerks') is effectively laying the hand out flat and splayed for a 5-3-2 Dflat-Aflat-Dflat chord, then, when it comes to having to get my thumb to the upper A-flat (with my index finger still on the D-flat), my wrist 'jerks' away from that first position to assume the second position in which this is possible. And then I repeat the movement in reverse on the way down. Thus, two 'jerks' or 'wrist twists' per each broken chord (then multiplied by 15 for the next 8 measures!), et voila, trouble!

I'm not sure if that best describes it, but here is another stab. I can play the first D-flat, A-flat-D-flat sequence as 5-3-2 with my hand in one position. However, in that position, my thumb is virtually parallel with the index finger and almost hanging off the outer edge of the keyboard around D! To continue the sequence, that thumb then has to 'leap' to the upper A-flat while the index finger remains on the D-flat. This involves a quick shift of the wrist to change the orientation of the hand so that the thumb can play the A-flat. Yet at this point my little finger is now parallel with my fourth finger (around the lower A-flat), and also virtually hanging off the edge of the keys! In no time at all, it too needs to make a comparable 'leap' (downwards) to get back onto the lowest D-flat, making for a second lateral movement of the wrist in the opposite direction! Then repeat ad nauseum ...

I know this makes it sound extremely rigid and mechanical and that in practice it is a little more fluid than that, but nonetheless, these are the fundamental movements: the hand pivoting on the index finger resting on D-flat in order to reposition the remaining fingers so that they can play their notes. This, I strongly suspect, is not the way to do it, but I remain stumped about alternatives.

Arghhh: Thanks for the link--I had been looking for a good 'visual' of how 9/1 might be played, and that has helped, even it is taken at a fair old speed. As for differences in how the LH routine is played in the video and how I play it, there doesn't seem to be that much of a difference, or at least it is hard for me to detect without slowing it down a little. Maybe the above description captures how I have been doing it, and why I might be doing something wrong that could be corrected.

With thanks to you all. I'm new to the forum, having 'lurked' and read many posts on various topics over the past months, but am very appreciative of such helpful and staggeringly quick responses.

With my very best wishes,

P.

I will not claim to be an expert, but do have some relevant experience as I've had a hand injury (RSI) and recovered from it by studying with a Taubman technique teacher. It sounds to me as if you are stretching as well as twisting, both of which are harmful over the long run. The motion at crossovers should come from forearm rotation rather than twisting of the wrist. The Golandsky Institute has posted some short video clips on Youtube that might be helpful, such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H3O0AyvJm8

Very useful link jdw. The 'wrist twist' she is speaking of is precisely that which I have been doing. Unfortunately, she is talking about it in the context of white key playing and the tendency to play near the edges of the keys, whereas the piece I am working on is all black keys. Still, I'll have a look at some of the other videos and see if I can get some clues for my case. Either way, it's all grist to the mill, so many thanks for the link!

Playing on black keys is the same as playing on white. It seems to be much more difficult, though.

Try playing on all white keys first. When that feels comfortable, move to all black keys.

Is your hand far enough in toward the fall board? See if you can play in a line horizontally, that is, from left to right, without moving in and out a lot. You may end up playing further toward the fall board than you thought.

Good luck!

Gretchen

p.s. I've just written a new blog post about playing with pain and what to do about it. Trying something new? http://wp.me/pE5t8-3nT

Hi Gretchen.

I'll try that out later, though the problem seems to have gone away, at least for now. It has, however, taught me to watch out for lateral twisting of the wrist and to take steps to avoid it happening.

Oh, and many thanks for the link, Gretchen. Much appreciated.

P.

Hi Patrick,

Great! Glad to hear the problem has gone away. If you stay alert to twisting, chances are you can avoid the pain for good!!!

Gretchen

I tried that Wikipedia stretching from the picture, it seems to make the pain worse. Also, it's worse right when I wake up in the morning, gets better through the day, and only increases a little after a couple hours of piano.

For me, the hardest thing of all is to hit the parts of the whites that are between the blacks -- without getting one of the blacks, too. What helps a little is to get under the keys and loosen the oval front pins of the blacks. Makes them wobble, but the tradeoff is worth it.

Hi John,

Sounds like you've found something that works... that's the most important thing.

If your wrists hurt when you wake up in the morning, you may be sleeping with your arms under your head. That cuts off the circulation. Believe it or not, it is possible to train oneself not to do that.

Happy practicing!

Gretchen

I'll have to ask my wife about that.

HA! It is pretty hard to tell yourself, isn't it?