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Ok here's my problem.. ever since about the end of last semester(about 5 months ago) I was practicing hard for an upcoming recital. The night before the recital, I noticed a sharp pain in my fingers.. and this was kind of difficult for me to take because in my mind, "the piece wasn't ready yet" so the next day I continued to practice.. maybe a little less than I have planned on, and by the time the performance came my fingers were quite sore. My performance didn't really suffer, but after it I had to take about a week break from piano to let my fingers recoup. Well ever since that, I have not been able to practice nearly as long as I would like to because this pain keeps coming back and I have to skip days frequently because of it. I am only talking about 2 hours of practice a day, and the next day they are still really sensitive! I don't know if I did permanent damage or what, but does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to be able to lengthen my practice times? any remedies, tricks or fixes that anyone knows of to make your fingers feel better or to make them recoup faster? I feel my advancement and practice is really becoming hindered because of this, and it is really dissapointing because I have never experienced this before the recital.

You need to see a physical therapist! Any type of pain, anywhere, is a bad sign...ECSPECIALLY if it lasts for more than 10 minutes after you are done playing. If you injured something, or pulled a tendon or whatever, you need to see a physical therapist very soon so that you can reverse any damage that may have been done.

ALWAYS take things like this VERY seriously. You need to see a doctor, physical therapist, or a physical therapist for musicians RIGHT AWAY!!!! I had problems with my hands and I waited a while to see a doctor and I ended up having to have hand surgery because I waited too long. You need to take good care of your hands and be very careful with them if you want to play for the rest of your life. Please be careful and see someone soon!!! Any type of pain is bad. It is your body's signal to stop doing whatever you're doing. Do your fingers ever go numb?

Here are some links to things that you should read. Some of them have a series of stretches to do before playing. http://www.engr.unl.edu/ee/eeshop/music.html
Also, there is a physical therapist for musicians (who I saw) at Ithaca college in New York. Its worth a trip to see him if you're not too far. You can find him at the Ithaca College webpage. http://www.ithaca.edu
His name is Nick Quarrier. I'm not sure on the spelling of his last name.
There are plenty of other webpages for musicians that talk about injuries. You can do a search for them. They should come up with the keywords "musicians injuries"

yes, any injury should be dealt immediately.I got my veins twisted near my thigh many years ago and ignore it now I need to face the consequences of experiencing pain especially during cold weather. I have recently finnished my piano exams and unfortunately got my 4th finger twisted, and causing much pain on that day and hindered me from pratising despite the fact that I did consult a therapist. It took me 4 days to heal, fortunately,I dont have such problems coming up again, YOU must not ignore it, as such injuries can worsen with time.Anyway, it did not bother much for not playing well for my exams, what is more important is that one can still continue to play piano , or you will find something missing out in life.

[ August 22, 2001: Message edited by: Rachelle ]