Wrist tension/pain when playing

[awaken77]

I noticed that my right hand have some tension in the back of the wrist, and pain after some long repetitious play.
When I see how experienced players play piano, they looks like have very relaxed hands (when fingers are off from the keys). Mine is not :-( but it's only problem with one hand (right) ,my left hand usually relaxed and never tired.

here is what I mean: this guy have relaxed hands, they like soaring

DT Wait for Sleep piano cover

how do you, guys, do it??? my hand can't get rest when playing :-(

[SoulFire]

Practice and a good teacher. When I first try to play a difficult passage I often experience this problem (usually if it's extremely fast). But you work through it, usually by slowing down and exageratting wrist movement to begin with in order to make your wrist feel more relaxed at full speed.

[WillDub]

For how long do you play piano?? If its been a few years its pretty normal, but the tension means you really arent relaxed. Tension comes with the fact that your shoulders are pretty tight when you play. by that i mean instead of having your shoulders down and relaxed like if you were sitting of a chair or sofa and being lazy lol, your shoulders are up and this prevents your right hand and elbow to be relaxed. Cause its not only your hand that has to be relaxed, but all your body (mainly elbow shoulder hands and your mind lol). Like Soulfire said, play slowly and practice until you feel a slight pull in your wrist. When you feel it, do some stretching. Another thing, you should try and pay attention to your shoulders when you play. If you see that they are starting to go up and being stiff, stop playing and relax. Pay attention to your shoulders, its really important. Shoulder stiff=wrist pain=arm pain=big problems will occur in the future.

Hope this helps!!!

Will

[awaken77]

Originally Posted by WillDub

For how long do you play piano?? If its been a few years its pretty normal, but the tension means you really arent relaxed.

7-8 months

actually, the most tension I feel when play something with 1st and 5th fingers far apart, like here: (right hand arpeggio)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc49ohigbig

[WillDub]

Do what i said!!!!!

If you still need some tips tell me. But really, when you go on the keys, dont start playing like a maniac lol. Do some slow warm ups!!! REEEEEEAAALLLLY SLOWWW warm ups!!! And again, if want more tips tell me.

[Psy-Fi]

Dear friend, having been injured(and recovered) myself, I have found that a lot of the standard wdvice given commonly such as "Play slow", even though partially correct, are inadequate. You need to become more aware of your body to avoid a few things, such as 'trapping' the motion of your hands Usually when we try to play fast and hard we 'lock' our muscles and tendons because we have the impression that increased -sense- of tension means increased power. It does not. Even this advice by itself is useless. I am really inviting you, if you have the patience, to check out this series of videos in youtube, which, in my opinion, is the best guide for ergonomy in piano-playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zgoc...eature=related
It includes a series of exercises that you can try out and get a much more practical sense of when tension is building and why. If you understand the lessons (which you will, the teacher speaks too plainly even for my own taste :) ) you will start applying the principles to your playing. A final personal remark is don't push your muscles too hard: Same way as you can't lift 200Kg without excercise, don't expect to become a virtuoso without some -unbiased- excercise. I can't stretch this point enough. If you stress yourself you'll eventually get seriously injured.

[awaken77]

Unlucky continuation of the story. Doctor said I got stress injury of the tendons in forearm(tendinitis), i don't know is it due to piano or playing table tennis (I play a lot). The doctor wrapped my hand in splint(bandage), and I cannot touch the piano, but also can't use the computer for 10-12 days :(