Old ailment, new instrument
Many serious pianists I have known over the past decades have had a bout of tendinitis. The tendons in their wrists or arms become inflamed after having forced themselves to practice more than their bodies would allow. They felt the pain coming on, yet continued to pound the ivories. The same thing has happened to me. Heed my warning - when your hands begin to hurt, you need to stop and, perhaps, reconsider your technique.
This past year I had set as my goal to learn and perform Scriabin's Fifth Piano Sonata in its entirety. I had been working on the first 5 pages for years - decades - and had progressed through half of it by February, playing that much of it for a few friends then. With that fairly positive experience in my pocket, I soldiered on, realizing that the music which I had years ago considered light-years beyond my technical reach was indeed not that impossible once the structure was comprehended. Now it was just a matter of memorizing it and getting my fingers to hit the keys at the right time.
The only problem there was that in order to play up to a speed which was fun to practice, I was forcing my hands to do things that were unnatural and unhealthy. I plunged my outstretched hands into octaves that should have been loosely thrown at the keys - first slowly, then gradually quicker and quicker. Over the Christmas break I read several books on piano technique - by Gieseking/Leimer, Cortot, Emma Leiuman, Oskar Beringer, and Alan Kogosowski. This last one about mastering the Chopin etudes left me with no doubt that my faulty technique was the culprit. A bit of research about tendinitis led me to the difficult decision of not playing the Scriabin any more until all the pain was gone.
I still play keyboard in a band once a week and teach several piano students, but any forced playing was out. Unfortunately, even typing this is somewhat painful because it is primarily the right thumb which is suffering the most. So I save myself for my professional work as a writer and editor and for my passion of teaching the piano.
In the meantime, however, I still want to make music. Thus the band. And the choir. But I've also picked up the classical guitar again and am going to do something I never thought I'd try: the violin. Over Christmas we brought back one of the violins that belonged to my wife's grandfather. A friendly violin maker near me took a look at it and, while she's repairing it, lent me another one and even set me up with a violin teacher to get me started. My goal is to do everything the teachers tell me to do and see how quickly I can progress, how far I can get in one year. Then we'll see what's next.
This past year I had set as my goal to learn and perform Scriabin's Fifth Piano Sonata in its entirety. I had been working on the first 5 pages for years - decades - and had progressed through half of it by February, playing that much of it for a few friends then. With that fairly positive experience in my pocket, I soldiered on, realizing that the music which I had years ago considered light-years beyond my technical reach was indeed not that impossible once the structure was comprehended. Now it was just a matter of memorizing it and getting my fingers to hit the keys at the right time.
The only problem there was that in order to play up to a speed which was fun to practice, I was forcing my hands to do things that were unnatural and unhealthy. I plunged my outstretched hands into octaves that should have been loosely thrown at the keys - first slowly, then gradually quicker and quicker. Over the Christmas break I read several books on piano technique - by Gieseking/Leimer, Cortot, Emma Leiuman, Oskar Beringer, and Alan Kogosowski. This last one about mastering the Chopin etudes left me with no doubt that my faulty technique was the culprit. A bit of research about tendinitis led me to the difficult decision of not playing the Scriabin any more until all the pain was gone.
I still play keyboard in a band once a week and teach several piano students, but any forced playing was out. Unfortunately, even typing this is somewhat painful because it is primarily the right thumb which is suffering the most. So I save myself for my professional work as a writer and editor and for my passion of teaching the piano.
In the meantime, however, I still want to make music. Thus the band. And the choir. But I've also picked up the classical guitar again and am going to do something I never thought I'd try: the violin. Over Christmas we brought back one of the violins that belonged to my wife's grandfather. A friendly violin maker near me took a look at it and, while she's repairing it, lent me another one and even set me up with a violin teacher to get me started. My goal is to do everything the teachers tell me to do and see how quickly I can progress, how far I can get in one year. Then we'll see what's next.
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