Q&A: Ergonomics of piano playing

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exercise, health, healthy eating, piano, practice, stretching

Source: Pixabay

While a computer tech was trouble-shooting at the house this week, he was interested in my ergonomic keyboard. In fact, he is going to purchase one.

Take a look!  http://www.thehumansolution.com/keyovation.html

That got me thinking about this post, first published in 2010.

Someone searched this blog recently for “ergonomics of playing the piano.”  Let’s replace that with “playing the piano safely.”

We can maintain our ability to play the piano for decades by being aware and looking for variety.

Awareness of warning signs is important to avoid injury.  Once someone incurs an injury, s/he becomes more vulnerable to further injury in the future.  So even if you think it could never happen to you, it happens all the time.

Be Aware

If you feel numbness, tingling, or pain, you need to take a break.

If anything hurts, even a stiff neck, you need to look at that.

Practicing mindlessly for hours on end without a break is never a good idea.

Incorporate Variety

What’s your plan?  How do you practice?

Going at something as fast and loudly as possible will get you injured in no time.

Here are a few ideas about staying safe.

You can practice:

• hands alone
• slower than performance tempo
• loud/soft
• changing range on the keyboard
• alternating difficult passages with less stressful ones
• mixing up a stint of staccato practicing with legato (use your body in different ways)
  
• for leaps and glissandi, measuring distances and calculating timing by faking it (above the keyboard ~ no need to play all that often)
• feeling chord shapes in your hands, also above the keyboard
• more carefully when you’re tired
  

You can:

• alternate practicing and gripping activities with passive activities, such as reading or taking a walk, talking on the speakerphone.  For example, lifting weights and practicing are both stressing your body, thus making you more vulnerable to injury.  Your body needs a break in between.
  
• play with your hands and arms in a natural position (you don’t have to be exactly lined up with the keys!)
• look at your practice setup ~ lighting, chair height, your distance from the keyboard (do you have room to navigate?)
• always use healthy body alignment (feet on the floor, supporting your body ~ no slumping forward, no legs wrapped around chair legs, no feet on chair rungs, no head on hand on elbow resting on the piano)
  
• look at the music away from the piano
• conduct, sing, walk the rhythm, clap, speak the text in rhythm, try dynamic changes out with your voice
• take a 20-min. break every hour
• practice in more than one chunk of time during the day
• eat 3 healthy meals every day (don’t skip a meal in order to practice!)
• exercise!
• stretch your body and warm up your hands before practicing (5 min.)
  
• stretch your arms, shoulders, and back after practicing (5 more min.)

Computer use (i.e. more use of your hands)

Same thing.  Look at your setup, use good body alignment (don’t lie on your bed, resting on your elbows).  Take breaks.  Move your arms, shoulders, and back when you type, like you would on an old manual typewriter with tiered keys.  Stretch before and after computer work.

Computers probably demand more fast work without breaks than practicing an instrument.  No one talks about good body alignment in workplaces.  Deadlines are much more important.  (Fed-Ex leaves in 5 minutes!  Are you done yet?)  And, unless you’re self-employed, you’re likely to have someone who wants you to produce more, faster than you need to be going.  Pressure means vulnerability to injury.

Why not take a look at your usual approach to the computer during your time off, at home?  Try looking at yourself in the mirror, or ask a friend to help.

At work, you can set your phone alarm to alert you once an hour.  Stand up, walk around, stretch, breathe, and something relaxing.  Take a break!  The up side of leaving your work where it is for a few minutes is, you won’t turn into a pretzel!

What do you think?  What is your approach to practice and computer use?  Do you have certain ways of going about it that work particularly well for you?  Do you take breaks?

Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section!

You can read much more about ergonomics here.

And while you’re here, please take a look at my E-book! “Goal-oriented Practice” is all about being smart, saving time, and achieving better results.

If this post has been helpful and you think your friends and contacts would benefit from reading it, please share. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

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Stretches for finger and hand flexibility and range

Tags

automobile accident, finger stretches, hand injury, keyboard span, stretching

A stretching lion at Ouwehands Dierenpark. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Inspired by my friend Louise

A friend asked the other day how she could stretch her fingers following an automobile accident which put her hand in a splint for several weeks.  She has lost the span needed to play Beethoven on the piano. Since she plays for her own enjoyment, ways to maintain flexibility and range were something she needed to check out.  Her first thought was, “I’ll never be able to play again!”

Most people are familiar with large muscle stretches for sports, for example.  Hand stretches might be a little different.This is what I told her.  Perhaps something in this post will be helpful to you or someone you know, as well.

To stretch your fingers ~ yes, you can do that.  But you have to be careful.  The hand injury specialist who treated me said to stretch to about 80% of your max.  Small structures can’t be over-stressed, because they can be permanently injured.

With one hand cupped (imagine holding a tennis ball), turn your hand palm-side down, level w/the floor.  Support your upper arm and elbow against your body.  No gripping! You are not holding the ball, just imagining the shape.

With your opposite hand, gently stretch one finger at a time, keeping finger curved when stretching back, away from finger tips, toward back of palm.  (So your middle joint aims for the ceiling, fingernail ends up near 3rd joint.)

Next, stretch the same finger down to palm, so fingernail almost touches inside of wrist. Straighten finger, keeping it relaxed. Now stretch the same finger, using your opposite hand, to the left and then right.Stretching in all directions is important to maintain the balance in length of the tendons. Each stretch can be repeated, gently, 2 or 3 times in one session.  You could do a couple of sessions each day.

You can soak your hands in hot water for a few minutes On a cold day or in a cold room, avoid going into stretches with cold hands. And, for instance, you wouldn’t want to stretch in front of a cold blast of air from an air-conditioner, or in front of a fan.

Don’t expect instant progress… you haven’t been using your hand for a while.

Stretching both hands adds a 15% benefit!

Don’t overdo it or go too fast out of frustration.  That’s the hard part for me.  Robert Schumann, the composer, became frustrated that his 4th fingers wouldn’t lift off the keyboard as far as 2, 3, and 5.  He built a wooden machine to stretch his 4th fingers, and ruined his hands for life.

When you have finished stretching, take a break.  Any strenuous activity with your hands needs to begin no sooner than 10 minutes later.

While you are regaining your flexiblity, go ahead and play your instrument!  You can leave things out. Playing something is so much more fun than not playing at all and becoming worried that you won’t be able to.  Given a little time, your flexibility will return.  It takes attention to the situation and caring for your hands where they are right now, today.

Surgeons play finger games to maintain flnger flexibility.  So, while playing an instrument may seem like a niche activity, maintaining flexibility is also applicable to other professions.

Hope this helps!

Comments?  Please use the “Leave a Comment” link at the top of this post.

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Crucial stretches for every keyboard user

Tags

articles, links, related posts, staying healthy, stretching

This post is for musicians and computer users.

“Keyboard user” is a conscious decision for inclusion in the title (rather than “keyboard player”) because  computer operators need to stretch.  So do organists, harpsichordists, pianists, electronic keyboardists, and others who use the small structures of their hands and arms in repetitive fashion.

Keyboard users move their hands and arms (and backs and shoulders and necks and heads) primarily in one direction, often for long periods of time.  Work, music, and play can become mesmerizing.  We forget to take breaks, or postpone them to do “one more page.”  And then, an hour later, we’re still at it.

We have all seen athletes stretch.  That makes sense, right?  We are also athletes.  We use smaller structures that are not built for the amount of stress we put on them.  Stretching helps address the problem.

New discussion

A discussion of stretches recently came up on Facebook.  This link takes you to a new article on the subject.

I am delighted to see ongoing interest in stretching.  Everyone benefits by having the topic back at the top of their “to do” lists and reading about others’ experiences.

My friend Michael Meltzer and I continued the discussion.  Michael said:

My last teacher was the late Louise Curcio in New Jersey, who began every lesson with about ten minutes of stretches. She explained, “We are creatures of habit. When you are not properly stretched, you’ll begin your practice in slightly incorrect or imprecise arm & finger positions and configurations. Your brain will remember those incorrect lineups and unconsciously seek to recreate them, interfering with learning and mastering your pieces.”

… looking at it carefully, I think the exact words SHE would have used would have been “arm and finger postures” instead of finger positions & configurations (my words).

Used by permission. Thank you, Michael!

Why stretch?

When playing or using a computer, our muscles and tendons adjust to accommodate our repetitive, uni-directional motions.  The muscles and tendons on the top of the forearm and hand lengthen, while on the underside, they shorten.

This results in an imbalance which can result in injury.

The stretches we need to do help things return to normal.  We need to stretch in the opposite direction from the way we have been moving while playing an instrument or using a computer.

The following comes from a previous post about ergonomics as applied to keyboard use.  As school revs up and we all become busier, combating stress and tension are even more important.

We can maintain our ability to play an instrument or use a computer for decades by being aware and looking for variety as we proceed.

Awareness of warning signs is important to avoid injury.  Once someone incurs an injury, s/he becomes more vulnerable to further injury in the future.  So even if you think it could never happen to you, please read on.

Be aware

• If you feel numbness, tingling, or pain, you need to take a break.
• If anything hurts, even a stiff neck, you need to look at that.
• Practicing mindlessly for hours on end without a break is never a good idea.

Incorporate variety

What’s your plan?  How do you practice?

Going at something as fast and loudly as possible will get you injured in no time.

Here are a few ideas about staying safe.

You can practice:

• hands alone
• slower than performance tempo
• loud/soft
• changing range on the keyboard
• alternating difficult passages with less stressful ones
• mixing up a stint of staccato practicing with legato (use your body in different ways)
• for leaps and glissandi, measuring distances and calculating timing by faking it (above the keyboard ~ no need to play all that often)
• feeling chord shapes in your hands, also above the keyboard
• more carefully when you’re tired

You can:

• alternate practicing and gripping activities with passive activities, such as reading or taking a walk, talking on the speakerphone.  For example, lifting weights and practicing are both stressing your body, thus making you more vulnerable to injury.  Your body needs a break in between.
• play with your hands and arms in a natural position (you don’t have to be exactly lined up with the keys!)
• look at your practice setup ~ lighting, chair height, your distance from the keyboard (do you have room to navigate?)
• always use healthy body alignment (feet on the floor, supporting your body ~ no slumping forward, no legs wrapped around chair legs, no feet on chair rungs, no head on hand on elbow resting on the piano)
• look at the music away from the piano
• conduct, sing, walk the rhythm, clap, speak the text in rhythm, try dynamic changes out with your voice
• take a 10-min. break every hour
• practice in more than one chunk of time during the day
• eat 3 healthy meals every day (don’t skip a meal in order to practice!)
• exercise!
• stretch your body and warm up your hands before practicing (5 min.)
• stretch your arms, shoulders, and back after practicing (5 more min.)

Computer use

The same awareness is important here.  Look at your setup, use good body alignment (don’t lie on your bed, resting on your elbows).  Take breaks.  Move your arms, shoulders, and back when you type, like you would on an old manual typewriter with tiered keys.  Stretch before and after computer work.

Computers probably demand more fast work without breaks than practicing an instrument.  No one talks about good body alignment in workplaces.  Deadlines are much more important.  (Fed-Ex leaves in 5 minutes!  Are you done yet?)  And, unless you’re self-employed, you’re likely to have someone who wants you to produce more, faster than you need to be going.  Pressure means vulnerability to injury.

Why not take a look at your usual approach to the computer during your time off, at home?  Try looking at yourself in the mirror, or ask a friend to help.

At work, you can set your phone alarm to alert you once an hour.  Stand up, walk around, stretch, breathe, and something relaxing.  Take a break!  The up side of leaving your work where it is for a few minutes is, you won’t turn into a pretzel!

What do you think?  What is your approach to practice and computer use?  Do you have certain ways of going about it that work particularly well for you?  Do you take breaks?

Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below!

You can read more articles on this blog about ergonomics here.

Also, while you’re here, please take a look at my E-book!

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