A Journey to Pain-Free Playing

When I was in high school and college, I would practice till my fingers hurt. On purpose. It may have hurt my hands, but I was happy and satisfied afterwards. My band professor in college caught me doing it one time, and he said to never play through pain.

Sports injuries and Carpal Tunnel are common among musicians. We should treat and consider ourselves as athletes by paying attention to form and stretching every 20 minutes of practice.

My Story

As I said before, I used to practice until my fingers hurt on purpose. That’s when my hand pain started. My Senior year of college, my hand pain started coming on earlier and earlier during practice. A year or two later, my hands started to hurt when I wasn’t playing.

A few years ago, someone recommended that I try an Active Release Technique Chiropractor. Dr. Tony Ellis helped me realize that I was holding my flute incorrectly and hand-crossing incorrectly. It caused tennis elbow, which he treated.

Review of Proper Form for Flute

On the flute, you should hold your right hand like you’re taking a book off a shelf. Every finger should be curved, with your fingertips touching the very middle of each key, including your pinky. You will need to adjust your foot joint so that the pinky curves at the same angle as the other fingers. The curvature helps your fingers play fast. The thumb should be holding the flute with the side of the thumb, so you can see your entire fingernail. Holding your thumb so the tip of the thumb is touching the flute is acceptable, too, depending on the size of your hands.

For the left hand, use the inside knuckle of your index finger as a shelf to hold up the flute. If you want, you can cut up a gel pencil grip to make a cushion so that vein doesn’t pop out on the side of your knuckle. Each finger should be nicely curved, similar to the right hand.

The entire surface of the lip plate on the body side of the embouchure hole should make contact with your lip and chin. This will help with gripping the instrument as well as tone. I couldn’t figure out how to get a good picture of this concept by myself, so you’ll have to visualize this one. 🙂

The flute should be parallel with your stand, and your feet should be at a 30-45 degree angle from the stand. This prevents the shoulder muscles from cramping up, especially between the angel wings. As with any instrument, your back should be straight.

In marching band, you’re instructed to carry your flute parallel to the floor and parallel to your body. Don’t do that. It shortens your right shoulder muscles and creates tension (pain). This was part of my problem with pain.

Review of Proper Form on Piano

Piano form is a little less complicated. The fingers should be curved, the wrists should be level with the back of the hand or above (Lizt played with high wrists), your knees should be barely under the keyboard, back straight, and elbows in line with the wrists.

If you have to do hand-crossing, try to keep your forearm parallel to the fingerboard, if the music allows. This way you don’t create tension between your shoulders and in the forearm of the arm that you cross. This was part of my problem with pain.

It’s Not Always your Instrument

If you’ve reviewed your form and you know that your musicianship is not to blame, it’s time to take a look at other things. Computer? The way you hold your hands while using your smart phone? Other hobbies? Here are some examples from my life.

I had to give up crocheting. I got to the point where I had to choose between crochet and music. I chose music.

When I scrolled through my phone, I used my index finger while my other fingers hovered above the phone. This created tightness, which created pain. I closed my fist except for my index finger so I looked like I was pointing. This solved the problem.

Lately I’ve been getting pain again in my hands. I’ve been paying extra attention to everything I’ve been doing lately to see what’s triggering it. I was on a run the other day and I figured it out.

Proper form in running is to hold your elbows at a 90 degree angle. While I was running the other day, I pointed at something, extending my arm. I felt pain shoot throughout my arm. That tells me that I need to shake out my arms once in awhile during my long runs.

Things That Have Helped Me

Yoga

I do Ashtanga Yoga. This is not just stretching. It’s also strength training and cardio. It is designed to align your body and spine. When body parts are aligned, they work better. Everything is connected.

Tightness creates pain and sports/ligament injuries. Stretching loosens up the tightness. When we do cardio, it forces the blood to even the tightest areas of our muscles, which allows things to heal. When we do strength training, the muscles get stronger and they’re able to do things with less pain.

ART Chiropractor Care

Despite using Ashtanga Yoga since I was 22 years old, some parts of my arms weren’t being stretched or strengthened. This is part of the reason I got tennis elbow, along with the incorrect form I was using. I was going through a lot of pain in my hands and arms.

I was referred to Dr. Ellis and he treated my tennis elbow, along with continuing my chiropractic care for my scoliosis (curvature of the spine). The chiropractor relaxed muscles that I didn’t even know were tight and worked with me to discover in what ways I had incorrect form on the flute and piano.

Stretching

I use stretches designed for carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, neck stretches, and stretches for the shoulders – the top of the shoulder, the portion between the angel wings, and the portion on the bottom of the shoulder blades.

When I take a break every twenty minutes from music or typing, I do these stretches. It keeps the muscles from getting tense, and allows me to practice longer.

Relaxing

In this context, I’m speaking about relaxing the muscles. When I’m playing, I try to pretend that my arms are like spaghetti noodles hanging from my flute or my arms are slinkies hanging from my shoulders over the piano.

I have a problem with cold (icing) – it makes my muscles tense up. Some people need to ice their muscles in order to relax them, but that doesn’t work for me. Here’s what works for me to force my muscles to relax.

1. Epsom Salt Bath
2. Heating Pad or Patch
3. Soaking my Feet (as your feet are, so the rest of your body is)
4. Massaging my Feet

Conclusion

As more research comes out, we will have to worry about these things less and less because ergonomics will be in mind as everything is designed. In the meantime, do your research. Take care of yourself. Music is intoxicating, but don’t let it hurt your body.