The Inner Work of Playing Without Pain

My main activity in the musicians’ health space is helping people fix their piano technique. While this is an essential part of solving a piano-related pain or injury issue, it may not be enough on its own.       

As I’ve come to understand it, a complete injury recovery plan involves three distinct threads: piano playing, movement (including but not limited to exercise), and the nervous system. 

While it’s far from obvious how exactly to approach technique or movement, most injured pianists do pursue both of these routes. This article is about the missing piece: the role of nervous system stress in injury, and what to do about it. It’s a big subject, and admittedly not one I can comprehensively explain. However, my experience healing my own injury and subsequent experience helping other pianists have given me some insights worth sharing. 

Practice is at the heart of a musician’s life. While it is always beneficial to improve your practice habits, it is even more crucial after a playing-related injury. The possibility of pain and further physical damage often forces musicians to take a serious look at the quality of their practice sessions.

How much to practice after an injury depends on the individual situation, as different body conditions require different amounts of rest. But in any case, rest on its own rarely solves the problem. Practicing will eventually need to be reintegrated as part of the long-term recovery plan.

Understanding your body can lead to better, easier, pain-free playing. 

The majority of pianists will be sidelined by pain, muscle fatigue or tendonitis at some point in their careers. The term overuse injury is often applied but is not entirely accurate. The cause is seldom as simple as “too much playing”. It’s not about how much you play, but how you play. There is widespread acknowledgement of this in music schools and professional circles, but unfortunately it is not always clear what the problems are or how to correct them.