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.

Surveys of musicians typically come back with numbers like 50-80% having dealt with playing-related pain or injuries in the course of their career. While the problem is widespread and awareness has grown in recent decades, many injured musicians still find themselves stuck and confused about how to deal with an injury.

My injury story began toward the end of my undergraduate degree when I started feeling pain in my right forearm. Not long afterward, similar pain showed up in the left, then tingling, weakness, and areas of numbness in both arms. I knew that pianist injuries were a thing, but I didn’t know what to do about it other than limit my playing and try to relax at the piano.