I think that people have just about exhausted the last forum "hardest piano piece". Lets talk injuries. Who has been injured in this forum, and what causes pianist injuries? I don`t expect young people to answer this question because you are too innocent to be injured.

I bring this up because many people blurt out stupid things like "playing till your fingers bleed". Now if this were true, I believe a person would be overwhelmed with carpal tunnel syndrome before their fingers bleed.

For those of you who attempt hard pieces at early ages, be aware of your piano technique. Remember, your fingers DONT have muscles and are controlled by muscles in the for arm and wrist. This is why many computer science students get carpal tunnel syndrome. It is hazardous to repeat motions 1200 times for one hour, where pianists may repeat finger motions 28000 times within one hour. Remember proper technique (this is where a good teacher is handy).

Therefore I finish with
Who has been injured at the piano?

Not me, except sometimes if I work on a piece for a while, a hard piece, I mean, my wrists hurt for weeks after.

you should probably stop for a while and have your technique of playing re-examined by another teacher who is very aware of injuries such as carpal tunnel and tendonitis. It is important to incorporate your entire body with your playing and not just the fingers. It sounds like you have tendonitis, which is swelling of the tendons which run through the carpal tunnel (hole) of the wrist. When these get swollen, the nerve running through the wrist becomes pinched. This causes carpal tunnel SYNDROME which is numbness in the hands and pain. Because many of the greatest pianists have been injured, Rachmaninov, Glenn Gould, Richard Goode, it can then be understood that many of the people don`t study the safest technique. ALthough, many people have higher resistance to this because of better health, fitness or sleep, the point is that piano playing does not require force that should strain your wrists (the keys can be pushed with the weight of your arms). you may also want to talk to a Doctor who specializes in hand injuries or nueral disorders.

geez......... i knew playing snare could kill you but piano too!!!

well..rarely does piano injuries happen with proper technique .. unless your overworking yourself.. the only time ive ever had a piano injury(it wasnt bad) was when i practised for like 3 hours trying to speed up something like crazy.... after that my hands and part of my arm hurt like crazy for like an hour... but thats not bad .. anywho im leaving :D byebye
jen

I was once practicing for a competition and the over practice, combined with technique problem, caused me to pinch a nerve in my right hand. I continued to practice and the nerve problem spread all the way up my arm to my collar bone. Very painful.
(By the way, I am only fourteen so it can happen to young players)

well, tame as the piano seems, I`ve been injured playing it! The most intruiging one seems to be some type of recurring stress fracture in my right index finger. Yea, great place for it huh? Anyway, it seems to pop up when I push my practice time for a few days in a row - like right before a performance. (yea, great timing!) It gets a wee bit swollen and stiff and it hurts, but I can typically play through it. A few weeks of less-than-normal practice (or none at all) does the trick. I really have no idea what it is, any ideas?
Oh and one more thing, Kevin you mention technique, and that would be the obvious culprit, but most consider my technique flawless - certainly not me, nor my teacher though! I am particularly careful about my technique when I`m gonna be increasing my time though - it helps some, but doesn`t prevent this.

i have small hands and have to stretch for an octave. when i practice a piece with running octaves my wrists and muscles hurt for a few hours after practice. Also i played on a relatives piano and some of the ends of the keys were broken off and playing a piece i got caught and cut my finger.

ooooh...i never realised you could really get injured!

My fingernail got caught in the crease between the keys, and the whole corner of my nail ripped off.

I`m only thirteen and have proper technique and the only thing that happened was that i tried to hit a key too hard and my finger was a little flat and it hurt for a few minutes. Nothing really at all and all ppl that have bad technique will probably quit before grade 2

thats not completly true(people with inproper technique will quit before grade 2) i had bad technique until grade 8 piano... but then i switched piano teachers and got yelled at by my new piano teacher... but... my technique is way better now lol

I am only 15 and have very good technique, but my shoulder hurts the worst if i`ve been playing for two hours or more. it hurts when i run for atleast an hour, too, but that`s beside the point. i think it`s really interesting that you can be hurt by playing the piano or typing.

I broke my hand when a piano lid shut on it.

I am only 16 and i have acquired rhematiod arthritus in my fingers and elbows. I believe it is from practicing for hours and hours on end, (plus a little help from the family). But can you really develop arthritus from playing the piano? Just wanting to know. Even though a lot of times I play through the pain. Hope to hear from someone soon. Thx.