Hello teachers!

I have a problem and i hope that some of will be be able to give me some answers.

2 months ago i woke up with pain in my arm. I went to the doctor and she said that i have no disorder but that my hand is injuried. Is nothng too serious, at least i hope it isn't.

The problem is that i don't know what to do. The reason for injury is tension. I simply can't relax hands. I am late intermediate student (grade 7).

I was talking with my teacher and she said that for the next few months i will be playing only slow and quiet pieces in order to learn how to relax wrist. She also gave some excercises (scales etc...), which i have to practice slowly and make sure that my hands are completely relaxed.

What i wonder is if this is the correct way of dealing with "unwanted" tension. Should i completely change the technique? Should i change my teacher? In the past year, i had some problems with pain in hands, when i played some harder pieces and she was not able to offer advices on how to rid of tension. What do you think?

Piano means a lot to me, so this problem is very upseting.

Any advice/help will be appreciated.

This is a common problem and I'm sorry its affecting you so badly.

There is actually another thread running at the moment on the topic of tension here

If you are content with your teacher in every other way, you could always find a teacher who specialises in tension problems for a few extra lessons to help you sort it out. There's also the option of seeing a hand specialist to see if they can help in anyway - some give free consultations to musicians as part of a scheme. If you want a recommendation for either, feel free to PM me.