can too much piano practice cause weak and sloppy hands the next day?

dmajor100

dmajor100

Active member
for the last few days i been practicing scales,fast hanon,and minor 9ths chords till basically my hands felt tired mail cause i want to have very good muscle memory in my hands. There are often times when jumping back to practice that my hands and fingers are completely sloppy and I'm fallen goff on things i got down to perfection a few days ago. Is piano practice just like working out and do i need to rest of a few days till my hands are recovered and strong again. i thought it was always a good rule to practice every single day even for hrs if you had the time.
 
i'm not an expert, but your body always needs recovery time. Maybe you should switch up your routine, exercises one day, practicing songs (nothing to intense) the next day. Also, I'm sure your diet is contributing to your recovery time. my 2 cents. I'm sure the virtuoso cats have some better suggestions.
 
Are you practicing songs, too?
If not, do that. Those drills aren't meant to be done excessively, but as warmups.
 
no i don't do songs at all and really have never done those kinda practices all i really do is scales,chords and few the last few days i been trying to memorized all my minor 9th inversions.As far as hanon exercises ivr been using my metronome in logic to keep a steady beat and try to go as fast as i can with complete fouces and not messing up.
 
dmajor100 said:
no i don't do songs at all and really have never done those kinda practices all i really do is scales,chords
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Well, I suggest you start practicing songs. Practicing scales and chords on their own is a waste of effort---you're not really learning anything. Repertoire is the only way to really understand how those scales and chords actually work in a musical context. How will you know how and when to use a particular chord or its inversion if you've never practiced playing it in actual music? If you don't have an instructor, I also suggest that you get one as soon as possible or you're gonna hurt yourself and slow down your progress.

---------- Post added at 08:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 PM ----------

What is boils down to is this: If you're getting worn out from Hanon and running scales, you're practicing wrong. All that stuff is supposed to prepare you for the most important aspect of your practice---REPERTOIRE. I can't stress this enough. Your effort should be concentrated on learning songs, not for the sake of learning tunes per say, but learning how harmony and melody works in the context of real music. My workout comes from practicing songs all day, I spend, maybe, 20 minutes max on scales, if that. Just do two runs of major scales through all the keys starting at C and moving in fourths until i'm back at C again. After that, its all about repertoire.
 
so what kinda songs should i be studying since i don't read music and are youtube tutorials on youtube beneficial ya know the ones that talk you step by step?
 
If u play by ear, try learning some of your favorite tunes, classics (not necessarily mozart and shit, but classic rock, r&b and what not).
 
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dmajor100 said:
so what kinda songs should i be studying since i don't read music and are youtube tutorials on youtube beneficial ya know the ones that talk you step by step?
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How are you playing Hanon if you don't know how to read sheet music?

For real, get an instructor so you can learn proper posture and technique so you don't hurt your wrists and fingers. Hands were never meant to do something like play the piano, so its important to have someone around to help make sure you don't injure yourself. Having a real-life instructor might seem like an extreme commitment, but if you intend to play for awhile a competent level (enough to express yourself creatively), its a must. What you don't get from youtube video or dvd is that guidance and feedback so you know you're doing things the correct way.

As for what type of songs you should be learning, for starters, you're gonna need to learn how to read both the treble and bass clef simultaneously. Its not as hard as you think. The sooner you start training to do this, the better. This is another reason that I suggest you find an instructor, so they can give you guidance on what songs to learn and how to learn them. I can't suggest anything if you don't know how to sight-read yet.

You are not doing yourself any favors only working hanon warmups, scales and relying on youtube videos. Until you can understand how scales and chords work in a musical context, you're pretty much wearing out your wrists doing nothing. Think of repertoire as practical ear training. Scales and hanon are only meant for developing technique, not musicality. Get an instructor and leave them youtube videos alone.
 
I've learn everything from youtube like hanon and I basically learn scales and chords my self with the bit of knowledge of basic theory. Ive had about 4 instructors this past year i just did not stick with them because they were just boring teaching me how good they can play certain songs and how to play music i was not interested in. I've got gospel musicians tutorial that clearly is instructing me to learn my scales followed by minor 9th chords. So why wouldn't this be able to teach me how to play piano and proceed with getting any better vs a personal instructor that only teaches classical teachings and doesn't have any teachings without reading music.

---------- Post added at 09:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:29 PM ----------

ivre heard endless times that reading music will just a overall good thing for me as a musician but it is not needed to just a good keyboardist. Im not trying to be a pianist because I've clearly lost the time it takes to become one.
 
So, here's the thing; a pianist working towards a concert career will practice 8 hours a day. But that practice is spread across a range of things and is worked through in the same way you would at the gym:
  • Warmups and stretching: scales, arpeggios, hanon/czreny/dohnanyi, physical stretches of all the muscle groups back/arms/legs/hands/neck; start slowly and work up to speed.
  • New concepts and pieces: slowly, slowly, slowly, then again a little quicker and so on...
  • Old pieces: at speed or even a little bit quicker (this is when you know you know the piece and are practicing the changes so that it will sit right at your required performance tempo)
  • Warmdowns and stretching: same as the warmups but getting slower and more gentle
the middle two sections might be repeated a few times, with the odd half hour break in between and quick warmups/warmdowns

A performing musician is as much an athlete as a musician and needs to treat their body with the same respect and care.......
 
so could hand position be a reason of certain tiered ness in my hands as well as some stiffness? Right now my wrists are a bit curved upwards but not too much and the piano keys are at my mid to lower chest because my chair is too low but its all i got.
 
fix your practice situation immediately otherwise you can create more problems than you really want to cope with (tendon trouble, muscle aches stiff/sore neck and back, then list is almost endless...... your wrists need to be above the keyboard and ever so slightly angled down - playing is also about fingertip control not finger control - so if your fingers aren't curved slightly, then you need to adjust your playing area immediately.

get a keyboard stand and set it to a height that works for you in relation to your chair......
 
my wrist do feel very tendor and just being away from the piano ill slowly bend my wrist up and down and i can feel my wrist shaking.It feels like this right now but there are times when i dnt feel this but there are times i do too.
 
dmajor100 said:
my wrist do feel very tendor and just being away from the piano ill slowly bend my wrist up and down and i can feel my wrist shaking.It feels like this right now but there are times when i dnt feel this but there are times i do too.
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Sounds like u need a teacher. I not saying u need a teacher to make good music, but if you are spending that much time just trying play getting an instructor might be the best move. The pain you're describing, sounds a lot like badd technique, although I could be wrong.
I don't want to sound like an elitists saying you must have formal training (there are many exceptional self-taught musicians), but you sound like you really want to be able play more than just be good enough to make beats. If you really love the piano, i think you're selling yourself short by not taking lessons. And ya the first couple years are just boring and tedious, but you can't get around that.
 
perhaps i just need those keyboard adjustable seats to raise myself high to were the keys are a bit under me. Is there really no online classes that people vouch for that are very good for learning?
 
The reality is that any on-line class will fall short, as it is impossible for the teacher to provide meaningful physical feedback to you.

As a teacher, I will manipulate my students hands and posture until it is correct, and I will do this over many lessons.

Sometimes this is for more than two years in the case of youngsters whose bodies keep growing and changing: contrary to popular belief, we do not grow at a constant rate and certainly our bodies do not have the various parts grow in strict proportion, meaning that individual bits are bigger or smaller than other parts of the body, so constant adjustments to posture and positioning need to be made to play well without injuring the student........
 
I can't, it MAY! But, it's just at the beginning! First day - played till deadline. Second day - fingers feel like they have mind of their own and "don't listen to you." But every next you will feel that it requires much more time to play to you to make your make your fingers tired. Fingers have muscles, same as your arms, legs. You know what happens when you overwork' em. But that way you become stronger.
 
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