And behold! He gifted them the opportunity to make jokes about his lovemaking abilities. But seriously:

I'm getting really bad cramps/shooting pains in my hands when playing keyboard, and to a lesser extent guitar, at the moment. I'm really worried about it, as it seems to be getting worser and worser, and now kicks in after about only half an hour's playing.

The thing is, I never had lessons and I think I have very poor technique. I pretty much play with my hands flat and my wrists arched up a little - when I've seen people who can actually play piano they tend to have a very different shape. Plus I don't use my little fingers that much, and I often find that my fingers seem quite tensed up. I suspect this is to blame for my problems.

Has anyone got any tips on how I should be playing? What I can do to avoid such pain? Any websites or books that explain good technique in detail? I'm pretty much willing to relearn my technique from scratch as best I can, as I'm terrorised by the words of a man who once, after seeing me play, told me that if I carried on like that I'd have chronic arthiritis by the age of 30.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Yours, unmusically,

Simmo

RSI induced by too much wanking?

Shut up Schwimmer

For keyboards, make sure you're sitting up straight! Then try to hold your forearms fairly level an inch or so above the height of the keys and relax your wrists so that the tops of your hands slope down slightly towards the keys. Try practising simple scales in this position, holding your arms as steady as possible, only moving your fingers. Don't tense your arms, relax them. This is important. As soon as you feel yourself tensing up, stop, relax, and start again. And sit up straight!

Also, when you practise on your own, try not to play for longer than 30 minute periods without giving your hands a rest, and if they start hurting definitely stop, don't try to play through it.

How often do you play? Do you stretch your fingers to get big voicings? Do you crack your knuckles?

These are all the things I did, and still do as a keyboard player.
I do everything wrong, and sometimes it looks as if I'm playing
Twister™ for fingers. I'm 40 and and have been playing wrongly for at least 25 years, and I really haven't experienced any long lasting arthritic pain. I have had short spells, which really suck, but they seem to ebb and flow. Whether that's a harbinger of things to come, I dunno.

Could be Tendonitis- a few people I know got that from compulsive practicing.
It would be a good idea to see your doctor, to assess your pain and find out if changing your technique will make a difference. And take a break
for a few.

I play for four hours every Monday and Tuesday (practice), then I play guitar for an average of 45-60 minutes a day every day, then more keyboard on top during my lunch breaks (half an hour two times a week) and if ever I find myself near a piano.

I do stretch my fingers quite far, yeah - tend to play a fair amount of "jazz" chords (major 7s, major 9s), and a lot of very rhythmic playing.

Yeah, I've had friends who've got tendonitis - I should go to the doc's to get it checked out!

Thanks to everyone for their advice - it is really helpful!

It's kind of a confusing subject because I've seen loads of piano players that have "incorrect" technique and play until their death. Shit, cecil taylor still fucking destroys the piano. how has his body withstood that? of course the famous sloucher glenn gould didn't even sit correctly. I've also seen "correct" technique players who wear wrist protection and some have stopped playing altogether from the pain.

The true answer is for you to play in the style that feels most comfortable to you. You obviously need to change your technique. Maybe playing "correctly" would've been good a long time ago, but now, you need to find out what works for you. You will need to experiment and try different things. seat heights, hand positions, etc. perhaps even hacking the keyboard and lightening the action.

this is all good advice.

If you play while standing, be sure to check the height of your keyboard stand. it could be too low or too high to get a comfortable position for your wrists. try to stretch out your back, neck and shoulders, too. a lot of bad stress can be carried there when playing keys, just like when you're typing on a computer.

good technique:
- fingers curved so you can't see your nails, except your thumb which should be on its side with thumb nails facing each other
- lift each finger before you play it
- practise being able to play from the finger (knuckle), wrist, forearm and whole arm, gives different tonal possibilities (not neccesarily different volumes depending on how quick you bring the finger/wrist/forearm/whole arm down).
- wrist and forearm should be in line with the keys so that the forearm and keys (adjust seat height to accomodate), so the highest part of your hand is around your knuckles.
- if something hurts don't try to work through it, just do it for a short amount of time as often as possible (as opposed to for a long amount of time once a week which could cause damage).

hope that helps!