Around month three, my hands started hurting. Not like injury pain – more like this constant low-grade ache after playing. Fingers would get tired way too fast. By the end of a 20-minute session my forearms felt like I'd been doing push-ups.
I thought it was just part of learning. Building piano muscles or whatever. Pushed through it.
Bad idea. Really bad idea.
What I was actually building was a tension habit. My hands were working way harder than they needed to because I was playing tense. Tight wrists. Death grip on the keys. Shoulders up near my ears. Essentially the opposite of how you're supposed to play.
Took me weeks to even realize I was doing it. That's the thing about tension – it sneaks in and becomes your default. You stop noticing you're clenched until something hurts.
Here's how I started fixing it:
First, I did the drop test. Hold your arm out in front of you. Let it fall into your lap completely limp, like a dead weight. Notice how relaxed that feels? That's how relaxed your arm should feel while playing. Not rigid. Not held. Supported from the shoulder but loose through the wrist and hand. This Taubman approach video demonstrates the concept better than words can.
Second, I started checking in constantly. Every few minutes during practice, I'd stop and ask: are my shoulders raised? Is my jaw clenched? Are my fingers squeezing the keys or just touching them? Usually the answer was yes to at least one. I'd consciously release, take a breath, and continue. Eventually the checking became automatic.
Third, I slowed everything down. Tension often creeps in when you're playing at the edge of your ability. Your body tightens to compensate for difficulty. By dropping to a tempo where everything felt easy, I could focus on staying relaxed. Speed without tension. Then gradually speed back up, maintaining the looseness.
The finger weight thing helped too. You don't need to press hard to make sound on a piano. Especially digital keyboards – they need almost nothing. I was pressing like I was trying to push the key through the floor. Now I think about dropping the weight of my finger onto the key. Gravity does most of the work. Way less effort, same sound. Yamaha's playing guide covers proper touch technique.
My left hand was worse than my right – probably because it was working harder to keep up. All that extra effort = extra tension. The left hand coordination stuff I worked on actually helped with this too. As my left hand got more competent, it stopped gripping so hard.
One exercise I still do: play a simple scale as quietly as possible. Like, barely audible. This forces you to use minimum effort. You can't play pianissimo while tense – the physics don't work. Do this at the start of each practice as a reset.
If you're getting hand pain or fatigue, don't push through it like I did. Stop. Check your tension. Slow down. Your body is telling you something. Ignoring it leads to injury. I was lucky – some people develop real problems from playing tense for years.
Now I can practice for an hour with zero discomfort. The difference isn't strength – it's technique. Relaxation is a skill. You have to practice it just like you practice scales.
The finger exercises I use include warmups specifically designed to promote relaxation. Start there if you're dealing with tension. And seriously – if anything actually hurts, take a break. The piano will still be there tomorrow.