Ulnar Deviation And Tension

Over the last couple of days I've become aware of some tension along the outer ridges of my arms. It appears to be localised to a small area around where the tendon for my fifth finger emerges from my wrist, on the arm side of the wrist. It's not at the stage of being painful yet, but I think that left unchecked it could lead to trouble. I notice the tension will increase if I do my habitual form of ulnar deviation, which is present in almost all of my playing. I've been experimenting with the movement of deviating the hand. Initially it was either on or off, which was contributing to the problem. I was either not deviated at all, or overly deviated (think Spinal Tap - this lateral wrist motion goes straight from 0 to 11). I've managed to slow down and get a kind of notched motion, which is far from perfect, but is much better, but I've yet to integrate it into my playing yet. As I explore the movement more I hope to get it as smooth and conscious as possible, until I can rely on it working reliably. My working method at the moment is to give myself the stimulus to deviate my hand but inhibit the response. I then give myself consent for the movement and stay out of the way - it's usually much smoother. This has revealed the on/off state of the movement, but also allowed me to discover a related tension, in the form of spasms from my fifth fingers/hypothenar muscles. I believe I've been over focused on the movement of my fingers recently and not enough on any auxiliary movement. I'd like to know of anyone's experiences with ulnar deviation. I know it's mentioned a couple of times in passing in , and I agree with Alan that there must be a healthy way of doing it - it's just finding that way (or ways) that's the difficult part. I did find that even my slightly improved movement has made playing some things so much easier - the E flat pedal point in Grieg's Wedding Day is really starting to move now, but if I'm not careful I tend to lock my hand into the extreme deviated position.

I myself have been developing a less deviated hand of late. The key motivator for this is a thumb that 'wants' constantly to sweep in under the hand towards the fingertips. When you cultivate your thumb's desire to do this, you'll find you deviate less without ever trying to reduce it. If you're developing pain, this may be a good time to try my technique out... AFF

Thanks for the response, Alan. I've found that looking at the quality of the movement has helped a lot, though this needs some more time to be fully effective in action. I'll try the thumb thing you've suggested, I'm sure it will prove useful. I'll let you know how I get on with it. One thing I've realised I need to develop is the ability to open my thumb out with no pulling back inwards, though - I think this isometric battle is causing some of my difficulties for octaves and chords.

Well... I've just written a whole book on it, so I think you are right in that it is an involved and serious problem! It should be out in a month or two, so at that time I'll be able to offer a deeper body of advice... AFF

Cool, I look forward to it.

I always found my position weak when I swivelled my hand outward from the wrist. When I read "Craft," I discovered there's a name for that, ulnar deviation. It is impossible to dispense with it entirely, but I find it merits attention to reduce it as much as possible. One place I created problems for myself with too much ulnar deviation was in the middle section of Chopin's Etude Op. 10, No. 2. I kept trying to reach my 4th finger over the 5th by turning the wrist (swivelling, not rotating) to an extreme. Here's the sick consequence of that. That position is weak, so to fix it I worked harder at it! The harder I pressed and the harder I swivelled, the more it hurt and the less mobility I had in my fingers. All that reaching and spreading gummed things up. It's like whacking yourself on the head with a ballpeen hammer. Doesn't feel good, does it? Okay, how about doing it even harder; maybe that will fix it. (It didn't.) I like the natural finger approach, and I like the idea of carrying fingers to their destination using the arm. It's okay for a finger to distort it's position when you're leaving it, less so when you are going to it. Man, if you're finding it hurts, that should be a sure sign that it's time to try something else. Good luck! Jai

Man, if you're finding it hurts, that should be a sure sign that it's time to try something else. Good luck! Jai I agree completely. A couple of years back I injured myself because I didn't follow this advice, now I'm much more observant and can catch such problems before they develop. This hasn't been an issue recently. I believe that the real issue was I was deviating. I spent some time exploring the possible movement and realised that I tended to go to one extreme or another. Now that I've developed smoother movement between the two points I don't find it uncomfortable.