Tightness below the thumb

[Loonatik]

Recently felt tightness and sore at the fleshy area below the right thumb after having started playing the harp again after a 2-week break.

The only pieces I have been doing are Tema con variazioni by Handel and Naderman’s Sonates. It could be coming from the arpeggios/scalic passages as these seem to be the only things predominantly done by the right hand…

Any hints on what kind of bad habits picked up that could have caused this?

[hannah-anderson]

Injuries differ from one harpist to the next, but for me, I usually start having thumb pain of some sort when the hand grows “tired” with repeated arpeggios or scales and the thumb begins to slip downward, leaving the thumb parallel with the rest of the fingers. It may seem counter to what your tired hand feels like doing, but it’s better to keep the thumb higher, in its proper position.

[Loonatik]

perhaps i should update. i videotaped and troubleshooted myself. i saw that it was a (very old) habit of mine that came back, and that’s about placements when playing arpeggios. fixed that and its fine now. 🙂

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