I was having a conversation with an acquaintance of mine who is retired and probably in her late sixties. For some reason we got on the subject of arthritis. She was telling me that she had it in most of her fingers, that used to be painful but ever since she had her joints (the ones closest to the finger tips) fused, so that she can’t move that top joint anymore, she has basically been pain free.
This got me thinking about how this would impact playing the piano (not that this lady plays the piano). After quite a bit of thought, I came to the conclusion that having fused joints near the finger tips would not allow a nice rounded shape that the hands and fingers should have to play the piano. However, this does not mean that playing the piano is impossible, rather it means that there would be some fingering modifications that would be required and probably the really fast pieces of classical music would never be as fast as what they should be played. Not exactly a deal breaker.
Obviously there are different types of arthritis, which can create varying stiffness and pain, but if the pain is managed well then I don’t see why someone with arthritis cannot experience the joy of playing the piano, even if their repertoire has to be limited. While making modifications may not be ideal from a technique viewpoint, modifications could very well mean the difference between playing the piano and not.
While contemplating how having arthritis may impact playing or learning to play the piano, I have realized that playing a keyboard would be easier and less painful to play than an acoustic or electric piano. The reason for this is simple; a piano or electric piano has weighted keys which take a certain amount of force to play, whereas a keyboard has keys that have a spring action, which means they require very little effort to depress. Of course the trade off is that while keyboards sound somewhat like a piano, they don’t really have an authentic piano sound. But what is more important, being able to play the piano with a few modifications or concessions or not play at all?
If this article is pertinent to you, then I would encourage you that if possible, don’t allow arthritis to stop you from playing the piano in your retirement. If you are having difficulty then I would recommend finding a good physiotherapist who can help with pain management and flexibility.
I understand that in certain cases, arthritis can be so severe that playing the piano is not possible, but playing with well managed arthritis can be possible and maybe, in certain cases be helpful in keeping the symptoms at bay.