[sdiy] Addition: surface of keyboards

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Juergen 'n' all.
         I know I've arrived late at the party here but here's the tune.

What you're possibly experiencing is RSI. Repetative strain injury. AKA 
carpel tunnel syndrome. Though the two are actually slightly different 
variations of the same cause.

Firstly. Plastic (Organ-type) keyboards are meant to be slippery. It's been 
a while since I played a real organic piano but with an organ keyboard you 
should be able to move fluidly across it. Try using "Organ technique" on a 
real ivory piano action some time and see how much skin you have left.

But anyway, three words "Semi weighted action." And if my guess is correct 
it's a combination of typing on a qwerty keyboard that is leading you down 
this path. Note here as I type wearing a wrist brace.

The way this thing apparently works is that it is not like banging your 
finger with a hammer. Nor is it like putting so much pressure on your hand 
from trying to move an immovable object that you strain the muscles and 
pull tendons etc. Apparently it happens because the pain carrying nerves 
learn this over time from the ever so slight jarring on your fingers each 
time you sink a key. Eventually, while showing no signs of physical injury, 
you develop pain due to the nerves remembering the activity and sending 
pain signals. It is more or less physiological changes in the nervous 
system of the hand and once that takes place it's very difficult to counter.

What can happen is that it may not show up in the activity that caused it 
in the first place but rather in some similar activity of which causes 
sufficiently similar jarring but is different enough that there is no 
natural counter to it. Keyboard action, position and playing posture could 
all be relevant here.

Really crazy things happen I'm told. Like you might be use to playing a 
REAL organic piano with the full action feel. Your fingers and nervous 
system are use to the fill pound 'thunk' at the end of the travel or maybe 
the unique feel of a rodes etc. Get on keyboard with no action and you're 
fine too because your brain registers the motivation against the pain and 
dismisses it.  Get on your semi-weighted action and suddenly there's not 
correlation. The action is sufficiently nice that your brain misses the 
correlation between the impetuous and the feedback. Suddenly your in pain city.

These are just examples and are deliberately over simplified. What may be 
happening in your case exactly is going to be between you and your doctor 
but I suspect that this is what's happening.

It could indeed be because this keyboard is a little more slippery than 
anything else you've been use to. But that also means it's a fast action 
and if that is the case then you could counter it by adjusting your playing 
method for that keyboard. Making it more fluid and practicing deliberately 
slipping your fingers round the keyboard may help.

When I first got my DX7s in the 80s, I had been use to playing proper piano 
actions for years. You'd think that would mean I could be lighting fast on 
a DX's action but you'd be wrong. It took me well over a month's worth of 
practice just to get use to them and be able to play the same kind's of 
things as I could on an organic piano. Other synths were not a problem 
since they were mostly monophonic and were played differently anyway. But 
moving to polyphony on a DX and getting use to the velocity action was a 
real pain for a while. Err pun intended.

And of course eventually I did indeed become super fast but a few years 
later when I was required to play an organic piano again I found I could no 
longer play it. Now I'd be in real trouble since I haven't played a real 
piano in years.

I'm going to say this in case you're not aware of it but if you already 
know the correct posture and position at the keyboard then skip this. If 
your keyboard is not on a stand or fixed like an organic piano, make sure 
your hands and elbows are at right angles to the keyboard at a level just 
above it.  Never have your keyboard sloping toward you as you might a 
mixing desk or something. If anything, have your keyboard sloping away from 
you. You'll often see people playing farfisa organs like this. In essence, 
if your writsts are bent when playing, you're in for trouble. You should be 
in a position where your hands can easily float just above the keyboard and 
move outwards from the shoulder if possible. (Obviously when you get to the 
extremes of an 88 key keyboard you're going to have to move significantly 
but this is the exception that proves the rule.) But the number 1 rule to 
remember is never have to bend your wrists to play.

So having had similar experiences myself, not to mention my current one 
with this wonderful Microsoft keyboard, I thought this might be of some 
help. Especially before you go sanding your keyboard and roughing it up. I 
can tell you first hand (No pun intended) that this RSI thing is no fun. 
Once it happens, I'm not even sure if there is a cure. I have had to cut my 
typing significantly since the new year when it began to set in and I 
haven't even tried to play a musical-type keyboard since then.

And if you were wondering why my emails are sporadic these days, now you 
know. Of course sitting on IRC 24/7 doesn't help none either. :)

Hope this helps

Be absolutely Icebox.

  _ __        _       ____Happiness is a warm penguin____
| "_ \      | |
| |_)/  __ _| |_ ____       ALL ELECTRIC KITCHEN
|  _ \ / _` | __|___ |  Geek music by geeks for geeks
| |_) | (_| | |_  / /
|_,__/ \__,_|\__|/ /    Bullshit --> http://all-electric.com
                 / ,__   Music -----> http://mp3.com/electrickitchen
Goodfortune    |_____|