A couple of weeks ago I ended up injuring my left wrist at the gym. For a couple of days I felt as though I should stay away from the piano. However, after the initial period of frustration I ended up practicing loads of challenging right hand passages and it got me thinking.
It was definitely one of those all or nothing moments for me when I stayed away from the keys but it was helping. I’ve got loads or repertoire that has tricky right hand passages so they were my focus until my left wrist improved.
It was really mindful practice as well. I really drilled down into problem passages. Making sure I completely understood where the issues were and how I was going to improve on them. Ensuring fingering was correct, wrist shaping, dymamics and musical lines were the way I wanted them.
This isn’t the only thing you can do when one hand is out the game. You could work on other things like technical exercises. Or, you could work on improvisation. Take some lead sheets and figure out how to play along with some of your favourite songs. You could even work on your pedalling as well.
Creative limitation is something that is well written about and there is a good TED blog, Can limitation make you more creative? Worth a read.
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