"David M. Porritt" wrote: > No, I don't have a medical degree and I don't have any data to > support this warning (no "claim" is made). I wasnt looking for you to put a medical degree on the table.. just some documentation that any particular level of piano action weight could cause injury. I see that is lacking. > I have, however, seen > very talented pianists have to drop out of graduate programs here > because of repetitive stress injuries. It's not much of a logical > leap to realize that since "stress" is involved in these injuries an > abnormally heavy action will introduce higher stress. Repetitive stress injuries have to do with repeated movement, not weight. Typists and those who use computer keyboards are amoung those who suffer most from this syndrom in the world. It is just as likely to develope from a light touch as it is from a heavy touch. Actually... methods for drilling in scales come far more under fire as being a source of this problem then anything else related to keyboards. > I can think of > two people immediately, to whom this happened. One had to drop out > for a year to recover, the other had abandon the piano and pursue > other interests. If this happens to people I don't want them to be > able to say that I contributed to their injury by giving them the > heavy action they asked for. I just think that's common sense and > even common courtesy. I think common sense would be to find out what really causes something before attributing the blame to something you just think probably makes most sense to your own mind set. Repetive stress can be very often countered by proper warm ups, excericising, and stretching. Theres all kinds of good advice out there for musicians. Heres a place to start : http://eeshop.unl.edu/rsi.html -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html
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