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Sorry to hear that your playing is impacted. I don't have R.A., but I have a number of wrist, shoulder, and arm problems. Here are some things that I have found useful for my situation - I hope they can help you with yours: Electric guitars. Electrics in general have lower string tension than acoustics. Light strings. The lighter the string, the less ...

Josef Hofmann is a good bet. He had such small hands that he actually had pianos custom-made with smaller keys. I can't find any direct references to his compositions being easy to play with small hands, but I doubt he would compose something he couldn't play. Another aspect to look at is players with small hands, and what they have played. Harriet Cohen ...

Nowadays I always get a close shave before playing the tuba in a gig. I started doing this when I realized that after longer breaks from playing I had trouble getting a distinct attack and tone when I had facial hair around the lips. I also had trouble playing pedal-notes. I then experienced getting a close shave as "gaining" one or two weeks of practice, ...

I can't speak definitively on this since I haven't had a full beard and mustache before, but I've always made a point to keep what facial hair I do have out of the way of my mouthpiece placement. Not knowing the full magnitude of your facial hair, it's hard to make specific suggestions, but I wouldn't want a lot of hair cushioning the mouthpiece against my ...

I'm a Jazz pianist, and also have rather small hands. If you're playing Jazz, your hand-size doesn't really matter when you're choosing a song to learn, as your hand-size will only affect your interpretation of a given song. For instance, when I'm playing bebop, I wish I could play tall shell-voicings in the left hand like Bud Powell; since I usually can't ...

I have played trombone with varying degrees of facial hair. I just trimmed the area around my lips so that I could sort of tuck the mouthpiece under my moustache in order to contact only skin for a seal. It was fairly easy, and with care to let the upper hairs grow long and hang over that area, unnoticeable. There was no real difference in my playing when I ...

The original intent was for for the player to place both the pinky and ring fingers in the lower supports. Almost nobody does this consistently though since it does limit your playing to the other two fingers on each side. However, when starting out, it may provide more stability and less fatigue. You've already tried the usual approaches for providing ...

That's an interesting direction; I've always been told to play closer to the outside edge of the keys! But then again, I'm a skinny dude with skinny fingers, so I guess we have opposite problems. I'd suggest taking the middle ground; make sure your fingers are curved, and keep the fingertips just outside the edge of the black keys. You should be able to ...

Well, off the top of my head, I'd say think about music that has a clearly defined monophonic bass line. Look at Baroque music that incorporates the basso-continuo style, where the keyboardist's left hand is doubling a part written for a cello or bass player. Be careful of Bach's solo keyboard music, though, because his music is so dense and contains so much ...

This is a common issue. The answers "play to the back" and "play to the front" are both wrong. Your fingers on "average" should straddle the imaginary line where black and white keys meet. This ensures a general economy of motion since you'll have to move in and out very little to play black and white keys respectively. Also, the advice "curve your ...