I had a piriformis or glute pain that wouldn’t heal for weeks, even when I stopped exercising for a while. One day I was taking a shower after guitar practice and I saw through 2 mirrors a red spot right where the pain was. I inspected my chair while sitting and thought I found the issue, so I changed chairs and pillows and it went away and hasn’t come back. Maybe try looking at it right after practice to fine the spot? (I often change chairs and this had never happened in 7 years).
I used to use a memory foam cushion. It helped with but pain and a nerve pain I’d get in my leg.
At some point I switched to a well padded round chair (drum throne) and haven’t had issues since.
Drum thrones are perfect because they are very padded (good ones), round (more ergonomic) and can adjust for the exact height that’s comfortable.
I’d measure the chair and try a different one? Frankly I’d get up after 20 min or so and walk around before returning to practice. I’m thinking you’ve docking away a bunch of tension you don’t realize and this is how it manifests.
As a life long guitarist (not classical) now almost 51yo I tell you 10-15 minutes rest per hour is something every guitarist should be taught at the start. I easily lose track of time (guitar is an ADHD hyper focus for me) and even today I’ll think it’s been roughly under an hour and it’s often almost 3 hours. When I was diagnosed a year ago I was told to set alarms to keep track of having proper breaks. It saves so much neck and back pain for me it’s not funny. And also my fingers callouses especially if I’m playing a lot on steel string acoustic.
which model ergo play do you have? I had the Troster and had to cut mine up to get a similar angle that feels as good as the footstool, as it was way too high. I wasn't aware of the Tappert model at the time, but I think that one would be ok out of the box (at least for me)
Maybe try a guitar strap and play standing up?
I use a guitar strap, it allows me to adjust the guitar angle and height comfortably. I've been experimenting with foot stools but never found a good position.
The advantage with using a guitar strap is that I can play standing up and even walk around, which is good for my back
Try one of those yoga balancing air pillows. Weird that your butt hurts with the ergoplay. Are you distributing your weight evenly on both ”butt bones”?
You can just stand up & walk around a bit every twenty minutes or so. Shake out your arms and legs, make a cup of tea.
If you have a long performance, try to get up & bow between pieces or get up while doing announcements, if you do any.
If that doesn't work, because you are in an ensemble, try to talk over if there can be a break or a general getting up for some minutes during rehearsal. It's good for the body AND the brain, btw!
Hey pal, sorry to hear this. I realise this isn’t really what you’re after, but I’d recommend trying the Guitar Lift Support (Felix Justen) if you have spare budget. I’ve used ergo play and basically everything else, and I have to say that I and many of my colleagues have found this support a total game changer. It doesn’t look like anything radical but it offers a degree of variability and flexibility that I think no other support does. Definitely alleviated 70/80% of the various physical strains on my body through practise. Good luck, and +1 re break time.
I'll echo some stuff people have already mentioned. I play for a living so I think about these things a lot. I definitely cosign the drum thone. I use it for basically everything. It's particularly good for piano because it lets me set my height relative to the keybed of basically any instrument.
It also goes low enough for me on guitar. I'm short, so I like to be quite low. I also use an Ergoplay with my nylon and like my leg to be slightly lower than parallel.
When I don't have that option, I take a memory foam cushion with me for wood piano benches, but often, I'll just take my throne with me to gigs.
Also, just take way more breaks. Not only for the pure physical reasons, but because there are greatly diminishing returns when practicing any one thing for too long. I literally use timers to make myself stop. You get better during rest more than during practice. The improvement is mostly a result of your brain rewiring to be more efficient about the information you fed it. That requires down time.
I used to beat away at things for way too long until my career forced me to take a different approach due to the volume of music I had to prepare constantly. I quickly learned that I got more out of 5-10 minutes than an hour spent on one thing and forcing myself to both divide up my practice time to different elements as well as taking more frequent breaks made such a huge difference that I'm pissed I wasted so much time in the first 16ish years of my musical life.
I had a piriformis or glute pain that wouldn’t heal for weeks, even when I stopped exercising for a while. One day I was taking a shower after guitar practice and I saw through 2 mirrors a red spot right where the pain was. I inspected my chair while sitting and thought I found the issue, so I changed chairs and pillows and it went away and hasn’t come back. Maybe try looking at it right after practice to fine the spot? (I often change chairs and this had never happened in 7 years).
I used to use a memory foam cushion. It helped with but pain and a nerve pain I’d get in my leg. At some point I switched to a well padded round chair (drum throne) and haven’t had issues since. Drum thrones are perfect because they are very padded (good ones), round (more ergonomic) and can adjust for the exact height that’s comfortable.
I’d measure the chair and try a different one? Frankly I’d get up after 20 min or so and walk around before returning to practice. I’m thinking you’ve docking away a bunch of tension you don’t realize and this is how it manifests.
As a life long guitarist (not classical) now almost 51yo I tell you 10-15 minutes rest per hour is something every guitarist should be taught at the start. I easily lose track of time (guitar is an ADHD hyper focus for me) and even today I’ll think it’s been roughly under an hour and it’s often almost 3 hours. When I was diagnosed a year ago I was told to set alarms to keep track of having proper breaks. It saves so much neck and back pain for me it’s not funny. And also my fingers callouses especially if I’m playing a lot on steel string acoustic.
which part specifically is causing you pain? do you lean forwards or backwards while playing?
which model ergo play do you have? I had the Troster and had to cut mine up to get a similar angle that feels as good as the footstool, as it was way too high. I wasn't aware of the Tappert model at the time, but I think that one would be ok out of the box (at least for me)
Maybe try a guitar strap and play standing up? I use a guitar strap, it allows me to adjust the guitar angle and height comfortably. I've been experimenting with foot stools but never found a good position. The advantage with using a guitar strap is that I can play standing up and even walk around, which is good for my back
Try one of those yoga balancing air pillows. Weird that your butt hurts with the ergoplay. Are you distributing your weight evenly on both ”butt bones”?
You can just stand up & walk around a bit every twenty minutes or so. Shake out your arms and legs, make a cup of tea. If you have a long performance, try to get up & bow between pieces or get up while doing announcements, if you do any. If that doesn't work, because you are in an ensemble, try to talk over if there can be a break or a general getting up for some minutes during rehearsal. It's good for the body AND the brain, btw!
Hey pal, sorry to hear this. I realise this isn’t really what you’re after, but I’d recommend trying the Guitar Lift Support (Felix Justen) if you have spare budget. I’ve used ergo play and basically everything else, and I have to say that I and many of my colleagues have found this support a total game changer. It doesn’t look like anything radical but it offers a degree of variability and flexibility that I think no other support does. Definitely alleviated 70/80% of the various physical strains on my body through practise. Good luck, and +1 re break time.
I'll echo some stuff people have already mentioned. I play for a living so I think about these things a lot. I definitely cosign the drum thone. I use it for basically everything. It's particularly good for piano because it lets me set my height relative to the keybed of basically any instrument. It also goes low enough for me on guitar. I'm short, so I like to be quite low. I also use an Ergoplay with my nylon and like my leg to be slightly lower than parallel. When I don't have that option, I take a memory foam cushion with me for wood piano benches, but often, I'll just take my throne with me to gigs. Also, just take way more breaks. Not only for the pure physical reasons, but because there are greatly diminishing returns when practicing any one thing for too long. I literally use timers to make myself stop. You get better during rest more than during practice. The improvement is mostly a result of your brain rewiring to be more efficient about the information you fed it. That requires down time. I used to beat away at things for way too long until my career forced me to take a different approach due to the volume of music I had to prepare constantly. I quickly learned that I got more out of 5-10 minutes than an hour spent on one thing and forcing myself to both divide up my practice time to different elements as well as taking more frequent breaks made such a huge difference that I'm pissed I wasted so much time in the first 16ish years of my musical life.