Hello everybody!! I love this forum, it's amazing.....

Up until a few days ago, I have always had very fast fingers and speedy reflexes. A few days ago (I believe it was on Friday) I was playing at a practice recital for a competition I am entered in coming up in a little less than two weeks. I was playing Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) by Sarasate, and (you probably already know this) the slow movement of the piece has a theme, and then a few fast tricks, then a variation, then a few more tricks, etc. I got to one of these tricks, and all of a sudden I could not, for the life of me, get my fingers to just 'spit' out the run! It was a really freaky feeling, I got over that and continued...but since then my fingers have been really muddy, and definitely not as fast as they were a few days ago. it feels almost like my fingers and wrists are going numb, but not numb something else. In the past, I have had problems with tendonitis, but I only had severe pain, never any stiffness or slowness. I normally practice approx. 4 hours a day, and I know my pieces quite well, so I suppose I could slow down a bit, but this is really scaring me. Does anybody have any clue on what this is? Please help!

So, update on the situation: I cut down on the practicing a lot (partly because my teacher is out of town) and my hands are feeling a bit better, although with the lacking on the practicing my consistly "playing-well" has suffered. This is a bit of a dilemma, as there doesn't seem to be a winning option. ANY ideas, ANYONE?

On thing you can do before you play: heat up one of those packs and place them on your left hand. This will get the blood into your fingers. Also, you might need to do at least forty-five minutes of warm-ups. (That's why they're call warm-ups. ^_^) Anyways, also try practicing runs really slowly at first. I had the same problem in Tchaikovsky Concerto and Bruch Concerto 3rd Mvt. (And it happened when I was warming up for a competition, too). Try doing them slow and speeding up. You'll get it after a while.