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I woke up today. I felt the muscle in my left hand which controls my thumb twitching- small twitching though quite regularly. It wasn't painful to play, it felt the same as always. After several hours of practise, coachings and a performance of some unbelievably technically demanding piece (I was actually surprised, I never thought I'd manage to play so many notes so relaxed...). My hands aren't actually in pain or anything now, except I can actually see the veins of 2 of my fingers throbbing and the twitching (every so often) has moved on to the 3rd, 4th and 5th finger to which they involuntarily contracting.

I'm quite young. I've never had any problems with tension or any trouble with the physical aspect of playing.


Should I be worried?

What you're describing is fasciculation due to muscle fatigue.

Give your playing muscles a rest, and you'll be fine .

I haven't been playing that much lately. I've done far more before x.x that is what worries me.

It depends not just on how long, but also what you were playing. Lots of repetitive movements of the same muscle groups is more likely to lead to it, i.e. playing the same kind of music, rather than alternating between slow and quiet and fast and loud and everything in between.

I've had fasciculations in my legs after running road marathons (which lasted anything from hours to a couple of days), but never after running mountain ultra-marathons, though I was running for much longer in the latter. That was because I was using a much greater variety of movements when running on uneven terrain and slopes, and having to adapt my footing to every step, as opposed to the same repetitive movements on roads.

You can also get such painless small muscle spams without any straining or repetitive movements. It's similar to the muscle twisting people tend to get in the corner of the eye (don't know the English word for it). I once had it in my foot for a whole week. Usually goes away by itself after a while. Magnesium supplements might also help.

The eyelid twitching seems to be a response to stress, annoying though harmless.

Sounds like it is likely myokymia. Perhaps related to a position that you were sleeping in. These movements are coarser than fasciculations.

Thank you all for your responses.




I think this was the case. I don't have anything today. I was almost worried I had an early onset parkisons or MS.

One point to check with anything involving excessive use of muscles is that you're drinking enough water on a regular basis. Your kidneys need it to eliminate the waste products of muscle use.