| Author |
Subject |
CKCello
Registered User
(11/29/00 11:22:35 am)
Reply |
Pain
I know as musicians, we all share
the common factor of pain. For me, it has almost become incorperated
into my playing (whether that is a good thing or not). How do you
all deal with the pain and how does it affect your playing? Also, to
those who go to larger music schools/ conservatories, do you see it
affect other musicians? Does it affect the quality of the orchestra?
Thanks!
CKcello
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Daniel
Ortbals 
Registered
User
(11/29/00 12:16:57 pm)
Reply |
Re:
Pain
Um, I think I can say with certainty
that any sort of pain is not a good thing. If you experience any
pain while playing, there is something wrong and you should explore
a remedy. Even if the pain goes a way for a little while, the
"injury" may still exist and going about your business as usual will
most likely augment the problem, and eventually it will reach a
point where serious damage has been done.
Talk to your
teacher, find a professional therapist (perhaps massage,
chiropractor, accupuncture), and TAKE A BREAK. Perhaps you should
also explore various techniques such as Alexander and Feldencrais.
Also, be sure you stretch out and warm up before any time you
play.
In response to the question of whether or not pain
affects the quality of other musicians: yes, it will. This is music,
not boxing. Pain should not be part of the job.
Hope this is
helpful!
dan
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Ponticello
Registered
User
(11/30/00 4:13:38 am)
Reply |
Pain
I have only played for 1.5 years,
and I have gone through SO much pain playing the cello. Pain from
trying to turn my pegs, pain from trying to turn my fine tuners,
pain from trying to pull out my endpin,,,
Of course, we are
talking about pain while playing which I have always had a problem
with. Most specifically with my right shoulder,,which actually has
eased up a lot. But now the problem is a "cramping" I get at the
base of my thumb of my right hand. Me and my teacher have spent
endless hours working at this to not much avail, and New Directions
in Cello Playing doesnt really address these types of pains
specifically.
My question is, are we drawing a distinction
between PAIN pain, and pain as in muscle exhaustastion, sort of like
if you are lifting weights, you're muscles start to wear out, and
you feel exhaustion pain, making you have to stop lifting? I think
thats what I am having. It's just that my shoulder gets tired, or my
right hand gets tired, and I need to stop and rest
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Corrina
Connor
Registered
User
(12/1/00 9:31:32 pm)
Reply |
Oh no!
Hobby horse coming this way!
As Ponticello says, there are many
different pains. The worst one is when your spike goes into your
toe! Arrgggg, that hurts! Also when a string breaks and hits you,
and when the spike jumps out of the specially dug floor-hole and the
scroll crashes down on your shoulder. Then there is soft-calluses
pain, and sore thumb-skin pain.....the list goes
on....
Playing the cello is dangerous!
In other
respects I would agree with Mr Ortbals. Pain should not be part of
playing the cello (non-accidental pain that is!). Everybody feels a
twinge now and again, and most fix it, as fast as possible. If you
don't and there is persistant pain, there is something wrong amd it
will affect your playing because in the end you won't be able to
play.
First you should try to work out what has caused the
pain. If it's caused by two hours of tennis the day before, well
that's different. If it is caused by your cello-playing technique it
needs to be fixed.
As Daniel says, there are many different
ways of fixing pain. Rest, relaxing, physical therapy, exercise all
help.
I see pain in many other musicans, some younger than
me (18!). Often they seem to take it as read that there will be pain
and don't do anything about it. A few can't play anymore. Their
original attitude to it is crazy as far as I'm concerned.
Where I do disagree with Daniel is that to my mind music is
a 'sport' - it is extremely physicallly and mentally taxing. We are
all performing. Where it differs from boxing is that there is nobody
raining blows on us. However to me, music is as taxing as running,
swimming, riding....and in many ways the mental level is of the same
intensity. Never tell me that we use our brains more than a
performing sportsperson (with a few exceptions)!
If sports
people (who are not on drugs) were not able to focus their minds, no
records would be broken. IMHO, not enough peeople know this. The new
breed of successful sports performer is the breed that uses brain
first!
I'll dismount from my hobby-horse now.
With
regard to Ponticello, I would agree that maybe the pain you're
experiencing now is mainly due to muscular tiredness. I suffered
from exactly what you describe, at exactly the same point in time of
my playing. As long as you stop, rest and relax as far as possible
it will dissipate over time, as you build up your endurance. Playing
is rather like weight lifting - you have to build up slowly, over a
long time. The cellist's right arm is a special entity - the main
problem is the concept of 'weight, not pressure' - it can take a
while to distinguish between the two.
My advice would be
-
Make sure that your body is warm and loose before you
play.
Try not to practice unproductively when you are
tired.
Play in short bursts of brilliance!
Relax -
imagine weight in your right elbow. The arm is very heavy, and tht
is what needs to be utilised to produce tone. If necesary have a
bystander chant a 'hypnotist's weight mantra' - "Your arm is heavy,
it's hanging, hanging, ooohhh, how heavy
etc...."
BYEEEEE
Corrina
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Daniel
Ortbals
Registered
User
(12/2/00 10:42:44 pm)
Reply |
Just to
clarify
I didn't mean to say that music is
not comparable to sports. The reason I said 'boxing' is simply that
boxers EXPECT to receive an awful lot of pain as part of the
job.
|
Corrina
Connor
Registered
User
(12/3/00 4:27:36 pm)
Reply |
For
Daniel!
Yes! I realise that, and didn't make
the differentiation myself ~ it should be me doing the clarifying ~
I became rather over excited!
Apologies 
CORRINA
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onecellist
Registered User
(12/8/00 11:00:17 am)
Reply |
RE:Pain
For your pain in the right hand, you
may need to re-think your bow grip. I had the same problem until I
worked on losing the tension in my bow arm. It took many weeks, but,
finally, I have no pain in my bow hand. Try using as flexible a bow
hand you can. When you loosen up your joint in the hand, the tension
will become less and less. Perhaps you are trying too hard to hold
the bow. For the most part, the bow plays itself. WE are only there
to guide it and translate what it wants to say. Also, massage the
muscle that hurts regularly, especially before playing. You do not
want to cause it to cramp when you first begin playing. Also, do not
try to "play through the pain." This only makes things worse,
believe me.
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Andrea
Registered User
(12/13/00 11:44:55 am)
Reply |
been
down and up and on and under and over THAT ro
I've had lots of problams... I have
to be brief righ now but I have had a lot of experience with pain.
For many reasons, my body type, bad habits when I began, over
enthusiasm....
The first thing to do is to figure out if it's
your muscles or your tendents/ligaments... Heat will make muscles
feel better and tendents worse. Cold will make tendents feel better
and muscles worse. Next time you feel pain try one or the other or
both after eache other... Once you think you have THAT figured out
you can start taking a plan of action.
If you want to talk
about it anymore just write to me at thehappybuddha@hotmail.com I've
done Alexander technique, massage therapy, and physiotherapy and
talked to lots of different teachers about my playing and worked
hard on myself. I migh have some things to say.
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Celie
Registered User
(1/8/01 4:23:27 am)
Reply |
your
thumb pain
I know this is an old thread, but I
thought I would put in my two cents anyway.
The pain at the base
of your thumb could be due to double jointedness. More than fifty
percent of people have double jointed thumbs. If you don't know if
your thumbs are double jointed, try this.
Bend your wrist (hand
forward) and see if you can make your thumb touch your wrist. If you
can do this, then you are double jointed. I hope I have explained
this well enough. Anyway, the reason I mentioned this is because
double jointedness in the base thumb joint causes pain in
cellists.
Even though I am a student, I have taught for about ten
years. Almost all of my students have double jointed thumbs, and
there are some exercises that help the problem.
Please feel free
to e mail me if I can be of any help.
|
Celie
Registered User
(1/8/01 4:55:34 am)
Reply |
oops!
That last post ended up in the wrong
place. It was meant as a reply to Ponticello's message.
Sorry!
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Victor
Sazer
Registered
User
(1/17/01 10:22:02 pm)
Reply |
Pain
There is no “good” reason to play
with pain even though most musicians do. A study of professional
musicians revealed that over three quarters reported conditions that
interfered with their performance. Much of this pain is the result
of certain traditional and widely practiced teaching and playing
methods.
Increasing awareness of your body’s natural
impulses can give you the tools with which enable you to sort out
the healthy from the harmful the way you use your body. You are then
able to adapt your technique to your body instead of the other way
around. For further information see: home.earthlink.net/~vsazer
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