On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 2:01 PM, Alan Kay <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Long, > > I can keep my elbows into my body typing on a laptop. My problem is that I > can't reach out further for more than a few seconds without a fair amount > of pain from all the ligament tendon and rotator cuff damage along that > axis. If I get that close to the keys on an organ I still have trouble > reaching the other keyboards and my feet are too far forward to play the > pedals. Similar geometry with the piano, plus the reaches on the much wider > keyboard are too far on the right side. Also at my age there are some lower > back problems from trying to lean in at a low angle -- this doesn't work. > > But, after a few months I realized I could go back to guitar playing > (which I did a lot 50 years ago) because you can play guitar with your > right elbow in. After a few years of getting some jazz technique back and > playing in some groups in New England in the summers, I missed the > polyphonic classical music and wound up starting to learn classical guitar > a little over a year ago. This has proved to be quite a challenge -- much > more difficult than I imagined it would be -- and there was much less > transfer from jazz/steel string technique that I would have thought. It not > only feels very different physically, but also mentally, and has many extra > dimensions of nuance and color that is both its charm, and also makes it > quite a separate learning experience. > > Cheers, > > Alan > Hey Alan, That's awesome that you are learning classical guitar. Are you using Aaron Shearer's texts to teach yourself? One trick I have learned is to not support my left hand at all when playing. In this way, the dexterity in my fingers increases and when I press down on the fretboard I am using only my finger muscles. I've had bilateral ulnar nerve transposition, and for a whole year in college could not type at all due to muscle atrophy from nerve compression! I wrote all my computer assignments on paper, and paid a "personal secretary" to type them in for me. I thought about everything the program would do before I wrote anything on paper, since I hated crossing out code and writing editorial arrows. Dragon Naturally Speaking is really quite good, although not good for programming in most languages. I've found Microsoft Visual Basic is somewhat possible to speak. I also experimented with various exotic keyboards, like the DataHand keyboard in the movie The Fifth Element. It was easily my favorite keyboard, but the main problem and reason I don't use it after getting better is that going to somebody else's desk and typing becomes a lesson in learning how to type again.
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