Craig: I would not dream of telling you I have all the answers but I have had some of the same problems and here is how I have dealt with them. First of all you are probably playing with too much tension in both arms. Understandable because the music itself does not come easy and difficult things create tension. Try to relax. Work out passages with as much relaxed posture in your arms as you can make yourself aware of. When you feel yourself tensing up stop and start over.
Work on material you already know well, pay attention to your shoulders. Most likely you are pulling the muscles across the back causing your shoulders to tense up. We are taught to sit up and have good posture, but this act in itself can cause the kind of tension that is giving you your problems. If you can control this it might help, the tension in the upper area can cause back ache, neck ache, and it does gets transmitted down the arm. If you have no aversion to taking supplements try Glucosemine and Chondroitin, I prefer the stuff you mix in water it works better IMHO, and faster. Be careful with the elbow, you could be developing tendentious where the only cure is to leave it alone till it goes away. Try to relax the right arm. I hope this helps in some way if nothing more than making you think about the tension in your body. I look forward to more informed responses. Vance Wood. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Craig Allen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute List" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 1:46 PM Subject: [LUTE] Repetitive Stress Syndrome > Lately my right arm has been giving me lots of pain, in particular inside the elbow. And it's affecting my playing. I sit and pracitice for half an hour and when I unwind from the instrument I get this pain right inside the elbow. I suspect the general cause is working on a computer all day and finally the mouse is catching up with me. I'm also getting a sharp pain at the left shoulder just at the base of my neck. This can be excruciating. > > So then, does anyone here experience similar pains and aches and what are you doing about it? If you're undergoing physical therapy I'd be interested to know more about what kind specifically. I've also heard Pat O'Brien often has good advice for these sorts of things, but as I'm not in New York maybe one of his students here could expound on any help he's given them. > > Thank you for your replies. > > Regards, > Craig > > > ___________________________________________________________ > $0 Web Hosting with up to 200MB web space, 1000 MB Transfer > 10 Personalized POP and Web E-mail Accounts, and much more. > Signup at www.doteasy.com > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
