Klarinet Archive - Posting 000296.txt from 1997/04

From: "Diane Karius, Ph.D." <dikarius@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Double-jointed fingers, neckstraps, barrels
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 08:57:06 -0400

Virginia Scarfino said (in part):
> About finger position, my teacher immediately pointed out that may fingers
> were collapsing at the first joint, where I am double-jointed. He wouldn't
let
> double-jointedness be an excuse for less than ideal finger position.
> And surprisingly, it was only
> a matter of a week or two before it ceased to be a problem....
> and to keep all
> my knuckles curved, so that when lifting fingers on and off the keys the
> only movement required of the fingers is from the 3rd set of knuckles (i.e.
> where they join your hand!), and to keep my fingers and hands (and arms and
> shoulders) as relaxed as possible.

It sounds like your teacher did you an incredible favor (and, IMHO,
something anyone who plays/teaches should look out for) - in looking
through a couple of resources on repetitive strain injury, I have
found mention of four factors that are present in a majority
(or a significant percentage) of people with some form of RSI:
double jointedness, an increased muscle tension (If one was double jointed,
they invariably found increased muscle tension as the muscles around
the joint tended to tense up in an effort to prevent the collapse of
the joint - although one does not need to be double jointed in order
to have problems with tension), and bad (or less than ideal) physical
positioning.
The fourth was previous physical injury at or near the
region afflicted with RSI. Given the prevalence of RSI in musicians,
certainly food for thought. Thanks for sharing that.
Diane R. Karius, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology
University of Health Sciences
2105 Independence Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64124
email: dikarius@-----.EDU