Klarinet Archive - Posting 000472.txt from 2000/12

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] elbow pain
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2000 05:57:47 -0500

On Thu, 7 Dec 2000 14:00:08 -0800 (PST), Bilwright@-----.net said:

> Tony Jones wrote:
>
> > am now experiencing a pain in my right elbow, that I suspect is a
> > result of supporting the weight of the clarinet in an unaccustomed
> > position.
>
> Several suggestions, from another beginner:
>
> (1) most music stores stock clarinet straps to help with this problem;

I'd recommend trying elastic tape, before, or even instead of spending
any money, as in:

http://www.sneezy.org/Databases/Logs/1998/09/001112.txt

> (4) is your entire body tense, or perhaps just your arms and
> shoulders, thereby causing your opposing muscles to tie themselves in
> knots and to put undue strain on your joints;

This is a possibility. It didn't apply to the modern clarinet, but it
may be indicative of something that I experienced problems with my right
elbow while playing my Simiot copy. I eventually realised that the
difficulty lay in the fact that the orientation of the hole covered by
my RH little finger on this system meant that that finger had to be
*straight*. Reorienting the hole, by building up one side of it with
Araldite, cured the problem, because my little finger could then be
curved, and still cover the hole.

Keeping a finger straight as you use it requires opposing muscles, and
when the need for that was removed, the difficulty with my elbow went
away.

And on modern instruments sometimes people do play with overly straight
fingers, even though that's obviously not required in the little fingers
in order to operate keys.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Boldly going Forward because we can't find Reverse!

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