 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2004-10-13 18:08
The case of oboe player Alex Klein I have heard is one of the worst...he can't even play a scale....
David Dow
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-10-14 14:39
For gosh sakes, Ralph, I'm a lawyer, not a doctor. I only know what I read.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Tom J.
Date: 2004-10-14 18:39
Ralph Katz asks :
"What do you know about facial focal distonia?"
There are three people who probably suffer from it :
Chuck Norris
Clint Eastwood
John Kerry
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Author: vin
Date: 2004-10-14 19:14
Alex Klein is still playing and playing well. He played chamber music this summer at Pacific Music Festival in Japan. It's just a regular weekly orchestra schedule is too demanding for someone with acute dystonia. Dystonia can be good one week and horrendous the next. As for facial dystonia, Warren Deck, the former tuba player with the NY Phil, had to retire because of dystonia. Yuck.
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2004-10-14 20:39
Oh, I thought guys on this board know everything (ha!)
Yes, I heard of Mr. Deck's retirement. He is not the only one.
A horn-player friend in Europe is concerned as her former teacher and all of his ex-students with good jobs fall one-by-one to this condition. I think she is in pretty good shape, though - her mother is an Alexander Technique teacher and she was (ha! luckily) not one of this guys prize students. She has a great job and is going strong following a C-section 2-1/2 years ago.
I had a brush with it a couple of years ago. Three hours into a dance job my lower lip went completely numb all at once. It was perhaps three weeks before I thought I would be able to play ever again. A dentist friend was the first to correctly identify which nerve had the problem and provide a reasonable diagnosis. He said it would clear up by itself, between a couple of weeks and six months, or else not clear up at all. It did clear up. But my life flashed before my eyes and I had to once again re-think what kind of gigs I take and how I approach them.
I am a lousy Alexander Technique student, but I still take the lessons and they still help. [standard disclaimer here] A lot of us were taught to always give 110%, but there is fallout from this attitude. The best thing is to always prepare as well as you can, play with as much discipline as you can muster, but to know your own limits.
Regards
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2004-10-15 02:22
Focal Dystonia is a condition which has not been totally solved or explained...some scientific people feel it's roots are as much phychological.
On top of this it does tend to affect a small degree of the population...there are so few comprehensive studies on the condition that there is not alot of creedence given to it by many medical practitioners..
Carpel tunnel and neuroligical problems have a similar pathology as well, and certainly a player with nerve damage or even immflation of certain facial nerves can be out of the game for a long time...
There are other factors that some doctors feel provide insight into why people develop this condition...stress, tension, trauma, circulation problems....and on top of this hyper tension may be a contributing factor...
The real key to prevent the condition is that I doubt it can be prevented....
However, Alexander technique which I use and teach may offset the occurence of this in some people...but if you work in a salt mine for 5 hours without a break you will develop some kind of physical problem for sure...
Why is music so different than any other strenous activity...?
Society thinks musicians play and it pours out like syrup...another myth musicians with any physical problem soon find out is bull crud...
David Dow
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