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Re: RSI and muscle memory

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-01-12 01:17

Ah Repetitive Strain Injury.

Of course the right thumb is complicated by the weight of the horn and how you position your hand. As a rule of thumb (pun intended), you should actively hold the thumb out horizontally while holding the clarinet. And folks like Elsa Ludwig-Verdehr even go as far as advocating a thumb posture where it points slightly up (drawing a line from base of the thumb toward the nail). In these two postures, you engage the muscles of the base of the thumb. This is much better for distributing the weight of the horn through your arm (and the rest of your skeletal system).

I was fully down that wrong path a good twenty years ago (allowing my thumb to sag....point somewhat down toward the floor) and feared that I had carpal tunnel. I had the best success with the large, metal Kooiman (the one that looks like a robot and displaces the weight to the very base of the thumb).

However, I subsequently began using the thumb pointing slightly up (ala Verdehr) and have had normal, non painful playing ever since. It probably took six months or more for the correct holding habit to become second nature (and actually the thumb rest may have to be moved up the horn as a result!).

One other key issue (wow.....another pun) is where your right hand index finger resides relative to the lowest side key. If it is hovers slightly bellow or even just over that last side key.......that is great. If, however, you notice that finger hovering more above the second side key up or higher, you wind up pushing the clarinet with your thumb to reach.....DOWN to the last side key.

I strongly believe that this was ultimately what led to my problem.

......................Paul Aviles

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