Musical Injuries

So I suppose most of you don't deal with this as composers, but right now I'm about up to my neck in tendonitis (not literally). I've had it since November (my therapist said that means it's chronic and it's going to take a while to heal :< ), and it involves two different types of tendons: the extensors (fingers, upper side of forearm) and flexors (wrists, underside of forearm)--in both arms. I'm also having some problems with my radial and ulnar nerves, though that seems to correlate with the tendonitis problems (the swelling is causing some nerve compression).

So in order to fix that, I've been going to hand/arm therapy for a few months now. Right now I have a lot of stretches, these crazy exercises called "nerve glides", and strengthening exercises involving very light weight lifting (about 1-2 lbs of tension, using a theraband) and gripping exercises using hand putty. I guess the goal is to build up my stamina, so I have to do a lot of very light weights, with a lot of repetitions. Apparently my arms are strong, but not durable--it's like a sprinter trying to run a marathon.

So, has anyone else dealt/is dealing with music-related injuries, and if so how did you go about fixing them?

I'm a 6 foot 3 cellist, so I'm constantly getting back problems from not having big enough chairs! Playing the tenor sax probably doesn't help much either. It got really bad a couple of years ago, to the point where walking was painful. I'm more careful now to stop and sit back whenever I feel my back playing up. Other than that, I've been lucky enough not to damage anything seriously.

I've also got all the standard complaints: blisters on my left hand, bruised left thumb (too much thumb position practise :dry:) etc. I play clarinet too, and over Easter I played so much my lip bled, which was a bit silly. I've also got a lovely dome of dead skin on my right thumb, from where my clarinet sits.

Ah, the things we do for our art :D

I've also got a lovely dome of dead skin on my right thumb, from where my clarinet sits.

I think all of us clarinet players should start a thread and photograph them, to see who has the worst one. :P

It's important that you exercise (yes, that is moving around and stretching) after playing. You need to to avoid injury. Think about it: you're better off excersicing for 5 min. or so after every time you play, rather than getting tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome and not being able to play again. I've seen it ruin people.

Hah, percussionists get those "domes" too. While I played exclusively Burton grip, I had a big ol pile of skin inside my right hand index finger. Now that I play Stevens grip too, I have lumps on the insides of my middle fingers. Percussionists like to compare and contrast ;)

You have to be so careful with tendinitis. I have a friend who went to St. Olaf University to study violin, but within the first six months, she got tendinitis so bad that she could never play again. She had to switch majors to something she doesn't like very much - English. I had another friend who got tendinitis and couldn't play for a year. I think it happens most frequently with violinists / string players.

Yeah, I'm trying to be very careful right now.

Corbin- I was of the same belief for a while--I got a much less severe case my freshman year from having poor technique. I believe this case was brought on by practicing way more than my body was prepared too-I went from practicing like, 2 hours a day to playing about 6-8 hours a day! I'll have to be more careful, and gradually build up my playing time...

Nothing major but I have given myself carpal tunnel in both hands. Left hand from guitar and right hand from piano. I'd contemplated surgery before but in the long run, I'm glad I didn't.

an amp once fell on my foot.. does that count?

I've never had any serious injury, but I have lots of chronic pains and weird calluses like a lot of you guys. I'm a pretty skinny guy, so during marching band season, my shoulder was in constant pain from my Sousaphone... I'm also developing a callus on the inside of my thumb from the thumb ring on my concert tuba.

Ung- I'm a vocalist so vocal injury, which is easy to do, is an ever looming foe. This semester I had a huge disaster when a cold whiped out my voice on the week of a performance... It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my career.

I poked someone in the eye with a baritone saxophone back when I was 12, does that count?

Ah...I poked MYSELF in the eye with a tenor sax. About two weeks ago. I'm not sure if that's more stupid or not.

I had my stainless steel mouthpiece on at the time too. Nasty.

an amp once fell on my foot.. does that count?

Lol!

I have pricked myself in the finger many a time with the end of a guitar string.

Bloody.

My left wrist used to hurt, but it turns out I was playing with too much tension in my wrist, and once I fixed that it got better.

Ung- I'm a vocalist so vocal injury, which is easy to do, is an ever looming foe. This semester I had a huge disaster when a cold whiped out my voice on the week of a performance... It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my career.

This really resonates with me.

For most of my career as a vocalist, I lived in dread that I'd get a cold or my allergies would act up, because my vocal mechanism was so delicate that the slightest irritation or mucus buildup would render it useless.

About 2-1/2 years ago, I got what I thought was a cold that just never went away. I've had this nasty cough ever since that is unpredictable, originating from a single spot on the left side of my throat in the area of my larynx. It's unpredictable; I never know what will cause it to act up. It could be anything from a drop of water landing on it wrong to air to a vibration. I've been to three ENTs, none of whom quite knew what to make of the problem, though I was assured that it is not cancer and there was no eveidence of vocal abuse. The last guy discovered a chronic sinus infection, so I had sinus surgery a couple of months ago; but vocally nothing has changed.

So, it appears that after 25 years my singing career is at an end; I've quit almost everything. 46 is early to fall apart even for a tenor. Still, I had a pretty good run, I guess. Strangely, I'm almost relieved. It's nice not to worry in the background whether some virus or allergen will attack me and make it all but impossible to do the job people have hired me to do.

hmmmm...

I've hit myself on the head from playing too intensely; surely this counts as an injury that is musical ;).

I have pricked myself in the finger many a time with the end of a guitar string.

Bloody.

Ever got one in the eyes as it snapped?

That's painful.

I have pricked myself in the finger many a time with the end of a guitar string.

Bloody.

I did something kind of like that with a pair of brushes once. I went to open them, and my finger was resting on top of where the bristles come out. Somehow, I managed to get a few through my finger! There was blood :x

Metal!

That's what you get for playing drums.

A bassoonist told me that he got some serious headache after playing for a long rehearsal. His doctor told him to scan his brain in the hospital. He did it, and it was found that the nerve connecting his left and right brain was broken. He also told me that his fellow bassoonist from his conservatory developed weird psychological behavior. Any explanation for this???

A bassoonist told me that he got some serious headache after playing for a long rehearsal. His doctor told him to scan his brain in the hospital. He did it, and it was found that the nerve connecting his left and right brain was broken. He also told me that his fellow bassoonist from his conservatory developed weird psychological behavior. Any explanation for this???

Side effects of playing bassoon include brain damage :D

No actually, that's really crazy--I have no idea. It was the corpus callosum that was split, right? I don't think playing bassoon can cause that...

Yeah, the corpus callosum tends to be bigger in musicians. I mean, it would make sense if he were a drummer. . .

Actually, there's a known risk of a certain type of aneurysm/brain injury for oboists...

Well, that's why little children are usually discouraged from learning instruments such as the oboe or the bassoon, as double-reed instruments require quite a bit of air pressure that may be too much for a young brain.