Where to get help for music injuries

We hate to admit it, but it's true: Although playing guitar helps us transcend our "mortal coils," we're still flesh and blood. And sometimes that flesh and blood doesn't behave as we want it to: we get hurt, injured.

How can we avoid injuries when we're practicing? What habits can we build that will give us the physical ability to play for as long as we want without hurting ourselves? What Internet and other resources are there to help us play in a healthy way?

As a way of introducing some of these resources to help you overcome an injury or prevent an injury that could prevent your playing, check out the following letter and my response to it.

Elbow pain

Hi. I know you don't know me. I am across the Big Pond from you. But, as you are a guitarist of many years and obviously a teacher, I was hoping you would be able to help me with a problem.

I am 45 years old and took up guitar last October. I have a teacher of good quality and have been learning finger techniques and chords, as well as learning notation. My problem is that I get a pain in my elbows.

If I've been playing for a few hours, it's real sore. Now it's at a stage of being constantly there. Sometimes it's more sore than others. Have you ever come across this?

Your help and advice would be greatly appreciated. My teacher hasn't come across this before. Many thanks in anticipation. Regards - S.H.

My response

Hi, S.H. I haven't personally experienced the kind of pain you described, but the research I've done indicates that lots of other guitarists have. More importantly, I believe they've been able to reduce or eliminate the elbow pain you describe.

The following is a list of resources you can apply to reduce your elbow pain. Please be aware that I'm not a doctor, as my mother is keenly aware, and consulting a doctor who specializes in musicians' injuries would benefit you. In any case, here are some ideas for healing your "guitar elbow."

Possible solutions to the pain

- Anti-inflammatory aspirin helps the pain. Beware that some aspirin replacements like Tylenol aren't anti-inflammatory. Also, vitamin B6 helps get rid of it.

- Your condition could be "lateral epicondylitis," which is what Tennis Elbow is now called. It's a kind of tendonitis.

- It could be Golfer's Elbow (medial epicondylitis) - Take glucosamine/condroitin pills - See a doctor. - Do wrist curls. Most medical material on this ailment suggests some sort of wrist exercise. Strengthening the muscles that flex the wrist is believed to reduce the load on the tendons.

Wrist curls are simple: holding a light dumbbell in your hand, palm up, bend your wrist upward slowly and downward just as slowly. Do this 10 times or more with each hand. Then do the same thing with your palm turned downward.

- see www.GuitarPrinciples.com . Jamie Andreas is an expert on the proper physical movements needed to play guitar.

In the article, "Why are so many guitarists masochists?" which you can read at http://www.maximummusician.com/gpmaso.htm, Jamie provides an approach to minimizing your chance of music injuries. The key is to become aware of unnecessary muscle tension when you play.

- The following was suggested by a hockey player:

1) Put your arms straight in front of you with your hands cocked at the wrist, so that your palms are facing away from you. Then, keeping your arms straight out in front, rotate your hands back and forth so that you're turning your forearms up and then back down.

2) Put one arm straight out in front of you, cock your wrist like in the first exercise, and then turn that hand so that your wrist is pointing as straight up as you can manage.

Now with your other hand, gently pull the fingers back toward your body. You should be able to feel the ligaments stretching in your elbow and down your forearm. You must be careful not to do this too hard. Repeat a few times, alternating arms.

The best music injury site

This site may be the first, best place to turn to if you have an injury and especially if you want to avoid one:

Musicians and Injuries: http://www.engr.unl.edu/eeshop/music.html

This site has a list of preventive measures that *every* musician should read, right on the front page. Some of these measures are common sense, but it's still vitally important to read them.

There is a huge list of music injury links, articles, books, videos and other resources for guitarists and other musicians. I recommend that all Guitar Study readers take just 5 minutes each day to read just a bit of this page, until they've read the whole thing.

This is a hell of a lot less inconvenient than hurting yourself to the point where you might *never* play guitar again. This has happened to far too many players. Get conscious of your technique and how it affects your health.

Expert help to prevent injuries

As helpful as the Musicians and Injuries site is, the info on it was put there by an engineer, not a medical doctor.

However, a site that *is* backed by medical pros, and that you'd think would have lots of helpful info, offers very little, compared to the Musicians and Injuries site just mentioned.

This is the International Foundation for Performing Arts Medicine (IFPAM), at http://www.ifpam.org .

According to their front page, IFPAM, formed in 1992, gives guitarists, musicians and others info on preventing injuries, and also offers support programs. They publish a newsletter, Performance Plus, and hold injury prevention workshops.

The downside

Yet, the Performance Pulse newsletter is not a freebie, and it's not online, either. Also, the enitre web site has *no* articles on preventing injury, and is difficult to read: black text on a grey background.

You can send a question to them via an email form, although they don't specifically say that you can ask for and receive advice related to music injuries.

Board Big Shots

Knowing who's on their "Artistic Board of Advisors" might also help you decide whether or not to seek advice from IFPAM. Dig these names:

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Jerome Hines, the tap dancer, Charles Osgood of CBS news, and Les Paul.

Still, if you're looking for just one site to answer your questions about music injuries, don't turn to IFPAM first, but to the Musicians and Injuries site mentioned above.

How to find answers

Where else can you get help for an injury that's getting in the way of your playing?

*After* you've gone to a medical doctor, you can start with groups.google.com . If you want help for elbow pain, do the following:

- Enter "groups.google.com" in your browser - In the Google search box, enter this, without quotes:"pain group:*guitar* insubject:elbow"

If you're having a pain in your wrist, change the search to the following: "pain group:*guitar* insubject:wrist" If the pain is in your big toe, then put that in the subject.

Based on the search results you get back, you can then build an action plan to get help.

Learn more chord theory from Guitar Chords. Substitute and combine chords; play Jazz, Rock and Blues progressions; transpose songs; put chords to a melody; apply fingerpicking, alternating bass, arpeggios, and much more.

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