Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - The Musician's Nightmare

If you are here because you have developed an injury then you can still play your part in educating others to avoid it. If you are here because you are keen to prevent yourself or your friends developing hand problems you are doing yourself a big favour! Avoid developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Tendonitis, Bursitis, Tenosynovitis or plain old Repetitive Strain Injury in the first instance and you will save yourself months or even years of frustration, pain and inability to perform at your best. Carpal Tunnel sucks bigtime and is not prevented by bravado!

Baoding balls are one way to reduce stress and exercise the hands. I found these helpful.

Chinese Healthy Balls #40555
(Blue with Phoenix Bird and Dragon)

Ever stopped to think what is the busiest part of the human body? What part of the body needs the biggest brain area? It's not the eyes, ears or the mouth. Not the legs even... It is the human hand! The hand is probably what makes us more special as a species than we even think. Other animals do think and feel, can work things out, do communicate in spoken language and sound - some even use tools - but the sensitive human hand differentiates us from any other species!


TH!NK by Neomania

You use your hands ALL the time. You write, type, hold books to read, open doors, manipulate pens, keys and tools, gesticulate to other people, eat with knife and fork - you name it! Do the hands EVER rest? Probably only when we sleep and then they are probably held in a cramped position.

So next time you go from two hours gaming on the computer to three hours playing the piano or the guitar after putting in six hours at the office with computer keyboard and telephone, think about your hands. They deserve a rest and a massage because without them you would be in trouble!

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome has laid many professional musicians low for years and it prevented me playing for eighteen months. My basic guitar technique was very good, but I did something foolish. After a two week lay-off, I played the bass for four hours non-stop on a Winter evening!

I was not adequately warmed up, I was rusty too. As a bass player, I had a tendency to play aggressively anyway. The result was pain and swelling that would not go away. The choices my doctor presented to me were an operation which would weaken my wrist even if successful or a lay off until I went 36 hours painfree. I never quite made it to 36 - 18 months later I got so frustrated that I developed a new way of playing with zero pressure from the frethand thumb. This was a very light technique and eventually I added the thumb again - but with very light pressure!

This is a good point to check the back of your guitar neck - if the finish at the back has worn away and the frets are indented you may already have the early stages of a problem. Lighten up now!

In the world of Classical music even the best players in the world take lessons. They call them Master Classes. Why do they need them? Sometimes you need another skilled musician, a professional player or a professional educator, to give you pointers how you can improve. Nobody is so perfect they can't benefit from advice from an expert. Even if your expertise is Rock or Jazz there will be somebody you can turn to to watch your playing style and point out problem areas. Remember, the old guys might not be trendy, good-looking or fast, but they survived the course and they know the obstacles too....