Musicians with Dystonia Bulletin Board

Intention is the wake up call that brings forth reaction. Normally it is ease of technique and fun. With dystonia it is already transfromed into tension and fear, anger, helplessness..we all know it.

Think about this:

If you imagine an ice cream you already feel how cold and sweet it is without having to actually eat one. The sensation of the ice cream created in the brain (triggered by the word itself, the shape, the smell, the feeling of eating it, etc.) is a thought pattern, an automatism developed because you already ate enough ice cream so your brain remembers what it is like.

Now imagine you ate ice cream that tastes like hot pepper for months or years, many times a day. Slowly your brain would learn ice cream tastes like hot pepper. What would you feel if you imagined an ice cream after this? It's logical: you would sweat, want to drink water, etc.

So what would you have to do to change the sensation back to normal? Of course eat, feel, taste normal ice cream again.

The brain is a precise and powerful machine that never stops learning. The only problem is it cannot make a difference between good and bad; instead, you have to choose.

The more time you spend with your instrument creating positive input and sensation the more the image of tension will fade away. Remember: your fingers only follow orders. You need to override the altered reaction by repetitevly carrying out movement without tension first (step 1; no tempo, simply physical exercise) until it slowly becomes automatic. How can you tell it is becoming automatic? You will see that you don't have to concentrate that hard and still your fingers will move easily. This takes time as it is tiring mentally and physically - this is why taking rests is very important. If you lose concentration you fall back to the old pattern.

Then, later, let the new automatism take over (step 2; letting go). If your brain has learnt the new lesson well it will repeat what it has been taught.

I suggest you start by choosing one certain movement at a time and work around that (eg. choose one chord or chord shape that makes you hand cramp up).

An advice: