Thanks, another really interesting post. Lots here though, not sure I can do justice to it all. Here goes..Excessive speed/force? Not sure of how much this is a cause or not. I certainly used to play too loud and too fast and I know that others i've spoken to admit to these 'failings' too. And flamenco is a breeding ground for it, which is not known for moderation, etc!!! But whether it's a cause I don't know. Perhaps it simply speeds things up? I'm guessing (i wish i knew more about such things) that playing something loud and fast tends to more quickly (over)represent that movement in the brain, so if there's a problem already, this might add to the process. I'm also not sure about accidents. Absolutely every one has an accident story, I do - i trashed my hand (in Sydney in fact!) in a cycle accident, just before I started to notice the dystonia coming on. I always put the dystonia down to that until I got talking to a sound engineer I used to work with. I was explaining to him that one of the first signs of the dystonia was a 'plinking' noise that my ring finger made (as the beginnings of cramping would make it impossible for me to clear the strings). He pointed out that if this was indeed the problem, i'd had it for years (he rather grumpily told me of the time he's spent trying to workout and get rid of that plinking noise on an earlier recording we'd done together). So may be something is going on anyway and accidents and playing too fiercely just speeds it up. no idea. Love to hear others's experiences though!
Specific points, I don't think i really improved then got worse. I just don't think i really improved. I think my problem was that I didn't really know what the problem was, so I wasn't sufficiently aware of when using force is OK and when it reproduced the problem. From what I hear you've gone past that stage.
More recently 'sliding back' is a short term thing rather than a long run thing. I'll have a good day then a really rubbish one the following day (I now don't push treatment two days in a row). Also certain things cause problems, colds, tension, etc., which can make you feel like you're going backwards, as does unrealistic expectations, but this is only short term (I hope).
How is the piano important? Not sure. I'm guessing there are four phases to recovery. First, get bad and get to know your problem. Secondly, make it settle down. Thirdly, go back to your original instrument (and play it more or less in the same way) but now concentrate on getting rid of old pathways. Fourthly, try to play like you used to. So far I'm on three. The piano was part of the second step. Initially i couldn't play a scale on the piano without causing dystonia. I tried very simple exercises (different sequences of fingers), in a way that didn't cause dystonia (basically put each finger down as though you are sliding your finger under a piece of paper and lifting it up - more of Victor Candia's ideas). Things slowly settled down. Similarly with the violin, I started to play it as a cello, eventually this settled things down. By settling I just mean that i could very slowly make basic movements without any sign of the dystonia. This is similar to the 'threshold' ideas. But the problem for me was that it wasn't enough just to move gently or slowly to find a threshold, i needed new ways of moving my fingers and muscles. I'm guessing we all need to but some have to find these movements more explicitly than others. As things have settled on the piano I have been able to start back on the violin and so far things are going well. But I still feel it's early days.
Lots more to say, run out of time again, cheers, C.
