In my opinion it is not necessarily helpful to worry about which finger you call "dystonic" and which "compensating". I have a thumb and index finger problem similar to yours, but much worse. It is impossible for me to move one without it having a bad effect on the other. Their movements are mutually entangled. I must train them to work independently, to move freely. It's hard.My thumb seems a bit worse-behaved than the index finger. I can sometimes pluck slowly using only my index finger without it cramping up too badly or affecting my thumb too badly. But my thumb is harder to control. So I could call the thumb "dystonic", the index finger "compensating". But those labels seem pointless to me. There's no methodology I know of that says "ok this is what you do if the thumb is the dystonic one, and this is what you do if it's the other way around". If anyone knows differently, please enlighten me.
I think Greg was saying that if you can "let go" of the dystonic movements, then the natural and correct movements will happen by themselves. I think that's probably true. In a way, it states the obvious -- if you can put a stop to the dystonic movements, you'll be ok. And don't do anything that reinforces the dystonic movements.
All I'm saying is, IMO, it's not always clear which fingers to label "dystonic" vs. "compensatory" and in such a case it's probably not worth worrying about.
I think you are on the right track by being here in this discussion. I haven't posted here much, but I've been lurking for about a year and half and have found this board to be an invaluable resource and source of encouragement. This is a tricky thing, this damned FD, and it seems there is no one-size-fits-all treatment. It seems like even though we share our experiences on this board, each of us still needs to figure it out for himself. But it can be done. People have done it.
