Hand/finger pain.

[iiipopes]

also, improving circulation helps a lot. you can do that by soaking your arms in the hottest water you can stand and then plunging them into the coldest water you can stand a couple times. torture yes, but you'll feel like you have a new set of arms after.

Is this the Nietzsche approach to treating carpel tunnel problems?

[Chriss2760]

Try crumpling a sheet of newspaper into a ball from the corner. It builds strength and dexterity. It takes a couple of weeks for the benefits to start showing up, but in the long run will likely resolve the issue.

[Norlan Bewley]

This should be helpful for hand and finger pain also:

Here is a simple exercise for carpel tunnel that I learned from a massuer at the Greenbrier spa. He showed it to me when I told him of the arm/wrist pain I was getting off and on from playing valves and trombone slide alot plus much computer use. Many in his field have to get surgery for such issues, but this helped him prevent it. Imagine the arm and hand strain of giving pro massages all day compared to playing... even alot of playing!

I hope I can describe it clearly enough verbally:

1) Take both hands and press opposing fingers, thumbs, and knuckles against each other in an isometric fashion with firm pressure. Palms do not touch. Fingers point straight up.

2) In this position, slowly rotate the hands inward so that the fingers point towards the body and hold. Rotate as far as you can without strain.

3) Still in this position, next rotate the hands outward so that the fingers point away from the body and hold. Rotate as far as you can without strain.

4) Return to the fingers pointing straight up and release.

5) Repeat as many times a day as you wish.

You will feel your forearms, wrists, and fingers invigorated as the blood rushes out from them when you release this position. This increases blood flow to these areas, flushing out lactic acid, etc and is very good for repetitive motion problems in the arms, wrists, and fingers. I have had little trouble since using it. You may find that one direction or the other offers more relief, but it is a good idea to do both directions.

I hope this is a clear enough explanation to follow. If not, please feel free to ask questions to clarify. I'm not a medical person, but I have had these problems and found this to be very useful for eliminating them without having to reduce any playing time.

Hope this helps!

[eupher61]

doing it once while reading, Norlan, it already seems like it's going to be effective.

Try playing bass bone in a circus, 9 performances in 5 days...THAT is pain

[Roger Lewis]

JUST...CHANGE...THE ....SPRINGS. I recommend, from personal experience, the Yamaha euphonium springs as the lightest and the Yamaha Tuba springs as the ones to use. They are also plastic coated so there is no spring noise from them bending and rubbing against the sides of the casings. WWBW has them in stock if someone there knows where to find them.

Just my $0.02
Roger

[LoyalTubist]

My fingers never started hurting (and I use several tubas with varying tensions on the valves) until about four or five years ago. It was arthritis.

[iiipopes]

Indeed. Reminds me of the old joke:
"Doctor, I get a pain in my right eye when I drink coffee."
"Try taking the spoon out of the mug after you stir it."

[Roger Lewis]

Pardon my yelling earlier, but this was starting to look like the proverbial monkey trap. You put a piece of food in the bottom of a narrow necked container and the monkey reaches in and grasps the food. Now his hand can't be pulled out of the jar and he's trapped----and all he has to do is LET GO OF THE FOOD!

Somethings are rather obvious - check out Occam's Razor - "one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything".

Roger

[tubatooter1940]

I get hand cramps at least once during a long night of playing my top-action tuba. Fortunately, with the tuba on it's stand, I can reach around with my left hand to the valves for a tune or two until I can shake the cramps out of the right. A slower song is preferable if I have to do this.

[iiipopes]

I get hand cramps at least once during a long night of playing my top-action tuba. Fortunately, with the tuba on it's stand, I can reach around with my left hand to the valves for a tune or two until I can shake the cramps out of the right. A slower song is preferable if I have to do this.

To avoid the same thing with my Besson, I sit my chair at a 45 degree angle so I can rest the tuba on the right front corner of the chair and have the back of the chair under my right elbow so I can rest it as necessary. Never a cramp this way.

[geneman06]

Ive had the same problem with my PT606PS, its got an adjustable thumbring and no matter how many different positions i tried, i still got hand pains. it could just be that my hands are too small for those big valves. The way i solved the problem, i turned the thumbring upside down and turned it into a palm rest and havent had pain since. I know the thumbring on a 1291 isnt that adjustable, but it may be an idea id you decide to have the ring moved.

[Charlie Goodman]

I have a 1291 and I also had hand pains until I switched the springs.


It's the springs.

[Roger Lewis]

I got one RIGHT! Hooray!!

Roger

[WakinAZ]

I got my Yamaha springs here: http://cgi.ebay.com/Valve-Spring-Set-3- ... dZViewItem Great seller with lots o' spare parts. Never compared their prices, but they seem fair.

I've also gotten them from Matt at Dillon Music.

Eric "silky smooth" L.