Neck Pain

[Ron Nossaman]

Hi Dave,

So far, I haven't had to resort to professional muscle and/or joint
rearrangement or redecorating. What I've found to work best is VARIETY.
Change position a lot. Move from bass to treble and back if necessary. Mix
it up. Change hand position on the hammer. Vary the angle at which you stand
or sit at the instrument. Use the furniture, plate, knees and keybed, treble
side (righty) or any solid anchor you can latch on to for leverage. Rotate
your key pounding finger(s) and vary your tempo. Use your legs and back as
well as just your hands, arms, and shoulders. No, no, not for pounding keys.
As a foundation against which to muscle the tuning hammer. The idea is to
spread the damage out over a broad enough range of body parts so that no
single part takes the bulk of the punishment. A lot of abused parts heal up
faster than a couple of truly injured ones. Be a friend to your parts. Share
the wealth. Rotate the abuse to the currently least beleaguered set of
muscles and joints. Also, wear your ear plugs. I know it sounds sort of
dumb, but if your ears aren't being subjected to an all day artillery
barrage, or at least one of a somewhat lower pain level, you won't be as
tense and tight and won't hurt as much at day's end. Then, when you
(finally) get home, go to the narrowest doorway in the house. Stand in the
doorway with the striker side doorstop along one side of your spine. Place
your hands on the hinge-side doorstop, relax your back as much as you can,
settle back, and PUSH! Don't worry about the INCREDIBLE crunching noise you
here, you will be busy enough dealing with the accompanying pain. Now, are
you ready? Position yourself so the doorstop is on the OTHER side of your
spine and DO IT AGAIN! When the pain subsides, you are ready for that glass
of "wind down" ( This time of year, you could get Wassailed, but don't count
on it.) and get flat for a bit. It will feel absolutely fabulous! Then,
after about fifteen minutes, try to get up. HA!

Now, it's time for the disclaimer. This gets ME through the tuning crunch
periods as well as anything I've come up with. If you should break the
keybed on a piano, tear the side off, sprain a wrist, get a headache,
demolish the bathroom wall, or hurt yourself as a result of attempting any
of the above mentioned processes, I'm not responsible. Ask anyone.   

Ron (Quasimoto) Nossaman



At 05:38 PM 12/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>List;
>
>Yes, sometimes tuning can be a pain in the neck, but I mean litterally. I've
>always had some soreness in my shoulder and neck, but over the years it seems
>to get worse, especially when my schedule gets heavy, like now. Most of the
>pain is on the side of my neck corresponding to my tuning arm. After a long
>day, it's difficult to turn my head without pain.
>
>Has anyone with a similar affliction found any effective treatment? I have
>gotten treatments from my D.O. but relief is temporary at best. Any good
>preventative measures, tuning techniques, treatments, medication that anyone
>has had luck with? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Dave Bunch
>
>
 Ron Nossaman