[CAUT] hand and wrist position

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Cy,

At 07:26 AM 11/9/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>When you float, relaxed, in water, your arms are in front of you, and your 
>hands extend out with the thumbs up, palms facing each other.  Even typing 
>on a flat keyboard flexes the wrists from this neutral position, which is 
>why they've developed keyboards that are crowned up in the center:

Yeah, theoretically...  However, pianists and tuners who've been at it for 
a while tend to have a relaxed position which is closer to parallel to the 
keyboard.

After 30+ years of tuning, in the relaxed position when I let my arms just 
hang down, my hands are past 45° toward that parallelism.  This comes in 
handy when my knuckles drag on the ground because of years of schlepping 
around heavy tool cases.  They're not being forced sideways... ;-}


>Assuming the tuning lever handle is pointing up on an upright, the "thumbs 
>down, knuckles away from pins" position on the handle seems like a 
>high-stress position for the hand, wrist, and shoulder.  I vote "thumbs 
>up" instead.
>
>--Cy Shuster--

Thumbs up for thumbs up. I also sit at an angle and tune right handed. 
Another reason I do is that it gets my elbow closer to the plane of the 
pins and thus reduces the tendency to bend pins up or down.  Early on, I 
found a test for that problem was to try to tune a console while it is 
sitting up on a dolly. Pulling or pushing becomes VERY evident.




Conrad Hoffsommer - Keyboard Technician
Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
1-(563)-387-1204 // Fax 1-(563)-387-1076

- Right now, I'm hoping to live until my age matches my golf score,
- Until then, I'll have to be content to have my IQ match my handicap.