5 Tips for Overcoming a Playing-Related Injury, #4: Be Open to Finding the Root of the Problem

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Let's be real, there are plenty of reasons why anyone with a playing-related injury would want a simple solution to their difficulty. For starters, we live in a culture oriented toward quick fixes rather than valuing the necessary, challenging work of getting to the root causes. Further, conventional Western medicine tends toward specialization, leading patients and practitioners to treat symptoms in isolation from the whole and favor surgical or pharmacological interventions. Lastly, musicians (especially in countries without strong state support for the arts) are under extreme economic pressure to get back to work. At one seminar for string players with dystonia, I recall a violinist from Europe talking about suing his orchestra for worker's compensation benefits. “At least you have an orchestra to sue,” I remember thinking. “If I don't work, I don't get paid. Period.”

However, there are numerous reasons to dig in and be willing to find the ultimate source of your pain and injury, even if it takes time. First off, you might not have a choice: depending on the nature of the injury, more superficial interventions may not be particularly effective. And, even if they help a bit, consider whether you'd be better off in the long run having this issue fully and completely resolved. Finally, in my experience the thing we're trying to solve, if we go deep enough, often turns out to be related to many other sources of discomfort and dissatisfaction in our lives. In my case, the work to solve my dystonia has yielded up the surprising bonus of a whole new approach to technique that's transformed my playing and teaching, boosted my confidence, and made me feel more whole.

It takes a lot of humility to admit that there might be something in our playing, mindset, or lifestyle that contributed to our injury. True and complete recovery might mean overhauling our technique, or facing things from the past we'd rather forget. And even if we're willing to change, we need to find the right path and the right guide. But merely staying open to the idea that we might discover something transformative is enough to move things in the right direction.

Nora KrohnComment