<p>D's tendonitis, that is. </p>
<p>Thought she'd gotten past the problem, but apparently an intense summer program wasn't the right choice.</p>
<p>She just called, out of commission for a few days and possibly unable to play her solo in the upcoming concert. The faculty appear to be giving her great advice and support, but now I'm freaked out about her future as a performance major and musician.</p>
<p>Please send hugs, reassurance and chocolate. :)</p>
<p>I am so sorry to hear that, my healing energy and thoughts go your D’s way, and hope that this is just a bout brought on by too much playing:). About all I can recommend might be talking to a physical trainer or therapist, they may have ways to come up with exercises and such to help prevent it from happening. The only other thing I can suggest is try and find an expert on repetitive stress injuries, specifically with musicians, and see if they can identify why your D is getting tendonitis, from what I can tell often it can be little things in technique and setup that drive these kind of things (and not being an MD, a musician or an expert, it is given simply as an idea to help based on what I know:).</p>
<p>I’m so sorry to hear this. My D has been struggling with the same thing. It’s getting better after extensive hand therapy, including specific exercises and therapies. I assume she’s done all that? Alexander technique, FeldenKreis, Aston-patterning…? For pianists, she’s trying “The Well-Balanced Pianist” workshop in Denver (she’s leaving tomorrow). Perhaps something similar exists for her instrument? Good luck and best wishes.</p>
<p>Every violinist’s nightmare – sure hope she finds a permanent solution so this won’t be a recurring concern for her. Sending chocolate!</p>
<p>stradmom, I hope she feels better quickly.</p>
<p>alexander technique helps release tension a lot. it is also very important to find posture problems which lead to tension in the muscles which eventually lead to tendonitis. a doctor also told me to take a ten minute break every hour of practice.</p>
<p>Alexander Technique is wonderful, but it takes a long time to internalize its concepts. It seems that violists are even more prone to tendinitis than violinists because of the variability of sizes of the instruments (not just in length, but in the width of the bouts, etc). There does not seem to be a straightforward solution; instead a combination of finding an instrument whose shape puts less stress on the body, finding a technique that is as tension-free as possible, and working with therapeutic modalities such as icing, anti-inflammatory drugs, stretching. I second musicprnt’s suggestion of visiting a hand specialist, but you need to find someone who works specifically with string instrument players. In my experience of dealing with two string-playing offspring who have experienced some problems in this area, a regular hand specialist is not going helpful. Even the hand specialist in our city who sees most of the local professional and student musicians seems to me to be biased towards traditional medical/surgical techniques (i.e., not offering suggestions with regards to stretching). UC2008’s point about taking frequent breaks is excellent. Overall, the goal is to rid your playing of tension; this is a long-term project and can be worked at from several different directions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the good wishes, everyone! It turns out the faculty was concerned ever since she arrived since she’s very petite and the rep she’s working on this summer is apparently known to potentially cause problems. My hunch is that it’s largely overwork - she’s really enjoying the program and has been motivated to practice for considerably longer chunks of time than her body is used to - and that some rest and common sense will alleviate the problem.</p>
<p>I hope she is on the mend soon. I agree…Alexander technique is wonderful. DS did it while in summer programs and in grad school, and it really changed his posture and thinking about his “stance” while playing.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much different her playing was at the festival versus normal routine, in terms of hours, but if the total load is significantly more then what she usually does, that could be a major factor. If, for example, on a typical day she was practicing 3 or 4 hours, and then at the festival was practicing 5 hours solo, plus ensemble practice, etc, that could be the reason. Having seen what some of the more intense festivals are like, I suspect that for a lot of the participants, especially kids in the pre college years, that it is way over what they have experienced.</p>
<p>I agree about finding a specialist who knows instrumentalists. The other suggestion I have might be talk to someone, maybe a trainer, about exercises to strengthen her muscles and build endurance.</p>
<p>Sending thoughts that it’s just a teensy bit of overwork that will be remedied with rest. However, just in case it’s more chronic: A friend of mine is a classical guitarist who encountered the same problem when he was finishing up his masters years ago. In his case, he went to a physio-music specialist for a 6 or 8 (I think)-week combo of physio and “retraining” on his technique and has gone onto a wonderful, tendonitis-free career. Just so you know 
(At the time, he was quite distressed about it because he was ordered not to play professionally until retrained, his teaching was disrupted, etc. But some very savvy mentors convinced him his life would be better without this problem and it turned out to make a world of difference.)</p>
<p>She’s gone the standard PT route a few years ago, and I agree that a specialist is the best next step. If anyone has any recommendations in the NY-Connecticut-Boston corridor, please PM me!</p>
<p>I think she also needs to put this on the table during her first lesson at college.</p>
<p>Today’s news: a few minutes of productive practice, possible rehearsal with her quartet, learning all sorts of interesting ways to practice without an instrument. She’s still panicked about the long term and feeling guilty about letting the ensemble down, but at least she had time to do a load of laundry when everyone else was practicing. :)</p>
<p>stradmom, I sent you a pm.</p>