[HANASHIR:4472] Re: Occupational hazards of guitar playing

[Ellen Allard <ellen...>]

LSalvay (at) aol(dot)com wrote:
> 
> Dear HN-niks,
> I'm wondering if any of you other guitarists has suffered any muscular
> maladies from your guitar strap, and what you've done to remedy the situation.
> 
> I've had a problem for almost a year now (it cropped up after a particularly
> intense couple of months of guitar playing for various services/religious
> school programs). It seems that ever since, there has been a permanent "knot"
> in my left shoulder muscle just near my neck -- right where the guitar strap
> rests. At one point, it got bad enough that I was experiencing numbness all
> the way down my arm and into my fingers. I went to the doctor, who told me
> all I needed was a good massage (which I never did get around to getting, but
> the numbness subsided by itself after a couple of months -- the tight
> shoulder muscle is still there, though).

Linda,

Boy, can I relate to your problem or what! I had exactly the same symptoms and
was even referred to a surgeon though didn't follow through on it. I tried the
Alexander technique (maybe someone else can explain it)....it has to do with
your posture and it helped, though certainly not completely. I tried regular,
weekly  massage for several months at a time. This helps, though also not
completely. I take advil when it gets intolerable. I took an eight session
meditation course and that has helped somewhat. Frankly, the best thing I've
done to help it, which didn't cost any money, was to begin playing by sitting
on a stool and not using a strap for the guitar. It is somewhat limiting in
that you can't move around very much and that can be difficult if you're
songleading. Though you can use the stool as a homebase and sit down on it
periodically. That has cut down significantly on the problem. Hope that helps!

Ellen Allard
Worcester, MA

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