Posted by no name on December 19, 2003 at 00:51:45:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Teaching and reality posted by Richard Armandi on December 18, 2003 at 10:32:45:
Mr Armandi I respect your attitude towards the focal dystonia issue as being a medical one. Maybe it is. The ones who have been most affected by it in the tuba world only sparingly discuss it in public or use the discussion as some kind of cautionary tale with not much hope or understanding.
I am personally leary of embouchure doctors as much as I am medical doctors although there is much to be learned on all sides. Arnold Jacobs is probably the closest we'll ever see to a hobbyist doctor/incredible musician in one.
The truth lies somewhere in between. As I stated offhand in an earlier post, when a student has an "attack problem" or physical issue which shares "symptoms" with Dystonia its just a matter of learning, when an accomplished pro has the same issues, its percieved as the end of the world mentally for that person.
There are so many factors occurring in an aging growing player to include they are impossible to even list.
But I always wonder that at some point after great successful careers that the expectation is that nothing will change and that through routine, by practicing or not practicing, that there will be no hiccups after the warmup. Much less a problem that needs more than a couple of weeks work to overcome. When it goes beyond that and you have a coveted job, I could see it being easy to turn on ones self in anger and make things worse. So if the problem lasts ten years with no solution then what do you do? Call it a medical problem? Maybe it is! physical ,mental, anatomical, biological, or whatever there havent been many good answers.
I think when the medical community can not only identify commonalities but also solve the problem at hand which many instructors such as Arnold Jacobs have (not every time) (I would hazard a guess that Doug Elliot has a few times) that then the medical answer might carry more weight. The medical community hasnt proven cause and affect. Others have in similar cases if not with a totally perfect record.