Re: Re: Re: Hand bruising due to playing euphonium?


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Posted by Ken Herrick on June 04, 2002 at 02:48:56:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Hand bruising due to playing euphonium? posted by Doug on June 04, 2002 at 01:27:42:

Very good point. You have also jogged a couple other thoughts, somewhat along the "engineered tuba" lines.

It would be interesting to hear what a biomechanist would have to say about the contortions we put our hands through to operate the valves on our instruments. The top loader tubas, in general, are not very user friendly. So much effort goes into holding the instrument in position, casuing muscular tension, when we want the fingers to be able to do some quick moving against a degree of resistance. Further complicating all this is the fact that our arm has to "hang" from the instrument with the palm in a far from horizontal position causing yet more tension.

If you look at a good pianist with good posture the arm is in a more natural position - "hanging" from the shoulder the forearm and palm of the hand are more or less horizontal. The palm is above the keyboard not below. This all leads to having the fingers curled which means a shortrd lever having to travel through a greater arc to depress the valves.

Briefly, a solution would be to have a palm rest which supported the hand and left the fingers free to move and with them being essentially straight. Many front action instruments have varying degrees of these contorted configurations required to reach and manipulate the valves.

In the meantime - yes lighter valve action can certainly help. Carefully lapped valves, kept well lubricated and clean can work very nicely with lighter than "standard" springs with no loss of speed and a lot less discomfort.


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