Musical Injuries

Originally Posted by DrumUltimA

Yeah, I'm trying to be very careful right now.

Corbin- I was of the same belief for a while--I got a much less severe case my freshman year from having poor technique. I believe this case was brought on by practicing way more than my body was prepared too-I went from practicing like, 2 hours a day to playing about 6-8 hours a day! I'll have to be more careful, and gradually build up my playing time...

You did too much at once, duh.
Taking breaks... until you feel fine... that's the key.
6-8 hours evvvvery day... I don't know if that is healthy.

I practice about 4 hours each day. I'm fine. If anything my eyes are sore from reading music.

Ung- I'm a vocalist so vocal injury, which is easy to do, is an ever looming foe. This semester I had a huge disaster when a cold whiped out my voice on the week of a performance... It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my career.

I poked someone in the eye with a baritone saxophone back when I was 12, does that count?

Ah...I poked MYSELF in the eye with a tenor sax. About two weeks ago. I'm not sure if that's more stupid or not.

I had my stainless steel mouthpiece on at the time too. Nasty.

Originally Posted by QcCowboy

an amp once fell on my foot.. does that count?

Lol!

I have pricked myself in the finger many a time with the end of a guitar string.

Bloody.

My left wrist used to hurt, but it turns out I was playing with too much tension in my wrist, and once I fixed that it got better.

Ung- I'm a vocalist so vocal injury, which is easy to do, is an ever looming foe. This semester I had a huge disaster when a cold whiped out my voice on the week of a performance... It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my career.

This really resonates with me.

For most of my career as a vocalist, I lived in dread that I'd get a cold or my allergies would act up, because my vocal mechanism was so delicate that the slightest irritation or mucus buildup would render it useless.

About 2-1/2 years ago, I got what I thought was a cold that just never went away. I've had this nasty cough ever since that is unpredictable, originating from a single spot on the left side of my throat in the area of my larynx. It's unpredictable; I never know what will cause it to act up. It could be anything from a drop of water landing on it wrong to air to a vibration. I've been to three ENTs, none of whom quite knew what to make of the problem, though I was assured that it is not cancer and there was no eveidence of vocal abuse. The last guy discovered a chronic sinus infection, so I had sinus surgery a couple of months ago; but vocally nothing has changed.

So, it appears that after 25 years my singing career is at an end; I've quit almost everything. 46 is early to fall apart even for a tenor. Still, I had a pretty good run, I guess. Strangely, I'm almost relieved. It's nice not to worry in the background whether some virus or allergen will attack me and make it all but impossible to do the job people have hired me to do.

hmmmm...

I've hit myself on the head from playing too intensely; surely this counts as an injury that is musical .

Originally Posted by spherenine

I have pricked myself in the finger many a time with the end of a guitar string.

Bloody.

Ever got one in the eyes as it snapped?

That's painful.