Instrumental injuries.

[saxikath]

So I was idly thinking last night about injuries -- or not so much injuries; physical changes in general -- associated with particular musical instruments. For instance, anyone who's played violin (or viola in my case) knows the "violinist's hickey," that red welt on your neck where the instrument presses in. And string players develop fingertip calluses.

I have distinct sore spots (sometimes blisters) on specific parts of my fingers after playing handbells, depending on exactly which bells I'm playing with which techniques. I can't think of any other way I'd end up with these particular sore spots (and eventual calluses, I suppose).

If you play an instrument, what are the distinctive physical marks it leaves on you?

Comments

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Like a lot of choral singers, I get 'folder shoulder', the familiar upper-arm cramp/stiffness which (thankfully) isn't visible--you can get choral folders which hold themselves open which helps a bit.

On the rare occasions I play my guitar, I get ridges in my fingertips; if I make myself play every day for a coupe of weeks, the fingertips start to callus instead.

[jeffurrynpl.livejournal.com]

The first time I played trumpet and once when I played it after not having played it for a while the part of my lips that fit inside the mouthpiece ended up forming a puffy lip circle while the rest of my lips stayed normal.

Once I was sitting on a folding chair with a tuba between my legs on the folding chair when I dropped it on the floor and the bell slammed me in the lips as it fell, but it didn't leave a mark and it was a one-time thing.

[mlstrm.livejournal.com]

From my days in college music classes, I was told that horn players (usually trumpet players) can develop a kind of callus around the lip area, due to pressure against the lips (cutting off the circulation) and the tightness of the embouchure. In extreme cases, this can form a lesion. I had a really tough time learning the basics of the trumpet because of the pressure. That and the breathing was totally different than in singing, and I couldn't get used to the breath control.

As for other instruments, I've heard of guitarists getting punctures on fingertips. I've also seen one or two piano players get repetitive stress injury, forcing them to wear a wrist brace, but the affliction's not as outwardly apparent unless you're wearing the brace.

[ennienyc.livejournal.com]

My cousins are both French horn players, who say they and all the musicians they know go to chiropractors.

I don't play the piano enough to have any physical problems from it.

[lorelei-sakai.livejournal.com]

It's not an injury per se, but I have long credited my inability to get RSI to years of playing the piano. It turns out that the wrist-strengthening and posture exercises that are part of playing the piano translate very well to coping with a computer keyboard, also.

[(Anonymous)]

I borrowed my friend's accordion for a while, and I got a callous on my left middle finger from the bass button that had a bump to show you it was the C row.

-Dan

[zenala.livejournal.com]

Back when I was an undergrad, I'd generally be rowing 2 or 3 hours a day and playing bass for several groups... my hands were something to behold.

The thing that amazes me is that between the rowing, bass, piano, and of course all the typing I do, I never had wrist problems... (I've had minor wrist problems more recently, but I think the rowing and instrument playing and typing canceled each other out or something...)

Oh, right, and when I rowed I'd generally have bruises up and down the outer sides of my legs and thighs...

[clauclauclaudia]

I used to have a permanent indentation near the base of my left index finger where the flute rested.

http://www.thegalwaynetwork.com/notes/hold.htm

The first picture shows you James Galway's callus at the same point, and the third picture shows you that indentation and the ones on his fingertips. I never played an open-hole flute for any length of time so I don't know whether I would have gotten similar fingertip markings or he presses down particularly hard, but the index finger indentation looks pretty similar, modulo general hand shape.

[persona.livejournal.com]

Handbell camp had some nasty ring-touch segments. After an hour of that, there were definitely chest bruises as well as the finger blisters.

[saxikath]

Ow! Ring-touches are a bit painful with larger bells, but I've never had them leave a bruise.