Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'pain'.
Found 2 results
-
Hi all, new user here. I've been playing the cello for about seven years now and playing seriously for the past two. As I've started playing longer and more intense pieces, I've started to develop pretty intense pain in my right hand thumb muscle. It's not an immediate thing, it fires up after about three minutes of continuous playing, but after it starts, it leaves my thumb area feeling stiff for quite a while after I play. A few triggers that I've found for the pain are playing extensively at the tip and playing intensely or loudly. Some solutions I've tried are: Loosening my bow grip Adjusting my thumb placement to be more towards the center of the tip of my thumb Pushing down more with my arm Extending my thumb more at the tip This pain is really limiting my ability to play longer pieces, so I would greatly appreciate any advice that y'all could give. Thanks!
-
Hi, I was shopping for a bow and have shortlisted two within my budget. Both are intermediate workshop bows; one French and the other Swiss. I prefer the French bow more for its playability but have encountered a snag. The problem lies in the way the frog on the French bow is crafted. My bow grip resembles the following with my thumb half on the frog and half on the wood of the gap between the leather and frog: Looking at the circled part of the frog in the direction of the arrow: The front profile the same part of the Swiss frog (Fig 1) compared to that of the French frog (Fig 2): The French frog tapers to a point roughly represented by the red dot which really digs into my thumb and causes much pain after anything beyond half an hour of playing. I have no issue with the broader profile of the Swiss. My luthier suggests two options: 1. Sand down the pointy part. 2. Replace the frog with a more comfortable model. For obvious reasons, I am unwilling to go with Option 1. and also somewhat hesitant with Option 2. Assuming that for my budget there are no other more suitable bows available (I'm neither in the U.S. nor Europe), how would the learned members on this forum counsel? Should I just forgo the French bow? All advice greatly appreciated. P.S. I found a link to a page describing a very similar problem to mine, except in their case, it's a matter of a sharp edge rather than a point. Both make for uncomfortable thumb contact and thus I believe any solution should be universal to both. The link is: http://www.stringemporium.com/rubber-tube-bass-bow.htm
