UNIVERSIDAD AUSTRAL DE CHILE CIDI 125

Prof. Ana Venegas.

Students: Aaron Méndez - Alex Fuentealba – Nicolás Aguayo
December 12th, 2022

Know your instrument, know yourselft.

A difficult problem that hasn’t been given the visibility and importance into the world of self-taught musicians.
The path of the musician is a long road that requires discipline and constancy to have results, these results
may or may not be lasting in time, understanding that it is necessary a healthy technique in musical
interpretation so that the instrumentalist does not slow down his learning due to physical limitations that can be
developed over time by a bad technique. This essay aims to demonstrate the importance of having
professional supervision and reliable information for the developing and master the learning of an instrument.
In this essay we will show the negative repercussions that non-professional supervision could cause for
instrumentalists who use their hands as a connection to their instrument, the negative repercussions with no
supervision could bring the artist the "musician's dystonia", and the negative repercussions that unsupervised
information could cause in the case of a singer. Therefore, we can affirm that without certified supervision and
verified information at present it is not possible to ensure a healthy learning in the interpretation of an
instrument.

"The carpal tunnel is the space at the base of the wrist formed by the eight carpal bones and a ligament...
Carpal tunnel syndrome is the result of compression of the median nerve within this tunnel, which causes the
nerve signal to be inadequate." (Ramos, 2014)1. This syndrome causes symptoms such as reduced finger
dexterity, reduced grip strength, feeling of swollen fingers, among other symptoms. People who wish to learn
instruments such as guitar, piano and clarinet need to be supervised by a teacher of the instrument, and also
have someone who corrects them in a professional manner and with verified information when they are playing
with bad technique as it would be, a bad posture, excessive effort, many repetitions of the same exercise, etc,
in order to avoid negative destinations as it could be the carpal tunnel syndrome.

"dystonia which is a neurological sickness, however you can also develop this issue on account of practice in
excess, playing exhaustively without having a real warm before the practice can trigger this neurologycal
sickness “Focal hand dystonia in musicians is a task-specific movement disorder characterized by an
involuntary loss of control and coordination of finger movements while playing an instrument, correlated with
exhaustive use and energetic of the fingers" (Chiaramonte/ Vecchio, 2021)2. Dystonia in musicians has a great
impact on the quality of life of those affected and in many cases ends their careers. The aforementioned
dystonia is a movement disorder characterized by continuous or periodic muscle contractions that result in
abnormal, repetitive movements or postures, or both. Several factors are associated with this condition. Some
ways to prevent focal dystonia are to order and organize a prudent way of studying an instrument, not to play
excessively, not to over force the muscles and joints, to warm up before rehearsing and then cool down, to
gradually increase the rhythm and difficulty of the practice, to have a prudent rehearsal schedule and not to
over stimulate our body, to know the correct positions when playing and above all to have a deep knowledge of
the instrument. Seeing that there are many requirements and knowledge to prevent dystonia we can notice
that it is risky to study on your own, so the best and most practical will be to have professional supervision to
avoid this disorder.
Voice training really depends on a healthy technique together with a good pedagogy in order to avoid
developing injuries that may limit your voice. "Trial and error must always, always be supervised otherwise
your voice may not be benefited, but may even become damaged" (Guzman, 2022)3. this statement by Dr.
Marcos Guzman was mentioned in the context of the many vocal exercises available on the internet. These
exercises can cause unexpected negative repercussions, since the lack of supervision of these exercises limits
the correction to prevent injuries due to the use of an unhealthy technique. To all this, adding all the
misconceptions or not updated that can be acquired, as when we hear about "vocal register" to refer to the
extent of notes that can be sung, and actually the correct term is "tessitura", this brings conflict as its meaning
is different from what is believed to be, "vocal register" would be the mechanism we use to sing (vocal fry,
chest voice, falsetto, etc.). All the above mentioned can be caused by the attempt to train the voice without
supervision, that is why we should not train our voice without supervision because under this methodology we
run the risk of losing it.

We reaffirm the importance of developing a healthy technique in the study of an instrument, because without
that healthy technique you can temporarily slow down your learning and even acquire some kind of injury as
we talked about above. If you perform any activity related to an instrument, to prevent any damage, injury,
trauma or illness, the best thing to do is to seek to be guided by a certified teacher in the instrument you are
interested in learning and not to do it in a self-taught way. We believe that it is time to raise awareness and
normalize the instrumental practice under the supervision of certified teachers and verified information as it is a
problem that many musicians live. We all have fingers for the piano, we just need a guide to train those fingers.

References and quotes;

1) Ángel Ramos | PROBLEMAS EN MANOS Y MUÑECA EN MÚSICOS. SÍNDROME DEL TÚNEL

CARPIANO | 22/10/2014 | https://rehabilitacionpremiummadrid.com/blog/angel-ramos/problemas-en-
manos-y-muneca-en-musicos-sindrome-del-tunel-carpiano/.

2) R. Chiramonte, M. Vecchio | Rehabilitación de la distonía focal de mano en músicos: una revisión

sistemática de los estudios | 16/04/2021 | https://neurologia.com/articulo/2020421.

3) Marcos Guzmán | El peligro de los ejercicios de voz en las redes | 05/04/2022 |

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cb_UIWYIuSi/.