Hey guys... I found out I have Tendinitis.

There are plenty of really outstanding players who have had to deal with hand and arm pain, starting with James Galway and his callouses:
http://www.jennifercluff.com/blog/2009/09/james-galways-callouses.html

Here's some info on hand and arm pain of flutists:
http://www.jennifercluff.com/deathgrip.htm

Also, I have to argue with this:

As for this Bo-pep finger rest/saddle, people have been playing flute for a very long time before most of these gadgets were invented. Not sure I've seen any of the "Masters" play with them. I would steer away from these things and go natural. Why rely on something artificial? Perhaps they are just money makers for their inventors and not necessities for flutists.

If you watch eBay, you will sometimes see really old flutes with a hand saddle or crutch that screws into the flute, holding the flute away from the left hand much like a Bo-Pep does. Silver piccolos usually have a hand saddle to increase the effective diameter of the instrument.

Jose-Luis, you might try a left-hand extension or Bo-Pep, when I started practicing longer, I found that it was really effective in reducing tension and eventual pain in my left hand.

Patrick has gone through the Feldenkrais training, and I would recommend that anyone who plans on going to school/teaching/playing which requires hours of practice per day do so also. My good buddy went through this process, also, after she had back and shoulder problems.

I haven't seen many flutes belonging to really upper-level flutists whose practice sessions can get long, that don't have some sort of modification to make the flute more ergonomic.

Perhaps high school players are more sensitive to being 'different' or not having a shiny (open hole, B-foot!) flute that looks like everyone else's, but the truly serious musicians do need to address hand pain, tendinitis, and such quite seriously.

Thanks Tibbie. I do not know about the Bep bop gadget but will find out. So far I have a callus but this not a big problem. It disappears when practising as it gets crushed into the finger by the flute pressure (it is not hard, like Galways' one) and when it reappears it reminds me it's time to get back to practise...

But I am concerned that I may develop other more serious problems on my neck and back because my playing body position is not as good as it should be. We are correcting it with my teacher, as it affects my tone and scale, but a therapy as the one mentioned could be useful. Only that I have no idea about how and where.

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Sorry, Bo bep!!

I've gone ahead and bought the Bo pep finger saddle. I've been using the thumb guide for about two years and love it! It took away all my thumb pain,I just hope the finger saddle will do the same to my index finger. LOL. I've been using ice and it's been taking some of the pain away. But,know that I know what I have, do any of you know any exersices that could help stregthen the tendons? I'm guessing this all came about from practicing longer than usual? Thanks

I find rolling the hand gently and massaging your wrist smoothly helps. A bit like in Gym, when you roll your ankles, but don't put your hand on a surface and roll, it kills!!! I might see if I can ask my choir director, as she once had a major problem with the tendons in her knee. I think one snapped.

Take it easy. Don't worry about it. It doesn't seem like you're in the later stages of tendonitis. So know your limits. Competition? Who cares. Your whole career is important, that's for sure. I have ridiculously small hands, so I can barely reach an octave on the piano. My overall technique is up to par, but those darned octaves disallows me to play the impressive pieces other people get to play. I could force my hands to stretch to the limit to compete with those pianists, but I'm glad my teacher didn't let me b/c I know a girl who had very small hands too but her teacher was very ambitious so she played lots of stretchy pieces. The result? Two years of pain and tendonitis. She was very very lucky to get out of it. Well the lesson: Know that pushing yourself won't help at all. Tendonitis is very dangerous if you're not careful!

Hopefully the Bo-pep will help. On the piano, try not to start out too rigorously. You're like an athlete, you have a whole marathon to go and you can't rush into it and play the hare...Start out with slow, easy and even scales and work up from there. Maybe you can identify what you are doing wrong, or if you are pushing into the keys too muchv(which could be a contributing factor! also are you banging the chords? you should let gravity help your hands to fall on the right keys, elbows out so your forearm won't bear the shock. it's less work and a much louder, resonant sound) With the flute, it's the same. If there's a hard run, there are some people I know that will keep playing it and playing it, slapping down the keys, and just making everything even worse. Don't. Play difficult and rigorous things slowly (but no lazy fingers) and evenly. And it could be that you are holding the flute very tightly on your left index finger. It hurts. So hopefully, the Bo-pop will help a lot. But just take it easy. You have a whole life ahead of you. Nobody cares if you've won or lost a competition in middle school or even high school. You have years ahead of you.

ughh....Tendinitis is terrible, I heard many people got it from playing in-line flute in my country, that's why all my flutes including my Sankyo are off-set. whoever invented in-line is a nonsense.

This year after ATCL performance exam, my teacher now forces me to use my Sankyo Artist, and stops me from using my beloved Yamaha 211. But Sankyo Artist is heavy - all silver, and I practise 4-5 hours per day, my hands are sore, so I practise with my 211 at home and go to lesson with my Artist, lol.

I practise 4-5 hours a day with 211 (offset-G) for years, without any of those gadgets, I practised mostly repeated non-stop scales and repeated exercises of Trevor Wye and Moyse, I never ever had any pain on my hands or fingers or arms. I guess offset-G flute is already a good ergonomic flute ever designed, no need to re-design or add gadgets.

I bought a thumbport before, and gave it away to my cousin after 1 day, and she tried it and threw it away also after 1 day, useless gadget to me. I have been to many masterclasses of Jame Galway, Pahud, Trevor Wye, William Bennett, Kudo, Graf, and Paris and Vienna flute masters, and I always loved to see their flutes, and I have never seen any of them using gadgets, except Emannuel Pahud used a very thin rubber pad preventing his 14K flute from slipping away from his hands, because he plays on 3-point holding, and he likes to move fast and swing quite a lot!

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suggestion to InstrumentCrazy: If you practise a lot now, use Jupiter S511 student flute, it is very very light in weight!!

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suggestion to InstrumentCrazy: If you practise a lot now, use Jupiter S511 student flute, it is very very light in weight!!

"If you watch eBay, you will sometimes see really old flutes with a hand saddle or crutch that screws into the flute, holding the flute away from the left hand much like a Bo-Pep does."

Sorry, please allow me to challenge Bo-Pep or Jennifercluf's rubber tube. Imagine a Bo-Pep or a rubber tube holding the flute away from the left hand, what will happen? Your left index finger's 3rd joint will be stopped from moving! What happens if your 3rd joint is not movable? Your index finger's 1st joint and 2nd joint will have to do the job of pressing the key! This makes your index finger action very slow, if you play fast passages you will notice the difference!

Also, since you rely heavily on your index finger's 1st joint and 2nd joint to do the job of pressing the key, I am afraid you might develop fingeritis soon.

Without Bo-pep or rubber tube hindering the 3rd joint movement, you can move your left index finger VERY VERY FAST! Because pressing the flute keys is an action of with all 3 finger joints!

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Also, holding the flute away from the left hand makes your finger/fingers stretched - very tiring, and slow moving of finger.

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On thumbport:

- if you are using the old 4-point holding, thumbport helps you to cheat, yeah it's great, but you don't learn the basic holding of a flute, what are you then? a cheater.

- if you are using the new 3-point holding, thumbport is useless, and it increases the thickness of the flute's outer wall, it will make all your right-hand fingers stretched, and can't even close the open holes correctly with your fingers.

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Sorry, I apologise, :) I didn't mean you or anyone is a cheater, it's just an analogy -that if a student or a beginner uses thumbport to help balance the flute instead of developing self 4-point-coodination, others may think he/she is impaired in even holding a flute.

Hi! I do have an off set G flute. And when I got the thumb rest\port it just came in a flute cleaning kit so I gave it a try. I don't know if I have weak thumbs or what but I think my thumb pain came from practicing my clarinet and oboe. I even had to buy a neck strap for those two, to help lessen the weight on my thumb. And the thumb rest (for flute) I got can move back and forth. So it's not just "stuck" to one area. I'm thinking all my instruments contributed to the Tendinitis.

And as far as what people think about the new gadgets,maybe the pros don't use them,but then again they probably weren't around when they started. I think it's good to try out new things. And I'm not a pro, (not yet anyway ) I'm just a serious student trying to look for ways that I can practice longer and without index finger pain.

So thanks for all the advice!


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Sparks12: Thank-you! That helped.

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http://www.wwbw.com/Finger-Fitness-Healthy-Hand-Gym-429071-i1134912.wwbw


Would this do any good? Or does it just look weird? lol.

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And I'm not a pro, (not yet anyway ).

Wait I take that back... I am a professional musician. Simply meaning I get paid for what I do. (^:

I think it doesn't look that good! It's just a pair of spiked rings, two ball bearings and a puzzle!!!!! They don't really give an accurate description of what you do with them, either. Just look for some excercises that you can just do at home, and rest a little! If you need to, pull out of the competitions, because it will just be better for you long-term. Don't push yourself at the moment!
Get Well Soon,
Pyface
P.S Does everyone get these things? I may have a callus, it's a tiny bump on my thumb, which is like practically permanent now, and it gets agitated when I play my clarinet. It doesn't bother me though! I have a heavy old clarinet, with a little bit of cork underneath. Do people really need sling things? The only things I put on my instruments is cork grease(clarinet-piccolo) and tooth guard for clari mouthpiece!

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BTW- Does your flute 'float'? If you're playing the flute correctly, the flute should 'float' in your hands! You rest your pinkie on D# key, you make sure that the tip of your right thumb is touching the flute, but if you can't do this, try and keep the amount of thumb touching flute minimal. Then put the flute to your mouth, as if to play it, and your flute should float! Try not to rest the flute on your right thumb, just support it. Also, if your flute is fine, you won't need to press hard to seal tone holes! That's often a problem!
How big are your hands? Mine are large for a kid of my age. On the piano, avoid stretching! I have a piece that makes me reach an octave on my left hand, which is fine, but then I have to turn my index finger to the semi-tone below it, holding the bottom note for 2 bars. Not nice!

No problem InstrumentCrazy, if you have any questions regarding piano, you can always PM me.

Also, do you have a flute teacher? You should have an expert see what you're doing with your fingers and correct anything that you're doing wrong.

Agree with Spark12, you should find a flute teacher if you don't have one to look at your hand position, or find another flute teacher to get 2nd opinion.

Early last year I got wrist pain and then injured from a piano piece that I was working on, my piano teacher (she graduated from local conservatory) said my hand position was correct. I then asked my theory teacher (she graduated from Canadian conservatory) and she said I had some minor problems on my hand position and the way I used force was wrong. But too late, doctor told me to take 3 months off from piano, and later I quit my piano to concentrate on flute.

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yeah Pyface, I was so angry, all these years my piano teacher never saw my forearm was a bit too low, I therefore injured my wrist many times, you can see from this video of me 4 years ago, my hand position was wrong and I can't change back now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23oMSvAVg_c
:(