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Double Bass Newbie Pain

Eric Hochberg

Eric Hochberg

Jul 7, 2004
6,343
2,457
Chicago
www.erichochberg.com
#1
I have a newbie adult student who has been at it for a month now. He came in with a good Shen SB80 strung with spiro weichs. I helped tweak it so it plays fairly easily. I've encouraged him to take frequent breaks while practicing and to limit his practice time to 1/2 hour to get started. Encouraged him to use some arm leverage to avoid squeezing with the thumb...etc. He looks pretty good when he plays, I'm not seeing any obvious trouble there.

He came to our lesson yesterday with pain in his wrist and hand. He hadn't played for a few days. As I have gone through a severe bout of RSI with wrist pain, I'm pretty sensitive to this problem. I advised him not to play until the pain subsides.

I'm not sure how to proceed with him. I haven't had a student develop this problem on my watch until now. Any pedagogical (not medical) advise would be welcome.
 
#3
The only advice I have is to make sure his left wrist is straight, and to have him practice in small bits without using his left thumb at all if possible. Every single bit of LH pain I've ever had has been traceable to a bent wrist and/or overuse of the thumb. You might start him on some exercise with only index and middle fingers and leave the 4th finger out until he's pain free.
 
#7
Good height of the left elbow and careful alignment of the forearm wrist and fingers (with no, or minimal, pronation) are basic building blocks for LH technique that will help avoid injury. Good arched finger shapes that do not collapse are also highly desirable but may need some strengthening work for many beginning students. Warming up exercises and simple stretches are also good protection against injury.

Once the pain has subsided provide him with a soft foam stress ball (such as you find in an "el cheapo" shop or kids toy shop) to wrap his entire hand and thumb around. His fingers palm and forearm muscles will get a gentle workout if he keeps it under his pillow and, with straight wrist, squeezes it say twenty times before he goes to sleep (or as a warm-up before he practices).

Also do these six basic fingering exercises (or some of them) with care when warming up. I use the notes G A Bflat B in 1st position on the G string.

0-1-4-1, 0 4 1 4, 0 1 2 1, 0 2 1 2, 0 2 4 2, 0 4 2 4

These can be played with separate or slurred bows, with even 1/8 notes or with hooked or "reverse hooked bowing patterns. This will create 36 little basic LH exercises. Start with 1/8th notes at a slow to moderate tempo and encourage clear articulation. Speed is not an issue at this stage.

I use these simple patterns (with straight wrist and correct elbow height) to help stabilize a student's left hand thumb and finger shapes, placements and useages. Also to help increase strength and endurance, to articulate slurs evenly and clearly, to time and coordinate the LH and bow starts carefully for clean articulation of separate notes, and to create the muscle memory and hearing discipline to repeat correct pitch over and over again.

In the learning sequence I probably introduce these after completing 1st then 1/2 and 2nd positions (Simandl), also then introducing Wohlfahrt Studies to assist fluent reading of notes learned so far while revisiting the R arm and RH uses.

If all is going well with stabilizing the L arm and LH shapes and strength I will then apply the same six bowing possibilities to working on the technique, timing and coordination of shifting as the student jumps to learning D Major and 3rd position. I use the notes D E F G A up and back on the D string, again as a warm-up before scales
 

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