Concertina as a medical device?

[gcoover]

I know there's a type of medical treatment known as "vibration therapy" so I'm wondering if anyone has found playing the concertina to be helpful for any hand conditions like arthritis?

 

Maybe not so much with EC due to it's potentially stressful thumbstrap and finger rest, as well as tendency for single note playing, but I'm thinking more along the lines of full-scale harmonic playing with Anglos and Duets.

 

Many years ago I thought my concertina playing would be over soon due to painful osteoarthritis. But the condition has stabilized, and dare I say, even gotten better. I would like to think it can be attributed in part to continuous and constant Anglo playing!

 

And just recently I've even been able to finally tame the right hand pinky after many years of trying and can now play "Smash the Windows" in C (from the "Rattlebone and Ploughjack" album). I now feel emboldened to work on a lot of those difficult tunes in the upper registers in Adrian Brown's Garden of Dainty Delights.

 

Anyone else experience improvements that might be due to all those wonderfully concertinistic musical vibrations?

 

Now if I could just get medical insurance to pay for Concertina Acquisition Syndrome...

 

Gary

 

[wunks]

I recently (I'm about a year in) started playing a couple of Jeff Duets I acquired in the '70's because as a dance fiddler ( just me and a piano) I felt I was fading a bit, partly because of a nagging tendon/arthritic condition in my left thumb.  This condition has greatly improved since.  It's a light load activity for the hand and a great brain exercise and ergo, feedback loop.  I've modified the left hand strap to play with the thumb underneath. Fiddle playing back to form!

[Wolf Molkentin]

6 hours ago, gcoover said:

Maybe not so much with EC due to it's potentially stressful thumbstrap and finger rest, as well as tendency for single note playing

 

Well, skip using the finger rest, and that tendency is over (and the thumb strap can be used in very different ways). Just saying..

 

Best wishes - ?

 

PS: please inform me of any company offering this kind of insurance ?

[Little John]

On 2/8/2019 at 10:38 PM, gcoover said:

 

Many years ago I thought my concertina playing would be over soon due to painful osteoarthritis.

 

 

I, similarly, thought my hill-walking days would be over owing to osteoarthritis, which also affects my hands to some extent. I attribute the almost complete remission to the regular ingestion of oily fish (kipper, mackerel or salmon). I doubt that musical vibration had any effect, and certainly not on my feet!

 

LJ

[David Barnert]

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-anaesthesia-accordionist-56696546.html

[Jim Ventola]

Mama Mia! Try THAT with a smart phone.

Edited May 4, 2019 by Jim Ventola

[Kelteglow]

I have arthritis in my hands due to a lifetime of practical work.Thumb joints of the left hand are the worst although I am right handed  I don't know about the vibrations but my Anglo gives me gentle exercise of my fingers . I still sometimes get pains in my Thumb joints and not quite sure if its playing my Anglo standing for Morris or other causes  I wear hand protectors mostly to keep my hands warm so that they move better.  I try not to play outside in winter. I do also believe that music keeps me occupied and  happy.Which is so important for my over all peace of mind.Bob

[W3DW]

My forebearers are arthritic, and I'm no exception. I've played guitar and mandolin (and lots of other things!) since my early teens, and the arthritis at the base of my thumbs - only an an annoyance now - might make playing fretted instruments impractical in the future. 

 

Solution? Learn Hayden concertina! All I need to do is waggle my fingers a bit using rather little force and few complex motions, and with that I anticipate a fruitful musical dotage. 

 

I recently encountered a delightful EC and found that if I use wrist straps I don't infuriate my thumbs, so another fine musical challenge awaits me. 

 

Will these squeeze boxes vibrate my hands to greater musical longevity? I hope so - I'd like to accompany you on guitar in some future year. 

 

Daniel 

[Wolf Molkentin]

4 hours ago, W3DW said:

I recently encountered a delightful EC

 

apart from the present topic, I‘d love to learn more about that!

 

best wishes - ?

[Kelteglow]

These hand supports are provided by the NHS to give my Thumbs support and they are excellent for keeping your hands warm  when playing my Anglo.There is still room for the hand strap .Must have been designed by an Anglo player ! Bob

 

 

 

 

[Wolf Molkentin]

(posted in the wrong thread, moved)

Edited May 11, 2019 by Wolf Molkentin

[robert stewart]

Thinking of the concertina as a therapeutic assist. About 20 years ago I absorbed some mercury that had crept into an outdoor hot tub in a heavy rainstorm.

The result was blinding headaches, loss of mobility, and so forth. As I began to recover, I found that reading street signs was erratic...they would read (to me)

nothing like what they actually said. There were other bizarre symptoms....but you get the idea.

 

However, I renewed my love for the English Concertina, which works with right and left hands in rapid alternation, and therefore stimulates left and right brain.

After a couple of months of daily practice (not having played for some years), most road signs read correctly for me, my speech improved, and my concertina playing really benefited.

Hooray for Sir Charles and Louis!

[Geoff Wooff]

On 12/4/2019 at 12:50 AM, robert stewart said:

Thinking of the concertina as a therapeutic assist. About 20 years ago I absorbed some mercury that had crept into an outdoor hot tub in a heavy rainstorm.

The result was blinding headaches, loss of mobility, and so forth. As I began to recover, I found that reading street signs was erratic...they would read (to me)

nothing like what they actually said. There were other bizarre symptoms....but you get the idea.

 

However, I renewed my love for the English Concertina, which works with right and left hands in rapid alternation, and therefore stimulates left and right brain.

After a couple of months of daily practice (not having played for some years), most road signs read correctly for me, my speech improved, and my concertina playing really benefited.

Hooray for Sir Charles and Louis!

I  believe  there is  something to  what  you say  Robert.  Although I  wonder  whether  a  hand  is  controlled  by  one side of the brain  and the other hand by the other  side , I  did  find  playing the English  concertina  was  most helpfull  in recovering  from  a Stroke.  I  attributed this more to  gaining control  of  the coordination  of  the two  hands .    A  side effect    was to  re-train my  brain  to  imagine  a sense  of touch  where  it was  somewhat diminished.  

 

I  practice every  day,  looking for  pieces  that  are  chalenging  for  the  fine end of coordination.  Seven years on  and  most  of the  downsides  of that stroke  have  repaired  and , yes ,  my  concertina playing  improved  too.

[robert stewart]

Thank you Geoff for sharing your story. I was thinking of the theory that the left brain works the right side, and the right brain the left side, therefore the nerves, fingers, etc. There are quite a few items on this subject on the web that show up in a search. To be honest I have no idea if the theory is correct, but it  is widely used in various ways. Whatever it was, and however it worked, I am glad to hear that the EC helped you, just as it helped me. I much prefer playing the concertina to doing rehabilitation exercises! 

best wishes, RJ

[StephenTx]

You are correct the Left side of the brain controls the right side than the right side of the brain controls the left side

[Mudchutney]

I've recently started warming up my hands properly before playing, and I really mean "properly"!!  I've got a sequence of about 6 or 7 exercises I do religiously before I pick up the box.  Since starting I've noticed considerably less joint pain.  So the warming up prevents the pain, and the playing / practise keeps my brain exercised.

[Don Taylor]

9 hours ago, Mudchutney said:

I've got a sequence of about 6 or 7 exercises I do religiously before I pick up the box.

Can you please describe these exercises, I think that I need something like this myself.  Thx.