Focal Dystonia: the Reinhardt Take

[revmklyons]

Rich is right, I did come to see him, although I have only been able to afford the trip once, but it changed my career.

Mine did happen below around fourth partial. Everything, even up to double Bb, no tremor. So, I made sure I played down low like I did up high and I swore to never play pedal tones again.

I attribute some of my tremor actually to tension in the throat also. There is a psychological condition (I do not remember the name) where a person "feels" as if there is something in their throat and it causes a spasm...often they will be scoped to find there is absolutely nothing wrong, and once they are convinced, it goes away. Once I convinced myself, it was a huge step in getting over it. Rich told me I could over come it, and I believed him, knowing that he had over come many embouchure issues and played great.

My point is the human mind is hardly understood! Which I feel you guys agree with. Putting a horn to your face a million times is a strong conditioning stimulus...making a bad habit so strong it seems "natural".

I am a euphonium player, and I am also very interested in what Reinhardt would have said about vibrato on this instrument....obviously not jaw! I saw on the reinhardt page that Terry Stettler was a euph player and a Reinhardt student... we are messaging on FB about it and I report if gives me any input.
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