From: radams@cerritos.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical.guitar
Subject: Re: Assad Bros., GFA competition, Leisner
Date: 23 Nov 92 16:51:54 PST
Distribution: rec
Organization: Cerritos College, Norwalk CA

In article <1992Nov22.195605.16106@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>, 
ihrj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes:

> like amateurs. Although David Leisner was apparently really impressive -
> he has lost use of his a finger due to a car accident but he apparently
> played a whole bunch of the Villa Lobos with 3 fingers (I screw them up
> with 4 !). I refer to his right hand, of course.
> 

I read in GFA soundboard that Leisner actually can only use thumb and index
with 100% reliability and he can use middle finger but not as reliably.
The article was an interview and Leisner said that he thought that pulling
the strings too hard in his earlier years probably was one of the reasons
that he lost use of the other fingers. He said that one day, his little and
ring fingers curled into his palm (RH) and he lost control of movement. This
story is not unique in the music world as pianists such as Graffman have
suffered from some neurological type injuries to the hands. My personal
view is that injuries like these are preventable by studying how to avoid
what some call "overuse syndrome". There was an interesting article on
overuse syndrome in the soundboard magazine also. Dorothy Taubman has done
some important work in preventing these problems for pianists. In some cases,
she has been able to help injured players restore use of their hands and
get them back into their performing careers. Among many other things, she
teaches pianists to adopt hand positions which allow maximum power and facility
with the least exertion - which translates into level wrists on both hands
for the most part. She also teaches making more use of pedal, and lateral
movements of the hands to avoid wide stretches which she believes is often
responsible for hand injuries (ie. over stretching). I feel there are some
applications to guitar such as straight wrists and fingering that may avoid
over stretching in many cases. I have noticed that the famous players that
seem to have the most facility and speed have straight wrists (Williams left
hand for example) whereas the players that seem slower or less facile usually
curve the wrists of both hands (even having high arch in RH position).
In the days that I used to arch the wrist of LH a bit, I had occasional
problems with tendinitis which since disappeared with straight wrist. I should
say that the wrist should not lock into a straight position as there are
instances where curving the wrists can be natural (just as Dorothy Taubman
says for pianists), ie. for the most part straight but fluid enough to allow
movement of wrists when natural.


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	Roger Adams
	radams@cerritos.edu               To those in whom love dwells,
	Cerritos College                  the whole world is one family.
	11110 Alondra Blvd                             A Hindu Proverb
        Norwalk, California 90650
	USA        		          292 Dwapara :-)
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