1 What Every Guitarist Should Know: A Guide to the Prevention and Rehabilitation of Focal Hand Dystonia

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to diagnose or to definitively prevent or cure any form of injury, including focal dystonia. The author drew from recent medical publications and personal discourse with medical professionals, but he is not a medical doctor. Any person with any type of injury, including but not limited to focal dystonia, should consult a health care professional. Approximately six months after having successfully performed my Master’s recital, and having begun a Doctoral degree in Classical Guitar Performance, I was performing Ponce’s Sonata III one afternoon in a lesson with my instructor, John Sutherland. John noticed the thumb of my right hand pulling in toward the palm. After he brought this to my attention, I realized that I was having great difficulty preventing my thumb from flexing into my “i finger space. ” I began a practice regimen aimed at correcting what I assumed was merely a technical problem. However, the more I focused on controlling my thumb, the more difficult it became to manage. For more than a year, I did virtually nothing but right-hand-alone exercises: single finger strokes, double and triple finger combinations, block chords, arpeggios, etc. My situation only got worse.