Music and Disability
By
Kerry Barnes
Yes
this did, and does exist.
Most
of us know about Beethoven and deafness in his early thirties, and writing some
of his best music during this time, some would say. The Scottish percussionist
Dame Evelyn Glennie is also profoundly deaf and feels the music through her
feet, remarkably so!
But
I’d like to talk about a more physical disability within the playing apparatus,
namely the fingers, hands and arms. It is called ‘Focal Dystonia’ and has the
power to end a musician’s career!
In
this article I will be talking about musicians, techniques, disabilities,
teachers, therapies and more.
What
is Focal Dystonia?
Well
it’s a neurological condition that may result from overuse or misuse of the
playing apparatus namely the arms, hands and fingers, in conjunction with the
ergonomics of the instruments and sitting positions etc. It’s fairly rare,
although growing I believe. It’s usually brought on by a fatal cocktail of too
much practice for too long, and with a technique that may be questionable,
along with the wrong sitting position at the instrument, perfectionist
personality type, and the list goes on. So what started as pain that is ignored
by the musician who keeps going and going, actually develops into the wrong
messages being sent by the brain to the fingers and becomes neurological. Once
that happens, there’s no turning back and there is no cure.
It
is manifested by two symptoms, firstly the fingers start to curl into the palm
and the poor musician can’t get those fingers uncurled and placed on the
keyboard as they would like, and secondly it can present as a general but
complete incoordination of the fingers when the musician tries to play a
certain pattern of notes that the brain won’t let it do … your fingers won’t do
what you want them to do!
There
have been four pianists I know of who have been afflicted by Focal Dystonia.
The first is Leon Fleisher. A real virtuoso who gradually stopped performing
and did things like masterclasses and teaching etc. In the picture below, look
closely at his 4th and 5th fingers in the right hand
holding on to the piano, they are fixed and pointing down like they don’t
belong to the rest of the hand.
Leon
Fleisher
These
two fingers would have also worked a lot harder as they would have played the
main melody most of the time, and in general the right hand does that a lot,
obviously there are always exceptions.
The
2nd pianist is one that I have been suspicious about before. Glenn
Gould. Now it is not documented anywhere, but why at the age of approximately
mid-thirties would you suddenly stop performing? Have a look at the pictures
below, he sits on a very low chair, (not a usual piano stool) and is very
hunched over with his chin almost touching the keyboard sometimes.
Glenn Gould
For
the rest of his career, he made recordings only, where it is possible to ‘patch
up’ any ‘not so good’ parts if you like, and he was always concerned about
‘uneven tone, or bulges of tone’ and this is also a symptom of FD.
The
3rd pianist and keyboardist is Keith Emerson, from the famous trio
ELP.
Keith
Emerson
Take
a good look at this picture. As you can see in his right hand, the 4th
and 5th fingers are literally curled into the palm of his hand, and
he cannot get them up on to the keyboard. This is truly horrific and completely
debilitating for an artist of his calibre. I saw him on Chinese TV, he was a
musical guest for a daytime show. It was awful to see him struggling and I
remember thinking how brave he was to continue the performance, but only
playing with 3 fingers of the right hand. So brave.
He
came to London to study with Carola Grindea, a Romanian Piano Professor at the
Guildhall School of Music who had studied Focal Dystonia and developed a new
technique that completely bypasses the ‘finger problem.’
Carola
Grindea
Take a look
at the highest picture, where she has ‘put’ her student in a perfect playing
position.
Anyhow,
Carola’s method was to ‘not to think ‘finger action’ and bring in a ‘wrist
action’ as the new tool. So rather than lifting the finger before pressing the
key, she endorsed that the finger should already be touching the surface of the
key, and depressed the key with an up-down movement of the wrist therefore
bypassing the neurological problem of trying to control the fingers, and turned
it into a wrist technique instead which is not affected by the neuro-problem. Brilliant! However, the musician would also have to
adjust repertoire to a less demanding programme, at least for a while in some
cases. But for a very physical and energetic performer like Keith, this may not
be enough and I think he ended up shooting himself, (according to a Daily Mail
article) because he knew that he would never be able to perform at the
extremely high level he was used to. That’s what Focal Dystonia can do to a
person.
Coming
now, another artist, therapies, my advice on how to warm up, and a
‘conclusion’ that some of you may be surprised about.
The
last artist is pianist and former harpsichordist Virginia Black. In my view one
of the greatest performers and teacher of all time!
When
she was around the age of 50ish and at the height of her career, she was struck
down with this condition and I saw it for myself, in action, the curling under
of the 4th and 5th fingers.
Many
therapies were followed but I think it came to nothing and for 19 years she
could not play her beloved instrument.
Virginia
always gave 110% in everything she did whether it be performing, teaching,
masterclasses and much more. She would practice for up to 6 hours a day for
concerts, recordings etc. But I think this artist gave too much, and maybe it
did not pay off in the end. Also, the harpsichord (which is what she played
when having the condition) takes no prisoners as there are no foot pedals to
enhance the sound, and the fingers have to fill in all the gaps, much harder
work I would say.
Virginia
Black
(she
looks so good, you would never think that in a couple of years she’ll be 80
years old!)
HOWEVER... something
incredible happened in 2010, Virginia started to perform again! She ditched the harpsichord, got the piano
out and hey presto no curling-under fingers. I went to her 2010 concert and
there was no problem at all! So really I can come to only one conclusion... a
miracle happened, brain surgery or something I know nothing about! Anyhow it’s
so wonderful that she is enjoying global success yet again!!
T
H E R A P I E S
Botox
injections to the afflicted area that paralyse the muscles and temporarily
release the ‘curling’, but does not last forever.
The
Alexander Technique that promotes ‘no tension’ and can be a great preventer of
getting injured in the first place. The only thing is, you have to be thinking
about it all the time.
The
Grindea Technique As
I mentioned earlier, a healthy piano technique using the ‘wrist’ as the new
tool. And a fantastic 5 minute ‘release’ method that must be done before you
start practising.
KERRY
BARNES ON WARMING UP
Before
you even walk towards the piano, drink something hot, like tea, coffee etc.
This warms the body from the inside out and will keep your hands and fingers
warm, and carry on drinking throughout the session.
Start
your scales etc at ‘pianissimo’ only, and very slowly at first.
Start
with Chromatic scales first as these involve the smallest movements. Then
gradually open the hands out a bit more with the usual major scales etc.
Arpeggios should be practised right at the end because they involve the largest
movements of the fingers, hands, arms and indeed the ‘pivoting from the hip’
because they cover a large area of the keyboard and much more quickly.
Treat
yourself like an athlete, you would not see Ussain Bolt running at top speed
without a warm up first!
Well,
you may be thinking, how come Kerry knows so much about all this? Well,
yes I have the disability in both hands,
yes I studied with Carola Grindea and even had a lesson the day after Keith
Emerson was at her house. Just missed him!
Everything
I compose and play, is the direct result of what I call ‘possible-patterns’.
Patterns that my brain will let me play, and I have been doing that since I was
33 years old and now I’m nearly 60!!
I
must make an album called “Possible
Patterns”
T
H E E N D
