Music and Disability By Kerry Barnes

 

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 4^th and 5^th 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 2^nd 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 3^rd 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 4^th and 5^th 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.

Carola Grindea’s book on forming a Healthy Piano Technique, and endorsed by Yehudi Menuhin.

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 4^th and 5^th 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