A blog about a French horn player's journey with Focal Embouchure Dystonia; one of the only existing documentations of rehabilitation through videos and writing spanning over a decade. This blog shares resources, research, and information on FTSED and other music performance related injuries. Katie also advocates awareness, education, does presentations, provides guidance; and brings the musicians dystonia community together thru online groups, streamed interviews and conversation.
I had to share this great blog post, the one I posted above! As I've said it many times before, I'll say it again...I love wilktone's blog. He has some spectacular videos over embouchure function; that show other people's embouchure types, and about embouchure dysfunction as well...it amazes me! I love it and think it's very important to know about and study embouchure form and function. He just posted a blog over a video of Denver Dill's embouchure. There should be a couple links on my sidebar about Denver Dill - he has written a book over his recovery from surgery done on a torn obicularis oris. Wilktone's blog shows a video of what Denver Dill's old embouchure setting use to be compared to the one he plays on now. It is very inspiring to see someone who has gone from injured to surgery then to fully recovered and then some! He sounds absolutely amazing!
I'm starting to record my practice sessions now on camera when I can get into the university practice rooms. I promised myself I'd record more often. It took 1.5-2 hours of prep-work (breathing, buzzing, stretching, free-buzzing exercises, etc.) to feel ready to start working on my horn playing. So as soon as I felt ready to record my horn playing, I hit record and started to show exercises I do to work on a particular group of notes or range. There are a lot of different basic exercises that I apply to what I am focusing on at the moment (I'm going to record these too soon just to explain more)....Today was great! My embouchure felt really good! I'll also post this under my practice journals link on the side bar.
One last thing, a disclaimer: This is not recorded as a means to prove a rehabilitation method, I believe not one singular method works for everyone since it is a very personalized process and everyone's embouchure function is complex and unique in it's own individual way. This is recorded as a means to document the process I'm going through; the relapses, progress, and anything else that happens as I go through rehabilitation.
If you would like to view a video where I show my FTSED symptoms, you can access it via the side bar or by clicking on the link here...that video post is labled: Taking an Inventory of My Symptoms. I show what my symptoms are like when I haven't done any prep-work. Whereas in this current blogpost/practice session, I have done my prep-work...
I decided to do an updated video over my Focal Task-Specific Embouchure Dystonia Symptoms. I show how I take an inventory of my symptoms and how to test them a bit. I tried to do it all in 1 video and ended up being 3!
Again, just wanted to let you know that this is what my symptoms are like when I haven't included any of my routine or modifications. I show a little bit of my playing routine at the end just as a short example. However, I also don't ever work on my horn playing exercises until I've done any of my prep-work (my buzzing, breathing, etc. other exercises and modifications).
I wanted to correct a statement I said near the end. I should have said "You don't want to avoid embracing sounds you might typically think are bad sounding, instead you want to face them."
Also a disclaimer: This is in no way to show a proven method of rehabilitation, nor do I imply it will work for anyone. Rehabilitation is an individualized process, and not everyone has symptoms that effect them the same way, and every embouchure is very unique, especially in the way they function.
I want to make an important note that this is not the sum of my rehabilitation either, this is part of what I address in my rehabilitation: finding what works/doesn't work...learning how my dysfunctional embouchure functions. Rehabilitation is a process, one blog post can not cover this process as it develops over time. I can only show you what has helped me, and the learning process and developments that I do make.
When it comes to rehabilitation, I view my embouchure dystonia as neurological, not psychological, mental paralysis, or some other type of diagnosis that other non-medically trained people try to convince me it is. I address my symptoms through retraining exercises, making these types of adaptations, and using the exercises I do in other portions of my routine that I show in other videos, while always viewing my disorder as neurological. I try to find ways to adapt my sensory...to rewire my sensory and muscle memory if that makes more sense.
Here is the other video showing my embouchure dystonia symptoms. This one I did way back in December...so 5 months ago. You can actually see some contractions in my upper right side of my lip a little above my corner when I play. This was recorded on one of my better days. I only play a C major scale here 2 octaves, and then up to an high F and back down. Also, honestly, at that time while trying to make my first video I debated what to show in the video...it was really hard to show my symptoms so I made it a short video. But I know in the long run, it's for the better. I feel more comfortable with recording now, so I will be doing this a lot more often and posting them under my practice journals.
