Mantras

Just wanted to share my mantras in both Latin and English. These give me the greatest amount of inner strength no matter when or what I'm going through. I use them during meditation or when playing horn or in prayer. One of my biggest strengths is perseverance, and these mantras accurately reflect my mentality whenever encountering obstacles/life challenges. They resonate so well with me and I always keep them close to my heart. Happy Valentines day everyone, I hope these help your inner strength shine through as well.

Rehabilitation Video Journals Updated

Just stopping by to update my inventory of videos over rehabilitation (you can see the whole inventory here: https://focalembouchuredystonia.blogspot.com/search/label/Practice%20Journal .... There's a couple over the last few years I haven't added on here and needed to. Just wanted to start it off with a before vs after video first to show the progress over the years. :-)

Before I got dystonia 2006-2009: I don't have many recordings except for from 2006-2009... but tried to smash a few excerpts together to show a bit of my abilities.

During height of Dystonia and right before diagnosed with it: 2011/2012:....first video of playing in January of 2011, and there was a lot I was too embarrassed to put on camera. But I had been trying to recover my playing since June 2010. The 2-4 videos are of taking an inventory of my symptoms at the time in 2012.

After: Fast-forward to January 2017 ....this is a video of me warming up before teaching lessons. I'm testing the waters and checking to see how my embouchure felt. I recovered a great deal from 2011-2013.

I stopped rehabilitation practice from 2014-2015 due to graduate school, and 2015-2017 due to focusing on teaching. I didn't necessarily stop playing, I just didn't focus on recovery efforts as much or logging things.

Now in 2017 I started focusing on regaining the last percentage of my playing again and started taking some gigs! :-)

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Currently onto 2018.....I recorded this yesterday 02/12/18. Doing some light-touch rehabilitation. Testing how long I can hold a note out for and how lightly I can do it for. Notice how there is less spasms or involuntary flexes in the chin muscles as there were in the past.

When I start to get louder, I'm basically doing that to stretch/tense my muscles really quickly in order to relieve tension, and then diminuendo into a lighter sound when possible. My camera died, but I will film the rest of my upper register today.

March 2017: Filmed my playing on other instruments; clarinet, trumpet, trombone. 

February 3rd, 2017: Playing, and speaking about my progress on larger interval jumps in rehabilitation.

July 2nd, 2016: Playing and speaking about collapsed vs puckered embouchure, tonguing vs air puffs and its affects during rehabilitation.

April 2nd, 2016: Playing and speaking about puckered vs collapsed embouchure formations in rehabilitation.

May 1st, 2014: Rehab log

January 13th, 2014: Rehab Log after acupuncture

February 17th, 2013: Rehab Log...might have already posted this under my videos.

New Facebook Group and Forum for Musicians with Dystonia

Hi everyone! Just wanted to chime in and share 2 new groups/forums I created for musicians with dystonia on facebook! ....

• Musicians with Focal Dystonia & Neurologist Sharing Knowledge and Resources
    ......This group is for Musicians with FD and Neurologists. The group is focused on scientific-based knowledge, resources, case-studies, and to share personal trial/error done through scientific method of documentation and observation. This is not an emotional group or a place to advertise; no tolerating emotional lashing out or soliciting of cures (or the source of FD) without proper documentation, publication, and that it can be successfully applied to all.
  
  
• Musicians with Focal Dystonia Emotional Support Group
  ........This group is for Musicians with FD, and focuses on leaning on each other and connecting with others who share the same struggle of coping with this disorder. Here we share our progress, relapses, and personal journey.
  
  Hoping that these groups will provide additional support, connections, and resources! :-)