I wanted to share my story with those of you that have been suffering with focal dystonia or similar hand issues. Some of you already know I have been suffering with what I thought was focal dystonia for several years now. My thumb was pulling into the palm of my hand and I was losing control of my pointer finger.
I have been to all kinds of doctors and spent thousands of dollars. I was diagnosed with focal dystonia but I have always had my doubts because my fingers never totally "freaked" out like a lot of folks with focal dystonia. I felt like my problem was some sort of tension brought on by my hand or finger positioning. And the more you think about the tension...the worse it gets.
I have tried all kinds of different hand positions and finger picks. I even tried home-made apparatuses to control the hand and or the fingers. I realized none of this was going to work. You need to be relaxed to play clean, fast, and fluidly. I finally tried botox, which did work to some degree but eventually wore off.
After the botox wore off it never returned as bad as it was but I would still frequently have "bad" days. I still had tension in my hand and my thumb was still pulling into my palm. If you watch my most recent video http://youtu.be/3pG3pBBb-vY you'll notice how my thumb is very curved and I bend it at the knuckle to make the thumb pick hit flat on the strings. Usually this is considered a good thing. And in most cases it is. But subconsciously sometimes my thumb keeps going back further into my palm almost until it is hidden by my first finger.
Oddly I have always been able to play perfectly WITHOUT picks on. I just never could understand why I could play fine without picks. I was told this is a common thing with focal dystonia but never really accepted that as an answer. Well last week I realized why I can play better without picks. When I play without picks, my thumb is almost perfectly straight so that it hits the strings right on the furthest corner of my thumb tip.
So I took my metal thumb pick and bent the band so that it would stay on the tip of my thumb rather in the middle of thumb. I was amazed that when I started playing I could immediately play better. My rolling improved and had better control over my first finger. Now I keep my thumb straighter because I know it has to be straight to hit the strings flat.
If I put a regular thumbpick back on to the middle of the thumb I subconsciously begin to curve that thumb back into my palm again. Over the weekend things have improved tremendously and I hope it continues to do so. Anyway, I wanted to share this good news with all of you that are suffering from similar problems. Don't give up, there is still hope. Maybe you can try similar changes and it may just help!