Drummer diagnosed with musician's dystonia

Parker

Junior Member
Fellow Drumheads,

Thanks for all the insight and support on this board. It's been a nutty several months, but finally have an answer to my bizarre left wrist spasm, but not the answer I was looking for.

After a visit with an orthopedist, originally thinking it was a tweaked ligament in my wrist that was causing the spasm, I had xrays and tests that came up negative for any ligament and bone sprains. Then on to a neurologist and several hours of a nerve conduction test (oh what fun that was, getting needled in the nerves from neck to wrist). No pinched nerve, no ligament or bone sprain, but focal dystonia in the hand.

Cause unknown (unless I've been practicing too hard) but in my layman's understanding, it's chemcials in my noggin sending signal misfires to the muscles in my wrist. Happens on tasks like holding a drumstick or hitting it on the drumhead. My wrist bends inward and my hand goes into death grip position. Plain crazy.

Botox is the only treatment from what this doc tells me, but dicey at best. Besides, the idea of shooting up just to play an instrument doesn't sit well with me. My only glimmer of hope is learning what Terreon Gully is doing here. For whatever reason (and probably God only knows), I can do rimshots with my left hand without it spasming all over the place.

Sorry for the long winded update. Really discouraging dealing with this. But if anyone happens to know of someone with this condition, or has any insight into to it, I'm all ears! In the meantime, I'll work on my rimshots.

BR,
Parker
 
Wow, that sucks man. So you can play rimshots but you can't play just the head? What if you were to angle your snare down a hair towards where your left hand hits?
 
Sorry to hear about this..but at least you have an answer now to what the problem is. I've actually never heard of it. Bending your wrist inward (you mean away from you?) causes the spasm...what happens if it's bent away from you a bit? You could try raising your snare up higher and angling it down a bit. That way when you hit the stick on the head your wrist is flat, and what you got to down a rim-shot you have to angle your wrist away from you.
 
Fellow Drumheads,

Thanks for all the insight and support on this board. It's been a nutty several months, but finally have an answer to my bizarre left wrist spasm, but not the answer I was looking for.

After a visit with an orthopedist, originally thinking it was a tweaked ligament in my wrist that was causing the spasm, I had xrays and tests that came up negative for any ligament and bone sprains. Then on to a neurologist and several hours of a nerve conduction test (oh what fun that was, getting needled in the nerves from neck to wrist). No pinched nerve, no ligament or bone sprain, but focal dystonia in the hand.

Cause unknown (unless I've been practicing too hard) but in my layman's understanding, it's chemcials in my noggin sending signal misfires to the muscles in my wrist. Happens on tasks like holding a drumstick or hitting it on the drumhead. My wrist bends inward and my hand goes into death grip position. Plain crazy.

Botox is the only treatment from what this doc tells me, but dicey at best. Besides, the idea of shooting up just to play an instrument doesn't sit well with me. My only glimmer of hope is learning what Terreon Gully is doing here. For whatever reason (and probably God only knows), I can do rimshots with my left hand without it spasming all over the place.

Sorry for the long winded update. Really discouraging dealing with this. But if anyone happens to know of someone with this condition, or has any insight into to it, I'm all ears! In the meantime, I'll work on my rimshots.

BR,
Parker

Might not be the same thing, but have you considerd e-kits? easier to play, less stress on the limbs...handsonic drums ( Roland? ), Drum programming? Lord know they make more than regular drummers. I'm sure you'll find a way. g'luck
 
I'm sorry to hear that. At least now you know what's wrong, I hope you find the answers to your questions.
 
sorry to hear about this man! what about trying traditional grip? or angling your drums to a more comfortable position? just keep trying different things, as long as you want to play you will find a way to play!
 
Man - thats bad.

But, if you go to fourstringdrum's website, Im sure you will be comforted in that your not alone.
 
Man - thats bad.

But, if you go to fourstringdrum's website, Im sure you will be comforted in that your not alone.

Thanks for the plug.

Parker - Yes, go to my site www.handidrummed.com There are a lot of drummers out there who go through situations that they overcome rather easily in some cases. I'm actually interested in learning more about Dystonia just in case someone comes to me with it and needs advice on it.
 
Wow, that sucks man. So you can play rimshots but you can't play just the head? What if you were to angle your snare down a hair towards where your left hand hits?

Funny you should mention this. I tried sliding the stick from the rim to the drum head and hitting the drum head. Seems to work well. It's once I lift the base of my hand from the drumhead it freaks. Working on this, thx!

Sorry to hear about this..but at least you have an answer now to what the problem is. I've actually never heard of it. Bending your wrist inward (you mean away from you?) causes the spasm...what happens if it's bent away from you a bit? You could try raising your snare up higher and angling it down a bit. That way when you hit the stick on the head your wrist is flat, and what you got to down a rim-shot you have to angle your wrist away from you.

Nope. Wrist bends down and inward. So if I'm holding the stick match in left hand and hit the drumhead, the wrist bends down and to the right. Sounds nutty, but it's like the muscles in my wrist have a mind of its own. And good tip on adjusting the snare. I'll try that this evening.

sorry to hear about this man! what about trying traditional grip? or angling your drums to a more comfortable position? just keep trying different things, as long as you want to play you will find a way to play!

I switched to trad grip a few months ago when I got this condition, and it's helped a little. I'm able to keep my hand relaxed more with the left when trad.
 
Well, I've been practicing for a week now with the different tricks suggested and so far playing rim shot left has been the most comfortable without the wrist totally spazzing.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a trigger on the rim so when it's hit, I can make it sound like a snare? I'm a total noob when it comes to electronic drums, so the only thing I've been able to find was this from Hart. It's got the rubber rim trim which I like that'll give me a little bounce on rim shots.

Parker
 
Well, I've been practicing for a week now with the different tricks suggested and so far playing rim shot left has been the most comfortable without the wrist totally spazzing.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a trigger on the rim so when it's hit, I can make it sound like a snare? I'm a total noob when it comes to electronic drums, so the only thing I've been able to find was this from Hart. It's got the rubber rim trim which I like that'll give me a little bounce on rim shots.

Parker

Are you interested in that so you can just hit the rim and get a snare sound, which is easier? You could always get an electronic pad like a Roland TD-6 and position it wherever you want, but you'd need a module and an amp and it wouldn't be the cheapest alternative.

Email a buddy of mine, Ron Hampton. [email protected] He designed the Hyper Bass (www.hyper-bass.com) and has made make devices for drummer who have emailed me. He might know or can design something that can help you. Tell him Rob from Handidrummed sent you.
 
Does anyone have any suggestions for a trigger on the rim so when it's hit, I can make it sound like a snare?


Here is what I did for a while. I bought a pretty cheap drum module (alesis dm5). I bought a ddrum snare drum trigger. It just snaps onto your Acoustic snare on the rim. Plug that trigger up into your module, then output your module through a PA/amp/speakers. You can adjust the sensitivity on the module to allow it to pick up even the slightest of movements.
 
Here is what I did for a while. I bought a pretty cheap drum module (alesis dm5). I bought a ddrum snare drum trigger. It just snaps onto your Acoustic snare on the rim. Plug that trigger up into your module, then output your module through a PA/amp/speakers. You can adjust the sensitivity on the module to allow it to pick up even the slightest of movements.

Oh yes, drum triggers. I was going to suggest that, but I thought, well if he's hitting the rim he won't get the snare sound...brain freeze :)
 
Oh yes, drum triggers. I was going to suggest that, but I thought, well if he's hitting the rim he won't get the snare sound...brain freeze :)

It's all good my man. Your method would work wonderfully as well. I was just going to throw another option out there :)
 
On the mend...

Thought I'd post my progress as I try to overcome this, in the event it may prove useful for another drummers dystonia sufferer.

All I can say is that I should have listened to my last drum teacher. Before this condition accelerated, he was trying to teach me a match grip where the stick is cradled by the middle finger (keeping a decent air pocket between the stick and palm) and the lower end of stick touches the lower base of the palm. It this position, my hand is still and no spasms.

Then it's a matter of slowly lifting the wrist up and hand/stick drops to bounce on the drumhead. On rebound, the base of the stick snaps back into the palm, returning to its starting position. He was basically trying to teach me to keep my grip loose and let the bounce do the work.

My turn for the worse was telling him "nah, I'd rather learn traditional instead" for the first time I might add, and that's when things went south for my left hand.

I'm going to keep working on this grip. Has anyone ever tried this kind of grip? My teacher credits 'Dick Wilson' on the grip. A famous drummer apparently that I never heard of.

Parker
 
Parker, I have this same disorder in my left hand. There is no cure and botox (like you mentioned) is the only 'treatment.' I did botox one time and could hardly grip a can of soda shortly afterwards. On 07/23/14 I'm going to see a group of heavy-hitting neurosurgeons at Wash U in St. Louis, MO. I've tried accupuncture recently, that I don't necessarily believe in, but didn't notice any results. Hit me up sometime and we'll chat... [email protected].
 
Me too. I'm getting a referral to a neurologist who specializes in musician's dystonia (one of the nice things about living in Boston). I'll let you know what I find out. By the way, for my case, also in my left hand, I've found that traditional grip is a pretty good work around. I'd love to be able to play matched, so it would be great to find a way to deal with the dystonia, but in the meantime I can keep playing with traditional grip.
 
Parker's last activity on the forum was 6 1/2 years ago. I'm not sure if you realized that you dredged up a thread from 2007.
 
Jim, I'm back. :) Thanks to the forum's email notification...

Rdb and Kirk, I am encouraged by your resolve and discovering the neurologist option. Please continue to update on your progress!

My intent of starting this thread back in 2007 was to get the word out of the drummer's dystonia condition with the hand.

Unfortunately I've given up drumming altogether since 2007. Botox did not cut it - same effect of lack of grip strength, yet still having the wrist spasm bend. I'm at a point where I've learned to live with it - eg. left hand bends in spasm whenever I reach and grab things with it. Annoying, but what can you do.

That said - Rdb and Kirk I'm encouraged by your news! Do keep me posted and will investigate the neurology option on my side as well.

My love for drumming is still there in my heart and soul.

Best, Parker
 
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