Right Shoulder Problems, anyone?

chrissoto

Elliot wrote:

chrissoto wrote:

Hi,
I've been digging into the gypsy jazz style heaps in the past 2 months or so. Daily practice as much as I can. I rest as much as possible but I have been getting right shoulder pain around the joint area and also the top shoulder muscle. I've been doing everything as carefully as possible. I have previously broken my collar bone (about 2 years ago), and maybe that has something to do with it?
What are the main things I should observe that I may be doing wrong?
I always keep my wrist as relaxed as possible, and there is no pain there. Just the shoulder.

Thanks!

I had the exact same problem for a while but cured it.

Try not hunching up your right shoulder when you play (assuming you are playing righty). It seems that I because I like to play on my couch I was sinking down too low, which made me raise my shoulder. Now I still play on the couch, but the shoulder pain went away.

Thanks heaps for the tip! I will put that into practice and hopefully it cures it. If not I will try a few other things before I seek professional help.

Keep on swingin!

jhanajc

Here's an excellent video on posture by Lollo - http://www.gypsyjazzacademy.com/sample-lesson

Basically about setting yourself up so the wrist can move with maximum freedom. It may in turn help relax the shoulder.

Wishing you all pain free playing. - JC

Jim Kaznosky

I started to get a bit of pain in the shoulder and realized it was definitely from poor posture. During gigs, I hunch over and tense up. I could benefit from watching that Lollo video daily.

rimm

As my day job for the last 10 years has been as Personal trainer I recomend the following:

`1)use a mirror to watch your progress
2) warm up with a slow to mid tempo tune to get all the muscles working-Don't just jump in with 'Feerie' as played by Angelo.
3)increasing the amount of protein in your diet amazingly can help-each time we lift a weight for example, we are actually attacking and destroying muscle-the area gets lager to preven this happening (ie) when lifting a dumbell. Protein is the building block of muscle
4) use an exercise that will target the area such as lateral raises-you can do this with anything you have lying around-cans of beans etc. A dynoband is excellent for this-you should get one in most workout stores-I have attatched said exercise -if it continues to cause you pain get to the doctors-could be a trapped nerve or similar.
One plus side of this is that you may look better in tshirts and not get sand kicked in your face in Samois. (Not that I have seen sand there but you get my drift.)

http://www.stansgym.com/Images/side%20l ... raises.jpg